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Rating: 
Summary: Great book, great topic, great team behind it
Review: (This review is of the Wrox Press 2002 edition)
This book gives you a thorough course in building a PHP-MySQL website, working up a complete system in stages. The book contains lots of useful code and techniques that can be used in your own websites. As a previous reviewer said, it is not for complete beginners in PHP/MySQL, but in combination with a good fast intro to these topics (I used SAMS "Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache in 24 Hours"), I reckon this book should be all you need to get your cool interactive database-driven site out onto the web. And when I contacted the authors to find the download code (which is available from Apress now that Wrox no longer publish it), they were extremely helpful. So go on - the software cost you nothing after all: why not splash out a few pennies on this excellent book?
Rating:
Summary: Embodiment of a real-world app
Review: A book like this was long awaited. There is no better way to learn than the method this book enunciates - the construction of each module that makes up a web site is clearly described through each of its chapters. It was also refreshing to see that the application that was implemented in the book is available online - forums,newsgroups, news feeds, message boards, complete shopping cart with check out features, and a very neatly written final chapter that takes a look at what could have been done better - refactoring, templating etc along with a fullish perspective of the whole application.Kudos to the author team, for a job well done. I recommend this book to any programmer that wants to learn PHP, use PHP better (thru an OO approach) and build an effective and useful web site.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe Not So Hot...
Review: I know all of the other reviews are glowing, but I was actully disappointed by this book. While it is very thorough, I found the structure of the book to be haphazard and unintuitive. There are a lot of occurances of "but first, lets go back a bit," a sure sign of poor writing. While trying to keep to the problem-design-solution framework, the authors often introduced ideas in the problem phase, but never clearly addressed them in the design and solution phase -- often vaguely tying it all together with a statement like "and we took care of this problem as well" without really referencing it. There is a great deal of information in this book, but I found it very difficult to extract coherently. And saying "but its not for beginners" is no excuse for poor writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Another USELESS Book on PHP
Review: It appears as if most of the earlier reviews for this book were for the first edition. (Which brings up a good question - WHY is this book now useless?) As with essentially every other book I've spent $40 - $50 for, this one is filled with poor content and code that does NOT work. If you look at the "sample" website for this book that uses the code that this book is supposed to help you build (http://apress.mediatemple.net/site/news/), many people hit a roadblock by page 28! The site is filed with comments from others who have been stuck on the same problem and can't move on. Perhaps the most revealing question there is "has anyone been successful in getting all the way through the book?" Not surprisingly, no one has answered. The publisher's site (http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=200) also does NOT include an errata sheet (that would be asking too much). Don't bother buying this one - unless you enjoy throwing another $50 down the toilet. I bought this book based upon the positive reviews found here - little did I realize that the second edition must be worse than the first!
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book, but not for Rookies
Review: OK Guys, I recognized that every review is always so clean (no spelling mistakes, no grammar errors). Sometimes I think the Team itself writes some of them to impress readers. ;-) I can agree that this Book is not to bad, but if somebody says it's the best way to learn PHP then he's not completely right.
There is no way that you can see thro the whole php-code without having read a "PHP-only" book before.
I don't say that every little step has to be explained (the book would be 2000 and more pages big), but i couldn't find that this book is not made for beginners anywhere on the book-explanation page. Nice book, but please when you are a beginner, try a more explaining book first. Then go and buy this one. Thank you
Rating:
Summary: Best Book to Learn PHP
Review: The approach that has been used in this book is not only innovative, but also very methodical and piece-by-piece dissection of how to create
a web site using a combination of PHP, mySQL and Apache. It should appeal not only to readers who have a prior understanding of PHP, but also to the beginning and intermediate ones who want a rock solid approach to learning PHP to create content driven web sites. I highly recommend this book for purchase.
Rating:
Summary: Build a web site Step-by-Step
Review: The book is enjoyable to read; it focuses on the step-by-step delivery of a very dynamic website,starting with the basics of designing the file layout and how the files will work together. It then goes into more detail on delivering each feature, provides enough general ideas to help most PHP enthusiasts and budding developers understand the basics and advantages of OOP programming (although there are a few functions thrown in to ease in those not conversant with OOP)...
Rating:
Summary: Best among the lot
Review: This book is simply the best among the sea of books available today on PHP and MySQL. Anyone wanting to learn how to create a site using the three popular technologies - PHP, Apache and MySQL should buy this book. What i found most interesting was the LEARNING CURVE - too fast, too ruddy fast that your client will gape at the speed at which you put together his site.
Rating:
Summary: Don't miss out
Review: This is the most rock solid computer science programming text that i have read in the last decade.Period.No one should miss out on this buy.
Rating:
Summary: Sound Presentation - Easy Follow through
Review: You should buy this book, if you want to learn PHP the most effective way. The book dissects the creation of a content driven website by its module, and presents content on creating each of these modules from scratch (thru individual chapters)... You can't get more real world than this. Many thanks to the authors and the publisher. I very highly recommend this book, and have just ordered 24 copies of it for my web development training class here in Arizona.
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