Customer Reviews

Practical PHP and MySQL®: Building Eight Dynamic Web Applications

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1 star:		(15)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

this book is jam packed with errors. Not just spelling typos, but on many occasions the reader will be left scratching their head trying to figure out why the code in the book does not reflect what should be in the output. I don't know who edited this book, but this book is definitely a candidate for worst editing award.

This is a good book with potential, but beginners should avoid this book at all costs.

Wait for the 2nd edition while the author and editor fix all the 'bugs' in this book.

In the intro on page 3 "WHAT YOU NEED TO USE THIS BOOK" it claims enthusiasm and a computer ... may I add phsyic powers and advanced programming skills in PHP and mysql. Even then the code is so broken it will be simply easier to write your own from scratch than look for multiple needles in a haystack.
There is a page for errata someone tried to write but quit.

First let me say to those who complained you cannot get the source code you can if you click the blue fish at the top of the cd ... however the code is bad so the source code is close to useless. Once you actually tweak it to work you will find code is missing eg: register.php is entirely missing for the shopping cart. The book itself looked impreesive enough for me to buy, was well laid out visually and well written but the code fails without tweaking and some rewrites. The reason it works from the cd is because the date has been tweaked on the data cd but not updated on the book. Everyone who bought this book at a bookstore or here should get a free updated edition and prentace hall the publishers are partially responsible as well.

Fact 1: There is no errata because even the errata is incomplete and has errors. The eraata addresses one header error in one application (a needle in a haystack). Sad for a book written in 2006 and published in 2007.

Fact 2: Every one of the eight applications are riddled with errors. Some are typos, others are simply poor coding (missing lines).

Fact 3: The code downloaded from the cd is error ridden and the print version in the book is error ridden.

Fact 4: Consumers complained at http://www.jonobacon.org/2006/11/20/practical-php-and-mysql-boo-yah/ but no replies. Take the money and remain unaccountable?? I have several pcs. The cd worked on a laptop but didn't like my graphics card on a tower and froze on a machine with a dual monitor setup. The cd is not compatible with some video cards.

Fact 5: The screen prints in the book (of what the page should look like) were not based on the books code. eg: Page 70 the weblog omits the code to display categories as a link yet the screen print, page 72 shows a index page with a categories link. What you code and get is NOT what you expect.

Fact 6: Jono Bacon has a position as an Ubuntu community manager. The cd is a good cd if you are into promoting or experiencing Ubuntu. I am wondering if the minority of the positive comments on the link in fact 3 above are related to loyalty and not usability.

Fact 7: To the editor. You and whoever 'proofread' and 'tested the book examples' should be fired.

Fact 8: I have purchased many books addressing various markup languages. My library exceeds a couple of hundred and this book is not the first containing errors, most do, however this is the first one that remains unaccountable for infers false and misleading statements, such and claims no errata to date and despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, refuses to address such. You only need 6 people for a class action and Prentice Hall and Pearson Education Inc, should be concerned and address these issues. (There are probably typo errors in this review BUT YOU CAN BET YOUR BUTT IF I WAS CHARGING FOR THIS I WOULD HAVE IT PROOFREAD AND CORRECT SUCH).

I do like Jono Bacons style and his approach (apart from his failure to be accountable for the errata and instead burying his head into writing a new book), and although you will walk away learning several things you will likely be focused and fustrated at the point where the code breaks and quit. I simply suggest before you buy any book period, google 'errata errors' the author name and the book title because obviously you cannot rely on the book site and rely on "no Errata to date" as being true and base your purchase on such.

To Christopher Negus: I like the Live cd concept however you need to revisit the book to make your ideals a reality, or make a retraction regarding the word quality, as well as high quality results, used by you in the foreword (page xi). I am glad you 'enjoyed learning from this book' because for the majority that I am sure learned alot, the journey was a far cry from enjoyable and was actually painstakingly fustrating. The solution ... make an errata page and use it. An errata page is not a shameful thing it is something that shows that it is truly about learning and improving code and not just about the money.

To Jono Bacon: you seem to be interested in have multiple books under your built. You need to follow through and realize the relationship begins after the sale. Don't be known as the author to not support. Get a url and address these issues. It's your reputation on the line. Also most php publications (not this one) indentifies PHP version.

My real name is Juanita Ray and I spent money but did not get the value I expected. Bottom line is nothing is perfect - errata helps increase the value especially for those of us who bought offline at a higher price.

Hello, if anyone has this book and has the ability to get into the CD, I would greatly appreciate it if someone can forward me the example files. My email is advancedgraphics at hotmail dot com.

I booted from the CD, ran through all these loading thigs, then when it's ready to run, tells me some error and from there I'm lost into script hell...

The book is understandable, seen some errors, I wouldn't recomend buying this book if you are a beginner like me looking to learn php.

I read and work through a lot of computer systems books and this is the most insensibly organized and written one I have ever dealt with. While Mr. Bacon's writing sounds friendly enough, the code examples are presented backwards and intermixed. Instead of starting at the top of a code file, he has you write the middle, and then the top, then jump around for a while before going back to the bottom. Code chunks are simply missing, or they generate errors.

As a competent person and a fast learner, I struggled with the book for a few days thinking it was just that I was tired from all of the overtime hours I have been working, but then I threw in the towel to look for errata figuring the problem was just publishing errors. Instead I found the Amazon page came up at the top of the search results with only two stars! Most other reviews reflect my experience, so I am going to more carefully choose a different book on PHP.

I've built a dedicated Virtual Machine and installed XAMPP myself to work through the code this book. Finally, in frustration, I booted the included CD, and the code on it seems to resemble what is in the book (I'm tired of looking at it so I did not make a thorough check). The presentation and explanations of the code as a learning tool is just too unnecessarily complicated, making learning difficult. I've learned more searching PHP forums to resolves errors from working the poorly formatted examples. I recently learned CSS with an O'Reilly Head FIrst book, for which I was very grateful because Bacon's explanation of CSS was also confusing. Fortunately I already know MySQL very well so I mostly skipped over his discussion of MySQL.

I bought my copy at a trade show so I can't return it but I would if I could.

This book is absolutely horrendous.
I'm taking a Web Programming class this semester at my local community college and for whatever stupid reason the professor decided to use this as our textbook. He has admitted that it is the first time he's attempted to use this book, but I wonder whether or not he actually throughly reviewed it before selecting it to teach his students with for a couple reasons:

1) It is riddled with errors in both text and coding

2) It does not teach the content in a logical, sequential manner, but rather jumps from topic to topic and then back again, which can be rather confusing.

Whatever you do, do not buy this book!

Don't waste your time with this book, there are to many errors in the code.
This one's heading to the burn pile.

This is the worst self study book I have ever read. I really enjoy tackling new projects and reading the covers of the book I had thought that this book would serve me well. It is a disaster. Most of the code is faulty and what makes it worse there is no code included on the CD.

It claims to include code but there is nothing on the CD except for some goofy Linux OS that attempts to run from the CD and that does not work either. When I went to the website for Prentice Hall Books to see if by some chance you could download the source files, of course there was nothing there. Even the simple stuff like the CSS files to style the apps like the book diagrams are not included on the CD.

Stay away from this book it is a nightmare and a complete waste of time. I wish there was a way that I could get my money back, I hate wasting money on useless items and this was completely useless.

This author should be ashamed of himself.