Rating: 
Summary: Great book!
Review: I changed hosting companies and had to stop using ASP and MS Access for dynamic content. I immediately fell in love with PHP and had to get this book. It has helped me time and time again. In a few short weeks, I was running my site with PHP and MySQL. It was mostly thanks to this book. It even helped me set up an administration site where I can edit content and is password protected. Thank you authors, for a wonderful book. I'm sure I will be using for years to come.
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Summary: They may say it is for beginners....don't be mislead!
Review: I purchased this book after reading reviews on 3 different websites for it. The montra seemed to be "great for beginners or folks who have very little programming experience". That's me! I found the book to be extremely helpful...through chapter one. It explained basic concepts, syntax, etc. After that, it's like the author assumes that you have become an intermediate to expert programmer. He no longer tells you "insert this code at the bottom of (insert file name here)," but starts in with "if you program in C, then this will be very familiar to you."There are also errors. Granted, you can go to the authors website and find the addendums, but when the addendums also contain errors, it's very frustrating (like when he spells the word "tire" in the book and then as "tyre" in the "corrected" code on his website. Heed the books user level category....intermediate to advanced programmers. Be warned, if you are a beginning programmer in any language, this book will just confuse you and frustrate you to no end no matter what others say...
Rating:
Summary: One of only two PHP books you need
Review: This book was recommended to me by several people in a PHP web forum. I found it at a book store and bought it. At the time I didn't think it was that great. At the time I was just beginning PHP and didn't know much about it. If you are a beginner, I'd strongly recommend "Php Fast & Easy Web Development" by Julie C. Meloni. After you have read that book, I STRONGLY recommend getting this book! While "PHP Fast & Easy" will help you get started with PHP, this book will help you begin to fully understand how to program in PHP and develop complex PHP applications (like message boards and templating systems). So in short, while this book is probably not for absolute beginners, it is a must-buy for those with some PHP experience!
Rating:
Summary: Great book.
Review: I started out with two books, one dedicated to MySQL, and the other to MySQL/PHP development. Errors in the MySQL/PHP book led me to try this one, and frankly, I don't even need to look at the others anymore. From configuring MySQL and PHP on my Linux system, to writing useful scripts, this book carefully leads you through it all. I am developing a web-based patient database system for a non-profit organization, and this book doesn't waste my volunteered time. It has everything I want, at the necessary level of detail. I should mention I am no beginner with either database or web development. I wrote my first professional database application (for HP/UX) over 12 years ago, and I have been employed as an engineer for Netscape Communications for nearly 4 years now. So take it from me, if you want to get the details on MySQL and PHP, this book has my unreserved endorsement. You won't be disappointed.
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Summary: A great all around introduction to PHP
Review: I purchased this book to supplement my growing library of computer reference books, and on the whole was not dissapointed. I used the book mostly as reference and ended up flipping to the index to reference specific information. I found all the explanations to be clear and code snippets were fruitful while not being overwhelming. Welling and Thomson do a great job covering the diverse aspects of PHP use and offer many common in-depth examples such as a sophisticated shopping cart and web forum. Even though more advanced PHP functionality cannot be found here (try Professional PHP4 for that), if you're willing to get your hands a little dirty, this is a great place to start.
Rating: 
Summary: good book
Review: good book, I liked it as I like most Sams books. Lots of examples makes it easier to learn.
Rating:
Summary: Deeply Dissapointed
Review: I read page after page of glowing reviews for this book and of course decided this was the best book on the subject and ordered one right there. I got my new book, eagerly read the first hundred pages and thought, "yep, this is the one." I knew nothing of PHP or databases or even programming, but I like to think I'm a quick study. How wrong I was... at least so far. The problem with this book is that there are a lot of things included that just don't matter, and the most basic important things that do matter (like retrieving data from the database --the whole point of the book I might add, and inserting binary files into a MySQL database) are either MIA or get a vague and very limited two-page treatment and end right when it starts talking about what you NEED to know. The index for this book is completely unmanagable (try finding PHP's "Select" function, I dare you -- it's listed under "rows" --does that make any sense at all?) and it is a bit outdated as well. If you use phpMyAdmin to set up your databases, this book won't help. Every example assumes you use the older "MySQL monitor." Another thing that bothered me was the way the authors say every little piece of code is "easy". We have very different definitions of "easy." Their definition makes me feel like a moron. Also you should know a little programming before reading this book. There are a lot of phrases like "This should be familiar to C programmers" and "[whatever] functions in php much like it does in Perl." In the end, my dissapointment is my own fault because the book says right on it: "Intermediate -- advanced" If you don't know anything about programming, go with another book or at least read up on C or Perl before you tackle this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Misleading examples and not enough explanation
Review: I found this book to only touch upon important subjects of MySQL and PHP. If you want a better explanation of PHP and MySQL download the free online manual for each of these. The examples they give you are not detailed and can be misleading and have you scratching your head why they don't work.
Rating:
Summary: Excelente book
Review: Excellent book, explains all the necessary to develop a good site. It contains very good examples to understand everything about PHP and MySQL. Definitively, my best purchase in PHP and MySQL.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent PHP/MySQL book!
Review: Firstly, I'm not some programmer with a Ph.D. in Software Engineering or a guru who's been using Unix for 20 years. When I got this book I knew some C++ (learned some in IT/Computer Science classes in high-school) and a fair amount of HTML. This book was, and still is, the perfect level for me (if you don't know any real programming yet, but are an advanced computer user, you won't have any problems though). The book is well structured and coherent. It's not something where one will just flip through and maybe learn something near here and there. It starts at the basics and then covers more and more advanced material. Everything is very well explained - I hardly ever had to re-read any sections - I nearly always understood the things after reading through the chapters. And no, I'm not genius. ;) This book doesn't just tell you about all the basic PHP functions, MySQL basics and how to use them both together. Only about a third of the book is on that. The main part of the book deals with real-world applications - E-commerce is the focus of this book, but Part V of the book (Building Practical PHP and MySQL Projects) also covers designing/programming other projects such as a forum or a Email service (yes, you'll learn to make something like Hotmail). Don't think that you will only be able to make E-commerce sites after reading this book - I presonally don't make any E-commerce sites as of yet, yet I have learned extremely much from this book, and I am only about half-way through. Frankly, this book rocks for PHP beginners and intermediates. This book is even sort of fun to read if you're a bit of a geek who's motivated to learn, I guess. I love this book! :) My only complaint: Since version 4.2.x of PHP, global variables are set to 'off' by default. This basically means that one needs to code one's scripts in a slightly different way when one posts/gets variables, uses cookies or uses sessions (you will definitely use this stuff when you get into slightly more advanaced PHP applications). It is easy to code in the new way, but one will probably need a bit of outside help. This isn't the book's fault though, so it still deserves 5/5 stars, in my humble opinion. I'm sure the next edition (if a second one will be published) will clear this up.
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