Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional, Third Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional) (ISBN 1590598628) Book Reviews 1-13 Sorted By Most Recent, at VeryWellSaid.com

Not much recommended

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.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-11-30 07:43:36 EST)

10-29-08

(NA)

One of the bestcomputers books

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

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-11-09 07:50:55 EST)

10-16-08

(NA)

Reads like reference, not very interesting, too long for not much.

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.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-10-30 07:36:00 EST)

10-12-08

(NA)

A great reference for any web designer!

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!

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-10-17 09:24:17 EST)

09-14-08

(NA)

Excellent Book

I own several PHP/Mysql reference books, and this one is the most comprehensive of all of them. Just the right balance and written descriptions/explanations and practical applications/examples. I wouldn't necessarily say this book is for beginners, but anyone that's a novice to professional would love this book. I highly recommend the 3rd addition for any PHP/MySQL developer that is looking for a great reference.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-10-13 08:52:48 EST)

09-08-08

0\1

This book is a reference manual at best...

If you are new to PHP, DO NOT buy this book. I can't believe all the good reviews here. There are no practical examples, and very little useful information. It is, at best, a reference manual. If you're new to PHP, check out David Powers' books.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-09-15 08:08:27 EST)

07-10-08

2\2

Just a reference book

Hello there,

I begin learning PHP in 2003. I havn't progressed much since then. I learned the basics of PHP from "PHP and MySQL Web Development" by Luke Welling and Laura Thomson. I know how to interact with the database, create sessions, I can even go furder if I'm interested and I read some tutorials over the internet, however I wanted to have a book that I can read in bed.

So I took this book based on reviews and because it also covers a bit of PHP6 All I wanted is to remind me on some stuff I read some time ago and learn some new things, tactics I could use.

So I started to read. I rememberd some old stuff about Arrays, Strings. I still can't get OOP but I havn't tried to much. Now I will defenetly use PEAR because the examples in the book weare helpful, HOWEVER...

As other people say, this book is more as a reference book. I didn't got so much information. I'm on chapter 21. I will soon start to read about MySQL and I can't really say I have learned something. Yes, I know some things but still, this isn't good for a beginner.

The book "PHP and MySQL Web Development" starts MySQL in chapter 2. This means you start from the begining on actualy doing someting useful. Here you just read chapters after chapters but you don't actualy have good examples. Yes, you have examples and how to use some functions but no big examples.

I first got my disapointment when I was on SESSION HADLING chapter where I really wanted to see some COOKIE examples. All I found was some COOKIE FUNCTIONS and some explinations that I could have got from PHP Manual. From PHP Manual I could have even found some examples, here nothign. Then I found some simple details about $_SESSION. TO little covered in this important chapter.

Then I finally got it. All this book does it present to you some functions. Explain them. You see a small example and you move on.

No actualy practice! I really wanted a BIG BOOK from where I can learn more stuff.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-09-08 08:04:18 EST)

05-29-08

(NA)

[Third Edition Review] Broad coverage except in XML manipulation

This books is written for someone who is familiar with other programming languages and databases and now wants to use PHP and MySQL. It is not written for somebody completely new to programming. For example, if you came from Perl or ASP, and you wanted to know how arrays, loops, and objects in PHP, this book will cover that.

The topic coverage is broad but not deep. The book has a feel of "semi-reference" in that each topic stands on its own. This is not a cookbook or "learn by example" book. There is enough information to get you started, but if you have a complex/niche problem, this book will not help you. For more information, you will have to consult books that specialize on the topic you are interested.

I have one major gripe with this book. There is not any significant coverage of XML manipulation or XSL/XSLT aspects of PHP. When you look at the table of contents or index, there is no mention of XSL/XSLT and only a brief mention of XML (and RSS) in the Web Services chapter. For a book that covers a lot of subjects, this is a weak area.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-07-11 16:46:25 EST)

05-29-08

(NA)

Not for beginning programmers

This book does have a lot of information, making it a great reference book. However, after 10 chapters I still do not know how to use any of the information to "build dynamic, database-driven web sites..." as the subtitle states. If you're a beginning programmer, as I am, try to find a true beginner's book (wish I could give a recommendation).

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-07-11 16:46:25 EST)

05-14-08

1\2

Great book on PHP and MySQL

I have recently bought this book and have to say it is execellent, it does help if you have a little prior knowledge as some new readers could find it a little difficult to understand. But if you have an interest in PHP and MySQL it is a great book to get your hands on. I highly recommend it.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-05-29 07:39:33 EST)

05-06-08

1\1

Not for the novice!

Despite the title, this book is not for the novice. Even the introductory first 100 pages or so assume that you are above a novice level. The examples lead to more questions (for me, the novice) than they answer.

Having said that, this book has a tremendous amount of information in it and, as other reviews mention, it will work well as a reference. Now, I hope to find a true beginning PHP book to provide the basis to use this book!

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-05-16 05:59:29 EST)

05-02-08

1\1

This was my first PHP/MySQL book

I purchased this book because I needed to use PHP and MySQL for a project at work. I never had any exposure to either before reading this book. By using this book and the w3schools website I was able to successful build a meager database and have a fully functioning php front end. It was very pleasing to see the project come to fruition and I have this book to thank for that. I used it mainly as a reference book. For example, I knew exactly what I wanted to do so I would search this book for an example of that and adapt the code to my situation. I didn't use this book to "learn PHP." I think you need to have a project to do in order to best use this book.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-05-16 05:59:29 EST)

04-11-08

1\1

The Ultimate Bible for Web Programming!