I think this book is a must for every PHP programmer who would like to upgrade their skill to advance level. This book is not for a novice.

If you would like to know the "in and out" of PHP, and becoming expert in PHP, you must buy this book :)

I think this book is a must for every PHP programmer who would like to upgrade their skill to advance level. This book is not for a novice.

If you would like to know the "in and out" of PHP, and becoming expert in PHP, you must buy this book :)

You may love or hate this book, since it's not the usual collection of code recipes, it's about application developing, methodologies and good coding practices. Heartily recommended, but only to advanced developers

You may love or hate this book, since it's not the usual collection of code recipes, it's about application developing, methodologies and good coding practices. Heartily recommended, but only to advanced developers

This book has great content, but the title is too broad for the subject matter.

When I first saw the title of the book, I was excited because I thought it was going to cover PHP web development. Instead, the book explains certain subjects within development, not all "web" development per se either. Talking about proper coding techniques is nice, but not what one would expect based on the title.

I was hoping for coverage on HTTP variables and how to extract data from them when using Form tags. Especially, SELECT tags with multiple selections allowed. Unfortunately, the authors chose to talk about how it works behind the scenes. This is nice to know, but as a developer, I thought the book would have covered more on "development"!

There is some good information on security and on array processing. Its written so the reader can get a good understanding on how web processing is done, problems to avoid, and how to use PHP in a very professional manner. I wouldn't recommend this as a reference book, but as a good book to read for any intermediate or advanced PHP web developer. It could enhance your current skills and coding practices.

As for me, I was hoping for a PHP web development book that provided aspects on using php to build various common web applications, like shopping carts, and how/when to extract HTTP globals, session variables, logins, menus, form tags, etc. This is what I was expecting when I saw the title. While I was dispointed that it didn't cover this material, the book did provide some useful information in certain areas.

This book has great content, but the title is too broad for the subject matter.

When I first saw the title of the book, I was excited because I thought it was going to cover PHP web development. Instead, the book explains certain subjects within development, not all "web" development per se either. Talking about proper coding techniques is nice, but not what one would expect based on the title.

I was hoping for coverage on HTTP variables and how to extract data from them when using Form tags. Especially, SELECT tags with multiple selections allowed. Unfortunately, the authors chose to talk about how it works behind the scenes. This is nice to know, but as a developer, I thought the book would have covered more on "development"!

There is some good information on security and on array processing. Its written so the reader can get a good understanding on how web processing is done, problems to avoid, and how to use PHP in a very professional manner. I wouldn't recommend this as a reference book, but as a good book to read for any intermediate or advanced PHP web developer. It could enhance your current skills and coding practices.

As for me, I was hoping for a PHP web development book that provided aspects on using php to build various common web applications, like shopping carts, and how/when to extract HTTP globals, session variables, logins, menus, form tags, etc. This is what I was expecting when I saw the title. While I was dispointed that it didn't cover this material, the book did provide some useful information in certain areas.

Definitely not for novices. Is loaded with tips and tricks on data handling, specially liked the session handling techniques in the book. Could've been a bit more in depth though. But good book to get anyhow.

Definitely not for novices. Is loaded with tips and tricks on data handling, specially liked the session handling techniques in the book. Could've been a bit more in depth though. But good book to get anyhow.

As another reviewer pointed out, this book was written when php4 was in beta. Despite it's title, this book is NOT a PHP 4.0 book. The extension of every example file throughout the book is .php3. The authors even present a round-about way of maintaining state using the uniqid function and rewriting the url. ??? If you're using PHP3 or if you don't mind filtering out the PHP4 relevant information, you might find this book useful, otherwise look at PHP4 Programming and/or the O'Reilly books.

As another reviewer pointed out, this book was written when php4 was in beta. Despite it's title, this book is NOT a PHP 4.0 book. The extension of every example file throughout the book is .php3. The authors even present a round-about way of maintaining state using the uniqid function and rewriting the url. ??? If you're using PHP3 or if you don't mind filtering out the PHP4 relevant information, you might find this book useful, otherwise look at PHP4 Programming and/or the O'Reilly books.

This book is for people who are expeirenced with PHP and who wish to refine/extend their applications development skills (hence the title). As such, it is suited to web designers who have migrated to programming but who have no real formal programming background. I highly recomend this book because it provides the right guidence to turn you into a real "professional" web "programmer". So this book is a MUST if you have no formal programming training. I think that you need to be better than intermediate at PHP itself to understand ALL of it but it would still be useful for people who have already (but only) had a beginner's introduction.

Many of the discoveries in this book are quite profound (particularly with regards to how PHP implements structures such as arrays and objects) but it can be tough to read/comprehend if you're not really interested in the finer points. The author _does_ demonstrate how the finer points affect real-world implementations.

The nature of the [advanced] topics means discussing wider topics like XML are important and I think the author has approached this very well.

I found the session management part of this book by itself worth the purchace price. The only part of the book I didn't bother to read was the last chapter on writing your own PHP modules since I'm not a C programmer, however this may change.

A good book overall for getting up and running with PHP. It is technical, so keep that in mind if you are adequate in HTML and want more. There are beginner's books for PHP that might be a better start. For a book that states PHP 4.0 in the title, there is TOO much conversation about PHP 3.0, what you can and can't do with it, its shortcomings, etc. If I wanted to know about PHP 3.0 I would have bought the book, "Web Application Development with PHP 3.0." For example, I really don't care that PHP 3.0 does not implement proper garbage collection. So what!

the best book ive ever seen!!!!

not for rookies about programming but it opened my eyes about lots of tricks and capabilities of the best scripting language :)

a must for every PHPer!!!! :)

I realize that for experienced programmers, this book brings up a lot of standard topics, but for someone like me (I majored in Art at college) it brings up issues that I really hadn't ever thought of before and as a result I not only have become a better programmer, but I can understand and respect a lot of the decisions that real programmer make.
In particular its discussion on writing organized code should be required reading for all those self-taught webmasters out there.
I didn't really learn much about PHP by reading this book, but I now approach problems differently that I did before. If I was managing a team of programmers, I would make this book required reading because I think it makes some very good arguments for being a disciplined organized programmer instead of just a hacker.

I am a beginner and this book is way too advanced for me. This book is for those who already know everything about PHP but need a way to apply it in a Professional Application. It explains how to plan, implement and launch a project on a commercial level as a true professional.