Rating: 
Summary: More problems with the E-book/Digital Version
Review: Do NOT order a digital book from Amazon like this one. I was attracted to the possibility of starting my reading immediately. Indeed, the e-products are marketed in this fashion. However, when I purchased this book, I was not taken immediately to a download page (as is the case with most digital downloads offered by other companies)--I was told I had to wait for a confirmation email. However, when that email arrived a good number of minutes later, it contained no link or instructions for downloading. When I used the Internet to find a telephone number (because Amazon lists none on its website) and called, the kind representative indicated that she could not help me because the e-book department was responsible for such matters--not customer service. She would forward my concerns to them for a response. When I asked how long it would take, she said 1-2 business days. Needless to say, I could have had the hard-copy of the book by then.
Rating:
Summary: More problems with the E-book/Digital Version
Review: Do NOT order a digital book from Amazon like this one. I was attracted to the possibility of starting my reading immediately. Indeed, the e-products are marketed in this fashion. However, when I purchased this book, I was not taken immediately to a download page (as is the case with most digital downloads offered by other companies)--I was told I had to wait for a confirmation email. However, when that email arrived a good number of minutes later, it contained no link or instructions for downloading. When I used the Internet to find a telephone number (because Amazon lists none on its website) and called, the kind representative indicated that she could not help me because the e-book department was responsible for such matters--not customer service. She would forward my concerns to them for a response. When I asked how long it would take, she said 1-2 business days. Needless to say, I could have had the hard-copy of the book by then.
Rating: 
Summary: It's not ideal but suffice for beginner needs.
Review: Good points:1. Trained me into some of the mindset required.
2. Gave me actual instruction on the many basic database input/output tasks. Full marks. I was reading and writing to a database after reading chapter 8, dedicated to this very interest.
3. For the complex subject that PHP is, the author did fairly well at the task of simplifying it but could not fully succeed. I still don't understand some of the foundation PHP understandings. Bad points: 1. Insufficient explanation of the sample scripts. parts of many scripts were left unexplained. I looked at the scripts in detail. Not everything I saw was explained. But can they be?? 2. For slow learners, the book moves too quickly.
3. Doesn't ease me into the state of being (that I perceive) I need to be in for any development challenge - but is that what this book is for?? Once I knew what database site I wanted to make, I continually found myself getting stuck. In summary, I am pleased I got the book and it has helped me in the task of finding my feet with PHP. However, I now need a more advanced book.
Rating:
Summary: Spelling errors kill programming languages
Review: Had I no prior experience, I would not have been able to troubleshoot all the errors in the book and scripts. I have used as much time reading the PHP manual to fix the errors as I have reading this book. Incorrect spelling caused stop errors. This book is NOT for the beginner. You have to be able to troubleshoot the problems by using prior experience and knowledge. I have been at it several days and have not quite fixed all the errors yet. I recommend saving your money by NOT purchasing this unsupported, incorrect text.
Rating: 
Summary: Starts good and gets lost in the middle
Review: Had I written this review whilst reading the first chapters of the book I would have given it 5 stars. The steps how to install MySQL and the PHP installation went very smoothly following the book. I even found setup tips for MySQL that I had previously search for on the web/forums without results. I found I was leaning PHP & MySQL very quickly.
The middle of the book has more general info using various examples, but nothing really useful to tryout. The book gets up to speed in chapter 11. I felt I was leaning something again. Learn you must, you need to know what you're doing so you can correct the mistakes in code. Chapter 12, even more mistakes. This time I took the lazy way and downloaded the corrected code from the author's site only to find it was still incorrect. Maybe the mistakes in the code have actually helped, whilst solving the errors I have found lots of useful info for PHP & MySQL.
My roundup:
The start of the book is good for a PHP beginner, with useful setup info. It's weak in the middle. The last part, the main reason to buy the book tends to go too quickly not explaining details that would help a beginner.
It's a shame the book's wasn't checked a little better.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, but doesn't cover some main parts...
Review: I bought the edition without the CD-ROM, so can't give and detail on the code there.
The book is a great reference for simple stuff, but I was disapointed when I saw it didn't cover some basic PHP stuff, such as the whole file system's subject, POST/GET form variations and creating PHP generated images.
But it's great for begginers, to learn the basis of PHP/MySQL, shows how to create a simple site with PHP/MySQL, but if your after a big site with database's, this is NOT the BOOk for you.
Rating:
Summary: Poor amazon service download ebook
Review: I just bought this product in ebook format after downloading the document at 80% download it said could not download from source, it has been moved I tried downloading again from my digital downloads account and it told me it was already downloaded and cannot let me download again. It6 seems like they moved my product half way through the download and ripped me off., I called there support and told me they cannot do anything but the ebook service department will contact me 1-2 days, I BOUGHT IT TO READ IT NOW not 3 days from now.. I will be fileing a suit aginst amazon.com if this is not resolved. the BBB has been notified of this incident.
Rating: 
Summary: Book needs more examples
Review: I order the book and was disappoint that the book didn't have more examples. The books expains the basic's of MySql\PHP , but more like read 100 pages and Oh type this . There are better books out there.
Rating: 
Summary: Comprehensive, Easy to Follow, Great Programming Book!
Review: I really loved this book. As a web programmer new to the field, I have read many books on subjects ranging from ASP to XML, and Janet's book was one of the easiest, most-well layed out I have attached my eyeballs to! Great for beginners!
Rating:
Summary: It worked for me!
Review: I think this book is great purchase for a beginner. You don't have to know how to write programs or know anything about databases. All that information is in the book. There are lots of examples and the language is easy to understand. Some of the other reviews talk about mistakes in the programs and database, but I'm not so sure about that. Maybe that's because I have the second edition which just came out. This book is worth the money!
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