Customer Reviews

Beginning PHP4 Databases

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just got a copy of this book last week, and this was exactly the content that i was in search of - Getting upto speed with PHP and databases, to build robust database driven web applications.
Infact, this book manages to provide solutions to the large number of problems that newbie PHP programmers post on sites like phpbeginners.com,php.net and phpbuilder.
The approach to presenting a database agnostic solution, through the use of the most recommended PEAR::DB abstraction layer (i even found documentation about PEAR::DB, that i had spent ages figuring out for myself) sets this book in a class of its own.
The typos and grammar stand out at places, but who cares when you have gotten what you wanted.
I highly recommend this book to the BEGINNING/NEWBIE PHP Programmer.

This book aims to teach the skills necessary to develop any size web application with PHP, backed by a database. They start off with the now de facto PHP introduction and then jump head first into database fundamentals. Nearly half of this book is devoted to teaching database layout, design, and use. This is long over due in the PHP community. Too many PHP developers are creating database enabled applications that have absolutely no prior experience with databases! This book covers everything from elementary topics, such as table creation, selects, inserts, and deletes, to advanced database usage with joins, stored procedures, triggers, and cursors. While they did cover indexing, I feel that it was a bit lacking and could have used a more in depth exploration.

One pleasant surprise was that no one particular database is favored; in fact use of the database abstraction layer in PEAR is encouraged for code portability. I am encouraged by the use of PEAR in this book, as it can only help to bring the community together in its use and promote PEAR as a standard of sorts. The PEAR database abstraction layer is picked apart so that you may understand exactly how it works and be that much more efficient with using it.

At the end of this book, it offers two chapters dedicated to designing and implementing applications using a native XML database. The first of the two chapters concentrates on the fundamentals of native XML databases; what they are and how they work. The second chapter then presents a case study using Xindice.

I found this book to be very thorough and well put together. Cheers to Wrox for another fine book!

Do not wish to use too many words. I can just say that this book was of great help to me. Though dabbling with PHP, I learnt a lot from the book, since it has dealt with lot of basic knowledge of databases. Was just the right one for a student like me who had very little knowledge of the databases. Kudos to the authors!!

I'm sorry to disappoint the previous 3 reviewers (and I know I am late to the game), but only buy this book used. It has 7 chapters coverage on SQL which by itself is not bad, but if I wanted a SQL book I would buy one. When it says Beginning Databases - I would expect a lot more. It spends one or two chapters on Pear. It has no chapters on ODBC and doesn't cover the differences between working with PHP and databases like mySQL, MSSQL and Oracle (and others). It does cover XML which I haven't looked at yet because I am most interested in ODBC and Pear at this point and picking a database to develop with. It does have a summary on different databases that might prove to be helpful.