Sams Teach Yourself Php, MySQL and Apache All in One [With CDROM]

I checked out many books on PHP trying to learn it. This one has been the best so far. the explanations are very clear and concise. This will teach you the fundamentals of all you need to know to master PHP. It does not go into object oriented programming, but that does not matter to me because I have no use for it. It starts from a beginning level and teaches you about variables, operators and control statements and goes on to teach you about the whole PHP file system. The section on mySQL is done very well also. It shows you all the basic SQL commands that you will need to perform most tasks. The only thing I did not like about this book is that it talked about the Apache web server, which I was expecting (from the title). Since I am not running my own web server this information was useless to me, but it was explained in great detail. This reason will not make me lower my rating though, since I realize this was one of the books purposes. I am very fond of the Sam's series and I hope they continue to produce better and better books about programming. Great book overall.

Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache in 24 Hours is the kind of book I wish I had had when I started developing enterprise-level web applications for zdev Corporation back in the 90s. Back then, it was all about scouring USENET, Listservs, How-Tos, and FAQs while incessantly scratching your head. Although this book is very introductory, there are some good habits and excellent insights that even the more tried and true code-hacker might consider useful even after years of PHP/MySQL development (such as authentication schemes and some inner working of MySQL). It is astounding how simple the tools, techniques, and technology is seen through the eyes of Julie Meloni. Much simpler than I had believed since I really had to be baptised by fire, and the simplicity and easy-of-use of the package -- MySQL, PHP, and Apache -- is indisputable. Postnuke, PHP-Nuke, and the other Open Source CMSs are true killer apps today, and there are a million more open source applications your can easily download, install, and start using within a week if you first still your mind and enthusiasm long enough to work through the easy-to-grok lessons as they are laid out in Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache in 24 Hours. No doubt. You won't be sorry you took the time to measure twice before you cut once.

The author has posted errata, and there are only like 5 things, only 1 of which is an actual error. And that error doesn't even cause a "parse" error, just something you have to look hard to find. I gave this book to some of our junior level admins to get them up to speed on our development environment and they flew right through it and know a lot more than they did when they started. the author says over and over where to get help if there is a problem with installation, and how to determine where your errors are if something in your script is not working. but to say this is a bad or confusing book just makes no sense. I'm an IT manager and this book does a very good job of pulling from the three books to give you just what you need to get started. you're not supposed to get this book if you've been using these things for any great amount of time -- it's a beginner's book, it says that, and it is that. and it is a good one!