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43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Content, Well Written, Well Supported
The content will take you from zero knowledge of PHP and MySQL (even not having it installed!) to a point where you can feel confident approaching the development of a fully functioning dynamic website. The examples cover ecommerce, user registration and content management. There are consistent references to other sources and alternative functions which could be used...
Published on 14 Feb 2007 by Mr. H. Richards
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Mistakes
This book carries so many mistakes and if you are a beginner, you will never know what is going wrong until you start learning from other sources
Published 6 months ago by K. Ranglall
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43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Content, Well Written, Well Supported, 14 Feb 2007
The content will take you from zero knowledge of PHP and MySQL (even not having it installed!) to a point where you can feel confident approaching the development of a fully functioning dynamic website. The examples cover ecommerce, user registration and content management. There are consistent references to other sources and alternative functions which could be used. For me it took me from a very limited knowledge of PHP/MySQL (gained from a few days searching the web) to this point of confidence where I'm now designing my own ecommerce website. I would agree with another reviewer that a prior knowledge of HTML is important although I think you could scrape by without, you should learn HTML seperately before starting this book.
Well written: Books like this can have all the content in the world and still be useless. This book is by far one of the best 'textbooks' I've ever used. It is clear and concise without omitting any vital details. It covers useful material and refers to more detail. It is 'friendly' and doesn't assume much (if anything). Overall it reads easily and gets the point across very effectively.
Well Supported: The scripts (php and mysql) are all available on the author's website. This is useful to compare your practice and problem-solve if you get really stuck! One SQL script was not available but it affects one small example only and won't impact your progress. The author maintains a web forum on which you can ask questions. He seems to respond to them all (quite a feat!) and I got a reply to a question I asked within 24 hours. That's quite impressive!
If you are looking at a few books with a similar title as I did a few weeks ago, then I can fully recommend this book. I have devoured it - working full time 10 hours a day - in about 8 days. It has been a steep learning curve and I got to the end which wouldn't happen with every book of this sort.
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43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
Learn PHP and MySQL from the ground up, 19 April 2005
As a complete novice to both PHP and MySQL, I found this book totally accessible. [The last language I learned was - wait for it- FORTRAN! - things have moved on a bit...] The progressive tutorial was paced at a perfect rate, introducing just enough new material each time to keep the interest level high and not too much to be overwhelming (unlike a lot of other computer books). The database section of the book explained relational databases in understandable and practical terms too. Another good feature is the wealth of good quality reference material, encouraging the reader to supplement knowledge in specific areas if desired. The overall thrust of the book is towards what I, and I imagine a lot of others, want to do - make a database driven website. The book succeeds in this objective very well indeed.
It's also a very handy reference to Open Source PHP, which helped me to understand how to configure and use several packages.
My only slight criticism is the lack of detail when discussing security - something which is surely a top concern of any operational website. Apart from that, I can't praise it highly enough. If only all computer books were written like this.....
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Favourite Computing Book Ever!, 22 Feb 2005
I don't normally write reviews, but for this book I decided I had to, simply to praise the people who put it together. I've got a dynamic websites assignment on at the moment and this book has contributed no end. Everything is so clear and easy to understand and yet it manages to provide you with all the information you need to put together very professional and sophisticated websites. For the beginner there are the SQL and PHP chapters themselves. I knew SQL and was familiar with the basics of PHP and so I simply started reading at chapter 3. After that there are advanced topics for PHP and MYSQL use, which are in the format of, box with code in, followed by screenshots, and then an explanation. This conveys the meaning perfectly, and you know how you will implement it into your own website. Finally, there are additional topics for those people who master PHP/MYSQL and have created their dynamic website. These include a user registration system, and content management system which I am thouroughly looking forward to. Despite the PHP/MYSQL title, the book also covers javascript and html use as they are so much a part of the subject. All this is in a slim 500 page book, which also manages to be a good reference book for the SQL and PHP functions available. I could go on all day...
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent book!, 21 Sep 2004
Let me say one thing, if you spend time with this book and read it all the way through properly, at the end you will come out with a very good undersatnding of how PHP and MySQL works.It is very easy to follow, so you wont be getting stuck, and even if you did you can just visit the books website where you are guarenteed to get help. But hey, it wont even comedown to that anyway as you wont be getting stuck. After reading this book, I am now working on creating my first dynamic website. I had no experience of php, only little bit of SQL when starting this book. But now I am sure I could class my self as an intermidiate PHP MySQL user. Just take my advice and try it, you wont be disapointed.
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50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent - highly recommended, 10 Dec 2003
This book is great. Easy to follow, well written and concise. I'm a 4th year student and have used this for much of my final year project based on PHP and MySQL. It explains really well how to set up a user login system, form entries, some basics of SQL, all you need for this kind of project. Mine is possibly the most used and worn text book ive had in 4 years! In summary, if you need a book on PHP and MySQL then this will suite you. I'd say its aimed at an beginner to intermediate level user and some HTML experience comes in handy. I hope this helps you make the right decision.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent, clear explanation of both introductory and intermediate topics, 28 Jul 2006
I bought this book as a complete beginner with no prior experience of languages other than HTML. The book is easy to read and explains concepts well. There are extensive examples which are shown as complete scripts as well as explained in narrative form alongside.
On purchasing the book I was slightly apprehensive that topics would be covered too quickly, but this was not the case at all. If anything, I found that once I had a good grasp of the basics I was able to skip over several of the examples.
As well as a walkthrough guide to the capabilities and functionality of PHP and MySQL, this book also includes two comprehensive examples of web applications. These could be used as 'off-the-shelf' applications for your own website if required with very little adaptation.
As mentioned in other reviews, the only criticism is that security concerns are not introduced from the outset, but are only addressed in a single chapter towards the end of the book. This is far from ideal as it requires you to revisit previous subjects, adjusting your code to make it more secure. That said, it could be argued that to present security concerns throughout could overcomplicate the earlier chapters, particulary those introducing difficult concepts for the first time.
Overall: Highly recommended although an intermediate-level knowledge of HTML is a prerequisite.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
A great book, 3 Jul 2006
I used the first edition of this book to help me with my A level coursework. It has great examples and is easy to digest. I cant see why some people have complained. Yes, some of the examples span multiple pages, but so do most (useful) PHP scripts. It is great value for money and perfect for the beginner.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Cool book, 16 Jul 2004
By A Customer
I am a BSc student, got this book based on some of the above reviews, have to say having read a couple of chapters from it its absolutely great, it lives up to its name, if you want to learn php/mySQL programming fast look no further, although it starts from the very basics having some sort of understanding in scripting/programming/sql is helpful as this book moves very quickly (hence the name!). I recommend this one especially to BSc Computing students.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Top book for the php newbie and intermediate, 5 April 2005
I can't speak highly enough of this book, I have used it as my bible since picking up a bit of php a few months back. I initially borrowed a friends copy having found it more useful that the SAMs Teach Yourself PHP and Mysql in 24 hours that I had already bought. The SAMS book probably explains some of the constructs of using the language a little better, at the start, loops flow control etc, but after that this book just leaps ahead. I continually refer back to it (so much so I had to buy my own!), and its helped me understand and solve lots of problems I have found along the way. Its helped me a great deal to be able to pick apart some of the automated server behaviours in Dreamweaver and to be able to work with them so I can use their facilities but customised for my own needs . I have written three or four scripts which do combinations of stuff in the book and my confidence has gained to the point I actually enjoy the challenge now!.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Brilliant - VERY Useful, 19 Jul 2004
I knew quite a bit about PHP / MySQL, but this book really does reinforce your knowledge by taking you step-by-step through scripts and methods.It's also a great reference, and the support forums are brilliant.
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