Beginning PHP, Apache, MySQL Web Development

Great book for those, like me, who wants to start from zero with PHP5 and MySQL. I had no previous knowledge about this two languages, and in short time began to understand about it all. You may buy this book for sure!

Good points: - very well explained - good structure - plenty of tips and explanations about advantages/disadvantages - usefull examples - nice way of programming and well documented Bad points: - Found the "pure" SQL part not enough documented, if you buy the book and are not a SQL geek, buy an additional book for SQL only - Since you are reading this review, you haven't read it yet !

If I were just starting off to do a dynamic page web site, that is database driven, this is exactly the software set that I would use. And here in one book is the majority of the software that you'd need to make it work. The only things missing are the operating system (Linux of course) and the mail package. The nice thing about having all this in one package is that you have a consistent form of writing from software package to package. And you have a consistent set of needs. You don't need to talk about MySQL in business applications, you only need to know how it works in a web environment. This is a programmer to programmer, beginner level book. It does not spend much time on the actual installation of the programs. I rate this as OK, because many of the Linux books (yes, you also have to have a Linux book) provide a distribution of Linux that include all of this software with instructions on how to install it. This book then picks up with comments on configuring the installation to best suit, this includes things like making PHP point to MySQL which may be lacking in the general installation instructions of the Linux book. If you are headed to working with AMP (Apache, MySQL & PHP) this is an excellent place to start. It's well written, leads you through the building of a site, and by the end of the book you are well started.

This is a great book for beginners. It covers everything you will need to start out and it's written very well - very easy to understand. The appendeces at the end are also wonderful, they cover php functions, mysql data types, etc. Also very helpful is the fact that you can access help forums that are specific to this book as well as downloadable files for every project in the book. I have several other php books and this is by far the best: the easiest to understand, the most comprehensive.

I have lots of computer books and I find this one to be extremely helpful. I've used information in this book to help with my home Internet business already! It is very user friendly and full of useful information. Most computer books are hard to use and I spend a lot of time flipping through pages and reading information I don't need just to find what I'm looking for. This book wasn't like that at all!!!I really liked the chapter on sessions too!