Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Tutorial style intro for Intermediate programmers.
Review: As the title indicates, this book is all about building websites powered by database applications. The book uses PHP and MySQL for a scripting language and a database technology respectively. Familiarity with programming and computers is assumed but other than that, not much else is assumed. The authors do an excellent job of explaining some of the fundamental concepts underlying database driven websites. All this is done in simple terms without too much jargon. To top it all off, a tutorial style approach is taken to illustrate how all these concepts come together. The tutorial is on building an online retail site that sells wines. The sample code used in the book can be downloaded from the publisher's website. PHP is a powerful language that is open source and that can be used in lieu of Java and .NET technologies for many web applications that aren't too complex. For most small business owners, this should suffice. I am not too sure about using it in large corporations. This is one of the most popular open source technology along with Linux and MySQL. MySQL is an open source database that can be used instead of SQL Server, Access, or Oracle. Once again, when the database application gets complex, I am not confident of its ability to handle the complexity. This is also excellent for small businesses but not large corporations. There are about 13 chapters and 5 appendices spanning 550 pages starting with an introduction to database applications and the web, continuing with an intro to PHP and MySQL, covering the main concepts behind web technologies and ending with the sample wine store application. The main concepts discussed are querying databases, writing to databases, validations on the server and client, session management, user authentication and security. The appendices handle installation, modeling and designing relational databases, managing sessions in the database tier, etc. Overall, the selection of topics is perfect for Intermediate programmers and the explanations are very detailed yet simple. This is probably one of the reasons this book is so popular. I have thoroughly enjoyed using this book and I am not surprised to see such a high quality book from this publisher. I am not familiar with the authors but I am going to keep an eye open in the future for other books by them. I felt it was a bit pricey for a book of this nature but this is the only one I could find that covered these specific topics so I am not going to complain. Enjoy creating your own database driven website!
Rating:
Summary: Kickstart your PHP & MySQL website development
Review: Coming from a VB, ASP and SQL Server background, I found this book to be very well laid out, extremely informative and easy to ramp up on PHP and MySQL.
I've 'inherited' a live ecommerce website which was written in php and mysql. My 'client' has been complaining about how terrible the performance is, how its not responsive, etc... Now using this book as my 'guide' I can clearly see that the site wasn't put together very well.
I've been asked to rewrite the site, and so as I'm developing website version 2 the existing site will run in maintenance mode, but now looking at the code and referring back to the book, me thinks with a bit of refactoring of this site, my client could keep using this site for at least another year...
Anyways I thought y'all might be interested to hear a different (though maybe off-topic) review.
Overall this book is helping me get my job done, I'm learning alot about PHP and MySQL (its a shame that MySQL doesn't have stored procedures... yet)
Rating:
Summary: Great book for experienced web developer learning PHP
Review: I just finished creating my first PHP web application, with this book as my guide. It is very valuable information, whether you are going to be using PHP on the job, or for a personal website of your own. If you do decide to use it for your own site, there are many web hosting companies that will let you use PHP & MySQL for less than $10/month.
First of all, I like that this book teaches MySQL together with PHP. While PHP is a application development language in its own right, many will be choosing PHP to work solely with MySQL. I fit this category so I bought the book.
The book is completely geared towards creating a data driven website from the start. You are shown how to interface to MySQL, receive data from the user, save state information, and other common tasks. The paradigm of web programming is very similar from ASP to JSP, you interact with the database, store some form of state, process forms, etc. If you are already familiar with this style of programming this book will have you going with PHP in no time. However, this book spends NO time on how to install or setup either PHP or MySQL. For the total beginner this could be a problem.
For the total beginner this book could be challenging. It is assumed that you know SQL. SQL syntax is presented and not really explained. What state is, and when you should use it are not presented. You are simply told how to setup state for your web pages. No coverage of HTML is provided. It really seems as the author assumes you are already an experienced web developer, just not in PHP.
For an experienced web developer this is a great book!
Rating:
Summary: A good grounding in PHP/mySQL
Review: I've been entrenched with JSP heavily for the last couple of years, so I haven't familiarised myself with PHP yet. I needed a book that would show me a larger picture than I got in a web developer's job, and showed me how to put it together with more modern techniques.
This book is a perfect example of why I choose O'Reilly whenever in doubt. Chapter 1 is an overview of how web applications are put together. Chapter 2 goes through all the basic PHP syntax (stuff that would take other books several fluffy dry chapters to process). Chapter 3 gets you through all the mySQL and sql basics so you feel comfortable with that, too.
There's no 4 page tutotial entitled: "Using a text editor: Wordpad" There's also no kitch "Employee Database" example cop-out. Instead, Hugh and Dave give a realistic and usable storefront application. This book alone is probably enough for the independent web developer to get a functional site up for her/himself or a client.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book!
Review: I've done several PHP and MySQL development jobs, and there
are problems which constantly hunt me...until I find this book.
O'Reilly has done a great job brining this book to readers.
It started with useful introduction to PHP, with details
showing how great PHP is--all the useful functionalities,
arrays, objects, etc. Then the MySQL part is also great,
with introduction to SQL language for people who are not
familiar. Strongly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: excellent, practical and thorough
Review: I've found Web Database Applications with Php and MySql to be an excellent book. It is an excellent book for learning from scratch as well as a useful reference. For the projects I've done I've only occasionally looked elsewhere (online) for technical references.
My style for doing a project using a new language or development environment is to learn just enough to do the project. It is not my goal to become an expert in the system or language at hand, in this case Php and MySql. I just want to get the project done in fairly efficient and practical manner.
After having decided that Php and some open source database such as MySql is what I wanted to use for my project (an online testing system) I read through the book to get an overall understanding of these tools. I then designed the system for my project and began coding. At the coding stage I would go back to the book to get the syntax and details of coding. I rely on sample code a lot, one of the principal strengths of this book.
The authors have implemented a complete online store. The code is well written and the application exercises many features of Php and MySql. That the sample code is from the application or based on the application makes it eminently practical. Perhaps more importantly the fact that the book is grounded in a complete application means many details concerning issues such as security and user interface are covered which might easily have been overlooked.
The book, however, is not a regurgitation of the application code nor a tour of the creation of the online store. The book is a well thought out development of the tools and ideas for web database applications. It begins with typical details of the Php language and object oriented programming, database basics and queries with MySql and proceeds with features and ideas useful in web database applications culminating in the case study of the online store.
Except for an initial glitch in getting setup on my OS X system everything worked out well. We switched our online testing system from FileMaker Pro, QuidProQuo and Frontier to Apache, Php and MySql. Similarly our placement test system has been converted. I switched our department's web site to one which dynamically creates interlocking web pages. I added a password protected system for staff to update text and calculator reference webpages and a simple means to create and edit our online schedule of classes. I built a similar system for instructors to access records of student use of tutor facilities for their classes.
I am very impressed by this book. I have not had a book which has been so thoroughly practical, complete and easy to use.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive review and examples
Review: Serving up dynamic content with scripting applications is all the rage now in the website development world. These scripting applications can provide customized information pages, shopping carts and content-management systems, and user-influenced web experiences. While "old-fashioned" static sites and pages still have their place, dynamic content sites are becoming more and more prevalent, primarily due to their obvious advantages, but also to their modest costs. The reason for these low costs is because the software applications are generally free, thanks to the open-source movement. Apache is an open-source web server application widely used. The most prevalent and preferred scripting application is PHP; MySQL is the predominant database management program. These three drive the great increase in dynamic content web development. While essentially free, their installation, configuration, and use requires some technical and programming skills and knowledge, but small and medium-size database-driven web sites can be managed by those not expert in programming or database management. While there is a lot of material available on the Internet about this software and database-driven sites, and a number of books available on these topics, none is as thorough and complete as "Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL", by Hugh E. Williams and David Lane. This volume is in its 2nd edition and is a 2004 publication of O'Reilly Media Inc. The book presents an overview of dynamic web sites using open-source software and relates the principles behind generating dynamic content with database applications. The focus is on PHP, the scripting language, and MySQL, the database management software. As befits a couple of university-associated authors, the book reads much like a college textbook. The twenty chapters include an introduction to PHP, SQL (Structured Query Language), and my SQL, covering PHP v.5, the very latest version and MySQL 4.1. The PHP chapters describe the components of the language and its syntax, variables, conditions, loops, arrays, functions, types, and more. The SQL and mySQL chapters cover database basics, tables, queries, and functions. All this material is presented systemically and thoroughly. The thrust of the earlier chapters is to prepare for the comprehensive web example of "Hugh and Dave's Online Wines" site. That site is constructed from the component materials covered individually in the prior chapters - how to manage customers, creating a shopping cart, dealing with orders and shipping, searching the inventory, and authentication of buyers. There is a lot to developing a medium-sized site like this, but everything one needs to know is described and explained as the book progresses. Extra materials are included as well, including information on PEAR, which is the repository of PHP extensions - script additions which are additional functionings to PHP, or are pre-made containers of code to be used modularly with your existing code; an introduction to object-oriented programming in PHP 5; a chapter on error handling and reporting , including customized reporting; a chapter on the mixed usage of Javascript and PHP; and an important chapter on security of scripts and databases. All this includes access to the code snips at a website maintained at O'Reilly for downloading. For intermediate level developers, this is a worthwhile resource.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for php and mysql
Review: This book is worth the first 7 chapters alone, but also covers advanced sql commands, how to create pdf's with php, has a fantastic section on using regular expressions, and an excellent set of appendices. It's perfect for beginners and still a very good reference for those of who just need a reference book or refresher course on certain sections. My personal copy is quickly joining the ranks of beat up books that I have that are filled with post it notes and bookmarks.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, though not O'Reilly standard
Review: This is a solid book on PHP and MySQL, but it's not organized in the standard O'Reilly style. It follows a single example, in depth, through the entire book and in the later part of the book dedicates whole chapters just to explaining the code of the example.
The first six chapters, which cover PHP, SQL (and MySQL) and PEAR are the best in the book. The SQL chapter is particularly good.
Overall the book is well written and thorough. My problem is two fold. I think the organization would be better if it spent less time on the example project. And on a technical level the MySQL access is not proper or secure and is vulnerable to SQL injection attacks.
I would recommend Advanced PHP Programming from Addison Wesley for experienced PHP users. For beginners this book is a good start, but you should not use it for example code for database access.
Rating:
Summary: Very useful and practical guide
Review: Web Database Applications by H.E. Williams and D. Lane is a truly wonderful book if you are looking to learn how to get an online database application up and running fast. The book eases you into PHP with a decent length chapter on the basic syntax of the language, followed by an introduction of MySQL.
After that, each chapter will teach you new techniques which are instantly applicable to a real-world online database system. Among others this book will teach you how to: write scripts that interact with MySQL, deal with security issues, handle sessions, handle shopping carts and lots lots more.
The book was written before the introduction of PHP 4.2, so certain 4.2 (and up) specific issues are not covered. However, most of the examples in the book have been re-written for use with 4.2 and can be downloaded freely. On top of this the authors supply a level of support that is all but unheard of. Every question that I asked was answered within 1 day if not within the same day.
All in all this book is at the top of it's league, I can highly recommend it!
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