Rating: 
Summary: Great intro to PHP, especially for DB connections
Review: This book is a geat intro to PHP. It was even fun to read and work through. It was written before PHP4 so it does not deal with PHP4 at all. It also focuses on MySQL connections and using PHP to manipulate a database. If this is what you are looking for, then this IS the book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: A little lacking
Review: I bought this book and I can't really use it as much of a reference. It deals with PHP3 completely and not PHP4. It takes you through the install and the syntax basics. However, unless you are new to programming languages and related installs, you don't need to know all of that stuff. There are absolutely no advanced lessons. The best thing about the book are the last few sections which talk about browser sessions and e-commerce apps.
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Summary: Emphasis is on Database Connectivity
Review: This book has fitted my needs perfectly while setting up the infrastructure of easy2link.com, but it may not fit you. The first chapter is on installing and configuring PHP, the second chapter is on "Basic PHP Techniques," and the rest of the book is basically about database connectivity (Chapters 3-8). The only thing I found lacking was that it doesn't include information about templates. If you are creating a website, you will want to use templates! If you don't already know how to do templates with PHP, find another PHP book (which I find painful to say because of how much I have enjoyed this book). If you want to do PHP and MySQL connectivity, I would suggest that you also buy _MySQL_ by Paul DuBois.
Rating: 
Summary: Early Bird Doesn't Catch the Worm
Review: This book is a classic example of an author/publisher rushing to be the first on the market to cover a new version of a programming language. There were some helpful portions, such as an abbridged function reference, but all in all, many other newer books cover using PHP, especially PHP 4, far better and in greater detail. Even the book's function reference is easily out done by the documentation on PHP's web site. I was quite disapointed.
Rating: 
Summary: PHP Beginners -- Your book has arrived!
Review: As it is in learning any language, one book is not enough, just like one website cannot teach you all you need to know through tutorials. However, Julie C. Meloni has soundly placed herself in the 'user-friendly' category for new PHP'ers. Solid scripts (all available online at her site as well), excellent references, and clean code for the beginner.Combine this book with the PHP Developers Cookbook, the database of your choice (MySQL for me:)some well honed website references (like phpBuilder, etc.) and you will be amazed at how quickly the cleanly coded and solid-functioning scripts are rolling off your keyboard! I rate this book as a must have for the newbie.
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Summary: This IS your PHP book
Review: A month ago I knew absolutely nothing about PHP, not even what the acronym stood for. Now, I'm creating whole Web sites with PHP, including database access and administration, and several other essential tasks. How did I come this far? PHP Essentials. This book is just amazing, giving you the knowledge it is able to in such a small book. It goes from the "Hello World" script to using PGP and GNUP to encrypt credit card information for e-commerce sites, and it's so easy to follow! The author writes in a clear, straightforward manner about the things that you need to know to be successful in the language. If you don't know PHP, but are interested, buy it now. If you do know PHP, this book may not be as beneficial to you, but still you may pick up a few tips along the way. I highly recommend this book and compliment the author!
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Summary: This is one of the books to get
Review: Along with Beginning PHP4 and Professional PHP Programming, I would highly recommend this book
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Buy This Book
Review: Installation directions don't work, many segments of code don't work. The Author makes many, many assumptions. For instance, that you can read her mind. She gives many examples of how to edit a file but never explains which file to edit. She will be talking about one file and skip to another file, telling the reader to add this line but she never tells which file she's talking about. It was maddening.
Rating:
Summary: Great Starter Book
Review: This book isn't written like a novel. It's not made to make you laugh, cry, or write art forms for programs. This is one of the most straighforward intro programming books I have covered in a long time.. and it was FUN -- I was up until 05:00 one night after starting into the book, just playing around with each new feature as Julie talked of them, writing my own test code as I went. The book covers many aspects of PHP in enough detail to get you started with the language. The first 8 pages of chapter 2 contain an HTML refresher on forms, tables, lists, etc, which was helpful to me: I haven't dabbled in HTML for some time. Also included is a pretty good Appendix (Appendix A) which contains a lot of reference material which makes reviewing the small details of functions you've previously read of quite easy. Though almost anyone can pick up the book and get started with some PHP, you'll get maximum enjoyment and will move faster through the book if you know some basic C++, as the loops are set up pretty much the exact same way. As well, knowledge of basic HTML (things such as the <img> and <font> tags, and the attributes that many tags can take.) If I could change something about the book it'd be: 1- more tables in the book (i.e., in the section on writing/reading data files, it lists the modes, but a table would make that very similar text easier to parse, and see differences.) 2- Add a small section early on with information on loops and general style for the 100% neophyte computer programmer. 3- A section on host security would be nice.. but that's just a personal wish, and can't really be expected in this type of book for beginning. To sum up-- if you want to jump into the language, hit every base while having fun and moving FAST, while having fun, jump all over this book. Want to get deep with PHP? When you're done, you'll be able to play with all of the features and continue into a book more concentrated on a certain aspect of the language. The author also has another PHP book out which I have yet to read, but I'll definantly thumb through it the next time I'm at the bookstore.
Rating:
Summary: Good introduction to PHP
Review: This seems to be the only true introductory PHP book out there-O'Reilly missed the boat this time. It's a great way to learn thebasics before stepping up to a more advanced book such as Wrox"Professional PHP Programming." I was especially satisfiedby the tutorial on e-commerce, although there were some things missingin terms of design, security holes, etc. But this book isn't intendedto give you the ability to write a complete online store after writingit; despite this, I was able to use my knowledge from this book, alongwith another book on mySQL, to write a complete online store ... It'sa good book, and the only one out there if you want to learn PHP fromscratch.
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