PHP and MySQL Web Development [With CDROM]

I am an above-average computer user, who has been mostly living in the Windows world. Recently, my friends and I have decided to create a business -- an e-commerce business. We knew nothing about how to do that. We are all electrical engineers, and are good at programming -- but have never really been concerned with how a website operates from the developer's standpoint. I purchased this book out of the blue -- based on the ratings it had and the sheer number of pages (I know that's lame but I'm being honest). This book has single-handedly enabled us to start our e-commerce website. I have since configured my backup machine into a linux server, and have PHP, MySQL, and Apache running on it flawlessly. I haven't even got to chapter 12 yet, and I already have the database and the online applications up and running. The real value of this book to me is the knowledge that other books take for granted. For example, in the appendix there is a complete how-to that describes where to get the PHP, MySQL, and Apache downloads, what versions to get, and how to install (and configure them) them both in linux and Windows. This information was critical. I needed the "enter this command to do this task" kind of guidance, as opposed to the "do this task" alternative I find in other books. In the sections regarding the PHP syntax, it makes a clear distinction between the new features of PHP5 versus PHP4, and how to use the older versions if need be. As someone who is just learning the PHP language -- this also was very valuable information. In a little more than a week, I went from a Windows XP user, to a linux server administrator writing (and debugging) PHP/MySQL applications who is able to answer server/database/PHP questions asked by my business partners. I highly recommend this book.

I am a self-taught web developer. I've got quite a collection of books. So I'm picky about writing style and good teaching techniques. (i.e.: hate `friend's of ed') I learned the basics of Php from Wrox beginning Php and professional Php, but didn't get to finish the later because of having to use Php on a project that lasted over a year. I use the Php manual all of the time, but I am also using this book to find some of the details I may have missed and more elegant techniques I want to learn. So far I really like it. I can skim the stuff I know about and take note of some things I need to get better at. I do think that if you were a complete rookie, a beginner book before this one would be helpful. This book reads well and is very clear with good teaching techniques.

I have just started learning some PHP & MySQL development using "PHP & MySQL Web Development" published by Sams and "Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL" from O'Reilly. Prospective readers might be wondering the difference between the two in deciding which one to buy, so I hope to shed some light on the issue.Sams: The Welling and Thomson book is more "hands-on" in that it takes the reader step-by-step in developing an e-commerce website. The chapters are organized in a goal-oriented manner: PHP, MySQL, the basics of e-commerce, security, and design of the site.O'Reilly: The Williams and Lane book is structured in a similar way by showing readers PHP and then MySQL. Examples to reinforce concepts are also provided. While the O'Reilly book also tries to take the reader in developing an e-commerce site, it is a bit more theoretical. Also, there are some differences in focus: the O'Reilly book has a section on using JavaScript while the Sams book has a final chapter on creating PDF files using PHP.If I had to choose just one book, I would go with the Sams book due to its more gentle learning curve. However, I believe that the O'Reilly book is no slouch, and I will probably come to appreciate it more once I gain more experience in PHP and MySQL development.One last word about my programming background: I knew a bit of Perl, Java, HTML, and JavaScript before tackling PHP and MySQL. I consider myself to be an "advanced beginner" (an oxymoron, of course). To get the most out of these two books, you should know HTML well enough to read it (you should at least recognize some tags) and it would definitely be helpful if you have some programming experience. You could very well make PHP your first programming language, but I would advise against it. Start with something like Perl (whose syntax is very similar to PHP's).I highly recommend both books to prospective PHP and MySQL developers who are willing to spend some time and effort.

Although it has a purple spine, this book contains everything a person would hope to know about php and mysql. From the basics of php 4.0 to mysql privleges, Welling and Thomson provide quick easy and painless reading.It provides it's message to the windows crowd, which in itself is a beautiful concept; usually books about php and mysql are directed at unix users (rightfully so, I admit). I am a user of windows, and the php installation instructions for either the windows build of Apache or MS IIS were definately adequate.The php crash course chapter is an especially good reference. For example, other books I've purchased on php ignored some of the useful variations of the if-then control structure. The chapter on php session control was beautifully simple, although at first it came as a surprise, since other php books didn't cover it (session control was first implemented in php 4.0).I did have some difficulty installing and using the gd image library, since most of the sites listed in the book didn't exist. Windows users, just remember that the php.ini file needs to be edited (remove the semicolon before the gd dll) and the gd dll needs to be moved into the php working directory. Of course, maybe that's intuitive and I'm just a moron.In conclusion, it's a good book.

This is such a good book that I wanted to take the time to write a review and give it 5 stars, which it richly deserves. The other glowing reviews helped me to choose this book over others, and they were right on the money.I'm an experienced C/C++ programmer on Windows, but I knew nothing about PHP and MySQL -- and very little about Apache and Unix -- prior to opening this book. I've now read about 80% of it and, in the process, I've built a commercial-grade Website with user registration and shopping cart facilities, which was my objective. Reading this book was a very efficient use of my time -- it gave me exactly what I needed to build a practical Web application system with PHP and MySQL, and very little extraneous stuff.The main prerequisite for this book is a working knowledge of HTML, and just a little background in procedural programming. Some of the earliest examples use HTML tags for tables and forms, with PHP use thoroughly explained, but without many notes on the HTML. A beginning programmer can learn effectively from this book, but as an experienced programmer I felt that it also worked well to bring me up to speed quickly on a new language.Another value of this book not mentioned in other reviews are the many good recommendations for organizing your PHP code (applying basic software engineering principles) as your Web application gets larger and more complex. Many, many Websites have been built haphazardly and are now difficult to maintain because they haven't followed the excellent advice in this book.I did notice the typos mentioned by other reviewers, but after reading 80% of this (867-page) book I feel they are very minor and really do not detract from the book significantly at all.All in all, this is one of those rare books that is probably worth ten times the amount that you pay for it, and much more if you use it effectively.