Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for beginners
Review: Before purchasing this book, I tried to install Apache, MySQL and PHP on my Windows machine without any luck. I was frustrated because this is all quite effortless if you use any flavor of Linux (Red Hat 9 in my case).I purchased the Dummies book on the same subject(s) and I found it confusing, particularly getting PHP to interact with Apache. I returned the book and got this one and I was up and running with Apache, MySQL and PHP in about an hour.
Rating:
Summary: Almost everything you need to get started with PHP
Review: Before reading this book I had plenty of experience with HTML and had studied SQL and C in school (but hadn't used it for ages). I found this book gave me everything I needed to get started. I did find some mistakes in the examples but they were minor and obvious. If you have any prior experience with programming you should be fine going through this book. If you already know PHP but want to know more about Apache or MySQL there are probably better books out there. I also had a little bit of difficulty getting the installation right but once i had it right I was away and now I am programming database driven sites with ease. All thanks to SAMS.
Rating: 
Summary: Exellent book - December 2003 Edition
Review: First, be sure you purchase the latest edition of every tech book you buy. Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't have the latest edition under Meloni's or Zandsta's name. You have to type the isbn number, 0672326205, in the search box to find the newest edition as of this review. Also keep in mind when reading reviews that Amazon mixes reviews of older editions with new editions which makes it very difficult to make an assessment unless the edition is mentioned in the review. New editions usually correct the complaints given in bad reviews so don't pass judgment so quickly unless you know exactly which edition the reviewer is writing about. This is an excellent book for beginners who know nothing about programming. However you must know XHTML before beginning this book. This book and "Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours" by Zandstra are built using exactly, word for word, much of the same content. However Meloni's book occasionally has more explicate examples and explanation, however it is missing four essential chapters that can be found in Zandstra's book. 1. Arrays
2. Objects
3. Regular Expressions
4. PEAR - Reusable Components to Extend the Power of PHP No real concern, because the reader could research these topics on php.net or other sites and my have to do so in order to complete the book since it refers to arrays but doesn't explain them. Meloni's book, compared to Zandsta's, does have better examples with actual programs that may be usful to you. Meloni's book, as the title emplies, also goes deeper into Apache and MySQL. After reading this book, you'll wont to get something like, The PHP Anthology By Harry Fuecks Vol. 1&2... or PHP and MySQL Web Development, Second Edition by Luke Welling, Laura Thomson. These books will teach you by example and are excellent. A note to beginners... Learning to program can be very difficult. Unless you are some kind of genius, you must be dedicated and patient with your quest. Programming is a totally different way of thinking and there is a lot to learn... I think this book is a great way to learn PHP and to learn how to program in general. Good Luck!
Rating:
Summary: Questions? Please read table of contents, or ask me!
Review: Hi - I am the author of this book, and I want to make sure everyone understands where this book comes from. It's parts of three different books, with several new chapters. It's fairly beginner-ish in nature, but you definitely have to have a handle on how the Web works, from an administrative standpoint, to get your brain around the Apache chapters. The MySQL and PHP chapters assume less pre-existing knowledge, and are pretty fun, hands-on and oriented through working through lessons. This is not the be all and end all PHP, Apache and MySQL book -- that would take way longer than 24 hours -- nor is it meant to be. But it will teach the fundamentals of all three things, and provide you with a strong foundation for more advanced books. You can find more info like table of contents, code and errata at thickbook.com. Best, Julie.
Rating: 
Summary: incomplete, inaccurate, and confusing
Review: I agree with the previous poster as to how challenging this book makes php, mysql, and apache. at least several of the examples don't work (whether this is a function of poor testing by the author/publisher or a limitation of php, mysql, or apache is left to the newbie reader to figure out -- a great way to learn, but not worth the cost of the book; incidentally so far all of the problems I have encountered fall squarely on the shoulders of SAMS). There are typos, illustrations of output in the book that don't correspond to the text, and from time-to-time, the included sample files (on the CD) don't match up with the files in the text. I can't recommend this book, though I'm still trying to wade through it. There have got to be better books out there. Perhaps my mistake was trying to find one book to introduce me to all three tools in one swoop. If it seems too good to be true... (and so on). Good luck to anyone using this book, I'm emailing all of the problems I find to SAMS, hoping that they'll improve it in future editions, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Idea, poorly executed
Review: I am about half way through this book and I have to say that while it is a good idea, the book is fraught with incomplete ideas and typos that have caused me significant frustration. For example, in hour 9 there is an exercise that has you saving state using a hidden form element -- which flat out doesn't work. At first I thought it was my typo, but then I tried to run the example file from the included CD, which also didn't work. AND the sample files from the CD are different (sometimes) than in the book. I have yet to get the email function working, though I have set everything up as describedin the book. And in Hour 10 the discussion of the is_executable() function completely fails to mention that it is not supported on Win32 systems. I like the step-by-step approach, but have to say that these little oversights are incredibly frustrating.
Rating:
Summary: Got me a step further in my web design career...
Review: I checked out many books on PHP trying to learn it. This one has been the best so far. the explanations are very clear and concise. This will teach you the fundamentals of all you need to know to master PHP. It does not go into object oriented programming, but that does not matter to me because I have no use for it. It starts from a beginning level and teaches you about variables, operators and control statements and goes on to teach you about the whole PHP file system. The section on mySQL is done very well also. It shows you all the basic SQL commands that you will need to perform most tasks. The only thing I did not like about this book is that it talked about the Apache web server, which I was expecting (from the title). Since I am not running my own web server this information was useless to me, but it was explained in great detail. This reason will not make me lower my rating though, since I realize this was one of the books purposes. I am very fond of the Sam's series and I hope they continue to produce better and better books about programming. Great book overall.
Rating:
Summary: The Longest Day
Review: I have been a mainframe programmer for 13 years and have done web design for the past year. The following is my experience with this book. First the good news:
1. I was able to successfully install PHP, Apache & MySQL.
2. I was able to successfully complete all the projects in the book.
3. I published one of my projects on a website. Now the bad news: 1. There were critical typos in the book--not just captions under the wrong pictures but incorrect code. I spent many hours debugging the PHP code for the projects. The code errors I found were not in the errata on the SAMS website OR on thickbook.com. I sent one code correction to the editors and received an acknowledgement, but I just checked and the code typo is not included in the errata. There are code errors on pp. 245, 406, 417. E-mail me if you are also having problems with the code on those pages as the SAMS people do not seem to be concerned or aware of these errors. 2. The installation of the products did not go as smoothly as I hoped either. The instructions on what to download did not match how the websites now look. There was some missing information. I was able to get it all working only with a lot of trial and error. This book contained projects that I was interested in learning: address book, storefront, shopping cart. With a little more diligence on the part of the proofreaders and technical editors, this book would have been great and I would have given it 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: The Longest Day
Review: I have been a mainframe programmer for 13 years and have done web design for the past year. The following is my experience with this book. First the good news:
1. I was able to successfully install PHP, Apache & MySQL.
2. I was able to successfully complete all the projects in the book.
3. I published one of my projects on a website. Now the bad news: 1. There were critical typos in the book--not just captions under the wrong pictures but incorrect code. I spent many hours debugging the PHP code for the projects. The code errors I found were not in the errata on the SAMS website OR on thickbook.com. I sent one code correction to the editors and received an acknowledgement, but I just checked and the code typo is not included in the errata. There are code errors on pp. 245, 406, 417. E-mail me if you are also having problems with the code on those pages as the SAMS people do not seem to be concerned or aware of these errors. 2. The installation of the products did not go as smoothly as I hoped either. The instructions on what to download did not match how the websites now look. There was some missing information. I was able to get it all working only with a lot of trial and error. This book contained projects that I was interested in learning: address book, storefront, shopping cart. With a little more diligence on the part of the proofreaders and technical editors, this book would have been great and I would have given it 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Just awful!
Review: I have never written a book review on Amazon before, but this book was so bad I figured I owed it to other buyers to tell them about it. The simple fact is that is poorly written. I have been a Coldfusion programmer for many years and have been blessed by well written books from Ben Forta. This author consistently took simple concepts and made them difficult. The examples were horrible. Instead of just showing simple the new concept could do, she made each new concept a review of the entire book. There were many things introduced that has no examples at all. I have never swore at a book more!
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