Rating: 
Summary: Good, though not O'Reilly standard
Review: This is a solid book on PHP and MySQL, but it's not organized in the standard O'Reilly style. It follows a single example, in depth, through the entire book and in the later part of the book dedicates whole chapters just to explaining the code of the example.
The first six chapters, which cover PHP, SQL (and MySQL) and PEAR are the best in the book. The SQL chapter is particularly good.
Overall the book is well written and thorough. My problem is two fold. I think the organization would be better if it spent less time on the example project. And on a technical level the MySQL access is not proper or secure and is vulnerable to SQL injection attacks.
I would recommend Advanced PHP Programming from Addison Wesley for experienced PHP users. For beginners this book is a good start, but you should not use it for example code for database access.
Rating: 
Summary: Educational, NOT merely instructional! Great Book.
Review: This is an EXCELLENT book for an intermediate programmer, likely the best PHP/MYSQL combo book out there. Intermediate programmers have programmed successfully before, but now want to write code and use techniques that are more fundamentally sound. This requires that someone share with them the various OPTIONS, explain their strengths and weaknesses, and then recommend a good way. That's what this book does (more often than not) on subjects ranging from sessions to MySQL locking to regular expressions.This book provides an EDUCATION as opposed to mere instructional advice as to one way something can be done (without context). From another angle, it has been my observation that the inability to understand a programming explanation in a book normally results from the author simply omitting one or two explicit references to minor elements in the causal link that comprises understanding. (think about that one a bit) The authors of this book tend NOT to make this error in their explanations/tutorials which makes for easy, informative reading. They are much better educators than the average techie author.
Rating:
Summary: Very useful and practical guide
Review: Web Database Applications by H.E. Williams and D. Lane is a truly wonderful book if you are looking to learn how to get an online database application up and running fast. The book eases you into PHP with a decent length chapter on the basic syntax of the language, followed by an introduction of MySQL.
After that, each chapter will teach you new techniques which are instantly applicable to a real-world online database system. Among others this book will teach you how to: write scripts that interact with MySQL, deal with security issues, handle sessions, handle shopping carts and lots lots more.
The book was written before the introduction of PHP 4.2, so certain 4.2 (and up) specific issues are not covered. However, most of the examples in the book have been re-written for use with 4.2 and can be downloaded freely. On top of this the authors supply a level of support that is all but unheard of. Every question that I asked was answered within 1 day if not within the same day.
All in all this book is at the top of it's league, I can highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: A solid and accessible resource for web programmers
Review: Web Database Applications by Hugh E. Williams (Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science & IT, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia) and David Lane (Software Engineer and IT Manager, Multimedia Database Systems Group, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia) is a solid and accessible resource for web programmers who seek to create powerful, practical, and useful web database applications. Individual chapters address a brief overview of PHP and MySQL, shopping carts, security features, effective querying, and much more. Sample code, black-and-white screenshots, and straightforward instructional text make Web Database Applications a first-class reference and a highly recommended instructional guide.
Rating:
Summary: Great start on PHP/MySQL for programmers
Review: When I got this book, I already had experience programming in Perl, but PHP was entirely new to me. I also had database/SQL knowledge, but had never touched MySQL. I knew the powerful combination of PHP and MySQL was the key to solving a big programming problem, but I didn't know where to start. This book made learning a breeze. Just a couple days after I picked it up, my test PHP/MySQL application was working. The rest is history. I think this book would be great for intermediate programmers who want to implement PHP and MySQL, but don't know how. I was amazed at how quickly this book got me off the ground. (Hint: people with no clue about databases may want to supplement this with a MySQL- or database-specific reference, though this guide does provide some basics.)
Rating:
Summary: Great start on PHP/MySQL for programmers
Review: When I got this book, I already had experience programming in Perl, but PHP was entirely new to me. I also had database/SQL knowledge, but had never touched MySQL. I knew the powerful combination of PHP and MySQL was the key to solving a big programming problem, but I didn't know where to start. This book made learning a breeze. Just a couple days after I picked it up, my test PHP/MySQL application was working. The rest is history. I think this book would be great for intermediate programmers who want to implement PHP and MySQL, but don't know how. I was amazed at how quickly this book got me off the ground. (Hint: people with no clue about databases may want to supplement this with a MySQL- or database-specific reference, though this guide does provide some basics.)
Rating:
Summary: Great stuff to copy into your applicaiton!
Review: Wouldn't it be great if you could get the source code for only $50 of a complete online store? You could start with a working system and modify it as you like, provided of course that it is well documented. In "Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL" you have excellent documentation of a well-designed application with lots of extras like introductory tutorials, the reationales for design decisions and alternate implementations of many subsystems. The application is a fictional online wine store, with credit card payment, a shopping cart, merchandise browsing and searching, and automatic selection of the lowest prices in inventory. Security features include user authentication, password management, and hacker protection. Documentation this good is worth more than the source code, which by the way is fully printed out in the book and can be downloaded for free. This book has saved me lots of time!
Rating:
Summary: Another solid O'Reilly Title
Review: You know a little HTML. You know a little programming. Perhaps you've used Perl to create a simple CGI form handler so that you can get feedback from a website. Williams and Lane methodically guide the reader through the steps needed to create a MySQL-driven web application written in PHP. Readers will get a solid introduction to using PHP, SQL and a deeper understanding the HTTP protocol than they may have had already. Williams and Lane use the practical example of building a retail website to highlight such issues as taint-checking user input and automating application maintenance with cron. Sure, veterans of web application design may not learn many new tricks here, but for those that want to become veterans some day, this book provides an excellent launch pad.
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