Product Description

Dreamweaver CS4 is a massive step forward in terms of integration with the rest of the CS4 suite (Flash, Fireworks, Photoshop, etc.), and also includes a whole host of exciting new features of its own. The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS4 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP concentrates on getting the best out of Dreamweaver CS4, rather than going into every menu item and toolbar icon. The emphasis is on developing websites compliant with the latest web standards, using CSS, JavaScript libraries (with particular emphasis on Spry, Adobe's implementation of Ajax), and PHP.

The book covers all aspects of the new user interface, including workspace layouts, iconic panels, the related documents feature, Live View, Code Navigator, and Live Code. It also shows how to use the improved CSS editing features, and JavaScript code introspection. There is also coverage of other new features, such as version control through Subversion integration, and the improved support for Photoshop integration through the use of Smart Objects.

What you'll learn

• Streamline your workflow with the Related Files toolbar, Live view, and the Code Navigator
• Bring your pages alive with Ajax widgets from Spry, jQuery, and the Yahoo! User Interface Library
• Use server-side includes, templates, and Adobe's InContext Editing online service
• Create dynamic web applications using Dreamweaver's PHP server behaviors
• Build real world web site functions, such as form validation, random quote generator, search function, user management/login pages, dynamic Ajax gallery, and much more
• Consume RSS feeds and create Spry data sets
• How to publish your site after you've created it

Customer Reviews (21)

Wonderful book, ties the subjects together perfectly.
This is a totally awesome book, if you were to get only one book on Dreamweaver this should be it. I am a computer science student working on a double major of software engineering and web development, I 3 of David Powers most recent books, all of them are worth their weight in gold, when I saw this book I bought it immediately.

The reasons I like his books are:
1) They are totally on topic, he covers what he says he will
2) They are written in simple non-technobabble, his style of writing is simple to read and understand
3) He takes the time to cover what you need to know and stays on subject, no wandering mind issues
4) As far as I have seen, all of his code works, I have not covered all of his books from cover to cover, but as a comp sci student who reads butt loads of these type books and finds errors often, I can say these are some of the least error filled books, I own well over 200 books on programming, web development and all computer science subjects.
5) He has some really cool, really useful examples, all of which are the things you would encounter and need in the real world.

This book is cool because he shows you how to totally set up a local test environment with Apache, PHP, MySQL and Dreamweaver, and even how to create virtual hosts in apache(I have not found a book yet, other than books on apache,that tell you how to do it with pictures)the explanation of how to set up your testing environment makes the book worth owning alone.

This is not a beginners book, this is not going to hold your hand and teach you the subjects , it would be beneficial to have some HTML,CSS,Ajax, MySQL and PHP experience. What this does show you is how to incorporate all of these subjects and how to use Dreamweaver to do it effectively and efficiently.However you do not need to know anything about Dreamweaver, that is mainly what the book is about, if you know HTML, CSS and PHP, this book will show you how to create entire sites with Dreamweaver and those languages, that is what it is about, not teaching you anyone of those subjects, but how to use them in Dreamweaver.

As a computer science student I run into many people who should not be going into the field, who will not be successful, those same people tend to give these kind of books crappy review.It is their frustration in not understanding the subject, usually, I do have some crappy books though, and unfortunately one of my next classes uses one of the crappy books.It is full of errors, both in syntax of the language and the concepts of or lack of security.Davids books even cover security issues, they are really great books, this one is well worth whatever you buy it for.

Dave Powers is a very sensible and creative dreamweaver guy
David has written a very complete guide to using Dreamweaver. His guidance is very complete from the initial deployment of a server on your localhost to the xml he covers at the end of this book. I would recommend this book and give Mr. Powers five stars.

Ken Carlson

Great for beginner, very good to catchup new stuff in DW
First of all, to give a useful review of this book, I should note I will present it for two type of developers:
- PHP web beginners
- Experienced web developers with decent or no knowledge about Dreamweaver CS4

Let's see how could this book help PHP web beginners. I gave this book to my friend - PHP beginner. He was really satisfied with the content of this book. In one book he had all the information about Dreamweaver, how Dreamweaver evolved through older versions
and information how to define web site, how to handle page layout, reuse Dreamweaver templates. The book contains really useful information how to use CSS panels and tips and tricks for handling your CSS code and refactor styles using Dreamweaver.
The book is not meant to give you full overview of CSS design. For this topic I would recommend CSS Mastery. Also, this book gives you an excellent introduction how to use Ajax functionality in Dreamweaver, how to use Spry Ajax Framework and how to implement useful Ajax snippets into your code.

After chapters about client-side code comes chapters about PHP and MySQL in which you can learn PHP and MySQL basics - basic PHP syntax, creating code pieces, MySQL database and all things needed for starting your first real PHP-MySQL project.
It's really nice to see how to use Dreamweaver wizard for getting data from MySQL database by using PHP code.

What I really like in this book that it contains a lot of tips and tricks for each topic covered by specific chapter. These tips can be quite helpful and I'm sure a lot of experienced developers are not familiar with these tricks.

Here's my review for experienced web developers with decent/no knowledge of Dreamweaver.
I should be in this group :) In the past few years I didn't have so many opportunities to work with Dreamweaver. I've been working more with PHP code than I was making HTML/CSS design and all I needed was Zend Studio or PDT. Also, in the past few years from CS to CS3 version Dreamweaver didn't offer me so many new functionalities. By the time I started using CS4, there was a lot of new and useful features and I wanted to investigate how they work and how can these new features can help me on my new projects.
That's why this book was very helpful. Like I said, it contains a lot of tips and tricks for each topic covered by specific chapter. I didn't take much time investigating topics about PHP and MySQL but these chapters also contain useful information, for example how to quickly create a decent overview of you database data.

Overall, if you decide to use this book for fulfilling your knowledge gaps and when you upgrade your knowledge with CS5 features, you will have really good standards for developing your code with Adobe Dreamweaver.

Great Expansion from previous PHP for Dreamweaver book
I have David's PHP for Dreamweaver 8 book and have been able to successfully build CMS' with this book for many of my clientele. When I purchased this book, he pretty much took everything from the old book and put it into this one and expanded for compatibility with PHP 6, MySQL queries, and XML, besides the usage of Sprys and RSS feeds.

What was missing from the old book that is in this book is an expansion on the understanding of JOINs (briefly), but it does get to the point simply, so you can learn how to get the information you want with minimal query.

My favorite part of the book that was missing from his older version was Ch.17 HANDLING CHECKBOX GROUPS, SEARCHES, AND DATES. He gives a step-by-step setup and guide on how to create and process forms via email and dbase and the usage of dates within MySQL in relation to PHP.

For a 900+ page book, this is a definite bible for Dreamweaver CS4 users who wish to MySQL/PHP. Kudos to David Powers!

not for the novice
Coming from many years of print design I'm still struggling to understand web design. This book is not for someone like me. ... Read more

Product Description
In this comprehensive guide to creating an e-commerce Web site using PHP and MySQL, renowned author Larry Ullman walks you through every step—designing the visual interface, creating the database, presenting content, generating an online catalog, managing the shopping cart, handling the order and the payment process, and fulfilling the order—always with security and best practices emphasized along the way. Even if you’re an experienced Web developer, you’re guaranteed to learn something new. The book uses two e-commerce site examples—one based on selling physical products that require shipping and delayed payment, and another that sells non-physical products to be purchased and delivered instantly—so you see the widest possible range of e-commerce scenarios. In 11 engaging, easy-to-follow chapters, Effortless E-Commerce with PHP and MySQL teaches you how to:

• Think of the customer first, in order to maximize sales
• Create a safe server environment and database
• Use secure transactions and prevent common vulnerabilities
• Incorporate different payment gateways
• Design scalable sites that are easy to maintain
• Build administrative interfaces
• Extend both examples to match the needs of your own sites

Larry Ullman is the president of Digital Media and Communications Insights, Inc., a firm specializing in information technology (www.dmcinsights.com). He is the author of several bestselling programming and Web development books, including PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide. Larry also writes articles on these subjects and teaches them in small and large group settings. Despite working with computers, programming languages, databases, and such since the early 1980s, Larry still claims he’s not a computer geek (but he admits he can speak their language). ... Read more

Product Description
Don’t spend your time wading through manuals to learn PHP 5. Spend it doing what you do best—creating web pages! With "PHP 5 Fast & Easy Web Development" you can get up and running with PHP 5, Apache, and MySQL with ease. By the time you’re finished, you’ll be able to display dynamic content, build your own contact management system, create custom reports, work with XML, and much more. Less time, less effort, more results! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Some errors...but overall ok...
This book had some errors in it...just typos if you want to call. But hey overall it was a good book.

I just wish it covered a little bit more on the MySQL unit, such as database normalization. I already know how to do it but just for others sake the book should have covered that more.

I also feel the same way about the Object Oriented Programming part. That should have been an entire chapter. Because the major change in PHP 5 is the concepts of OOP in the new PHP 5.

Thats all!

Rashaud Teague
CEO, RDR Vision

Not for a complete beginner
This book starts great with step by step instructions to get going on installing a WAMP/LAMP evironment and creating a DB, but then the author hits the turbo button and creating your first table involves loops, counts, subsets, if/else, and other programming techniques with very little description of what or why....more of a "ohh, put this here" rather than a detailed explanation.For a beginner, I feel like this book will force memorization rather than understanding.

Stay far away, to many errors
I bought this book hoping to be able todo basic things with PHP 5 and learn the basics of the language, at first it started out fine until i hit the sectin on using variable from there the book is horrid syntax errors that just repeat I don't know how someone couldnt catch them ( does the company and publisher even test the code ? )thanks to everyone in ##php on irc.debian.net i was able to walk through the next few pages coirecting well over 12 errors in one script and there is no erratta for this on the comapnies site. i started reading again and once again errors in the section on variables from forms
this book is very poorly written I want to sell it but i wouldnt wish this book on my worst enemy please for your own good stay away ive been in the IT field and a linux user for 7 years this book is just horrible and confussing after page 70

Excelent!
I highly recomend this book to anyone that has no experience in PHP or MySQl and has a desire to learn both. This book's step by step chapters makes it easy to learn and use PHP. Before I was done with this book I was already coding my own PHP/MySQL programs and rewriting open-source PHP programs like PHP-Nuke and phpBB among others. This book is an excelent buy at any price!

Thumbs up for this book!
Using this book and a few choice websites, I was able to create my very own PHP/MySQL driven website for users to sell books.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to learn PHP that have *some* programming experience ... Read more

Product Description
There are many reasons for serving up dynamic content from aweb site:to offer an online shopping site, create customizedinformation pages for users, or just manage a large volumeof content through a database. Anyone with a modestknowledge of HTML and web site management can learn tocreate dynamic content through the PHP programming languageand the MySQL database. This book gives you the backgroundand tools to do the job safely and reliably.

Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL, Second Editionthoroughly reflects the needs of real-world applications. It goes into detail on such practical issues as validatinginput (do you know what a proper credit card number lookslike?), logging in users, and using templatesto give your dynamic web pages a standard look.

But this book goes even further. It shows how JavaScript andPHP can be used in tandem to make a user's experience fasterand more pleasant. It shows the correct way to handle errorsin user input so that a site looks professional. Itintroduces the vast collection of powerful tools availablein the PEAR repository and shows how to use some of the mostpopular tools.

Even while it serves as an introduction to new programmers,the book does not omit critical tasks that web sitesrequire. For instance, every site that allows updates musthandle the possibility of multiple users accessing data atthe same time. This book explains how to solve the problemin detail with locking.

Through a sophisticated sample application--Hugh and Dave'sWine Store--all the important techniques of dynamic contentare introduced. Good design is emphasized, such as dividinglogic from presentation. The book introduces PHP 5 and MySQL4.1 features, while providing techniques that can be used onolder versions of the software that are still in widespreaduse.

This new edition has been redesigned around the richofferings of PEAR. Several of these, including the Templatepackage and the database-independent query API, are fullyintegrated into examples and thorougly described in thetext. Topics include:Installation and configuration of Apache, MySQL, and PHP onUnix®, Windows®, and Mac OS® X systemsIntroductions to PHP, SQL, and MySQL administrationSession management, including the use of a custom databasefor improved efficiencyUser input validation, security, and authenticationThe PEAR repository, plus details on the use of PEAR DB andTemplate classesProduction of PDF reportsAmazon.com Review
PHP and MySQL go hand in hand; the former has been carefully adapted, through the efforts of the open-source community, to the latter. For situations that require dynamic content but don't merit the complexity and development time of Java or .NET enterprise applications, the PHP language and the MySQL database server fit the bill perfectly. That's the point Hugh Williams and David Lane make in Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, which combines language tutorials with application design advice to yield a comprehensive picture of its subjects at a reasonable price. Williams and Lane--both Australian academics who use an online wine store in many of their examples--deserve tremendous kudos for their way of presenting recommended coding strategies. Though the code listings themselves aren't remarkably well commented, the authors do a commendable job of explaining in prose what the code is up to.

Case in point: The ever-essential task of using PHP to open a connection to a MySQL database, submit a query to that database, receive a response, and format the returned rows, if any. The book addresses this problem with a straight code listing, followed by text that explains what's happening in five numbered steps. Similar care goes to the other popular applications of the PHP/MySQL duo: session management, shopping carts, and authentication of users. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to use the PHP server-side scripting language and the MySQL database engine to underlie dynamic Web sites (those that rely on database queries) and full-on Web applications, such as those that require session management and maintenance of user rosters. Tutorials in both subjects begin with the basics and proceed through moderately complicated stuff, though there's no absolutely comprehensive reference here. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (60)

Outdated
I'm writing this on May 17th 2010 after purchasing this book a few days ago. I have made it through the first 4 chapters but on reaching chapter 5 that's when the real problems began. The book features a case study: a fictional wine store with it's own PHP code and mySQL database. One of the problems is the code was written for PHP 4, not 5, so I'm getting tons of errors. They could be fixed if I knew how, but that kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

The code page where you download examples hasn't been updated since 2005.

Another major problem and this one can't be blamed on time is that the code examples and the wine store app itself have a few programming errors. I was able to spot and fix these but it goes to show you that whoever wrote this thing didn't even bother to run and check to see if their code actually works. When you're trying to learn a programming language the last thing you want to worry about is the author's own mistakes. You could literally spend hours wondering what YOU did wrong when in reality it's THEIR fault.

I can't comment on Chapter 5 onwards because this book is now mostly useless to me, and to anyone who wants to learn PHP and mySQL in a PHP 5 environment (today's world). Unfortunately I don't have any recommendation as a substitute, though I would suggest checking what version the book is for before buying.

Somewhat Sluggish
Here is, in my opinion, the way this book should be used.

First, learn very basic PHP from [...]

Make a few sample pages for yourself using as many techniques on the site as you can. After that, make your way to the book. Up until page 134, it's just dry syntax. You can learn dry syntax much faster from the website I listed. You'll be able to skim across the first 134 pages with your knowledge, and since it will look somewhat familiar, you won't get bored out of your mind.

When you start actually getting in to mysql implementation, you can start reading the page over.

I highly suggest that you read along and make your own project that you will find interestinginstead of the project provided. I'm using this book to make an inventory application for a pretend game store website, and it's keeping me much more interested than when I was making the winestore example.

Some of the functions don't work, such as the selectDistinct, but I didn't find that too annoying. The book uses some outdated techniques such as ereg for regular expressions, but that's because the book itself is slightly outdated.

Don't try to read the book cover to cover and then try to go apply what you learned. You'll just end up having to read the book again. Digest the book in chunks and actually CREATE something with it!

One final word: Do NOT attempt to install Apache, PHP, and MySQL using the book. I lost so many hours that way. Just look up some forum posts on how to do it manually using the zip files as opposed to the MSI installer.

Outdated
This book is outdated. Get a newer version for a better understanding of PHP 5. Besides being outdated, the book is written very well. It's set up as a tutorial on how to build an e-commerce site with PHP and MySQL. Along the way the authors teach you valuable lessons about PHP, MySQL, Database design, and application design. If there's a newer version of this book then I would recommend getting that one.

A straight-forward made-easy presentation
This has been my first ever book purchase through Amazon. I was quite fortunate to select this book. Clear cut presentations, abundance of samples and professional reasoning.
I fully recommend this book, both to novice users and IT professionals!

Great book
I think this is one of the best buys you can do, the book is clear, useful and with a just price, 100% recommendable. ... Read more

Product Description
Best practices and expert techniques for today's most demanding apps

As the world's most popular, general purpose, open source scripting language, PHP is frequently used with MySQL to create high-traffic, mission-critical applications. This indispensable book shares proven, author-tested best practices and expert techniques that can be applied to even the most demanding MySQL-driven PHP apps. You'll explore ways to extend MySQL with user-defined functions, write PHP extensions, and solve problems when PHP and MySQL alone are not enough and other techniques or third-party tools are necessary.

Expert PHP and MySQL:

• Reviews essential techniques, such as design patterns, complex queries, and advanced regular expression

• Addresses advanced PHP concepts, such as iterators and closures

• Demonstrates using Gearman for multitasking in your web applications

• Discusses caching using memcached with MySQL and your PHP web applications

• Discusses ways to create PHP Extensions and MySQL User Defined Functions

• Shows how to use Sphinx for search functionality in your PHP web applications

Wrox Expert books present the wisdom accumulated by an experienced author team who is recognized as experts by the programming community. These experts challenge professional developers to examine their current practices in pursuit of better results.

wrox.com

Programmer Forums
Join our Programmer to Programmer forums to ask and answer programming questions about this book, join discussions on the hottest topics in the industry, and connect with fellow programmers from around the world.

Code Downloads
Take advantage of free code samples from this book, as well as code samples from hundreds of other books, all ready to use.

Read More
Find articles, ebooks, sample chapters, and tables of contents for hundreds of books, and more reference resources on programming topics that matter to you.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Good read, good reference.
mysql > start review;

mysql > Being a MySQL DBA, not a developer, I was mostly interested in the MySQL sections but given I have a general interest in scripting I did go through some of the PHP sections. To be honest they were quite advanced for my php knowledge and experience.

The good thing about the book is that even though it assumes you have the basic knowledge, it still provides an introductory background on most of the two (PHP and MySQL) topics. This is not a "PHP and MySQL for dummies" so don't expect to learn the very basics nor will you become an expert in either topic by just reading the book. Even if you read the book thoroughly, becoming an expert requires years of hard work and experience. Having said that, his book is a good guide to make it there.

If you are at least a basic developer, this book will help you increase your knowledge drastically and create much better apps. If you are already an experienced dev, the book will probably still give you a few insights on things you don't use all that often and help keep your edge. As regards DBAs, the book is worth a great deal in that quite a substantial amount of its content is MySQL, and the PHP chapters will help you understand the developer point of view.

Finally, its a great addition to my library for referencing and a good read.

mysql > Recommended;
mysql > commit;

Not what I was looking for
I assumed by the title, and past experiences with wrox publications, that this book would have a decent amount of code, however, this book has Very few lines of code. The book mainly covers methods/technologies for maintaining/developing large Web sites/apps in PHP and MySQL. The book does not give vast PHP code examples of what it would take to write expert PHP sites/apps. I read this book cover to cover in about a week and learned absolutely nothing. Most of the content in the book should already be familiar to a "PHP programmer". A lot of the content was also very vague. The lack of PHP code illustrated in the book was frustrating and the few lines of PHP code in the book are full of typos/syntax errors. I was hoping this book would extend wrox's Pro PHP5, but this is not the case. I guess I will have to wait for a Pro PHP 5.3 or a book by another publisher...

Quite thorough
Quite a nice book. I wouldn't say it's a "must have", because some topics were only given a brief outline. I wonder why the authors included those paragraphs where they didn't give the topic a full coverage, but presented a short summary and said "You should already know this". Why did they include those paragraphs at all? It concerns mostly chapters devoted to MySQL. But as for PHP, everything's more than OK. General conclusion - "Above average". But so far not that perfect as I expected.

For once, an "Expert" book where you not only can, but must take the title seriously.
This book is choke-full of information, examples and best practices written by some of the foremost experts in their respective fields. All of the authors clearly have extensive experience working on setups requiring expert knowledge. Best of all, they are not afraid of thinking outside the box and the solutions they present are in no way limited to pure PHP and MySQL solutions.

This book really does expect something from the reader, so perhaps a word of caution is in order: you really do need to be familiar with a range of non-beginner subjects on both PHP and MySQL. I strongly recommend that you first read Chapter 1 of the book, helpfully available on the books' website. If you are not familiar with the contents presented here, you're not likely to gain much from your purchase.

If, on the other hand, all that you read there is Known Stuff, you're really in for a treat with this book. If you write programs because you have that personal itch, this book is going to make you feel as if you've just been attacked by a horde of mosquitoes. Really. You'll be re-thinking everything about how you build your websites from now on. But you won't need any itches for this book to make you re-think how you work with PHP and MySQL.

The book is extremely information-packed. I'm not one to shy away from reading 3-400 pages of technical references in a day, but this book is so densely filled that you simply won't be able to do that. Considering the breadth of topics covered, the authors at the same time manage to dive very deeply into each subject, covering all relevant resources, options, program libraries and best practices along the way. This does not make the book hard to read, to the contrary the language is very clear and concise. Don't expect information to be repeated anywhere.

Whether it's due to the authors or excellent editing, the language is very consistent and flows very well from chapter to chapter. If it wasn't for the change in subject matter and the authors' stated focus areas in the beginning of the book, it would be hard to discern that three people have been involved in writing this book.

A wonderful trait of all the authors is that they are very frank in assessing the available technologies, and don't mind telling you which things simply don't work, and why you should stay away from them - even when those technologies are offered by their respective employers.

You'll learn not only how to make the most optimal pure-PHP and pure-MySQL solutions, you will also see how you can integrate both of these with external programs by writing your own extensions and libraries. Descriptions of best practices in subjects such as user authentication and security will probably make you want to go back and check whether something could be improved in your own code and web server setup.

The chapters on advanced caching techniques, multi-tasking, optimization and debugging considerations are all very detailed and to the point. You'll be able to immediately put the techniques presented to use, and the book will serve you not only as a great tutorial, it will also be a great reference later on when you want to tune your setup.

There are of course a few chapters that could have used a bit more work. One chapter consists of barely more than a listing of output of feature lists, another contains very lengthy outputs that the reader might as well pull up on his own screen when working with some of the products. But these examples really are exceptions in an otherwise extremely well-written, informative and above all useful book.

Another word of caution: The book is highly UNIX (Linux) centric. If all your work is done using Windows, your benefit from reading this book might be limited. Then again, reading the book and realizing the potentials just might explain to you why it is most shops deploy their PHP/MySQL solutions on Linux.
... Read more

Product Description

Beginning PHP and MySQL E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition covers every step of the design and building process involved in creating powerful, extendable e–commerce web sites. Based around a real–world example involving a web site selling t–shirts, you’ll learn how to create and manage a product catalog, build and integrate a shopping cart, and process customer accounts and PayPal/credit card transactions.

With the e–commerce framework in place, authors Emilian Balanescu and Cristian Darie show you how to integrate advanced features sure to set your web site apart from the competition. You’ll learn how to expand your catalog using Amazon Web Services, optimize the web site for the search engines, and take advantage of Ajax to build an even more user–friendly shopping cart.

Other highlights:

• The authors show you how to build a complex, extendable e–commerce web site using sound development practices.
• This second edition has been updated to take advantage of a more flexible templating system, and new chapters cover Ajax integration and search engine optimization.
• The text goes beyond basic product and customer management, showing you how to integrate product reviews, process payments using both credit cards and PayPal, and expand your web site catalog using third–party services such as Amazons affiliate program.

Customer Reviews (19)

Ecommerce
the autors explained so well the book and it's true after you finish of read it you will be a proffesional if you are a novice. Really help me with my project

Stopped at Chapter 3 due to code errors.
There is nothing more frustrating then dealing with error filled code. I spent two days trying to get the code in chapter three to run before filing this book in the round file. No errata on the Apress site and the downloaded code from the author's site is totally different from the book. The downloaded code does not run either. Do not waste your time or money on this book.

Excellent Introduction to Smarty, PDO, OOP
This book is a wonderful introduction for procedural PHP developers looking over the fence at Object Oriented Programming. Although I'm not yet ready to go live with OOP after reading this book, it has moved my learning curve forward considerably and rapidly. Read and study every word and line of code carefully, and you will not be disappointed. If/when you get stuck at chapter 4, keep at it. It's your Smarty that needs work. Once you start creating sub-queries (in chapter 5, I recall), you will need to move your work to a LAMP or MAMP environment. Sub-queries don't work in Windows MySQL installations. This is an issue Mr. Darie addresses on his web site.

Good luck and enjoy the ride! This book is pure gold!

Be careful if you are on a windows based machine!
Be very careful with this book if you are on a windows based machine.There is a PHP bug noted on page 150.Unfortunately, no reliable fix or work around is noted anywhere.The fix noted on the errata sheet does not help the matter.Furthermore, there are many forums discussing the problem, but none of them offer a viable solution.The book could be worth four stars if this problem were actually addressed.The author new about the problem, but failed to offer a viable solution to people working on a windows based machine.All they had to do was create a different approach to making multiple queries to the database.What a disappointment.

Perfect!
I can't speak highly enough of this book, but be sure you are buying it for the rights reasons. Here's why:

I have good knowledge of HTML and CSS, but I know very little about PHP, SQL, and MySQL. I want to start an online store, and HTML and CSS just won't cut it. I knew from the beginning I would need to learn PHP, and likely JavaScript to create a functioning store.

HOWEVER: This book does not teach you PHP. It does not teach you JavaScript, or SQL, MySQL, AJAX, or any programming language at all. Are we clear on that? Good.

Now that that is settled, let's see why this book really shines!

This book is about e-commerce. It is a tutorial, and it leads you step-by-step through creating an online store that is fully-functional, secure, and flexible. If you do all the steps, you end up with a complete store. Oh, wait, did I say IF you do all the steps? Actually, no. You can cut and paste the code as you go, if you want, although you would learn less that way. Either way, you need to be thorough. Programming is not for the sloppy, impatient, or anyone with the "that's close enough" mentality. You must follow the instructions meticulously, and you will have to track down every typo. There will be some troubleshooting involved, but I figured it out, and I don't know PHP, like I said earlier.

So, if the code is available for download at the author's website . . . why get the book at all? Well, because if you want to learn how it all works together, how to customize it without breaking it, how to improve or adapt it, and why it is set up the way it is--then you need to read the book. It is easy enough to read and understand, even without much knowledge of PHP.

I found this book to be perfect, because it is exactly what I needed: a tutorial for creating a fully-functional, secure, and flexible store.

So is this book for raw beginners? No. You should have enough experience with webpages to comprehend HTML and CSS, minimally. Experience with programming is a help, but not necessary.

So is this book for intermediate web designers? Absolutely!

How about advanced designers . . . well, I'm not qualified to answer that. But I can tell you the authors of this book have very sound logic when it comes to the architecture of an online store. I imagine it would be beneficial to all but the most experienced designers.

Bottomline?

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR ANYONE DESIGNING AN ONLINE STORE. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (19)

good php security book but not clear at times
It is a good book, in mu opinion, but not a great one. The author was not clear at times at all and/or was much too terse. One may have to use this book in conjunction with some internet research in order to go over the concepts that were not so well explained. Overall, the book does serve its purpose, which is, i believe, to give a very good overview of the PHP and PHP related security issues, as well as to provide recommendations how to make a PHp application 'more secure'.

IT MAY BE SHORT, BUT SIZE DOESN'T MATTER!
The book is only 85 pages long (if you take out the Appendices and filler material).That alone gets it four out of five stars.Well... not really... but there's a lot to be said for producing a book that will actually get read.You can read the whole thing in one bathroom sitting, assuming you just returned from Mexico.By comparison, similar books like "Pro PHP Security" by Chris Snyder and Michael Southwell (also a very good book) are more along the lines of 500 pages and such books are intended as comprehensive reference books rather than tutorials.You'd have to eat at a restaurant in North Korea to get all the way through the Pro PHP Security book.Seriously though - the criticisms of this bookprimarily pretain to its lack of detail - but I'd rather actually finish a high level book than have a detailed book sit on my shelf unread.

Chris' book is great.It's chocked full of easy to understand explanations and little five line code fragments to demonstrate what he's explaining.Sure enough, if you read the whole thing, you'll understand the essentials of PHP Security.Hey - perhaps that explains the title?

Do I need this book if my company already uses web scanning security software?Yes - you won't understand the problems that those products identify if you don't understand PHP security basics.If you don't understand reported errors, You'll be tempted to ignore or suppress warnings that you don't understand.Chris' book will give you the knowledge that you need in a few easy to follow pages.

There are a few ommissions.They include:

OMISSION #1:The book should mention somewhere that many of the security vulnerabilities it describes are not unique to PHP - especially big ones like cross-site scripting and SQL injection.While PHP has some vulnerabilities that other languages do not (and vis-versa), Java, C#, Ruby, and all the other server-side languages can also be attacked with cross-site scripting, SQL injection, session spoofing, cookie theft, backdoor URLs, etc., etc.

OMISSION #2:The book would have benefited from the addition of a page of system administration best practices to improve security rather than confining itself only to coding best practices.For example, it's easy for developers to accidentally open security holes by making very small changes to the PHP.ini file.A good best practice is to use the operating system to restrict access to that file in the production environment.Or it would have good to see Chris distill role-based security administration policies, logging, or remote procedure call policies down to just the most important principles.He has a knack for filtering out the noise, and if he had added that additional 86th page, I swear I would have read it too.

OMISSION #3:It's worth mentioning how modular design has a very big impact on the number of vulnerabilities inside an application.This is especially important for PHP, because PHP code is often a little more haphazard than code written in other languages - primarily because of the culture that surrounds PHP but also for a few other reasons (we cover those reasons in the PHP Chapter of our own book on the strengths and weaknesses of various technologies).

Bottom line:

These criticisms are very minor.The book is short, easy-to-read, and filled with information that is absolutely essential to know if you are to responsibly deploy a server-side PHP application.Look at the table of contents.If you're not familiar with those terms, you'd better get the book.

Glenn Hostetler
Web Service and SOA Technologies

Good for non-php too
I'm not a PHP developer but found this book useful for other languages besides PHP. A lot of the security topics it covers are pretty general and apply to most languages/frameworks.It's pretty easy to distill the general concepts and take them with you elsewhere.Plus they're pretty worthwhile, important security tips.

I wanted so much to love this book
I really wanted to write a glowing review of Mr. Shiflett's book, Essential PHP Security, but I can't help but dissapointed by the weaknesses.

The author's blog (http://shiflett.org/) and PHP security website (http://phpsec.org/) are good sources of information on PHP security and web creation in general. With the wisdom hinted at via his websites, I looked forward to more in depth insights and specifics in his book. Unfortunately for Mr. Shiflett, writing a book is not like writing 'bites' for a blog or marketing yourself as experienced and knowledgable. This book reads like an anthology of blog articles and seminar presentations and that weakness kills what should otherwise really be an essential text.

As another helpful reviewer pointed out, this book is a not appropriate for new PHP programmers. That reviewer also noted that it is precisely new initiates to PHP that need these lessons the most. The protective measures suggested in the book are presented superficially. The author highlights the vulnerability, but then only hints at a protective measure by providing a code snip-it which totally lacks context. Most novice readers expect examples of how to apply and integrate the suggested technique effectively and efficiently within the basics they already know.

Mr. Shiflett writes in his acknowledgements, "Written during one of the busiest years of my life ... [the people at O'reilly] have gone out of their way to make the entire process fit around my writing style and busy schedule."

Smoking gun?

For a full price book, the author had room, but perhaps not the desire to provide more substance. Concise does not have to be superficial. The book's main content is 85 pages -- followed by three appendices between pages 87 and 103. The index runs between pages 105 and 109. Substantive implementation details are missing and should have been included.

For example, in chapter 1 and later in chapter 2, the author recommends filtering input by identifying input, filtering the input, and distinguishing between filtered and unfiltered (tainted) data. This recommendation is explicitly explained twice in the book and repeated throughout. If you expect any examples demonstrating this in practical use, there are none. If you expect a class that exemplifies a way you might integrate this technique with your exsisting code, there is none. In other words, if you want to learn even remotely by example, you may be disappointed by this book.

As a last note, Appendix C talks briefly about cryptography in PHP. Based on this book, cryptography does not appear to be one of the author's strong areas of knowledge. For new PHP programmers who also work with SQL, Mr. Shiflett gives you just enough information to frustrate you (at best -- or hang yourself at worst). The author lists a number of other books and websites about cryptography on the first page of the Appendix. That is his best advice. Also take a look at http://www.openssl.org/ as an information resource.

In sum, I don't argue with the value of the hints Mr. Shiflett provides in his book, but this book is weak on substance and does not provide the examples necessary to teach the reader that the suggestions are practical for real implementation. Perhaps instead of this book, the many authors of the "How to PHP and MySQL" clone books need to integrate and implement these protective measures in their texts right from the start. Unfortunately, Mr. Shiflett's book does not bridge the existing gap. If you buy this book, expect to be searching other books and the web for ways to effectively and efficiently perform the tasks the author recommends. If you already know how to implement the measures, you probably did not need this book in the first place.

Opened my eyes!
While smaller than many O'Reilly titles the author wastes no time in helping the new PHP programmer write more secure code. Once you get the best practices in the first chapter down, the other seven chapters each deal with a specific class of vulnerability. You can read chapters 2-8 in any order, and you'll also spend some time with the appendices.

I confess, this book made me want to go back over my code and refactor it from the ground up! Chris gives really easy ways to prevent the more common attacks. A day to a day and a half to read this book and then build your habit library will take you far in building more secure PHP code. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

More PHP wizardry from a master
Kevin and I collaborated on another PHP book a few years ago. In the time we worked together I learned how much I still had to learn about PHP; he is truly a master. In this book Kevin presents the reader with a group of useful ways to really push the envelope of what PHP can do. It is well written and well thought out. A must read for anyone serious about taking their PHP skills to the next level. ... Read more

Product Description

Backed by a tireless development community, PHP has been a model of language evolution over its 10+ year history. Borne from a contract developer’s pet project, these days you’ll find PHP powering many of the world’s largest web sites, including Yahoo!, Digg, EA Games, and Lycos.

PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice, Second Edition shows you how to meld the power of PHP with the sound enterprise development techniques embraced by professional programmers. Going well beyond the basics of object–oriented development, you’ll learn about advanced topics such as working with static methods and properties, abstract classes, interfaces, design patterns, exception handling, and more. You’ll also be exposed to key tools such as PEAR, CVS, Phing, and phpDocumentor.

What you’ll learn

• Write solid, maintainable code by embracing object–oriented techniques and design patterns.
• Create detailed, versatile documentation using the powerful phpDocumentor automated documentation system.
• Gain new flexibility during the development process by managing your code within a CVS repository and using the Phing build system.
• Capitalize upon the quality code of others by using the PEAR package management solution.

Who is this book for?

PHP developers seeking to embrace sound development techniques such as object–orientation, design patterns, testing, and documentation

Customer Reviews (13)

Great Read
I am a full time PHP programmer and I love this book.

The author's writing style is so lucid and "real-life" that I couldnt put this book down.

I have read it, and am re reading it.

Easy to understand, but difficult to remember all the nuances of OOP in PHP.

very useful to have laying around in case a quick reference is required.

No complaints, five stars.

A very complete good practice book
Not only a good book for learning how to use objects with php, but also a cookbook with a lot of good ideas and patterns for solve pratical problems with web applications development.

Bad on Design Patterns part
I am SCJP and learned design patterns with Java. I have many books about design patterns book with Java, including Head First Design Patterns. But recently I've changed my rout to Web development by choosing PHP. I was excited to grasp a PHP book about design patterns. And I also like the style of Apress (it is very academic for me). The first part of this book is pretty good, well-organized, informative. I've learned new things from this book. But when I got to Patterns part, my head got ache. I took 3 painkiller pills this week. His explanation was ever more complicated. He followed the style of GOF but a lot of times the explanation in the implementation part was cut off in the middle, and moved to the consequence. I was like 'uhh.... (@_@) wtf.. 8(>_<)8 what is this?!!! where is the rest?!! ' Sometimes the code was not completed, there were usually no client codes, sometimes the UML diagram was not completed and misspelled. You all know that design patterns is a very tough subject and complicated so you need a book with the easy-to-understand explanation. So I recommend you to read Head First Design Patterns instead since the code of Java and PHP 5/6 are not big different. Also I found Head First was quite funny to read. It is easy to follow. You can see a lot of explanations, augments and consequences of any pattern. For those who don't want to waste money, think again.

very well-written
just want to echo a comment made by other reviewers, which is that this is an exceptionally well-written book (measured by the standards of typical computer programming books).it is a pleasure to read, with very few grammatical or spelling mistakes. if only such a thing were common enough to not warrant such praise...

Excellent Book For Advanced PHP
This is a very advanced book on PHP. It assumes a solid understanding of object-oriented PHP programming, although it does offer a basic review of OOP practices. The discussion on patterns is in-depth and explanatory but the pace of this book is very fast. Be sure to follow along and do the exercises on your own server or it won't sink in as well. I'd also suggest a study-group with others studying fromt he same book, as if it were a college CS class. ... Read more

Product Description
If you want to build dynamic Web sites that encourage users to interact with them, PHP and MySQL are among the best tools you’ll find. PHP is a scripting language designed specifically for use on the Web, while MySQL is a database management system that works with it perfectly. Best of all, they’re free. It’s hard to beat that combination!

PHP & MySQL Web Development All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies is kind of one-stop shopping for the information you need to get up and running with these tools and put them to good use. It’s divided into six handy minibooks that cover setting up your environment, PHP programming, using MySQL, security, PHP extensions, and PHP Web applications. They make it easy to create a Web site where visitors can sign on, use shopping carts, complete forms, and do business with your business.

It’s easy to find what you need in this handy guide. You’ll discover how to:

• Find and acquire all the tools you need and set up your development environment
• Build PHP scripts to make your Web site work
• Create a MySQL database that visitors can access
• Summarize and sort data results
• Design and implement user access control
• Build a shopping cart application
• Create extensions that make your site more useful

With PHP & MySQL Web Development All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies by your side, you’ll be a Web site guru before you know it! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Very helpful
I got this book for a class in PHP and MySQL, and it has proven extremely helpful.It is very clear and easy to understand.I highly recommend it for beginners in PHP.

This book explains it a from the absolute bottom so even a door would understand it - I like that
I am new to PHP programming and I like the way the book explains the good stuff and the bad stuff and even shows examples of both typs and explains what really happens.

Poorly Proof-Read
I had a lot of expectations from this book as it was a branded 'For Dummies' book, but alas from the beginning of Chapter 2 onwards, typos and mistakes start appearing thick and fast; And we're not talking about mistakes in English here either, we're talking actual mistakes in the printed code, and in the associated explanations of the printed code, which frankly, if you are a beginner and not able to discern that it's a mistake, is a fundamentally suicidal mistake for a reference book to make.Luckily, I'm quite smart (yay!), and so I was able to terminate my reading experience after only 130 pages and get something else.Avoid this book, as it will only tarnish your learning experience.Quite sad really.

Thick Book Thin On Content
A collection of small writings slammed together to create a rather thick tome and none of the sections go into sufficient depth to really teach much.

Mistake heaven
I'm sorry, but after going through just the first couple chapters in Book II, I've already encountered many mistakes in the reading. I enjoyed the Java book I read by this publisher, but this one clearly wasn't proofread or something because there is misleading text, and coding that might confuse anyone brand new to programming.

Luckily, I only checked this out from my school library because I would have been quite disappointed if I spent money on this book to only find it with many mistakes in the first couple days of my reading.

Others might want to explore more options when trying to learn php because when I start concentrating more on where the errors are in the book, then I get side-tracked into actually learning the language because I'm all hung up on these errors. ... Read more

Product Description

With the release of PHP 5 web developers need a guide to developing with PHP 5 to both learn its complex new features and more fully implement the long-standing features on which PHP's success is built. PHP 5 in Practice is a reference guide that provides developers with easy-to-use and easily extensible code to solve common PHP problems. It focuses on providing real code solutions to problems, allowing the reader to learn by seeing exactly what is happening behind the scenes to get your solution. Because a real-life situation will rarely match the book's example problems precisely, PHP 5 in Practice explains the solution well enough that you will understand it and can learn how to truly solve your own problem.

Customer Reviews (3)

Practical Ideas and Examples for the Developer
This is a very worthwhile book to own.It is very well laid out with every aspect of developing in PHP covered in one or another. I especially liked the in depth (but practical) treatment of areas where as a developer you need to have a grasp of how the language can perform.For example, graphing, how to traverse binary trees, sorting, managing databases etc. These are some of the basic requirements needed both by the language and the developer.

In this sense, the book is first class and delivers what the title says, PHP in Practice. I was initially wondering why there were not simple screen shots demonstrating some of the tools and techniques, but am now grateful that screen shots were not included as it would have meant less space for the actual examples of "PHP in Practice".In fact I got to enjoy reading the code and visualising the result and sometimes experimenting and applying the code.

A book worth every bit of its price.

Great for PHP Developers of All Levels
I had taken a beginner's course in PHP web development and wanted to learn some more in depth techniques. I had read a positive review of this book on another website and went ahead and bought it. When I got the book, I read the table of contents and found a whole chapter on email. All other books I have read only spent a paragraph or two on email. The chapter in this book went into formatting, verifying and sending email. That chapter alone made it worth the money.

The rest of the book is very easy to read and very informative. Each chapter opens up with an overview of the topics and a reference to the functions used in the chapter. This book makes a great desktop reference as well as a learning tool. So whatever your experience level, I recomend this book.

Someday I really need to start using PHP
I started my web site in the 90's and used Perl for everything.Over the years, Perl has just intertwined my site so thoroughly that I HAVE to use it.But I do recognize that PHP is the more popular choice, so I'm always interested in books like this.

I like the "Quick Hits" sections - these are at the beginning of chapters and just give quick examples of relevant functions.The first chapter started with string handling, certainly a common task in web programming and it was helpful to see that quick overview.

I also liked that the author deals with real world examples.The title is "in practice", and he lives up to that.He examines real web site problems and desires, and provides PHP solutions.

I enjoyed this.If I can get off my duff and move forward with PHP, I'm sure this will be helpful.
... Read more

Product Description

Easy, Powerful Code Security Techniques for Every PHP Developer

Hackers specifically target PHP Web applications. Why? Because they know many of these apps are written by programmers with little or no experience or training in software security. Don’t be victimized. Securing PHP Web Applications will help you master the specific techniques, skills, and best practices you need to write rock-solid PHP code and harden the PHP software you’re already using.

Drawing on more than fifteen years of experience in Web development, security, and training, Tricia and William Ballad show how security flaws can find their way into PHP code, and they identify the most common security mistakes made by PHP developers. The authors present practical, specific solutions–techniques that are surprisingly easy to understand and use, no matter what level of PHP programming expertise you have.

Securing PHP Web Applications covers the most important aspects of PHP code security, from error handling and buffer overflows to input validation and filesystem access. The authors explode the myths that discourage PHP programmers from attempting to secure their code and teach you how to instinctively write more secure code without compromising your software’s performance or your own productivity.

Coverage includes

• Designing secure applications from the very beginning–and plugging holes in applications you can’t rewrite from scratch
• Defending against session hijacking, fixation, and poisoning attacks that PHP can’t resist on its own
• Securing the servers your PHP code runs on, including specific guidance for Apache, MySQL, IIS/SQL Server, and more
• Enforcing strict authentication and making the most of encryption
• Preventing dangerous cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks
• Systematically testing yourapplications for security, including detailed discussions of exploit testing and PHP test automation
• Addressing known vulnerabilities in the third-party applications you’re already running

Tricia and William Ballad demystify PHP security by presenting realistic scenarios and code examples, practical checklists, detailed visuals, and more. Whether you write Web applications professionally or casually, or simply use someone else’s PHP scripts, you need this book–and you need it now, before the hackers find you!

Customer Reviews (4)

Perfect book for my beginning web programming students
This book is incredible. I'm always on the search for books for my beginning web programming students that can be understood by folks who will probably never have a CS degree. The hunt is often very disappointing; so, this book is an great find. The code examples start with the common code someone might use and show piece-by-piece how to make the code more secure. The book doesn't make any false promises of total security, but it explains in pleasant, easy-to-understand language why each step should be taken. Hip, hip, hurray for the authors!

Review
It is a very good book which covers all aspects of creating a secure PHP web application

Got Hackers? This book will help you eliminate those pesks.
I'm reading this book and several others on safari books online. I found it so good I thought I might as well share with amazon users how useful this book is. If you are developing any application in PHP and you plan to put it online you need to read this book. This book really opened my eyes to how dangerous PHP is without the proper security. I most definitely would recommend this book. I'm sure like any book not every little command and possibility is covered but it sure helps you gain an upper hand in security you most likely didn't have before reading the book.

Great Book for PHP Developers
Securing PHP Web Applications is a great book for any PHP developer with an interest in writing better web applications. It covers a wide range of security topics that every developer should be familiar with. It would be useful for anyone hiring a PHP developer to know the concepts outlined in this book to aid in assessing a developers ability. The book introduced me to some new methods of testing web applications that I had not heard of before. Not the best book to hand to a security professional but a great book to hand to any developer lacking in the security department. ... Read more

Product Description

Are you one of those people who think there isn't anything substantial that you can do in only 10 minutes? Think again. Sams Teach Yourself PHP in 10 Minutes is a no-fluff, just-the-answers guide to building dynamic websites using PHP. Broken into 10 minute lessons, you will gain a rapid working knowledge of PHP 5 and be able to immediately put that knowledge to use in practical applications. Who ever would have thought there was so much you could do in just 10 minutes!

Customer Reviews (6)

almost a complete time waster
Do not buy this book!

There are many coding errors, and incomplete examples. This particular book reads like the author just needed the money and slapped it together.

Don't waste your time.

Great!!!
I started with a good computer background but limited coding experience and no knowledge of PHP.I got this book.I looked at it for an hour.I started writing a php test site.I worked my way through the rest of the book in four hours.I worked on the site for the next two days.I got the Sam's PHP in 24 hours book.At the end of a week I had my own online photo management / backup / sharing application up and running.

For high yield learning I've never seen anything that can rival this book.It both told me how to do what I wanted, why to do it that way, and what not to do.Simply, this book is a wonderful starting point for someone who is tech savvy and wants to learn by doing.

Advice:
Buy it so it arrives on a Friday before a free weekend, you are going to kill the weekend.Go on and buy the Sam's teach yourself PHP in 24 hours now and save yourself the frustration of waiting for it to ship.

About Sam's
I was so happy with this Sam's book that I got PHP in 24 hours and the MySQL in 10 mins books to help with the same project.MySQL in 10 mins is also a great book.I didn't find it as good as PHP in 10 mins, but it's hard to say if that is a difference in the books of a difference in the two topics.(PHP in 24 is great, as I said earlier.)

Unfortunately those are really my only success stories with Sam's.I got both JavaScript in 24hrs and Ajax in 10 mins from Sam's and neither lived up to the PHP books.They were both much more of a cookbook feeling and less of an introduction to a topic.

A good starting point for those unfamiliar with the language.
I recently found a need to do a little PHP programming on a website.When I went looking for books what I found were any number of two to six hundred page texts.Then I found this little gem.It fitted my purposes perfectly as it explained the basics of PHP with examples for things I was trying to accomplish.

I will say that I that the treatment of classes was too brief and was the major reason that I didn't give five stars.The important things is that it provided a basis for me to experiment with the examples, accomplish what I needed to do, and allowed me to gain enough knowledge in a few short evenings that I'll be able to get another book on the subject without being totally lost from the first page.That is all I can ask from a cheap book.

Made Learning Easy
This book was written in clear language with small examples of code that are perfect for a beginner to make learning PHP easy.The best thing is that the author chose an excellent set of topics to cover in an introductory book: programming concepts ( arrays, variables, functions, etc. ), web concepts ( forms, connecting to MySQL database, cookies and sessions, etc. ), and a smattering of installation and configuration information ( ... just enough, not boring ).Moreover, I really liked the smaller size of the book so that I could easily hold it while typing up the examples at my keyboard.

Search for another Book
I'm still trying to learn PHP after going through this book.I have HTML, XHTML, actionscript, and CSS experience.It teaches interesting points about the language, but it's difficult to put the language into use with this book. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Kevin is no Writer
Kevin seems like a super guy on sitepoint, but please, kevin, stop writing books. Boring read and far from being well structured. I'm sure kevin is a good coder, but if he happens to code like he writes, his script would be all over the place.

Sorry, I mostly gave it 3 stars because I really like Kevin, but if anyone wants to get a book on php and mysql this is not it.

p.s.

Sitepoint books lately have been bad. I'm starting to think they have a cookie cutter method of writing. I'm still a fan of the forum, but their books are not what they use to be.

Good with Lectures - Bad at Writing! Drink lots of Coffee!
I read this book and did not make it past Chapter 2.
The book is just boring and very sporadic.

It's like getting lecture on driving and never actually getting in a car. When will these expert understand, you have to be practical, projects before epic explanations.

A variable is like a container, it can hold information, blah blah, I can get that off Google.
Strings are text. Really, wow! I did not know that. Come on!

Kevin Yank is great but on this one, it's a failure.

When a book puts me to sleep, that's the end of it!


MO

Amazingly clear and uses the best methods
I have read two books from different publishers and authors on this subject. The other is called PHPSolutions, i do not recommend that book. I believe sitepoint is one of the better publishers for beginners and their newer books are very well written. Compared to PHPSolutions I believe that this book shows much better methods of organization and gives the reader a better understanding of the subjects. His writing is very elegant and would be very good for a beginner but yet after reading another book on php and mysql i am still learning valuable techniques and strategies from this book.

While some people may find the absence of CSS in the book a drawback I find it very helpful, the authors goal is not to teach you CSS it was to instruct you in the art of mixing PHP and a MYSQL database to create functional webpages with data. What author does is creates a focus on the code and does not spend time elaborating example code, that will in all most all cases, never be used. A better approach to css is to pick up another of Sitepoint books such as The CSS Anthology where you will learn css that you can use to create your own webpage designs.

I hope this review will make you consider looking at the sitepoint website, and another great thing about sitepoint is they offer large previews of their books so you can see what you are getting into.

What I Needed!
Understanding some of the basics and having knowledge somewhat of PHP and MySQL going in, I wanted a book that broke everything down to explain to me exactly what everything did, and on a recommendation, I bought this book and was not disappointed. Kevin Yank does a good job showing the reader, and giving them access to the actual code itself, how to execute and even some security flaws that one might encounter. I think after reading that book, that having a full understanding of php and mysql, that I will be able to write my own programs (but of course still looking back for reference).

php and sql book
This is a good book in an overall point of view. If you want to learn from the ground up without any help from any web editor this is your choice. It is a little difficult for a beginner but the examples in the book are pretty clear and straightforward.
What is most interesting about this book is the use of php templates and the coding style that the book wants the reader to learn. The book shows a wide use of php templates. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of over 250 PHP functions with clear explanations in language anyone can understand, followed with as many examples as it takes to understand what the function does and how it works. This book includes numerous additional tips, the basics of PHP, MySQL query examples, regular expressions syntax, and two indexes to help you find information faster: a common language index and a function index. When the internet is not around or you want a simpler explanation along with all the technical details, this book has all of that and more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Excellent Reference Guide
As a university student, I found this book to be an excellent compliment to the web development course I am currently taking. With respect to a previous reviewer of this book, I found the physical quality of this book to be more than reasonable. I certainly would not call the paper quality "cheap". Overall, this book is excellent for anyone who is interested in becoming more familiar with PHP. As the title suggests, this book is suitable for a wide audience, regardless of whether you are a complete beginner or are already somewhat familiar with PHP.

Definitely not worth $16
The book is what I expected. The content is basic PHP and has good explanations to refresh you on the syntax. However, I wish it had mysqli functions. It doesnt cover this at all. What made me return this book was the fact that the pages are made of cheap paper. The paper was a musty yellow color. Definitely not clean white, and that bothered me, so I returned it. Maybe I got a defect, but I did buy it new from amazon.

Review
As a casual PHP coder (I pick it back up every few months to add to my websites or tweak something), I have found this book to be a perfect fit.

The author breaks the whole book down into the typical sections: String functions, Array functions, MySQL, etc. Like many other books I've purchased, I can always learn more by flipping through a chapter page-by-page, but I pick this book up more often because I can quickly get around to exactly what I need because it is focused around the functions and operators that are key to doing everything in PHP.

I actually keep a bookmark in the RegEx and Date() pages because I refer back to them so frequently to 'refresh'. It's an excellent book that hasn't disappointed me yet when I dust it off and start coding again.

Exactly as Described
From the very first page, the author of this book lets us know exactly its purpose - to act as an off-line reference to the hundred or so domestic PHP functions one might use in the course of writing software, and a couple of their lesser-used variants.

One of my favorite parts was the list of related functions below each description: this allows you to hyperlink your way around the book in a more semantic way than simply reading it front-to-back.

This is certainly not a book just for beginners, because I wouldn't consider output buffer functions to be used by beginners (if you don't know what I mean when I say ob_start() or ob_flush(), then you should probably pick up a copy).

This is the kind of book you should throw in your laptop bag as you get started on a new project, or keep on the shelf of your cubicle. Think about which is faster - tabbing back and forth between your browser window with the current page you're testing, and your text editor, AND the php.net site, or just having a small reference book next to your keyboard.

Also consider your ability to make notes next to functions about your own personal tricks and experiences - I always find myself digging back into my own code as a reference, but if you just had this paper version to carry with you everywhere, you could save yourself a lot of time by not having to grep through your code.

Completely worth your time and money.

Perfect Fit for Beginners
The examples are clear for beginners and easy to follow. Even functions I've never tried to understand before when looking on php.net. As I've started looking into object-orientated programming, I wish this book covered that as well, but I guess that would be more advanced. ... Read more

Product Description
PHP is currently one of the most popular server-side, HTML-embeddedscripting language on the Web. It's specifically designed for Web sitecreation and is frequently being used to replace the functionalitycreated by Perl to write CGI scripts. PHP's popularity andeasier-to-learn appeal has spawned a new breed of programmer, those whoare only familiar with and only use PHP.
 
Sharpen your PHP skills with the fully revised and updated, PHP 5 Advanced for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickPro Guide! Filled with fifteen chapters of step-by-step content and written by best-selling author and PHP programmer, Larry Ullman,this guide teaches specific topics in direct, focused segments, showshow PHP is used in real-world applications, features popular andmost-asked-about scripts, and details those technologies that will bemore important in the future. You'll learn about object-orientedprogramming, PHP interactions with a server, XML, RSS, Networking withPHP, image and PDF generation, and more.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

A great start for a beginner with basic coding background.
First off, I will give you some information on myself. I was the kid who thought he was going to be a web / graphic designer in high school due to the dot com bubble that had recently blown up around 2000. So by the time I had graduated I had taken close to 10 computer courses.

I had learned the basics of coding in C++ courses and set out to self teach myself PHP, but was always afraid of MySQL for some reason so I avoided it. Over the years I did some freelance web design for side cash but never went to college to pursue my desire. After several years I gave it all up, although I still have always had my own websites just for screwing around with.

On to today... I missed coding. I realized a long time ago that graphic design was not for me, but that I still greatly enjoyed coding of all kinds. So I picked up this book based on the great reviews it already has.

This is a GREAT introduction book. If you have a little bit of coding background, like myself, then you will fly through this book and learn so much about PHP and MySQL in no time. The author's style of written is very easy to follow and he provides you with clear examples of everything. This book is full of side notes and tips that are useful for scenarios he may not specifically cover.

By the time I finished this book, I set out to use real world examples. I built a database storing credentials for Twitter accounts and created a website that interacts with Twitter. From this PHP based website I can now maintain as many accounts as necessary (I have over 100 on there currently) and do anything from bulk following a user, making the accounts all tweet the same thing, Tweeting from specific accounts, etc etc. All from knowledge I learned from this book (and some Twitter API forums).

I HIGHLY suggest this book to anyone who's looking to learn more about PHP. I enjoyed it so much that I purchased the next book in this author's series, PHP 5 Advanced: Visual QuickPro Guide. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I plan to skim through this book again real quick before I pick up the advanced techniques book.

Side note: I purchased this book shortly after losing my job. After I finished this book, it completely reignited my earlier love for coding and especially for PHP. I actually started attending college, working towards a degree in Web Technologies, for the first time since I graduated from high school in 2002.

Great book if you want to start quick
Just want to start quick and this book is for it.
Can't find one aspect that I don't like.

Great PHP training book
Larry Ullman guides you through development of usable applications using PHP, Ajax, JavaScript and MySQL.He's an experience educator who practices the principles of layering concepts, so that each exercise makes use of the material you've just learned as well and reinforces the concepts you've learned earlier in the book.If you want to improve your PHP skills, trust this book to help you.

FINALLY A BOOK FOR ADVANCED PRO
ADVANCED PROGRAMMING means I want to jump into action immediatly and it's what this book does.

It teachs you new advanced ways to do things or, most important, new ways to do things you've done in the past and now you thing... I could I be so complicated when the right way was so obvious!? :-)

BUY IT....

Another Great book by Larry Ullman - A must have
I probably have every book Larry Ullman has written and PHP 5 Advanced has been like a bible to me for the past year or so. It is absolutely FULL of useful information, ideas and tips. There is very little that you can't do with PHP if you completely grasp the contents of this book. If you have this book and "PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide" that makes a fantastic set.
It is so easy to follow and understand, very detailed and well indexed. The example content can be a building block to get you going in the right direction. I do not use any of the scripts directly from Larry's books, but they stimulate ideas and have given me a much better holistic understanding and direction for web based application architecture.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It's a triumph in the mastery of teaching advanced php, especially Object Oriented. ... Read more

Product Description
Simple, to the point, and compact--in fact, exactly what you've come to expect in an O'Reilly Pocket Reference--the second edition of PHP Pocket Reference is thoroughly updated to include the specifics of PHP 4, the language's latest version. Written by the founder of the PHP Project, Rasmus Lerdorf, PHP Pocket Reference is both a handy introduction to PHP syntax and structure, and a quick reference to the vast array of functions provided by PHP. The quick reference section organizes all the core functions of PHP alphabetically so you can find what you need easily;the slim size means you can keep it handy beside your keyboard for those times when you want to look up a function quickly without closing what you're doing. The PHP Pocket Reference an indispensable (and inexpensive) tool for any serious PHP coder. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

Why is O'Reilly still offering this?
I just bought this and I guess I should have been more diligent at looking at the description.Seeing 2nd edition I was thinking this covered PHP 5, but it was last released in 2002 and it now covers PHP 4.Book is somewhat useful I guess but why are they still asking $10 for such an out dated book, especially a tech book whose active shelf lives rarely last more than three or four years.
Publisher really needs to get this updated to at least cover PHP 5.Of course by the time they release it PHP 6 will probably be the norm.

Very outdated, needs significant refactoring
Synopsis:

At this point, when considering purchasing this book, I'd say get a real reference if you want to learn PHP, or if you need a big function reference off-line, then install the help that comes with PHP or just use php.net on-line.This book might be marginally okay for bathroom reading, but otherwise, it really needs to be updated.The reference only covers through PHP 4 which is now unsupported.The way things are done in PHP 5 have changed enough that it's time to deprecate this resource.

Details:

I've owned this pocket reference since it was published in '02 and put it away when I switched to Perl as my primary language in '04 till this year.Now that I'm back to PHP again, I'm reminded of how annoying it is to use this book.The tips at the front of the book are good, but the function reference is difficult to use at best.I'm terribly surprised that O'Reilly hasn't worked with Mr. Lerdorf for a new version.I own lots of O'Reilly materials, many of them pocket references.I don't believe this is up to O'Reilly standards for pocket references.If given a chance to review a new version of this reference, I'd push hard for significant changes, especially to formatting.Other reviewers correctly identified issues with function descriptions.There are times when a pocket reference like this deserves to skip descriptions when the description doesn't add any value to what's already obvious.

Hit(s):

o Contains basic PHP syntax information

Miss(es):

o The latest PHP version covered in this book is no longer supported
o Function listing is grouped in a manner that doesn't make sense to most readers
o Function descriptions are often worthless

Out of date & needing improvement
O'Reilly must sell a ton of these.Why not get a new author willing to do a good job of updating and improving.We all owe Lerdorf a lot for starting PHP in the first place.Having said that, O'Reilly needs to get an author who can update this and make it a useful reference.PHP is now on version 5.2 and this book is on version 4.It is nearly useless.I try to use this book from time to time, but never seem to find the information I need.Ie: Each function in the reference section needs at least two sentences of explanation, not a half sentence.

PHP needs a couple of good current reference books.Where are they?

Don't buy this book
What went wrong? I have many of the O'Reilly pocket references and I bought this one on the assumption it would measure up to the others. It doesn't.

Starts out promising but once it reaches page 34 the remainder is unorganize junk with no examples, no hint of what you would use it for.

Shame on O'Reilly for putting this out under their name; they have done their faithful customers who buy on their name's reputation a disservice.

You need a no stars category for this book!

not really worth it
it seems like a handy thing and all but if you have an internet connection open when you code (presumably, since you're doing web development), the php.net documentation is much more helpful... not sure why anybody would use this. not even sure why i really bought this. i guess it looks good with all of the other little o'reilly guides that i own but it really was a waste of 5 dollars... ... Read more

Product Description
"The expertise, thought, and effort that go into each book are obvious, and I sincerely appreciate your efforts. Keep up the wonderful work!"
--Tracey Moore (Memphis, TN)

Welcome to the only guidebook series that takes a visual approach to professional-level computer topics. Open the book and you will discover step-by-step screen shots that demonstrate over 140 key techniques using PHP amd MySQL, including:
* Configuring Apache to process PHP code
* Working with character strings
* Creating, sorting, and comparing arrays
* Defining and using functions
* Finding and replacing substrings
* Querying databases and retrieving data
* Stopping and starting the MySQL server
* Adding dynamic check boxes
* Sending new Web pages to a browser

Extra / Apply It
* High-resolution screen shots demonstrate each task
* Succinct explanations walk you through step-by-step
* Two-page lessons break big topics into bite-sized modules
* "Apply It" and "Extra" sidebars highlight useful tips ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Good overview, tiny screenshots
Concise overview of general features. Good for a beginner, generally one page per function. Could use a little more detail on SQL joins etc, but I guess there is a whole SQL book!

Good sample code examples, however the screenshots are tiny, in fact so hard to read they may as well not be there. I don't normally wear glasses but I had to break them out and still squint. I have the visual Javascript book which luckily doesn't suffer from this problem.

PHP & MySQL "your visual blueprint"
It might be a very good book, I can't say for sure because I can not read the input lessons with a magnifying glass.
Unless you have eagle eyes this book is absolutely worthless!

Get Your Magnifying Glass Ready
I once had a PHP book that was in a larger format than this.It was on glossy paper and featured screenshots.It was a great book.I wish I could recall the name of it because I would like to obtain another copy.

I had hoped that this was that book but I was disappointed.I can't comment about the code in the book as I haven't begun to work through it.The focus of my problem is the miniscule type on the screencap images.

Now I'm not exaggerating; you could benefit from magnifying glasses when you look at the sample output as displayed on these small screencap images.If you are older like me and need to wear glasses these images will prove challenging to see.Since the book relies on these screencaps to display the sample code and output I regard this as a huge problem.

I understand the need for book publishers to reduce costs and that this effort has led to reducing the size of books but this result is a real detriment to the book's effectiveness.Maybe it wouldn't be a problem for a text-only book, but when you are trying to display screencaps the small size of this book's format (7 3/8" wide X 9 1/8" tall) isn't a suitable format because it forces the screencaps to be printed at what I consider to be too small a size.

Its a shame as the presentation format of visually learning is superior to just text but this book shrinks the screencaps too small to retain readable text in them.Too much fine print. :(

If reading ultra-fine print (seriously, its that small) isn't a problem for you then go for this book.If it is then look elsewhere.

Your friendly blueprint PHP & MySQL book
[...]
First of all I want to confess that I'm absolutely new to PHP and specially to MySQL. I made some try to understand PHP from some books from home library, but there're too advanced for me. In this book I found exactly what I was searching for.

There is no required knowledge level for using this book, but I would recommend it to beginners and intermediate users. For beginners it will be fast and easy PHP & MySQL reference, and for intermediate users it will be excellent book to remind them of all the things they forgotten (and more possibly to bring new stream in their knowledges).

I imagine this book would be useful to people who have no programming experience at all as this book covers basic programming concepts (which are the same in all programming languages) like variables, loops, and arrays, in great detail. Code in this book is for PHP 5 that is currently the latest version of PHP. I know that some companies in the world still stuck on PHP 4. So maybe this book will be helpful to people who wanna take quick overview of interaction of PHP5 and MySQL. I think some people would agree with me that jumping right away from version 4 to version 6 is not very convenient.

This is without a doubt a technical book and such books need to be written with simple language to be ready to everybody's grasp. This book is written with simple language and is very friendly. The book is full of short examples and I liked this book because of its simplicity.

Nobody stays behind as there are clarifications for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X users, so everybody stays satisfied. The detailed chapters on installation and configuration of Apache, PHP, and MySQL for all Windows, Linux and Macintosh are walking the reader through the complex process step by step, giving very clear instructions, explaining the reasons for the recommended configuration choices.

As it says on the cover: "Your visual blueprint for creating dynamic, database-driven Web sites". Book is printed on good quality paper and the most important thispages are not "busy" with a lot of information - inside you find many screenshots for every step you make, so you could have more control over your every action (step).

On a companion website you can download all codes for this book and get more information about author (also review table of content). Compressed .zip file with codes takes about 61kb on your hard disk and 532 kb unzipped. In case of interest you can first download code files and then ordera book.

Would recommend
This book has very high visual appeal, and would actually make a beginner like me want to learn the material covered in this book. The book is well organized (every chapter begins with a few paragraphs explaining the objective of the chapter, then follows with 1-2 pages of learn-by-example), although some of the information regarding MySQL and PHP setup are a bit outdated and confusing. The pictorial examples are clear and readable, although I can see how someone would think they are too small. Overall, I would recommend this book the most to those with little to no scripting experience, as it may move a bit slow for those with a lot of programming or scripting experience. ... Read more

Product Description

Consisting of 24 one-hour lessons, Sams Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours, is divided into five sections that guide the reader through the language from the basics to advanced functions. The first section of the book teaches the fundamentals of PHP. And then, sections two through four shows the reader how to apply that knowledge in order to interact with the user by creating and managing forms, cookies and authentication. It also teaches how to access databases and how to integrate system components, e-mail, LDAP, network sockets and much more.

Customer Reviews (17)

The best PHP primer
This is not a PHP programming book. This book will teach you about the very basics of PHP syntax and structure and while it will not get you anywhere near proficiency, it will give you a very solid, albeit simple, foundation from which to continue. With literally thousands of included functions and thousands more specialized functions available for all forms of tasks, PHP is a rich and subtle language not easily learned in a hurry. This book will provide the foundation to continue exploring the language in a very straight forward and understandable presentation.

For example, the book covers arrays with 19 sections which gives a good knowledge base and allows the beginner to begin to use these incredibly useful entities but it doesn't come close to the available 77 array functions contained within the language. Or the 21 string functions covered in the book versus the 97 functions available in the language.

Anybody interested in learning PHP will also want to bookmark [...] as the definitive source of information regarding the language.

While knowledge of HTML/XHTML is not needed to learn PHP the typical usage of PHP will require a good understanding of markup languages and knowledge of HTTP will go a long way to making your life easier too. Because of PHP's versatility, the successful programmer will soon be learning SQL and XML to name only two.

I encourage any beginning PHP programmer to buy this book for the basics. To glimpse PHP programming issues, I would refer you to 'PHP Solutions: Dynamic web design made easy' by David Powers from Friends of Ed as the next step in you education.

PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy

Sam's Teach Yourself:PHP
Overall I believe the book is pretty good at teaching the language.But I must admit, I was pretty confused and still haven't resolved the problem on how to construct a server, which is instructed in Chapter 2.But when it comes to the coding itself, its very understandable, it explains what each code means and tells you your options.But I do wish it gave answers to the exercises it gives at the end of the chapters.

Great reference, ok learning tool
When i bought this book, i already knew console based C++, so this isn't my first plunge into programming.I didn't, however, have a lick of PHP knowledge.

As a learning tool, it is ok.The first few chapters are very easy to learn.However, about 1/3-1/2 the way through the book, the learning curve steepens.The concepts become harder to grasp, but if you have had some programming in the past, this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Now that i have learned PHP, mostly from this book, but also from the php.net website as well as some forums (forums.devshed.com has a great developer forum), this book is a great reference.It is well indexed, and if I happen to forget something, i can look it up very quickly.If the book doesn't have it, i can usually find it on the php website or on forums.

I'd also like to comment on another review before this one,
on T. Sagert "whambulance"'s post.This isn't a ""no programming needed" beginner MySQL" as this ISN'T A MYSQL BOOK!

Teaches authors they can publish a book (only)
Well, after reading the reviews on EVERY "no programming needed" beginner MySQL book available on Amazon.com, I am convinced NONE of them teach a "beginner" anything. Commodore language was my "beginner" programming, but decided to pick it up again.

One thing this book and ALL of these books dont tell you is WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE CODE ONCE YOU WRITE IT? WHERE THE HELL DOES IT GO?

After two years of on-and-off study, I still dont know anything, I just have a stack of books rotting in the garage ready for the next 25-cent rummage sale.

It worked for me
I have a small shelf filled with PHP books. They all helped me a little bit (perhaps I'm just a slow learner.) But it wasn't until I worked through the 24 lessons in this book that I finally began to feel that I was getting a firm grip on the fundamentals of writing solid PHP code. This is the book that turned me from a bumbling amateur to someone on a respectable intermediate level, completely comfortable with reading through more advanced books on PHP (books that go beyond the usual: "here's how to build a simple shopping cart.")

If you're starting out with PHP, I'd recommend that you start with this book of 24 lessons. By the end you'll actually feelcompetent and that you are sure-footedly headed toward the goal of mastery! ... Read more

Product Description
PHP and MySQL Everyday Apps For Dummies is a one-stop reference providing all you need to build dynamic, real-world, ready-to-use apps with the popular PHP (a scripting language) and MySQL (a database system) software. The book is a hands-on, go-to-guide that

• Walks you through installing the applications files from the CD-ROM and setting up your programming environment

• Contains all the code needed to create seven applications:
  • User authentication with HTTP
  • User login
  • On-line catalog
  • Shopping cart
  • Content management system
  • Web forum
  • Building and managing a mailing list (on the CD-ROM)

• Automates the programming process and walks you through building the application from start to finish

• Explains how to write secure code

• Features complete code—not just snippets, but neatly assembled packages with “instant” real-world functionality

• Shows how to build the applications in two forms -- procedural and object-oriented programming -- providing programmers who want to switch to the object-oriented method of coding (which is new in PHP 5!) with the essential know-how

• Includes a companion CD-ROM that contains every line of code in the applications from the book plus a bonus chapter that shows how to build a mailing list

Information on each application includes a discussion of issues, structure of the database, code listings, and an explanation of the code. You can use these applications as is, modify them for use on your Web site, or build your own application using techniques described. If you want real-world Web apps you can use right away, this is the book for you.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Pretty helpful product
Not a bad book. Another "Dummies" title making something as complex as database programming accessible to the common man. The one thing that kept this product from a 5-star rating was that it begins assuming some prior knowledge of PHP and MySQL, and/ or programming in general. Fine for me, but still left with a kind of quick survey of installation, confiquration and basics and right into the nuts and bolts of what you want the end result to be. Combine with a regular programming book for maximum results.

mySQL for Dummies
Since the book was for dummies I assumed I would be able to understand it. Probably my mistake I should have researched it further before buying.

Applications don't work. Other reviews must've been premature.
The applications on the CD are not "working and ready for you to install." Not at all.

In fact, if you do exactly what the book says, your apps WILL NOT work. Why? Because the code is wrong. Not only are there errors in the database instructions, but the PHP and inc files have numerous errors.

Even after downloading the "corrected files" and following the new instructions for the database found on the author's website, some functionality is simply broken. The CMS kinda-sorta works, but not really because there is no file upload form as you see displayed in the book. Just not there. Obviously the result of some error in the file include, but you'd have to be a php expert to figure it out. Without being able to add or delete records from a database, well, a CMS is pretty useless, isn't it? Yes it is.

The most important applications on the CD (shopping cart and content management system) are rife with errors. This cripples them to such a degree that they are worthless as is. And corrected. And especially if you are a "dummy."

This is a practical book, not for beginers
This is a very good book to get practical skills in PHP development with MySQL appliances.But before buying it, it is important to understand that this book is not for beginers, this book assumes that the reader have a least basic knowledge of both tools.

For very dummies
if you need a first impression, just found out that computers exist, if you think PHP stands for a new boygroup, then this is the book for you. ... Read more