PHP MySQL Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution [Paperback]

Chris Lea (Author), Mike Buzzard (Author), Dilip Thomas (Author), Jessey White-Cinis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 14, 2003

The book's bottom line is to define a good methodology for creating a web site (with functionality that is used on many different kinds of sites, and that programmers may well be working on in the future) by identifying problems, surmising solutions to those problems, and then implementing those solutions using modern development practices.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The primary goal of the web site is to provide content for DVD lovers. This comes in the form of news stories that talk about current events in the DVD market, new releases, advances in technology, and the like. There is also a newsletter that registered users can choose to get via e-mail. In order to get our news to the widest possible audience, we syndicate our news into a standard XML format RSS feed. This will enable people to quickly and easily see what the latest and greatest is.

In order to develop a sense of community, we create a discussion board where registered users can create and respond to various topics. We also provide a poll where users can vote on different subjects and see the results.

Additionally, we serve advertisements to potentially generate revenue for the site. And finally, we provide a shopping area, where users can add various items, such as DVDs, DVD players, and accessories, to a cart and buy them.

The book's bottom line is to define a good methodology for creating a web site (with functionality that is used on many different kinds of sites, and that you as a programmer may well be working on in the future) by identifying problems, surmising solutions to those problems, and then implementing those solutions using modern development practices. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

 Chris Lea is, on his better days, a developer. He started out on the East Coast, going to school at UNC-CH and getting a BS in Physics with Highest Honors and Distinction. Fortunately, he managed to escape graduate school and made it to sunny Los Angeles, which is where he currently spends most of his time. If you track him down, it's likely that he will be playing around with Linux, Apache, PHP, and other related bits of software. For fun he sees his friends, plays his guitar, and harasses Mike Buzzard over instant messenger.

Mike Buzzard is a self-taught applications developer currently residing in San Francisco, CA. He is a partner member of Cuban Council, a freelance collective of programmers and designers based in the US and Denmark. Mike spends most of his time building web-based software solutions utilizing a wide array of languages, platforms and databases for the entertainment industry as well as the online design community world-wide. Mike's work history ranges from software development companies to the architecture and engineering services where his efforts have always been focused toward online applications development. In his spare time, Mike occasionally guest lectures at Stanford University where he instructs students in PHP and MySQL for solving course projects involving art, product design and communications.

Jessey White-Cinis is a freelance contractor currently living in Los Angeles, CA. His expertise lies primarily in core level web programming and development, however, he also has an extensive background in *NIX system administration. Jessey began his career in Kansas as a developer for OneMain.com (now Earthlink) at the age of seventeen. At the age of nineteen, Jessey moved back to his hometown of Los Angeles to work as a webmaster, developer and system administrator for Epitaph Records. Now twenty-one, Jessey enjoys working on a wide variety of web development projects while maintaining close professional relationships with his former employers. In his 'free time', Jessey enjoys traveling, mountain biking and writing and producing his own music.

Dilip Thomas hails from the sleepy little town of Cochin, set in God 's own country. He was instrumental is shaping the PHP line of books for the former Wrox Press Limited. He is committed to the PHP community, and much of his thrill comes from peering into that community from a philosophical perspective. He first got hooked onto Open Source in his sophomore days in college, and has been playing the role of a technology evangelizer ever since. His interests also lie in the Apache Jakarta projects and Open Standards technology in general. He was once spotted organizing bungee jumping shows to flustered audiences in his favorite city of Bangalore. Dilip can be reached via e-mail: [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (July 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159059150X
• ISBN-13: 978-1590591505
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #977,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Maybe Not So Hot..., September 9, 2003

By 

Lucas M. Haley (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: PHP MySQL Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution (Paperback)

I know all of the other reviews are glowing, but I was actully disappointed by this book. While it is very thorough, I found the structure of the book to be haphazard and unintuitive. There are a lot of occurances of "but first, lets go back a bit," a sure sign of poor writing. While trying to keep to the problem-design-solution framework, the authors often introduced ideas in the problem phase, but never clearly addressed them in the design and solution phase -- often vaguely tying it all together with a statement like "and we took care of this problem as well" without really referencing it.

There is a great deal of information in this book, but I found it very difficult to extract coherently. And saying "but its not for beginners" is no excuse for poor writing.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not for the beginner or intermediate programmer, July 17, 2005

By 

D. Trent (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PHP MySQL Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution (Paperback)

There is absolutely no PHP or My-Sql teaching in this book. If your looking to see how a professional group of programmers use functions and how they outline their sites then this book is for you. BUT if you're looking for a book to learn any PHP My-Sql programming, don't buy this book. But if you do buy it, buy it used... It's not worth the new book price.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, but not for Rookies, June 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: PHP MySQL Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution (Paperback)

OK Guys,

I recognized that every review is always so clean (no spelling mistakes, no grammar errors). Sometimes I think the Team itself writes some of them to impress readers. ;-)

I can agree that this Book is not to bad, but if somebody says it's the best way to learn PHP then he's not completely right.
There is no way that you can see thro the whole php-code without having read a "PHP-only" book before.
I don't say that every little step has to be explained (the book would be 2000 and more pages big), but i couldn't find that this book is not made for beginners anywhere on the book-explanation page.

Nice book, but please when you are a beginner, try a more explaining book first. Then go and buy this one.

Thank you