Beginning PHP4 Databases [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

~ Andrew Hill (Author), Chris Lea (Author), (Author), Deepak Thomas (Author), Harish Rawat (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This book assumes that the reader has read Beginning PHP 4 and he does not have much of a clue about databases (almost Zero Database Quotient). So this book should be able to teach the reader how to build robust database driven PHP web applications. Further, this book is kind of a 'getting-the reader-ready' for PHP5 which will have strong OO and PEAR DB focus. So we teach the Beginning PHP DB developer the best practices to be adopted when getting into active development.

After reading the book, developers will be fluent in database systems and how to take advantage of them in PHP applications.

From the Publisher

A large majority of PHP projects rely on a database back-end. As more and more applications integrate large databases with web interfaces, we seek to provide the novice database programmer with a solid foundation in the art and science of developing advanced data- driven web applications with PHP.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 568 pages
• Publisher: Wrox Press; illustrated edition edition (October 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861007825
• ISBN-13: 978-1861007827
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 7.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #477,095 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for newbies!!, November 12, 2002

By	Deke Flesche (Chicago) - See all my reviews

I just got a copy of this book last week, and this was exactly the content that i was in search of - Getting upto speed with PHP and databases, to build robust database driven web applications.
Infact, this book manages to provide solutions to the large number of problems that newbie PHP programmers post on sites like phpbeginners.com,php.net and phpbuilder.
The approach to presenting a database agnostic solution, through the use of the most recommended PEAR::DB abstraction layer (i even found documentation about PEAR::DB, that i had spent ages figuring out for myself) sets this book in a class of its own.
The typos and grammar stand out at places, but who cares when you have gotten what you wanted.
I highly recommend this book to the BEGINNING/NEWBIE PHP Programmer.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great!, November 6, 2002

By	Matthew J. Wade (Jacksonville, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book aims to teach the skills necessary to develop any size web application with PHP, backed by a database. They start off with the now de facto PHP introduction and then jump head first into database fundamentals. Nearly half of this book is devoted to teaching database layout, design, and use. This is long over due in the PHP community. Too many PHP developers are creating database enabled applications that have absolutely no prior experience with databases! This book covers everything from elementary topics, such as table creation, selects, inserts, and deletes, to advanced database usage with joins, stored procedures, triggers, and cursors. While they did cover indexing, I feel that it was a bit lacking and could have used a more in depth exploration.

One pleasant surprise was that no one particular database is favored; in fact use of the database abstraction layer in PEAR is encouraged for code portability. I am encouraged by the use of PEAR in this book, as it can only help to bring the community together in its use and promote PEAR as a standard of sorts. The PEAR database abstraction layer is picked apart so that you may understand exactly how it works and be that much more efficient with using it.

At the end of this book, it offers two chapters dedicated to designing and implementing applications using a native XML database. The first of the two chapters concentrates on the fundamentals of native XML databases; what they are and how they work. The second chapter then presents a case study using Xindice.

I found this book to be very thorough and well put together. Cheers to Wrox for another fine book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It really helped!!, January 18, 2003

By	M Ringus (California) - See all my reviews

Do not wish to use too many words. I can just say that this book was of great help to me. Though dabbling with PHP, I learnt a lot from the book, since it has dealt with lot of basic knowledge of databases. Was just the right one for a student like me who had very little knowledge of the databases. Kudos to the authors!!