Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional [Paperback]

W. Jason Gilmore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 28, 2008 | ISBN-10: 1590598628 | ISBN-13: 978-1590598627 | Edition: 3

Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional, Third Edition offers a comprehensive introduction to two of the most prominent open-source technologies on the planet: the PHP scripting language and the MySQL database server. Updated to introduce the features found in MySQL's most significant release to date, readers will learn how to take advantage of the features of both technologies to build powerful, manageable, and stable web applications.

Essentially three books in one, readers will not only profit from extensive introductions to the core features of each technology, but also learn how to effectively integrate the two in order to build robust data-driven applications. Packed with practical examples and insight into the real-world challenges faced by developers based on author W. Jason Gilmore's seven years of expertise working with these technologies, readers will repeatedly return to this book as both a valuable instructional tool and reference guide.

What you’ll learn

• The PHP language
• How to back your web site with MySQL
• Templating so that you can apply a consistent design across all pages on your site
• How to authenticate your web site users
• How to use cookies to maintain information (such as items in a shopping cart) while a user is browsing your site

Who this book is for

This book is written for developers seeking to take advantage of the PHP language and MySQL database to create powerful web applications.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews:

"A comprehensive introduction to … the scripting language PHP and the MySQL database server. This book will not only expose … core aspects of both technologies, but will provide valuable insight into how they are used in unison to create dynamic data-driven Web applications." (it-expert, Issue no. 48, 2004)

About the Author

 

W. Jason Gilmore is a web developer and business consultant with more than 15 years of experience helping companies large and small build amazing software solutions. He has been teaching developers from around the world about web development for over a decade, having written six books, including the bestselling “Beginning PHP and MySQL, Fourth Edition” and “Easy PHP Websites with the Zend Framework, Second Edition”.

Over the years Jason has been published more than 300 times within popular publications such as Developer.com, PHPBuilder.com, JSMag, and Linux Magazine, and instructed hundreds of students in the United States and Europe. He’s recently led the successful development and deployment of a 10,000+ product e-commerce project, and is currently working on a variety of new e-commerce initiatives. Jason is cofounder of the wildly popular CodeMash Conference, the largest multi-day developer event in the Midwest.

 

Product Details

• Paperback: 1080 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 3 edition (March 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590598628
• ISBN-13: 978-1590598627
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 2.2 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #618,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #100 in Books > Computers & Technology > Databases > MySQL

More About the Author

W. Jason Gilmore has been teaching developers from around the world about web development for over a decade, having written six books, including the bestselling "Beginning PHP and MySQL, Fourth Edition" and "Easy PHP Websites with the Zend Framework". He has published more than 300 articles within popular publications such as Developer.com, DevShed, JSMag, and Linux Magazine, and instructed hundreds of students in the United States and Europe.

Jason is cofounder of the popular CodeMash Conference, and was a member of the 2008 MySQL Conference speaker selection board.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars [Third Edition Review] Broad coverage except in XML manipulation May 29, 2008

By S. Tang

Format:Paperback

This book is written for someone who is familiar with other programming languages and databases and now wants to use PHP and MySQL. It is not written for somebody completely new to programming. For example, if you came from Perl or ASP, and you wanted to know how arrays, loops, and objects in PHP, this book will cover that.

The topic coverage is broad but not deep. The book has a feel of "semi-reference" in that each topic stands on its own. This is not a cookbook or "learn by example" book. There is enough information to get you started, but if you have a complex/niche problem, this book will not help you. For more information, you will have to consult books that specialize on the topic you are interested.

I have one major gripe with this book. There is not any significant coverage of XML manipulation or XSL/XSLT aspects of PHP. When you look at the table of contents or index, there is no mention of XSL/XSLT and only a brief mention of XML (and RSS) in the Web Services chapter. For a book that covers a lot of subjects, this is a weak area.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A useful reference and study text for progrmmers new to PHP May 26, 2010

By Adam T Bradley

Format:Paperback

This book is almost overwhelmingly thorough, which made it, in my experience, an extremely useful resource in preparing for the Zend PHP certification exam, as well as for learning and daily use. While it's incomplete where the test is concerned-you won't find a listing for "Reflection" in the index, for example-it's a useful reference for most of the material on the exam. All of the built-in string and array functions are described clearly and concisely, with examples of use. PHP installation and configuration settings are laid out in the kind of painful detail expected by the exam. There's an introduction to object-oriented programming, overview of regular expressions and a whole series of chapters detailing some of the most useful features of PHP and reviewing some of the most common problems (web services, user authentication, and secure programming, to name a few). And that's before we reach the second half of the book, providing the same kind of detail for MySQL, including PHPs several interfaces to it.

One limitation, from the perspective of an absolute beginner, is the lack of large-scale examples. Gilmore doesn't walk you through the development of a web application; the book is more of a reference text, using smaller examples to illustrate small, specific topics, with the expectation that the reader can assemble those ideas into usable examples. This was probably necessary to enable the chapters to function as individual units, which is one of the book's major strengths.

Books of this size can be daunting to a reader. Gilmore's friendly, readable prose goes a long way toward making this one approachable, as does the modularity, allowing a reader to digest only the chapters needed at any given moment.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Bloated and wordy May 14, 2009

By DavMin

Format:Paperback

I'm a sucker for a good price and I bought this book hoping that in the 1000+ pages I could start to learn PHP. I did - but I also quickly got frustrated and distracted by the author's complete refusal to explain ANYTHING with conciseness.

This is a reference book, not something you'd want to read cover to cover.

Boring examples, wordy discussions - the authors seems to have been more interested in boosting page count than anything else :(

Another bloated PHP book was Larry Ullman's Visual QuickPro. Are there any php tech authors who know how to write??