Customer Reviews

PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As the author of the book, I regret having to do this (submit a review) but it seems to be the most immediate and effective way to correct a misunderstanding. The first edition of the book is based upon PHP 4 and came out in 2003. The second edition came out in 2005 and covers PHP 5. So, the book HAS been updated, despite what other reviews incorrectly state. Just click on "All Editions" under "Product Details" to find the most recent edition of this (or any) book.
[...]
Thanks,
Larry

This book is, to say the very least, the finest computer book I have read in a very, very long time. I have spent the last three months trying to learn how to use PHP and MySQL to build a website with a simple content management system, however, due to the grossly unethical practice that publishing companies have of releasing books that are filled with editing and other errors, along with authors who are completely unable to write even a simple complete sentence that may be understood by their readers, I had nearly given up. Specifically, I have already WASTED money on the following books:

Creating Interactive Websites with PHP and Web Services by Eric Rosebrock - this book crashes around page 100 - it COULD have been a good book but is filled with errors that make it unusable. The publisher, Sybex, refuses to publish a real errata sheet and the book is NOT supported on the author's web site. Isn't that nice?

PHP MySQL Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution by Chris Lea, Mike Buzzard, Jessey White-Cinis, and Dilip Thomas. Good luck if you can get past page 30! Considering this book has been out for some time, there is NO REAL support or errata sheet for it. The "sample site" that one is allegedly able to build by working through this book is filled with questions such as "Has anyone made it all the way to the end of this book?" Need I say more? What a joke.

MySQL/PHP Database Applications, SECOND EDITION. Gosh, considering this is the SECOND edition of this book, one might think an errata sheet and other help might be available. Forget that though - Wiley gets your money, you get plastered with errors so you can't get through the book.

PHP and MySQL Web Development by Luke Welling and Laura - Another USELESS second edition. Not only does the code in this book NOT WORK but the examples that you can download doesn't match what's in the book! Not only that but, as to be expected, there is no errata sheet and the authors web site that is allegedly there to "support" this book has nothing but an advertisement for it with the promise that the "site is under development." Wonder if it will ever be "developed."

As noted, ALL of the books above are USELESS. On a fluke, I decide to try one more - Larry Ullman's PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites by Peachpit Press. While a second edition is allegedly going to be released soon: I have the first edition. To be honest, I was ABSOLUTELY AMAZED that:

1. The code in this book WORKS!
2. The book is SUPPORTED by both the publisher and the author. The author's support site for the book actually contains an extensive list of errata for the very minor errors in it (unlike ALL of the books listed above which DON'T have an errata list). Furthermore, I haven't needed to check the errata because the errors in this book are so minor.
3. The author actually ANSWERS questions to problems on his site.
4. The author is capable of explaining everything, very clearly, and yet conveys a LOT of great information.
5. This book is CHEAPER than all of the ones listed above (and yet it is the ONLY one worth spending your money on).

I have been completely feed up with the incompetent and unethical practices of so many book publishers that I was beginning to wonder if there were ANY books that really taught you how to create a dynamic website. Well, there's one - Peachpit Press. No, I don't work for them and don't know the author - I'm merely a DISGUSTED customer who is tired of spending money on useless books.

RUN, don't walk to buy this book. You will be very, very glad you did.

I'm a newbie to both PHP and MySQL on Mac OS X. I'm learning from this book and from the PHP/MySQL for Dummies. This is the better book. It has lots of good information, clear writing, and easy to follow tutorials. The graphic display of PHP code is very easy to follow: as the author modifies scripts to teach new concepts, the new code is presented in red in the code listings. In just a few days I've gone from knowing nothing about PHP and MySQL to writing my own PHP code. If you're trying to learn how to use PHP and MySQL this is the book to get (along with the MySQL users manual).

This is an excellent book. This book teaches what it claims to teach amazingly well. Well done Mr. Larry.

And u know what? Larry Ullman also answers all your questions on the book's website. If u get stuck even on your first PHP script, Larry will personally help you in the forums. Now this is not what we normally get. A great book and FREE support on the website by the AUTHOR himself!!! WOW!!

Amazon should give him Book of the Year award along with Julie Meloni's "PHP Essentials".

If you are completely new to programming and you only know HTML and CSS and want to learn PHP (along with MySQL), "PHP Essentials" by Julie Meloni is the best book.

If you have some basic programming experience like JavaScript or C or any similar language, then Larry's "PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide" IS THE BOOK FOR YOU!!!.

This book does not teaches you the very basics of programming so if you are inexperienced in programming, get Julie's book... If u know a little programming, get Larry's book.

Just excellent book.

Not having read all of them, I can't say, unequivocally, that this is the best PHP/mySQL intro book ... but, I suspect that it is.

After reading these programming tomes for 10 years, three types of writers come to mind:

1. a developer, who took time to write a book (often characterized by weak writing skills ... and foo-bar examples, illustrating nothing more than a lack of pragmatic imagination)
2. the constant writer, who rarely (never?) develops (e.g Hello World! demos) How unimaginative?
3. a true teacher, who has taken time to gather thoughts and put effort into the presentation i.e. TEACH

Larry Ullman strikes me as "a teacher". There are lots of well-conceived, nice touches in this book ... from the example code on SAME page as the walk-through explanations ... to the bold (often red ink) type, highlighting the subject lesson ... to the paper, itself (nice for writing notes and marking it up), a lifelong habit.

This book is a much easier read than its competitor, the Welling/Thomson book ... and about 1/3 less price, too - a nice bargain. I completed it in about a week and feel much more comfortable (dare I say confident?) with PHP, now. Thank you, Larry Ullman.

I don't recall a perfect book, though this one's shortcomings are slight. I was salivating, getting to the last chapter, "eCommerce", only to be disappointed when, 10 pages from the end of the book, the author declared that he wouldn't cover order processing, advising the reader to search the internet for examples. `sorry, but I don't buy books to be told to go search the internet. After wading through what seemed like a dizzying dozen variations on login forms, I would have gladly traded a half dozen login examples for more than a ... let's wrap this book up, quickly, coverage of shopping carts and I-commerce, the meat of the matter (... to my mind). Another indication of last chapter rush: not distinguishing between orders and order items (tables).

That said, don't let my slight disappointment dissuade you from acquiring this gem ... and diving into the facinating realm of LAMP. This book is carefully conceived and executed ... and, probably "best in class" ... a GREAT value, too.

GET IT !!!

Let me add my kudos to Larry Ullman and his PHP/MySQL Guide. This is a beginner's book, as others have pointed out, and Mr. Ullman is one of the very few programming writers who grasps how to write for the novice.

How many times in your life have you tried to learn something about programming, or the internet, and within 5 pages wondered "what in the h--- is he talking about?" Or had some very simple term or concept left unexplained (or insufficiently explained)? Or had some simple little practical procedure that took you hours to figure out, when all it would have taken is a single sentence? When I first started building webpages, I was utterly frustrated because I didn't know that I needed to save notepad files as "all files" to get a .html extension on them -- just the kind of thing that drives you nuts, and is totally unnecessary.

Mr. Ullman does not make this mistake. He knows exactly how to "hold your hand" so you don't lose hours doing something stupid.

This attention to detail, and attitude of user-friendliness, extends into every part of the operation. Nothing is left half-finished. The programs he gives have been scrupulously edited to insure that they actually work. The associated website is rich and well-maintained for excellent customer support. The text is well-spaced, the paper good quality, and there are more examples than you really need.

Nevertheless, he manages to get you through all the basics of PHP and MySQL in 490 pages of large half-column text. There is a certain amount of irreduceable difficulty learning any mid-level programming language, but Ullman makes it as painless as humanly possible, and even better, when you finish a chapter you actually know what you are supposed to know.

This book gets an A+ from me.

Edit, several months later.

I have finished Ullman's book and have gone on to do a lot of PHP programming. I had little trouble putting together a comprehensive CMS when I was through.

However, I have to change my rating to "four stars" after finishing the book. The section on MySQL is not nearly as good as the PHP sections, and a number of times I found I had use Google and find an online MySQL tutorial, in order to understand something.

This seems pretty silly, as MySQL is a LOT easier than PHP, especially if you have the phpMyAdmin graphic interface. The chapters on combining the two, however -- i.e., using php with MySQL -- go back to the "five star" level. I wouldn't call it "easy", but he makes it logical and understandable on a patient, step-by-step basis. The later chapters on miscellaneous subjects, such as security, are very helpful.

So, this get five stars for a php beginner and two stars for the introduction to MySQL. I would still recommend it but would also recommend an inexpensive MySQL book to go with it.

I've never met an author who actually answered queries to his website but Larry Ullman gave me one suggestion after another while I struggled with a problem. It took about ten replies from him before I finally got it solved. His replies were so timely the problem was resolved within a week.

As a novice PHP writer I've tried several books, most of them more expensive, but this is one of the best.

Two criticisms: there is too much detail. I'd like to fool around with one or two lines of code at a time, building it up gradually into something that really works. Ullman breaks it down pretty well, but his bites are still a bit too big for me.

The other criticism is in design. Examples of code from the book are reproduced in about four-point text, so keep your magnifying glass at the ready.

Still, if you want to make web pags like the one you're reading, you'll be able to do most of it with this book.

I ordered this book in a time of need: what was supposed to be someone else's project was left hanging when they transferred away, and I happened to be the next best candidate, despite knowing very little about PHP and SQL. So, I checked around, and this book was brought up on a number of occasions as a quality source of information for beginners. A few days later it was sitting on my desk, and I began thumbing through it to get a feel for it.

First of all, I was very impressed by the style of the book. The author uses visual cues to great effect, showing you how your code and the finished result should look. This promotes writing pretty, manageable code, and ensures that you get the right results (or, when you're getting an example of a common pitfall, that you messed things up properly). The author starts you off on what could be real project, and builds useful skills that you're likely to use in a variety of projects. Layers of complexity are added to this same project, with detailed and clear explanations of what you did and how it works. The introduction of SQL is done well, and ensures you've got a solid foundation in the principles of how it works before you add it to your script.

Much, much more is covered by the 'tutorial' bit of the book, and there's also a number of case-study-style projects after it. A number of common projects are built up on the assumption you've read the rest of the book and know what you're doing, and the code itself (downloadable from the author's webpage) is very useful as a starting point for your own projects. Ullman's webpage is also an exceptionally useful resource, far surpassing any other I've seen. There are regular giveaways of new books, all the code samples are collected there, there's detailed errata collected by the author himself, and most useful of all, there's a forum where the author and other readers of the book can help you with your coding struggles. I asked a few questions there and got a quick, detailed, useful response, and a good explanation of where I'd gone wrong. Help like that will normally run you $75/hr.

After reading through the book (and referring to it as necessary), I was ready to go. Over the span of three months and starting with essentially zero knowledge, I wrote two fairly large and complex scripts with the help of this book. My stumbling points were few, and the work impressed everyone who saw or used it. If you need a crash course in PHP/SQL site development, or are simply interested in a comprehensive book that'll bring you to a solid intermediate level in your PHP scripting with an SQL backend, this is an excellent choice.

I am a seasoned computer programmer that was looking for a good introduction to PHP and MySQL development. Essentially I needed to create a database driven website where I could also accept credit card payments and do shopping cart stuff. This would be my first foray into Internet Programming (or is it scripting).

Firstly you'll want some prior programming experience to get the most out of this book. Therefore if you need ultra detailed explanations, then this book isn't really for you. If you have programming experience, then the book moves along at a good pace without getting burdened on lengthy explanations.

Chapter 1 starts off with a good introduction to PHP and variable types. Chapter 2 and you're creating forms and handling the submitted data. MySQL is covered from Chapter 4, and before you know it you're covering topics like Sessions and Cookies, Regular Expressions and debugging techniques. What I really like about the book is that Larry shows a couple of different ways to accomplish a particular task. E.G. In the earlier chapters, Larry uses hard-coded values for the <FORM> action property. Later on we learn about using server variables. Other stuff like submitting a form to a different page or to the same page and processing there so that you can put a little comment next to a field to indicate that it needs to be filled in etc. This is one small example, but basically all the topics follow this general principle.

Larry is also kind enough to mention Database and Internet security and some simple techniques to ensure your 'sensitive' files are not in the public domain. Also the tips section in the chapters are really good and has often prompted me to do further reading.

Larry's last 3 chapters cover useful real world examples such as shopping cart, user registration and content management. Each of these chapters range from 40 to 50 pages whereas other books might devote upto 5 times as much. Larry manages to cover these topics very well in a short space and he doesn't leave you short changed.

The book is very well written, flows well and covers most of your PHP topics. Infact I believe the information presented here would cover the programming requirements of nearly 90% of existing websites today (not including flash stuff). Apart from one of the best programming books I've purchased, Larry actually takes the time to answer questions in his forum about his books and any problems you might have.

NOTE: This is a great addition to your library, but make sure you buy the second addition.

NOTE 2: I taught php and MySQL at University and many of my students commented in the unit evaluation that they thought this was a great book.

Fantastic book

I would rate myself as having intermediate programming skills, but I was new to PHP. This book was great, it's good for an intermediate level and it's a no nonsense kind of book. Everything you learn how to do in this book is a practical application that if you are a web designer/developer you will most likely need to know at some point in time. The intro is short and sweet, and the author never goes on to long about one topic. Once a topic is learned it is used throughout the book. I have had the book for about 2 weeks now and I am almost done reading it and getting ready to apply some knowledge to my next project. The two chapters on SQL were also great, its like getting two books in one.

I can't recommend this book enough; it was so nice to get a book that actually teaches practical things at a fast pace. The layout shows a lot of repetitive code, but in some ways this is good since it only takes you a moment to glance at the code and recognize where the new code is, and how it applies to what you have already learned, as it is in red and the old code you have learned in early chapters is black. I like this because when books only show the new code you need to be in front of a computer to see how it all fits together, with this book you can just site on the couch and analyze the code as a whole.

Really good book, now I want to pick up his advanced PHP book by Larry Ullman.