Customer Reviews

Web Application Design and Implementation: Apache 2, PHP5, MySQL, JavaScript, and Linux/UNIX (Quantitative Software Engineering Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the book I wish I had had when I was starting to set up my Books-On-Line web site. Here in one simple step is just about half of what you need to know to set up a fairly complex database driven web site. I say about half of what you need to know because he spends no time at all on appearance, type fonts, color, illustrations, all that stuff. As he says in the introduction, he's not good at that (neither am I), and for those subjects you need another book.

But for a functioning web site he recommends what is sometimes called LAMP - for Linux, Apache, MySql and PHP. To summarize why:

The software is FREE, a very good price.
It doesn't crash as often
It runs faster so you can use a slower computer.

By the time you finish, you'll probably want at least one book on each of these software packages, but here is an excellent place to start. It gives you enough to get started and you only need to go deeper into each of these packages when you start getting fancier. The nice thing about this book is that it gives you everything you need to get started in a well written, easy to understand way.

Mr. Gabarro, there are two things I would suggest for your next edition: One, include a cd of a working collection of the four packages rather than saying go get any distribution, and two, talk a little about past and emerging technologies such as Cold Fusion for the past, and Ruby on Rails for the future. I'd be interested in your opinions.

I go to Stevens Institute of Technology and recently took Web Programming, which is taught by Gabarro himself. I had the honor of reading this book and it has helped me go from (essentially) no web programming experience to being able to make a fully featured database driven website. Recommended to anyone who is looking to get into Web Programming whether it be casually or hardcore.

I have developed several websites, including 2 for other people. My latest one using html, css, and psp. I bought this book because it approaches web design from an integrated approach, of integrating multiple technologies. Ones that I am currently looking into adding. I like the fact that he gives overall "big picture" steps to web development. Especially his database design integration.

I've read 20% of the book so far. The main thing I like is the fact there is no fluff in the book. It gives all the basic material needed in a very organized manner. I appreciated the advice on frames. I have avoided using frames because other authors recommend avoiding them, and their instruction on them was very limited as a result. Could it be these other authors were biased towards using tables, or possibly do not fully understand frames? Anyway, I plan to incorporate frames into my future website development, as a result of this book. Thanks Mr. Gabarro!

I am looking forward to the rest of the book. On incorporating JavaScript and MySQL database into my designs. Love the book.

Web development is difficult and this book is probably the best tool your gonna find. With this book, and online tutorials together, I have managed to created a decent search engine and secure login procedure for my website. Would recommend to anyone. He doesn't go into detail about how your website should look but he does talk about using forms which is really what I needed...

I have some basic knowledge of PHP/Mysql since I am a Telecom Eng. and not a programmer. I looked into many books regarding that subject and for me this one is the best one. It goes not only through the PHP and Mysql theory but more describes you how to download and install what you need to just get in and play for fun.

Hi guys, first of all, thanks for actually considering buying this book. I do appreciate all reviews, whether they are good or bad, as this is the very first book I wrote. I do have to say in response to T.Arora that I did spend a lot of time writing this book (took me over a year), and the reason I did not include more images was a contractual restrictions. I was told to write a book of about 300 pages, and adding images would have made me go way over board. I felt it was more important to concentrate on explanations and the actual code. After that, you could always write the code and see what it looks like.

I do hope you read it till the end. I've heard good things about the last chapter, when everything gets together. Hopefully you will like my examples a little better. :)

For those thinking on whether or not to buy the book, realize that this book is about learning how to make database-driven websites, not how to make pretty pages. If you want to learn tricks and dangers of Web programming, the book can definitely help you. If you just want to learn Web design and how to choose colors, get a different book.

Thanks to all of you that have purchased it so far! :)

Have read 40% of the book so far. There are many places where visual aspects are discussed, and there are no visual illustrations!!. The book is clearly aimed at people whose knowledge is elementary in the areas being discussed, and yet there is no attempt to make it easy for the reader to learn. Also, the examples are unimaginative.

On the bright side, I like the casual conversational style.