PHP and MySQL Web Development (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The PHP server-side scripting language and the MySQL database management system (DBMS) make a potent pair. Both are open-source products--free of charge for most purposes--remarkably strong, and capable of handling all but the most enormous transaction loads. Both are supported by large, skilled, and enthusiastic communities of architects, programmers, and designers. PHP and MySQL Web Development introduces readers (who are assumed to have little or no experience with the title subjects) to PHP and MySQL for the purpose of creating dynamic Internet sites. It teaches the same skills as introductory Active Server Pages (ASP) and ColdFusion books--technologies that address the same niche.

Authors Luke Welling and Laura Thomson's technique aims to get readers going on their own projects as soon as possible. They present easily digestible sections on specific technical processes--"Accessing array contents" and "Using encryption with PHP" are two examples. Each section centers on a sample program that strips the task at hand down to its essentials, enabling the reader to fit the process into his or her own solutions as required. Tables that list options and other nuggets of reference material appear as well, but the many examples and the authors' commentary on them take center stage.

For reference material on MySQL, have a look at Paul DuBois's MySQL. On the PHP side, Web Application Development with PHP 4.0 is excellent. --David Wall

Topics covered:

• The MySQL database server (for both Unix and Windows)
• Accessing MySQL databases through PHP scripting (the letters don't really stand for anything)
• Database creation and modification
• PHP tricks in order of increasing complexity--everything from basic SQL queries to secure transactions for commerce
• Authentication
• Network connectivity
• Session management
• Content customization

Review

“This book by Welling & Thomson is the
only one which I have found to be indispensable.
The writing is clear and straightforward
but never wastes my time.The book is
extremely well laid out.The chapters are the
right length and chapter titles quickly take
you where you want to go.”
—Wright Sullivan, President,A&E
Engineering, Inc., Greer South Carolina

“There are several good introductory
books on PHP, but Welling & Thomson is an
excellent handbook for those who wish to
build up complex and reliable systems. It’s
obvious that the authors have a strong background
in the development of professional
applications and they teach not only
the language itself, but also how to use it
with good software engineering practices.”
—Javier Garcia, senior telecom engineer,
Telefonica R&D Labs, Madrid

“This book rocks! I am an experienced
programmer, so I didn’t need a lot of help
with PHP syntax; after all, it’s very close to
C/C++. I don’t know a thing about
databases, though, so when I wanted to
develop a book review engine (among
other projects) I wanted a solid reference
to using MySQL with PHP. I have
O’Reilly’s mSQL and MySQL book, and
it’s probably a better pure-SQL reference,
but this book has earned a place on my
reference shelf…Highly recommended.”
—Paul Robichaux

“The true PHP/MySQL bible, PHP
and MySQL Web Development by Luke
Welling and Laura Thomson, made me
realize that programming and databases are
now available to the commoners. Again, I
know 1/10000th of what there is to know,
and already I’m enthralled.”
—Tim Luoma,TnTLuoma.com

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 896 pages
• Publisher: Sams; Book & CD edition (March 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672317842
• ISBN-13: 978-0672317842
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (210 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #557,950 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

207 of 213 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complete resource for practical PHP/MySQL Web applications, July 14, 2001

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This is such a good book that I wanted to take the time to write a review and give it 5 stars, which it richly deserves. The other glowing reviews helped me to choose this book over others, and they were right on the money.

I'm an experienced C/C++ programmer on Windows, but I knew nothing about PHP and MySQL -- and very little about Apache and Unix -- prior to opening this book. I've now read about 80% of it and, in the process, I've built a commercial-grade Website with user registration and shopping cart facilities, which was my objective. Reading this book was a very efficient use of my time -- it gave me exactly what I needed to build a practical Web application system with PHP and MySQL, and very little extraneous stuff.

The main prerequisite for this book is a working knowledge of HTML, and just a little background in procedural programming. Some of the earliest examples use HTML tags for tables and forms, with PHP use thoroughly explained, but without many notes on the HTML. A beginning programmer can learn effectively from this book, but as an experienced programmer I felt that it also worked well to bring me up to speed quickly on a new language.

Another value of this book not mentioned in other reviews are the many good recommendations for organizing your PHP code (applying basic software engineering principles) as your Web application gets larger and more complex. Many, many Websites have been built haphazardly and are now difficult to maintain because they haven't followed the excellent advice in this book.

I did notice the typos mentioned by other reviewers, but after reading 80% of this (867-page) book I feel they are very minor and really do not detract from the book significantly at all.

All in all, this is one of those rare books that is probably worth ten times the amount that you pay for it, and much more if you use it effectively.

109 of 114 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sams vs. O'Reilly PHP & MySQL books: Which one to buy?, October 14, 2002

By	macktheknife (Northern, CA) - See all my reviews

I have just started learning some PHP & MySQL development using "PHP & MySQL Web Development" published by Sams and "Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL" from O'Reilly. Prospective readers might be wondering the difference between the two in deciding which one to buy, so I hope to shed some light on the issue.

Sams: The Welling and Thomson book is more "hands-on" in that it takes the reader step-by-step in developing an e-commerce website. The chapters are organized in a goal-oriented manner: PHP, MySQL, the basics of e-commerce, security, and design of the site.

O'Reilly: The Williams and Lane book is structured in a similar way by showing readers PHP and then MySQL. Examples to reinforce concepts are also provided. While the O'Reilly book also tries to take the reader in developing an e-commerce site, it is a bit more theoretical. Also, there are some differences in focus: the O'Reilly book has a section on using JavaScript while the Sams book has a final chapter on creating PDF files using PHP.

If I had to choose just one book, I would go with the Sams book due to its more gentle learning curve. However, I believe that the O'Reilly book is no slouch, and I will probably come to appreciate it more once I gain more experience in PHP and MySQL development.

One last word about my programming background: I knew a bit of Perl, Java, HTML, and JavaScript before tackling PHP and MySQL. I consider myself to be an "advanced beginner" (an oxymoron, of course). To get the most out of these two books, you should know HTML well enough to read it (you should at least recognize some tags) and it would definitely be helpful if you have some programming experience. You could very well make PHP your first programming language, but I would advise against it. Start with something like Perl (whose syntax is very similar to PHP's).

I highly recommend both books to prospective PHP and MySQL developers who are willing to spend some time and effort.

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sleek and purple, July 30, 2001

By A Customer

Although it has a purple spine, this book contains everything a person would hope to know about php and mysql. From the basics of php 4.0 to mysql privleges, Welling and Thomson provide quick easy and painless reading.

It provides it's message to the windows crowd, which in itself is a beautiful concept; usually books about php and mysql are directed at unix users (rightfully so, I admit). I am a user of windows, and the php installation instructions for either the windows build of Apache or MS IIS were definately adequate.

The php crash course chapter is an especially good reference. For example, other books I've purchased on php ignored some of the useful variations of the if-then control structure. The chapter on php session control was beautifully simple, although at first it came as a surprise, since other php books didn't cover it (session control was first implemented in php 4.0).

I did have some difficulty installing and using the gd image library, since most of the sites listed in the book didn't exist. Windows users, just remember that the php.ini file needs to be edited (remove the semicolon before the gd dll) and the gd dll needs to be moved into the php working directory. Of course, maybe that's intuitive and I'm just a moron.

In conclusion, it's a good book.