Practical PHP and MySQL(R): Building Eight Dynamic Web Applications (Negus Live Linux Series) (ISBN 0132239973) Book Reviews 1-17 Sorted By Most Recent, at VeryWellSaid.com

Full of Errors

Don't waste your time with this book, there are to many errors in the code.
This one's heading to the burn pile.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2009-01-02 12:30:12 EST)

07-23-08

(NA)

I've read it letter by letter

The samples are good, the mySQL stuff not so explained -- however the book has ALOT of grammar error! The code has bugs and some code does not even work -- for example missing curly braces in the book's code -- i've had to debug myself.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-09-22 06:23:26 EST)

07-14-08

(NA)

Do not buy this book!

I cannot stress the fact on how much this book needs editing. I am an intermediate php programmer. I thought that this book would help me build "eight dynamic web applications" without so many errors. I bought the book with the intention to learn, not to help make corrections for the author. You cannot even get through the first application ("Chapter 4: Building a Weblog") example without encountering substantial typos. When going through the examples, I feel like i am back-tracking trying to figure out whether if I typed something wrong or if its the book that printed the material wrong.

I'm actually looking on Amazon to buy another book with better reviews. I wish i looked at the reviews for this book before i bought it, I would have saved me some money.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-07-24 06:31:00 EST)

05-20-08

1\1

Tech Editor Desperately Needed

Wait for the 2nd edition. If the book had gone through a thorough tech editing (type in and run the code!) before going to the presses, this might have been a 4-star book.

If you are the type of person that can learn by just looking at code and getting a broad sense of how it works, then there might still be some useful information in here for you. I learn by doing, which made typing in the buggy examples a frustrating experience. While I also learned some by debugging this book, but that is not the experience I paid for. There is no online errata for this book that I am able to find.

If you just want view code without typing it in, the "Live CD" might be of use to you. The code on the CD is apparently a more debugged version of the code shown in the text of the book. The concept of booting up into Linux on a CD to do your own coding PHP and MySQL is not as useful as the publisher makes it out to be, because there is no way to easily save anything you do there.

I started to do my own tech editing of the book around page 40. Here are examples of some of the types of errors you can expect:
Page 42: Database name incorrectly referred to as "perfectproducts." Should be "productsdb."
Page 43: Database column name incorrectly referred to as "if." Should be "id."
Page 45: Missing steps in instructions for setting up database connection. Reader needs to set up user permissions in phpMyAdmin, and also edit code to include the new user information.
Page 68: Table 4-2 column header should be "BLOG_ID" instead of "CAT_ID."
Page 77-78: The sample code will output invalid HTML unless you move around where it writes out the opening and closing paragraph tags.
Page 81: The sample code will output invalid HTML unless you move around where it writes out the closing UL tag.
Page 99: Missing the required opening and closing PHP tags around the code that includes the footer PHP file.
Page 100: Last paragraph should refer to adding code under the "home" link instead of the "categories" link. Instructions say to add the code inside the PHP block, but the non-bolded text above the PHP block needs to be added as well.

Those were freebies. Prentice Hall, the "world's leading educational publisher" should foot the bill to edit the rest.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-06-27 06:29:39 EST)

01-04-08

(NA)

Promising to be GOOD

This book promises to be good. The delivery was very quick and I am looking forward to an exciting study sessions.

As always, it was a Good business.

Thanks a lot for this material

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-05-20 05:38:15 EST)

12-20-07

(NA)

What a piece of garbage

I picked this book up from the local libary and was quite excited. 70 pages later and I gave up in disgust. A great concept completely destroyed by terrible editing. The code, tables and diagrams that are provided are absolutely riddled with errors and none of the projects actually work. I guess that's one day of my life I won't get back.

Avoid this book like the plague.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-01-04 23:41:15 EST)

11-05-07

(NA)

Need to boot from CD to view data, runs this stupid Ubuntu operating system

Hello, if anyone has this book and has the ability to get into the CD, I would greatly appreciate it if someone can forward me the example files. My email is advancedgraphics at hotmail dot com.

I booted from the CD, ran through all these loading thigs, then when it's ready to run, tells me some error and from there I'm lost into script hell...

The book is understandable, seen some errors, I wouldn't recomend buying this book if you are a beginner like me looking to learn php.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-12-21 03:46:10 EST)

11-02-07

(NA)

This book is a rip-off

I would give this -ZERO- stars if I could.

The demos in the book are pretty good. They are simple and basic but they are more than the useless examples you get in most programming books. That is the bait, but the promises made on the cover are not kept. Stay away from this book.

The problem is that this book pretends to offer you the programs to examine, use, modify, and copy. It is a big problem for the simple reason that you must boot from the CD and know quite a bit about Linux to find and get the programs.

When I went to the author's website it is crawling with bugs virus and my browser immediately died and had problem ... from a new install freshly updated WinXP.

This author is a rip-off and a liar as far as I can see. If he was honest he would have a clean web page with a pointer to the programs that did not play games for serious users to load and play with.

DO NOT BUY THIS CRAPPY BOOK! AND THE ATTITUDE OF THE AUTHOR IS BAD SO I WOULD NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM HIM AGAIN.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-11-06 07:53:38 EST)

09-13-07

1\1

This book is a disaster

Do not be swayed by the surface effects of this book. It appears to be the perfect combination of practice and learning. You think you'll learn php or advance your knowledge of it while producing some core Web apps such as a Blog or shopping cart. This is, in fact, the promise made by the book itself on the rear cover.

If you buy this book what you will in fact learn is that the "well-documented code" will fail on nearly all, if not all, of the 8 promised "ready to run, real world applications." At first you'll think you are responsible for syntax errors so you will begin a journey to discover how to find the source code for the examples. To find it you'll either have to boot from the included CD or explore the disk. The files are hard to find but they're there.

Unfortunately the frustration that lead you to the source files will only increase as you realize that source files are also riddled with errors. Not only will your efforts to reproduce the code fail, but your turn to the source files will prove equally disappointing. None of the advertised apps will run.

How is it possible for such a book to have made it off the press?

The only thing that could have saved this book is if the author or publisher had created a Web site to correct these mistakes and made available working files. Ordinarily such a site is practically required for a technical book due to the near certainty of proofing errors creeping into the text. You will find a publisher's Web site for the book. It contains nothing but praise for the work and continues to promote the book much as you can read on the book's rear cover. Shame. There are no corrections and no (old) or amended source code. You will also find an author's Web site. The author communicates with readers by way of a blog. Within weeks of publication, as readers started to turn to the author for help with all the mistakes, the author abandoned his readers. There is an entry from a reader begging for help from as recently as Aug. 07. His question, as are all others, is met with silence.

If you can help it, do not buy this book. It is a book. It has pages. It might look nice on your shelf. Other than that it has no redeeming qualities.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-11-03 08:01:07 EST)

08-17-07

(NA)

Good fast introduction for programmers of other languages

I bought this book because I wanted to develop applications in PHP and MySQL, and this book deliver. It's real strength over the competition, as I compared many texts in the (bricks and mortar) book store, is that it delves right into what you want to be doing. The pacing is fast, but for those who basically understand programming from another language, it is refreshing to not have to rehash things you already know.

Now for the downsides, which the other reviewers have already remarked on. Due to the pacing and limited explanations at times, this is probably not a book for beginners. Probably even more frustrating are the amount of errors within the code itself, some of which are nontrivial to fix. I've marked up my text so that I won't make the same mistakes again, and I suggest the same. You can't access the source code from your own OS (such as Windows), but instead have to boot up to access, which is a real pain. And finally, many of the screenshots do not line up with the code, leaving you wondering whether it is you or the author who made the mistake. And when you encounter error after error caused by the author, that might be a sign to move on.

Overall, I like how the author combines the two topics into usable projects. However, the poor editing -- especially within the code itself -- makes this harder to use than it should be.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-09-14 09:12:54 EST)

08-04-07

(NA)

Code doesn't work

Definitely not for beginner.

This book is not easy to understand. The author assume the reader knows some basic functions of php. Some new functions suddenly pop up in the code without any explanation.

I've spend a good amount of time try to figure out what is wrong with the code I type, it always produce an error that even though I really carefully copy what is in the book. I thought it is just me, finally I check the Amazon review and find that I am not alone.

The companion CD is not helpful. I can't figure out a way to open any PHP example file to compare and reference my mistake.

Quit after 1 week and can only take in 86 pages.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-08-17 02:38:49 EST)

05-15-07

(NA)

Wait for the 2nd Edition....

this book is jam packed with errors. Not just spelling typos, but on many occasions the reader will be left scratching their head trying to figure out why the code in the book does not reflect what should be in the output. I don't know who edited this book, but this book is definitely a candidate for worst editing award.

This is a good book with potential, but beginners should avoid this book at all costs.

Wait for the 2nd edition while the author and editor fix all the 'bugs' in this book.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-08-05 01:12:21 EST)

04-12-07

1\1

HATE THIS BOOK

I admit I am a novice php coder, however, I have done a bit of developing web sites using PHP and MySQL. I am in the middle of developing a complex content driven website. I bought this book because I thought it would take me to the next level. Well, after trying to work through it for several weeks, I am giving up on it. The code Jono has you write, does not match the screen shots of the page as shown through a browser. His writing is not clear and you have to go out and figure out on your own how to make the code work and match what he has shown. He makes you do it in HIS environment which is not very helpful if you want to develop in a different environment. I wrote to him and asked him where I could get the source code and he did not respond. So the only way to get a glimpse at his code is to use his environment which is supplied on the boot-up CD.
I am giving up on this book. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-05-14 23:06:26 EST)

01-18-07

1\1

unhappy with the source code.

I was not able to access the source code for the projects outside of the live CD environment. Though the live cd is good idea, I much prefer to work with my own established operating system so that I can listen to music, watch news etc while working.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-04-12 17:05:29 EST)

01-17-07

1\1

unhappy with the source code.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-04-11 12:03:56 EST)

12-26-06

(NA)

Not for Beginners

I purchased this book because it promised an easy way to acquire & install the PHP & MySql software (these are both on the disk that comes with the book). In this regard the purchase paid-off.

The book itself, however, is definitely not for beginners. The author makes all kind of assumptions about what you already know about both PHP & MySql. Fortunately, I have a background in both. The examples were instructive, but don't for one minute imagine that you'll build these projects, without peeking at the already completed code for the projects that is included on the disk.

The presentation in the book is somewhat "haphazard" and there are errors! So you'll definitely be looking at the code of the completed projects. Trust me on this. I wasted hours struggling through his presentation in the book, before I finally looked at the completed code on the disk.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2007-01-17 16:26:07 EST)

12-01-06

1\1

popular applications that demonstrate integration