Practical PHP and MySQL®: Building Eight Dynamic Web Applications [Paperback]

Jono Bacon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 24, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0132239973 | ISBN-13: 978-0132239974

"Practical PHP and MySQL reflects Jono's commitment to the spirit of making open source subjects accessible to everyone. The book carefully walks you through the code for eight useful, dynamic Web applications. Projects are presented in a playful way, like the forum project that touts horror movies that make you 'hide behind the couch.'"
-From the Foreword by Christopher Negus, Series Editor, Negus Live Linux Series

Build Dynamic Web Sites Fast, with PHP and MySQL...

Learn from Eight Ready-to-Run Applications!

 

Suddenly, it’s easy to build commercial-quality Web applications using free and open source software. With this book, you’ll learn from eight ready-to-run, real-world applications—all backed by clear diagrams and screenshots, well-documented code, and simple, practical explanations.

 

Leading open source author Jono Bacon teaches the core skills you’ll need to build virtually any application. You’ll discover how to connect with databases, upload content, perform cascading deletes, edit records, validate registrations, specify user security, create reusable components, use PEAR extensions, and even build Ajax applications.

 

Working from complete examples on the CD-ROM, you’ll create

• Generic dynamic Web sites
• Blogs
• Discussion forums
• Shopping carts
• Auction sites
• Calendars
• FAQ systems
• Reusable components
• Content management systems
• News sites

 

JONO BACON is Ubuntu community manager for Canonical, Ubuntu’s sponsor. He is an established speaker, author, and contributor to the open source community. Bacon co-authored Linux Desktop Hacks and The Official Ubuntu Book; has served as a columnist for Linux Format, Linux User & Developer, and PC Plus; and is an O’Reilly Networkweblog author. He is a lead developer onthe Jokosher (www.jokosher.org) project,and co-founder of LUGRadio—a podcastwith more than 15,000 listeners, andan annual event that attracts visitorsfrom around the world.

 

CD-ROM Includes

• XAMPP for Linux: easy-to-install, preconfigured Apache distributions containing MySQL, PHP, Perl, and more
• Source code for all eight fully-working applications discussed in the book
• A remastered Ubuntu live CD, set to run all eight applications live

 

System Requirements

• CPU: Pentium III, 650 MHz. RAM: 256MB (recommended 512MB).
• Hard disk: No space required to run live CD; 250MB of space needed to put XAMPP server and projects on installed system.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jono Bacon works for Canonical as the Ubuntu community manager and is an established speaker, author, and regular contributor to the Open Source community. As an author, Bacon co-authored Linux Desktop Hacks and the Official Ubuntu Book, and has written more than 400 published articles in more than 14 publications. Bacon has also contributed as a columnist for Linux Format, Linux User & Developer, and PC Plus, and is an O’Reilly Network weblog author.

 

In addition, Bacon is a regular contributor to Open Source in a range of projects, a lead developer on the Jokosher (www.jokosher.org) project, and one of the co-founders of the popular LUGRadio (www.lugradio.org) podcast–a show with more than 15,000 listeners and an annual event that pulls visitors from around the world.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Foreword

Listen to podcasts by Jono Bacon and friends at LUG Radio (http://www.lugradio.org) and you get a sense of both the spirit and thoughtfulness Jono brings to the open source community. At one moment they speak seriously about hurdles in contributing code to free software projects, while the next they offer a Monty Python-like discussion on which Linux distribution each of them most resembles.

Practical PHP and MySQL reflects Jono's commitment to the spirit of making open source subjects accessible to everyone. The book carefully walks you through the code for eight useful, dynamic Web applications. Projects are presented in a playful way, like the forum project that touts horror movies that make you "hide behind the couch." And everything in the book can be run live, modified, saved, and reused from the included live CD.

Although the tools you need to create Web content are readily available from the open source community, having a skillful guide like Jono Bacon to help you create dynamic Web applications from those tools is a real treat. The results form a foundation for developing your own blogs, forums, shopping carts, and other Web destinations that should significantly cut your startup time.

I am thrilled to have Jono Bacon's Practical PHP and MySQL as one of the first books in the Negus Live Linux Series. Its content perfectly suits the goals of the series to put quality free and open source software covering various topics into peoples' hands so they can quickly get high-quality results. I hope you enjoy learning from this book as much as I have.

—Christopher Negus
Series Editor, Negus Live Linux Series

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall (November 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0132239973
• ISBN-13: 978-0132239974
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,337,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is a disaster, September 13, 2007

By 

Eric C. Helmer "seinnichts" (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practical PHP and MySQL®: Building Eight Dynamic Web Applications (Paperback)

Do not be swayed by the surface effects of this book. It appears to be the perfect combination of practice and learning. You think you'll learn php or advance your knowledge of it while producing some core Web apps such as a Blog or shopping cart. This is, in fact, the promise made by the book itself on the rear cover.

If you buy this book what you will in fact learn is that the "well-documented code" will fail on nearly all, if not all, of the 8 promised "ready to run, real world applications." At first you'll think you are responsible for syntax errors so you will begin a journey to discover how to find the source code for the examples. To find it you'll either have to boot from the included CD or explore the disk. The files are hard to find but they're there.

Unfortunately the frustration that lead you to the source files will only increase as you realize that source files are also riddled with errors. Not only will your efforts to reproduce the code fail, but your turn to the source files will prove equally disappointing. None of the advertised apps will run.

How is it possible for such a book to have made it off the press?

The only thing that could have saved this book is if the author or publisher had created a Web site to correct these mistakes and made available working files. Ordinarily such a site is practically required for a technical book due to the near certainty of proofing errors creeping into the text. You will find a publisher's Web site for the book. It contains nothing but praise for the work and continues to promote the book much as you can read on the book's rear cover. Shame. There are no corrections and no (old) or amended source code. You will also find an author's Web site. The author communicates with readers by way of a blog. Within weeks of publication, as readers started to turn to the author for help with all the mistakes, the author abandoned his readers. There is an entry from a reader begging for help from as recently as Aug. 07. His question, as are all others, is met with silence.

If you can help it, do not buy this book. It is a book. It has pages. It might look nice on your shelf. Other than that it has no redeeming qualities.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars HATE THIS BOOK, April 12, 2007

By 

Jean Pickering (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practical PHP and MySQL®: Building Eight Dynamic Web Applications (Paperback)

I admit I am a novice php coder, however, I have done a bit of developing web sites using PHP and MySQL. I am in the middle of developing a complex content driven website. I bought this book because I thought it would take me to the next level. Well, after trying to work through it for several weeks, I am giving up on it. The code Jono has you write, does not match the screen shots of the page as shown through a browser. His writing is not clear and you have to go out and figure out on your own how to make the code work and match what he has shown. He makes you do it in HIS environment which is not very helpful if you want to develop in a different environment. I wrote to him and asked him where I could get the source code and he did not respond. So the only way to get a glimpse at his code is to use his environment which is supplied on the boot-up CD.
I am giving up on this book. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Code doesn't work, August 3, 2007

By 

P. Gunardi (San Mateo, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practical PHP and MySQL®: Building Eight Dynamic Web Applications (Paperback)

Definitely not for beginner.

This book is not easy to understand. The author assume the reader knows some basic functions of php. Some new functions suddenly pop up in the code without any explanation.

I've spend a good amount of time try to figure out what is wrong with the code I type, it always produce an error that even though I really carefully copy what is in the book. I thought it is just me, finally I check the Amazon review and find that I am not alone.

The companion CD is not helpful. I can't figure out a way to open any PHP example file to compare and reference my mistake.

Quit after 1 week and can only take in 86 pages.