PHP Essentials, 2nd Edition [Paperback]

Julie C. Meloni (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1931841349 | ISBN-13: 978-1931841344 | Publication Date: March 28, 2003 | Edition: 2

Write dynamically generated pages with ease using PHP! Dive into the new edition of this popular guide to PHP. With a true focus on the essentials, this book gives you the solid foundation in PHP programming you’re looking for. And you don’t have to be a computer scientist or programmer to learn from it! The simple, learn-by-example format of "PHP Essentials" will allow you to quickly use the power of PHP to develop successful, dynamic Web sites.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Julie Meloni is the technical director for i2i Interactive, a multimedia company located in Los Altos, CA. She’s been developing Web-based applications since the Web first saw the light of day and remembers the excitement surrounding the first GUI Web browser. She is the author of several books and articles on Web-based programming languages and database topics, and you can find translations of her work in several languages, including Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, and even Serbian.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 2 edition (March 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931841349
• ISBN-13: 978-1931841344
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #299,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Less is More, October 25, 2003

By 

Allison Parker (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PHP Essentials, 2nd Edition (Paperback)

I'm a big fan of this book. I used the first edition to put a modest web commerce site up in about three weeks of spare time (see it at www.privategalaxy.com). Using only this book, I learned what I needed of how to use the freeware language PHP and the excellent freeware database MySQL (in fact I learned SQL from this book). And these two programs are a great combination supported by a large number of web hosting sites using Apache (an extremely common if not the most widely used server software).

I have just shy of a dozen other computer books--many of them are shovelware--full of glop because the publishers want thickness. And then there are some books where the authors seem to spend more time trying to show off how sophisticated they are than trying to explain things. This book has neither defect; its clear intent is to teach and it does so with economy and grace

Meloni is a solid technical writer. For those who like examples, there are lots of them (in fact a whole e-commerce site (no-I wrote mine from scratch) and there are compact appendices on the commands and functions you will actually use in the back. PHP is a language to get stuff done and this book is in the same spirit. But even supposing you want to use PHP to calculate fast Fourier transforms (heaven forbid!) this book is a good starter and supplimented by the free PHP web site, will get you there fast.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, October 27, 2003

By 

Kamran Vighio (Karachi, Pakistan.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PHP Essentials, 2nd Edition (Paperback)

If you are new to PHP, this is the book to get. Dont go anywhere, this book is simply one of the best introductory books on computer programming i have ever bought. It makes PHP learning fast, fun and easy. It not just covers PHP alone but also covers Databases and teaches SQL from the ground up with code for almost all the known databases in the industry.

Thank you Julie Meloni, you are great.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "Ooohhhhhh, now I get it" book, May 12, 2005

By 

Tiffany B Brown "tiffanybbrown" (Stankonia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PHP Essentials, 2nd Edition (Paperback)

If you just want a clear-cut intro to PHP, this is the book to get. Meloni takes the basic concepts, and shows you how to use them to create a shopping cart (so you learn database interaction, how to send an email, and basic syntax). Perfect for newbies.