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Summary: A very good book as "short course" in php & mysql
Review: This book is very good for "not too novice" who would like to learn PHP & MySQL simultaneously. It is a nice book. If you would like to learn PHP and MySQL fastly, then this book is for you. If you buy this book, don't forget to buy another book which covers more about basic programming in PHP (you don't get it in this book).
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Summary: Well written, but now outdated
Review: This is a great book, two years ago. I have spent more time and energy than I wish over the last two months trying to get the syntax differences down, and hunt down bugs in the code I'm writing. A new edition is out expected out in August, in which PHP 4.2 and MySQL 4.1 are to be covered. While no published book will keep up with the advancing of technologies that are standards today, this new edition will be much much closer to what is in use right now.Wait if you can, otherwise, you're in for a headache.
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Summary: Best book on MySQL/PHP that I have seen
Review: This is simply the best book on MySQL/PHP that I have seen. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Great book for starter
Review: This is surely great book. For the very beginner it can be a little difficult, but if you have some understanding of what the programming is, this book will move you to the state where you have power to create almost any PHP+MySQL application. Covers many aspects of PHP4 and MySQL application development in both procedural and Object Oriented approaches. There are lots of useful references for further improvement. After reading this book you don't need another one.
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Summary: bogus code
Review: Unfortunately for me I spent the $40 for this book. What a mistake!
When I first opened it up I was exited by the project management example in chapter 17. I told my wife I must have it! After I got home and started reading through it I decided to load the sample data into the my htdocs directory in my local Apache install. The nightmare never ended in getting the code to work. And this wasn't because I didn't set up the user accounts in MySQL! After messing around with it all weekend I decided to pay my fried a visit who is an expert web developer (builds web-enabled databases for California lobyists with millions of records). He looked at the code and found constructs that are specific to PHP5. The readme didn't say that I must install PHP5 for the examples to work. Anyway, after changing the code to conform to PHP4 syntax the examples still didn't work.
I'm totally disappointed that I spent my hard earned dollars on this book. If the authors would be kind enough to post some code that works and is easy to follow, that would be a good step at repentance. Oh, one last thing, the authors make use of PEAR; that was a pain to install too. However, I got that working (with no instructions in the book) and the code still fails to work.
Two thumbs down for this book.
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Summary: Fatal Errors in every script
Review: When I began reading this book I was excited because I like the way it explains things. My excitement dwindled when I attempted to install the scripts. I'm no pro when it comes to PHP or MySQL but I do have about 50 other scripts running that use them so I was surprised when I could not get a single script from the CD to work. Every one produces "Fatal error: Call to undefined function:..." The site that is allegedly associated with the book was of no help. Emails to both authors went without response. The errors could have to do with configuration of the server (or the php.ini file on the server) I am using to test the scripts on...that's just a guess given that some reviewers of this book seem to have had no problem. I wish I had spent the money I wasted on this book on chocolate. It would have taken less time to work off the calories than I expended trying to get these scripts to run.
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Summary: Quality Content, Sloppy Editing
Review: While the examples are great and the topic coverage is excellent, there are 2 or more typos on almost every page. It looks like they were in such a hurry to get the thing out the door that quality control was not a consideration. The typos aren't just in the text; they are quite common in the examples. For instance, when showing an example of a "contact" table, the text refers to contacts while the example shows contracts. There are missing "_"'s in the data names and PHP and SQL syntax mistakes throughout. Given that, if you are willing to debug the text and the examples, you'll find 99% of what you will need to know to be able to create a database driven website with Apache/PHP/MySQL. If you need the information now, buy it. If you can, I'd wait for the second edition; perhaps they can reduce the mistakes. sj
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Summary: Easy to Understand but not very good over all
Review: Within the first couple of chapters, I noticed that they really need to use spell check! Typos in their own book scared me because Typos are something that is not accepted when coding. Seemed they used the good vs bad relationships and normalization for MySQL, almost same topics as used in the O'Reilly's MySQL/msql book. It was simple to understand though. Beginners should look for other books instead of this!
Rating:
Summary: Easy to Understand but not very good over all
Review: Within the first couple of chapters, I noticed that they really need to use spell check! Typos in their own book scared me because Typos are something that is not accepted when coding. Seemed they used the good vs bad relationships and normalization for MySQL, almost same topics as used in the O'Reilly's MySQL/msql book. It was simple to understand though. Beginners should look for other books instead of this!
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Summary: Beginners Go Elsewhere
Review: You've probably read elements of this review in other people's posts. Here's the straight dope for beginners: Start with something else. PHP FAST & EASY is much better than this. I've read that and still don't know what to do with this book. I thought I was ready for it, but to be honest it's just poorly laid out. What the authors SHOULD have done was take each section and force you to write the scripts giving you step-by-step examples and explanations to each. This never happens. Instead what you do is cover all functions and the basics of programming first, AND THEN they insert elements of each important aspect of the scripts. This forces you to look at the CD and try and match up with the book. (Which is not EXACT!) I'm sure I could figure out how to write these apps given a few months worth of exploring and trial and error, so why did I buy this thing when I can do that from tutorials on the net? This book is a waste of money for those that want to learn powerful applications in a 1 - 2 - 3 step manor. If you enjoy cross referencing, if you enjoy the author telling how to write the script one way in the book, but showing you another way on the CD then this is the book for you!
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