How to Do Everything with PHP and MySQL [Paperback]

Vikram Vaswani (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0072257954 | ISBN-13: 978-0072257953 | Publication Date: March 31, 2005 | Edition: 1

This new release in the popular How to Do Everything series explains how to build open source web applications with MySQL and PHP 5. Using these two tools, you’ll be able to create highly functional, interactive web sites easily. Follow along with a step-by-step sample application and, as a bonus, download three full-length case studies complete with code trees.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A great book for someone who knows little about MySQL and PHP and wants to quickly get on with producing some database driven dynamic web pages. Oraclehome.co.uk 20050805

From the Back Cover

Create MySQL database-driven Web sites and applications with PHP quickly and easily. This step-by-step guide explains how to take full advantage of PHP’s built-in support for MySQL and link the results of database queries to Web pages. You’ll get full details on PHP programming and MySQL database development, and then you’ll learn to use these two cutting-edge technologies together. Easy-to-follow sample applications include a PHP online shopping cart, a MySQL order tracking system, and a PHP/MySQL news publishing system.

• Set up a PHP/MySQL development environment on Windows or UNIX
• Write PHP scripts and use variables, statements, and operators
• Create reusable code with arrays and custom functions
• Use files, sessions, cookies, and external programs
• Create a MySQL database and use SQL commands
• Edit database records and perform queries
• Control access and privileges with the MySQL security system
• Query a MySQL database with PHP
• Validate user input to maintain database integrity
• Format query output for optimal results

About the author: Vikram Vaswani is the founder and CEO of Melonfire, a company specializing in Web development and content creation for a variety of clients. He is the author of MySQL: The Complete Reference.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1 edition (March 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072257954
• ISBN-13: 978-0072257953
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,471,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Laziest PHP book ever., December 30, 2005

By 

Nathan "p00kie" (Seattle WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Do Everything with PHP and MySQL (Paperback)

I won't pretend to debate this authors knowledge of the php language. For all I know he could be a genious with it. However the material is presented very poorly and lazily. The author frequently gives half-baked explainations of functions or concepts in the php language and then tells me if I want to learn more to goto the php documentation manual. NEWS FLASH! If I wanted to learn from the poorly written documentation I would have been doing that already. People buy these books for the purpose of getting in depth explainations that go beyond documentation. People don't like to be told to goto a website for more information. Is this a book about php? Or a book about which of the official php documentation files I should read? The author was just too lazy to explain things.
While I agree that using online documentation is necessary, he tells you to go online and read the documentation almost every other page. Very poor explainations, and it's a pain in the butt to keep switching between the book and the browser to get a full understanding of the concepts. Don't waste your money.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A little bit disappointing, January 12, 2006

By 

Olivier (Belgium) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Do Everything with PHP and MySQL (Paperback)

The good :
----------
- Well structured content
- The SQL part is not bad

The Bad :
---------
- hardly any explanation on why to use this or that function
- very bad programming style (= spaggetti code)
- gives you the example then you'll have to figure out how it works in a lot of cases

Conclusion :
------------
Not very enthousiast about this book, the SQL primer is nicely written (but a little limited), the php part is D-grade level..
If looking for a good book about php and mySql turn to the book edited by Worx (see my other review)

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Promises so much, a hugh let down, May 19, 2006

By 

Mark (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Do Everything with PHP and MySQL (Paperback)

I skimmed through this book once, and I read the reviews here. I thought this book could not have been that bad. It is a well structured book (from reading the Titles and SubTitles). Then I started reading it in details - lucky I borrowed this book from the library.

This book started off so well. It promises "best practices", yet delivers very bad coding habits and taking shortcuts. The book outlines and titles were well designed, but the details were nothing more than, "Hay, here is the syntax, this is the usage plus some simple examples..., and you can use this to design database." Nothing that I couldn't find from the online PHP manual, and probably with better examples. Functions and keywords used were never explained properly. Its like, "Kid, now that I taught you addition, multiplication, subtraction and division.... You should be able to go out and solve the 2nd law of Thermodynamics because all mathematics built upon plus and minus."

Not only that you can't do "Everything" reading this book, having read it I think I know less PHP.

This book reflect badly on the publisher as well, I'd think twice buying similar book from them.