Rating: 
Summary: This is surely not the best!
Review: I am very disappointed about this book! I bought the book because of the title. I expect much more for a book with this title. Unfortunately the examples are poor and mostly with errors. This book is not good even for beginners, because of the basics of PHP which were written in only 13 pages. Don't stay at the detail page of this book, go tho the PHP Cookbook and buy it! Virgilio Krumbacher
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I did not care for this book, which surprised me as I normally find the Bible series to be solid. I will always subtract a star when the author(s) consistently refer to material not yet presented. (down to 4) Another one gets subtracted by the too cute examples the purpose of which seem often enough just being clever instead of providing meaningful code. (down to 3). By the time I got through the first hundred pages I was totally sick of reading how the C programmer would do the same thing or how the C programmer should consider PHP. There is a appendix to cover that material but obviously the authors didn't trust the reader enough to believe that it would be read. (down to 2 stars). I could take off more stars for the obvious padding in the writing -Did they get paid by the word?- and in the examples which gave multiple pages of basic html, with little footnoting. I would even consider subtracting more for the clunky code, and refering to less than optimal functions for multiple pages then saying disregard that. Further there is the lack of any cohesion through the examples. But to give the authors their due, the book is adequate in its explanations. If this is your only choice it will suffice, if not, look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: An outstanding book
Review: I found this book to be one of the best programming books I've read. I was new to PHP, but have a year of Perl, Javascript, VB, SQL and HTML under my belt. I was, frankly, very impressed by the clarity of the information and how easy it was to pick up the language by using this book. Some have commented that it's not a book for newbies. Perhaps so if you have no experience whatsoever (although I even question this limited assertion), but I must say it was refreshingly easy to understand with my relatively limited programming background. The authors had a great knack for providing the important overview information that put the language in context while getting down to brass tacks by showing specific examples. Within a few short hours, I felt like I knew how to do everything I needed to in order to be a solid PHP programmer. And sure enough, when I wrote my first script to test out its Web database functionality, it took almost no time at all to make it work exactly as I wanted. The book also adds something else that I wish more programmers would pay attention to, which is programming style. Programmers should, but usually don't, think of writing their code as a novel. A person with a basic knowledge of the language should be able to read the code in the bathtub and determine exactly what the program does. Most programmers, in my experience, appear to strive to write obfuscated code, with mystery or assumed variables, logical shortcuts, etc. You won't see variables named $dls or subroutines named fdap in this book and the authors discuss good programming practices on a number of levels. I think if I can understand any complaint about this book, and it's not my complaint, is that the term "Bible" in the title might be misleading. It seems quite comprehensive for moderately complex Web programming tasks, but I imagine - and it's just my inkling since I am new to PHP - that the book probably could be much more detail-oriented for the much more sophisticated user. In summary, if you are learning PHP for the first time or know a little but need more formal grounding or need a more comprehensive treatment, this is a terrific book.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent resource for both vets and newbies
Review: I had a database/dynamic webpage assignment for a course I was taking, and instead of following, in lemming style, the rest of the class in using ASP, I decided to give PHP a shot. Prior to this point I had looked at PHP for no more than a few minutes. This book was an excellent resource... It both teaches and acts as a reference at the same time. I would suggest this to anyone who is considering picking up a PHP book. Take note however, things may be a bit tough to get started on if you haven't had any experience programming in C/C++ as PHP syntax is very similar. My C++ programming experience was rather meager prior to learning PHP, but just being familiar with some of the syntax was a great help.
Rating:
Summary: Nice pkg with a good language reference and mySQL focus
Review: I just had a chance to check out this book today. The language section was very complete and entirely appropriate for a book that is called the "PHP Bible." Also, they offer a basic guide to SQL which is cool, and focus on the mySQL platform which is the most common and documented platform for using PHP. I thought it was a nice package! Beginners should check out Php Fast & Easy Web Development by Julie Meloni and combine it with the language reference in "PHP Bible" and the O'Reilly pocket guide too. Then you're all set for about $55.00.
Rating:
Summary: Good for beginners. Too shallow for experts.
Review: I originally wrote this review for my site bitgems.org. I bought the book "PHP 4 Bible" to start learning PHP. I'm an experienced C++ programmer, but I had never seen PHP before looking at this book. Below you can see my brief assessment of the book. I've been reading the "Bible" for several weeks. I bought it and started to read it to familiarize myself with PHP--even though I'm a dedicated technophile, I still enjoy having a book I can flip through. It was good as a basic introduction to PHP and MySQL, and it exposed me for the first time to many important concepts. I found the level to be a bit simplistic--the book is aimed in part at beginning programmers--but for the most part, I find the advice sound. And having something be too easy to understand is certainly better than too hard. I found the parts about MySQL to be a good introduction, though as they point out in the Bible, their objective isn't to teach MySQL. I was in fact learning SQL at the same time, but so far I've primarily used the excellent documentation at mysql.com to learn about it. In conclusion, I found it to be light reading. I enjoyed their sense of humor, and had no problem reading straight through to the "advanced" parts. Don't think that this book is anything like a reference, however--I find myself frequently needing to look things up in the online documentation that are simply not covered by the Bible. So if you're just learning PHP, it's a worthwhile purchase. If you're trying to find a good reference book with a lot of depth, you will need to look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: PHP Unexplained
Review: I've found most books in the Bible series to be quite good and in-depth. This is not the case with the PHP4 Bile, which barely scratches the surface on the subject of the greatest open-source server side scripting language (PHP). The book is very simplistic, yet at the same time not descriptive enough of the simple examples it gives. Two exapmples in ch 27 did not work without having to change the coding. The book offers very little above and beyong the online manual. The book would better be titled PHP4 Bible For Beginners. If you're looking for a good explanation of useful php functions with real-world examples, buy Professional PHP Programming from Wrox.
Rating:
Summary: A Developer's Book
Review: If you want to create a dynamic web site using PHP4 and the MySQL database, then this is the book for you and the only book you'll need. This is NOT one of those many computer books apparently thrown together at the last second to meet a deadline with lots of fluff and little useful content. This book answers real world questions like: How do I create and maintain sessions?
How do I create and utilize MySQL databases?
Where do I find a host for my web site?
What are some common gotchas in PHP4?
Why doesn't this page work?
How do I send email from a page?
How do I pass information from page to page?
How does PHP compare to other scripting languages?
How do I use string, math functions, and arrays?
How do I build and use functions and classes?
What are the differences between PHP3 and PHP4? The book has very useful example code. All this and very readable. There may be better books on this subject, but I wouldn't know as I haven't needed to buy additional books because this book has answered all my questions.
Rating:
Summary: be php
Review: just like all other bible books it's a complete and great (i think the best you can get)... php is a very common programming language for static websites... php works with MySQL database and that is also supported in this book
Rating:
Summary: Get this and the Wrox
Review: Of all the PHP books I've seen, this one and the Wrox "Professional PHP Programming" are the ones to get. This one's a little less dense than the Wrox, which is fine with me.
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