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Message from Dean - May 8th 2007
I am currently testing out a new version of the APF Bridge Component - If you notice any errors within this demo store please drop me a line.
Rating:  -
Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional, Third Edition by W. Jason Gilmore is a good resource to get you started on your way.
After the brief history the book jumps right into installing and configuration then right into PHP basic; syntax, tags, data types. Then it's not long before you are writing functions, then using arrays, and then one of the most updated features of PHP 5, OOP. The book keeps moving right along into advanced features like error handling, regular expressions, networking , how to use Smarty ,MVC and the Zend Framework. then the book begin explain MySQL . By the end of this book you should have no problems writing PHP and MySQL enabled web pages and applications.
This book is a perfect mix of what someone new to PHP needs to know as well as providing advanced material and a reference once you have a grasp of the basics. So to summarize, if you want to learn PHP, buy this book.
The following is the contents of the book:
* CHAPTER 1 Introducing PHP
* CHAPTER 2 Configuring Your Environment
* CHAPTER 3 PHP Basics
* CHAPTER 4 Functions
* CHAPTER 5 Arrays
* CHAPTER 6 Object-Oriented PHP
* CHAPTER 7 Advanced OOP Features
* CHAPTER 8 Error and Exception Handling
* CHAPTER 9 Strings and Regular Expressions
* CHAPTER 10 Working with the File and Operating System
* CHAPTER 11 PEAR
* CHAPTER 12 Date and Time
* CHAPTER 13 Forms
* CHAPTER 14 Authenticating Your Users
* CHAPTER 15 Handling File Uploads
* CHAPTER 16 Networking
* CHAPTER 17 PHP and LDAP
* CHAPTER 18 Session Handlers
* CHAPTER 19 Templating with Smarty
* CHAPTER 20 Web Services
* CHAPTER 21 Secure PHP Programming
* CHAPTER 22 SQLite
* CHAPTER 23 Building Web Sites for the World
* CHAPTER 24 MVC and the Zend Framework
* CHAPTER 25 Introducing MySQL
* CHAPTER 26 Installing and Configuring MySQL
* CHAPTER 27 The Many MySQL Clients
* CHAPTER 28 MySQL Storage Engines and Datatypes
* CHAPTER 29 Securing MySQL
* CHAPTER 30 Using PHP with MySQL
* CHAPTER 31 Introducing PDO
* CHAPTER 32 Stored Routines
* CHAPTER 33 MySQL Triggers
* CHAPTER 34 MySQL Views
* CHAPTER 35 Practical Database Queries
* CHAPTER 36 Indexes and Searching
* CHAPTER 37 Transactions
* CHAPTER 38 Importing and Exporting Data
Rating:  -
The book is more a glossary of terms that are in the php manuals. I could not benefit from any effort (except on a couple of occasions where something is described in full) that could have been devoted to trying to translate theory into the things you really need to know when actually doing anything you want, such as a search form that contains several select lists that are linked and that you want to pass the selected values to a database to retrieve results etc. You are not going to find an answer for that at all.
Besides I am coming to pages such as 450 that contain php code which does not exist as function (as of 8th nov 08) , for example: session.use_cookies
If you go to the php website you will be told that that function does not exist.
"Sorry, but the function session.use_cookies is not in the online manual. Perhaps you misspelled.."
and it continues Perhaps you were looking for one of these:
session_set_cookie_params
I do believe that the author does know a lot of programming to expert level in many languages, but in this book I have not seen that knowledge translated into something that really helps me do my website. I have made my site by a time consuming consulting on practical pages and advices I have seen on the web and how other people have solved common things, like the one I have mentioned above.
So, I would welcome another book from the author that would take the time to think what we need to do for what, and put his great knowledge into useful tips. I dont mean to lend us intelligence, but by seeing it in praxis, then we can easily build upon.
Rating: -
When i purchased this book, I was expecting a Computer book. To my surprise
the book i purchased contained all the information that i was interested in learning(PHP, MySQL, database) as well as provided a great reading experience.
This book is very interactive and fun to read. The author makes you feel part of the learning process and guides you through learning effectively not only about PHP,MySQL and many tricks of the trade, but also about a lot of other stuff that you most likely did not expect to learn. This will make it this much easier to learn to work with a different platform(Oracle etc.)
Not only do i recommend this book, I urge you to read it as it's a lot more than what the Product Description assumes. This is one of the best computer books that i have ever read, and it's sample code is fantastic.
Congratulations W. Jason Gilmore
And Thank you for allowing me to learn while having fun
Best Regards
J.B
Rating:  -
I have first started off programming PHP since 2002 and have built small websites here and there and mostly just 'web tools'. Since it has been some time since I really coded in PHP I decided to get a start from scratch book again, although knowing I still have the basics down. I believe this book is a drag-on, taking up more pages than it should, wasting time in many cases and it reads like a reference book, explaining function after function and in the later chapters PEAR classes/packages, all of which could have just been a URL link in the book to the most up-to-date and online reference for the pertainent resource.
It can get your up to speed with PHP no dobut about that but be prepared for a longer than anticipated read if you do go through this book from cover to cover.
The examples could have been more interesting so the knowledge would stick, and withhold an enthiusiasm on the learner. All of the examples in this book was a bit boring (atleast to me). This book may have been better if you constantly built upon a project, and at the end of the book you would have made something useful by piecing parts together to make a complete working web app. That way you can appreciate, apply and retain the information absorbed so much better. For such reasons I believe the PHP By Example series from another publisher are much better, as those were the books I used in the earlier days.
The author seems to peper advanced topics every now and then in some chapters which would only confuse the beginner. I believe such topics should have been saved for the last few chapters, such that the beginning will be here's how you do it, and in the end this is how you fool-proof it. That way, you get to appreciate the added knowledge rather than the ah-ok and forget it method.
As a word of advice dont judge a book by the number of pages it contains, but you could say in this instance that this book does have alot of information in it if you are primarily testing and developing offline.
Rating: -
This is a great book for any web designer no matter what your experience level. It is a great reference and I was able to teach myself what was needed using this book!
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