Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book on PHP and MySQL - 6 stars!
Review: I needed to quickly create an advanced, dynamic database driven website for work.This book was an excellent starting point, taking the reader who knows nothing about PHP to being able to create medium to advanced scripts in a minimum of time. The included advanced tutorials are invaluable. It would be unfair to not mention that it also includes a very good reference on MySQL, from configuring it to using it. If you need to learn PHP/MySQL get this book and a copy of the reference manual from php.net I would give it 6 stars if I could.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I have read to programm web sites !
Review: I am a mechanical engineer. I bought this book because I am programming my web site using PHP and MySQL. It has that you want to learn about PHP. I am not an expert, however I have learned a lot with this book so I am very happy. If you like to build a commercial web site starting from zero, that is the best option that you have. It is practical, easy to understand, examples are nice and the whole content is magnific. I can recommend it if you like to program a real and functional commercial site. FIVE STARS !!! ++++++++++++++++
Rating: 
Summary: Good book for the novice
Review: Great book for a new PHP programmer or new to SQL. Great hands on easy to work with examples. But not for a person who already has a handle of the basics. It does scratch the surface of such things as session control, user authentication and personalization, but doesn't get into the nitty gritty. It does have a nice part on generating PDF reports. I stress again great book for a beginner.
Rating:
Summary: quite good
Review: A good reference book for a wide range of skill levels - complete, easily readable.
Rating:
Summary: Great Intermediate Book...
Review: Being a web designer for over 2 years, I have found the want and need to better understand the back-end of the web. I found myself designing pages and sites that I knew if I had the knowledge, I could make better navigable and provide more interaction with the user.
I had heard a little about PHP, being Open-Source and quite scalable. I decided to purchase this book because I knew that most web applications utilize some form of database.
Although there are some quite apparent gramatical and syntactical errors, this book is the perfect level for those who know about programming, and the concepts that are required (OOP etc...) It provides several real-world examples of web applications and how the authors went about developing said projects. If you have a understanding of a programming language (not just HTML) and how RDBMS works, then this book is perfect solution for you.
Rating:
Summary: Great 2 in 1 book...
Review: I ordered this book because I a designer who wants to get more into the back-end of the web. I was worried that this book would be too 'advanced' for me, but at the same time I didn't want to order a 'beginner' book as I had taken 2 years of computer science in college before switching majors. I was relieved when I opened this book. It's a great title for those in my situation. I had a good idea of what SQL and PHP were all about, but I needed a basis of where to start. It has definately gotten me out of the gates and developing datasbase applications for the web.
Rating:
Summary: a must buy...
Review: This is the best PHP book that I have read. This book explain the use of PHP to create powerful web applications and it also does a great job introducing the reader to mySQL engine and Apache web servers. If you want to use PHP and MySQL in your web projects, this is a must have.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the best
Review: While flipping through this book for the first time I said "Oh My God!" no less than 10 times. That's how great this book is. It features the code for a functional shopping cart, message board, search engine, etc. Included on the CD is all the code and Linux and Win distributions of MySQL and PHP4 which is helpful if you still use a 56K modem. All the code and discussions are clear and easy to follow. My favorite part is a small example on dynamically creating/editing rich text files on the fly, which I am using as the basis for a project at work to create RTF Microsoft Word like documents through a web based interface. This book is simply the best, hands down.
Rating:
Summary: Good for learners of these languages
Review: This book is mainly split up into 4 sections: php, mysql, security/e-commerce and then advanced tips and viable applications. For those people who are hoping this book will replace any combination of php and mysql books-it doesn't, but it is worth buying anyway. The organization of the book is very good and each section flows smothly into the next. The fact that the two languages work very well together make this book easy to read and understand, although there was some missing information such as using php with javascript--which is becoming more common as a way to relieve stress on the server. The section on security is excelent. Most of the examples and code snippets are usefull and have insight, however there are a few typing errors that the novice may miss and not be able to use the code correctly. For example, the author warns that it is easy to forget to put the dollar sign ($) in front of variable names and backs his point up by forgeting it himself a few times. Another mistake is a snippet of code (on page 88) that, if used as it is in the book, will cause the browser to lockup because it is one of those never ending loops that uses up the RAM. Besides these few things, the book is good, the CD is very helpfull when there is a need to check the code--sometimes code is put together bit by bit, spaning over several pages, and it is up to the reader to put it together, but like I say, it is mostly understandable and the errors are more or less easy to spot.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Useful
Review: This is a very useful book. If you're a web developer, and you're starting out with PHP, it will do wonders. It covers many important things such as creating a successful shopping cart, web based e-mail, web forums, and working with files such as PDF and images. What I enjoy most about this book is that it teaches you PHP and MySQL in a very coherent manner. In the beginning, it has a thorough introduction to PHP and its list of functions and it even covers PHP classes. It does this in a clean and understandable manner that is easy to follow. The chapters on MySQL and databases are also well put together. It covers the theory and implementation rather well using real world examples. Overall, it's an excellent book. If you're already a programmer, you'll fly through the chapters without any hassle.
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