Rating: 
Summary: Yeah, it's not for the beginner...
Review: ... and it's not for people who can't figure out which version of PHP they're running. I had no problem running the code against PHP 5. There's a /whole/ bunch to wade through, code-wise, but so far I'm liking it. There's a lot of stuff in there that I can use.It does seem a strange to me that they'd publish a book on PHP 5 while it's still in flux, but I guess everyone's racing to be first.
Rating: 
Summary: It COULD be worse...
Review: As a general overview, the content of the book is pretty good, and would have been great... but the authors and editors do a VERY poor job of being specific where necessary, verifying that the scripts offered in the text actually run, and explaining the concepts and language constructs before using them. For the beginner, this book would be confusing as all hell, due to the vague descriptions and error filled examples. For the experienced programmer looking to pick up PHP & mySQL skills, the book is pretty much an exercise in debugging and wince-management as the stream of vague descriptions of the topic at hand wash over you, or some language construct is used with no information about it anywhere close.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book to learn PHP quick and as a reference
Review: Being a Civil Engineer by training, I needed a book that quickly put me into PHP/MySQL with the least possible hassle and maximum efficiency. This book did it! I started just reading through without highlight anything (to be able to return it if not convinced), but liked it much that by Chapter 2, I put my name on the book. I would certainly recommend it to people with little or some programming experience that are more comfortable with a procedural approach. Starting from zero knowledge of PHP, I read the book in about three weeks and got the shopping cart operating in about five, great for someone like me doing this as a hobby. Areas where this book can be improved is its managment and explanations regarding Regular Expressions. Also, the section in the Appendix that deals with intalling Apache web server needs improvement. Jay, you need to walk the reader step by step (as you do in the body of the book) through the coldness of Apache. Is kind'a scary to have a DOS window in Windows with Apache sitting right there with no clue of what's next! I look forward to Jay's 2nd edition of this book to see this corrected. Good job Jay!
Rating:
Summary: good guide for web developers
Review: I bought this book knowing next to nothing about PHP or MySQL. (I did have experience with Active Server Pages so I was familiar with using scripting languages in sites.) It has served as a great reference for me in learning PHP and becoming familiar with MySQL. PHP and MySQL are often used together in building sites and providing everything from installation instructions to function references is a great help. If information exists on a function that is out of the scope of this book, the authors refer you to specific pages on the Web that will provide you with those details. The index could use a little beefing up and there are a lot of typos, but the typos have not taken away from the usefulness of the book. This is the only book I have bought on PHP and MySQL and I don't feel inclined to buy another-- this one is just fine.
Rating: 
Summary: One of my biggest regrets
Review: I bought this book with the intention of learning PHP. I went into it with a some knowledge of programming, no knowledge of SQL, and a strong background in logic. I very quickly discovered that, rather than a learning guide, what I purchased was the source code for several applications with vague descriptions of how data was being handled. In fairness, I do find what i am looking for about 10% of the time. The other 90% I am either checking the web for source, discussions, or tutorals, or I am using the PHP manual and playing hit and miss. It is my experience that anything this book can offer is freely available from the Web. And that the Web offerings are usually better documented. If you are a beginner, look elsewhere. This book will likely leave you dumbfounded.
If you are experienced, look elsewhere. This book will likely bore you to tears.
Rating:
Summary: Too Much Fluff
Review: I first learned PHP from Luke Welling and Laura Thomson's excellent "PHP and MySQL Web Development," and bought 'MySQL/PHP Database Applications' to provide an alternative perspective on solving problems. Unfortunately, this book doesn't offer enough content to warrant its high price.
A full 58 pages is devoted to a PHP function reference which is a bit of a joke because PHP has one of the better online function references available. Code examples are printed with very large font again taking up more space than is necessary.
Most important, though, some of these examples are a little bit suspect.
They present a Catalog application written using Object Oriented Programming (OOP). This would have been valuable except that the classes they create are so specific that they couldn't be re-used -- basically negating the value of OOP to begin with.
They do provide a couple of examples of good and bad relational database schema, but that isn't really worth the cost of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Some good overview, offset by typos and poor organization
Review: I found the first few chapters to be the most valuable ones, providing overviews of general topics. In particular the chapter on relational database design would be good for someone who's a new or intermediate database designer. After the first few overview or theoretical chapters, though -- once you "dive into the code" -- things start to unravel pretty quickly. The choice of topics covered via code examples seems random and arbitrary. It's possible that perusing the code included on the CD would be of value. That might be true if the code wer not riddled with typos and errors. As for the text itself, once you get into the code sections, you can almost count on a typo or more per page. I even found errors in the entity relationship diagrams. As another reader pointed out, discovering the errors may serve as a debugging exercise, but that's not why you buy a book like this. And if you just want to peruse code, there is plenty of open source stuff out there for free. As a web developer with some familiarity with MySQL and PHP (and extensive programming experience in other areas) I found this book to be incomplete and spotty as a guide to developing PHP/MySQL applications. You could do worse, but you could do a whole lot better. I get the feeling that they ran out of time with this one, and rushed to finish it up. It's too bad that the second half of the book isn't as good as the first half.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother - CODE DOESN'T WORK!
Review: I have now purchased just about EVERY book I can find on using PHP and NOT ONE of them is capable of being completed from beginning to end due the the HORRENDOUS editing errors in them. This book, the 2nd Edition, no less, was the last in my now enormous collection of miserable books on PHP and seemed to have some promise. I was impressed with the fact that the author or publisher included the complete set of files in order to be uploaded you a live web server and, after spending a half an hour uploading those 10 megs (REALLY!) worth of files to my server thought that I might actually be able to finally get some files to work - silly me. So, after spending several hours trying to determine EXACTLY which files needed to be altered in order to connect to both the database (oh gosh, even the NAME of that database is kept hidden) and to change the appropriate variables contained in the huge number of files, and then trying to mess around with the bogus files that allegedly will install and make the appropriate changes to the files on the server, have just GIVEN UP. What a NIGHTMARE. Why, oh WHY can't a publisher put out a book with the code (and easy to find and read INSTRUCTIONS) that actually WORKS?!?!?!? Spending a few billion dollars on every book ever published on PHP and not getting a single one of them to WORK is nothing less than an outrage. No, I'm not a complete computer programming "newbie" and yes, I've spent the last several months wasting time writing to publishers regarding the ERRORS in their book (to which they ALWAYS confirm the errors but fail to post them on their non-existent errata sheets). I've HAD it. DON'T BOTHER with this book until an errata sheet has been posted AND detailed instructions are provided on configuring the code to work on your server. It would be one thing if this and other PHP books were just a few dollars but, at a whooping $40 per book (or MORE), getting things to work should be REQUIRED! An ERRATA sheet also needs to be published AS SOON AS PROBLEMS ARE DISCOVERED. And, as is so often the case, it appears as if this book COULD HAVE BEEN USEFUL - had the publisher had the decency to have just ONE PERSON sit down and work their way through the manuscript to find the obvious problems - that, however, is apparently asking too much.
Rating:
Summary: Great book if looking for examples
Review: I have read many good books on this subject and this is the best one that I have found for examples of applications. This book includes a CD with examples of the projects described in the book. Scripts are easy to install and modify and good starting point for better projects.
Rating:
Summary: No messing straight to what you need to know
Review: I liked this book a lot '- succinct style and LOTS of medium size examples. A lot better than many of the others on the market. In particular I like the way that the topics follow on and are clearly more than just a collestion of essays (which I have found the Wrox books can have a tendency to be). Tom
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