PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide

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• #3 in Best PHP Books

85 Reviews

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I bought this book 3 months ago and really enjoyed it. The book does teach you the basic of how to build dynamic pages, connect to a database, and security. However, i would not recommend it to professionals simply because it doesn't use the stands that everyone else is using such as object oriented programming (OOP).

After reading this, i turned to the online community for extra info but found myself trapped as most tutorials and examples use OOP (which is the core of php).

If you're a beginner looking to build your first SIMPLE dynamic website, this book is for you but if you're a professional looking to enhance your site, i would skip this book.

Let me add my kudos to Larry Ullman and his PHP/MySQL Guide. This is a beginner's book, as others have pointed out, and Mr. Ullman is one of the very few programming writers who grasps how to write for the novice.

How many times in your life have you tried to learn something about programming, or the internet, and within 5 pages wondered "what in the h--- is he talking about?" Or had some very simple term or concept left unexplained (or insufficiently explained)? Or had some simple little practical procedure that took you hours to figure out, when all it would have taken is a single sentence? When I first started building webpages, I was utterly frustrated because I didn't know that I needed to save notepad files as "all files" to get a .html extension on them -- just the kind of thing that drives you nuts, and is totally unnecessary.

Mr. Ullman does not make this mistake. He knows exactly how to "hold your hand" so you don't lose hours doing something stupid.

This attention to detail, and attitude of user-friendliness, extends into every part of the operation. Nothing is left half-finished. The programs he gives have been scrupulously edited to insure that they actually work. The associated website is rich and well-maintained for excellent customer support. The text is well-spaced, the paper good quality, and there are more examples than you really need.

Nevertheless, he manages to get you through all the basics of PHP and MySQL in 490 pages of large half-column text. There is a certain amount of irreduceable difficulty learning any mid-level programming language, but Ullman makes it as painless as humanly possible, and even better, when you finish a chapter you actually know what you are supposed to know.

This book gets an A+ from me.

Edit, several months later.

I have finished Ullman's book and have gone on to do a lot of PHP programming. I had little trouble putting together a comprehensive CMS when I was through.

However, I have to change my rating to "four stars" after finishing the book. The section on MySQL is not nearly as good as the PHP sections, and a number of times I found I had use Google and find an online MySQL tutorial, in order to understand something.

This seems pretty silly, as MySQL is a LOT easier than PHP, especially if you have the phpMyAdmin graphic interface. The chapters on combining the two, however -- i.e., using php with MySQL -- go back to the "five star" level. I wouldn't call it "easy", but he makes it logical and understandable on a patient, step-by-step basis. The later chapters on miscellaneous subjects, such as security, are very helpful.

So, this get five stars for a php beginner and two stars for the introduction to MySQL. I would still recommend it but would also recommend an inexpensive MySQL book to go with it.

This is a huge book, approximately 665 pages, however it is quite hard to find anything of help in it. It's great if you are going to go through and do all of the examples, I'm sure you would learn something from it, but it's terrible when you want a quick answer, or you really need to know the details on something. I frequently find myself searching the net instead of this book because it is huge and there is no good way to find the answers. Additionally, when you do find the answers it is just a continuation of a previous example and does not explain in depth on how to use the various functions and such.

In conclusion, it's probably just fine if you are a student and want to go page by page and read the book and learn by examples. But it's terrible as a quick reference, and for more advanced users needing in-depth information you should look elsewhere.

I'm a PHP/MySQL developer with around 7 years of experience. I felt I knew a lot of what was in this book, but it was good to see the "layering" of concepts, where each new concept built on the previous one.

There were a lot of suggestions that influence how I'm developing sites now. I'd have liked a little more on the MySQL optimization, but there are plenty of other books for this.

Overall, if you're not an expert, I think there will be plenty to learn. If you're knew to PHP/MySQL, this is a great resource to walk you through the basics of building some robust applications.

If you aren't already somewhat familiar with PHP and MySQL, you should start with Larry's other two books, then bring your knowledge of PHP and MySQL and learn how to integrate them for your applications.

I have read and tried to follow dozens of books on the subjects and Ullman's stand head and shoulders above the rest because of the methodical, step by step teaching method he uses.

If you don't have at least a working knowledge of HTML, you need to get it before starting any of the three books. I don't recommend Elizabeth Castro's HTML compared to some of the other HTML texts I have used.

Good Luck on your idea!

Although I have some background with programming (Basic, Pascal, COBAL) and desktop db business applications, I had been somewhat intimidated by the idea of server-side programming.

I can only tell you that I did in fact take this book one chapter at a time, sometimes re-reading some sections several times, and marking-up certain parts with a hi-liter and a red pen. I followed the tutorials, downloaded the scripts from the book's associated website, and even got help directly from the author at his website's forum.

Don't misunderstand me, that I marked-up the book, did homework, and asked questions was a reflection of how the book did engage me - AND TAUGHT ME. The book is well written, methodical, detailed, and its intended audience seemed to be someone with my background (pretty fluent in HTML, handy with CSS, has a basic understanding of databases and programming concepts, and who enjoys the learning process under a good professor).

This book will get you started and on your way - correctly. It was the perfect launch site for me (once you get through this book you will be in a good position to evaluate what you need to learn next). As for me, this book (alone) taught me to write programs/scripts to login users, develop MySQL databases, write database reports, do user input forms and process them at the back-end updating the database tables, sessions, cookies, etc. etc.

Select this book. Your php output will be, primarily, html markup. So if you don't know HTML - spend some time with that first -- along with CSS (I recommend CSS The Missing Manual by David S. McFarland).

Don't know about you out there, but I hate reading boring long theoretical technical texts. i also didn't come from programming background, but IT networking/security. This book was absolutely great for these reasons:

1. no long page upon page babbling by author
2. real hands on action oriented tasks with quick exciting results
3. minimal text, maximum practice with excellent explanations
4. integration of PHP with MySQL for optimal value and practical world
5. Downloadable scripts to validate against your work for accuracy
6. All chapters and hands-on work are aligned to the most frequently
encountered practical real world needs, to plug-n-play for your web
site [...]

I've been creating web pages with HTML and CSS for several years. First as a diversion, then for work, friends, etc. I had the need to use a data base for a project. I bought a couple of books and stumbled through it with PHP and MYSQL. Never really "got it" just got through it.

When I picked this book up it HAD STUFF IN IT I NEEDED! It helped me do the things I needed to do in the real world. I'm not a full time web developer, and this book helped me understand the code and how it works.

I would say it is a GREAT buy for the new to moderate user.

I am one of the most impatient programmers on the face of the earth. In fact, I have been in professional services for years because it takes to long to realize results with traditional programming. Web development has sucked me back into the fray, and I enjoy the immediacy of the langugages involved. Code it -- look at it! Works perfectly for me! However, I am now a senior analyst, and nothing in my job description calls for these skills.

As the new director of technology (website guru) for my professional association, I found myself at a loss. I know HTML, and a smattering of java, but knew nothing about PHP, CSS, real JAVA programming or MySQL, which are the basis for our group's website. I took over in January of 2006, with a major symposium scheduled for March 2006. Everything and it's grandmother needed to be released on that site, which had been neglected over the past year (the old DOT was sent to Iraq!). In short order, I needed to know it all and do it all. This same review will be used for the Java and PHP/MySQL books. THESE BOOKS ARE A LIFESAVER! From building forms in HTML (I had never had to do this before), to creating style sheets, to writing java code to manipulating the MySQL database with PHP files, I have found the instructions so clear and easy to use that when I am in a hurry, I can just do stuff. Later, I can go back to the book to understand what I did, how it was actually done, and why it was successfully. When I really take my time, the tutorials are invaluable.

Obviously, I recommend this book. Novices will be led gently by the hand; the more experienced will find better ways of doiing things, and the impatient can get it done quickly. Excellent deal.

I would agree with other reviewers that this book is not for people who have programmed before. I personally found it close to useless since it involved so much hand holding (including instructions, nearly each time, to open up a new file, to save it, to load it in the browser, etc). The one positive aspect is that it is very clearly and consistently written, and the information is presented in a way that is easy to grasp and understand.

However, mainly I fail to see how making a "visual" version of this is of any benefit at all. For visual thinkers I think a visual guide would be useful, but most of the images used in the book are simply screen shots of source code -- how on earth is that useful? Basically it makes the source code harder to read and adds only the borders of a standard GUI (in this case, OS X) window. In any case, they generally repeat sections of the same source code in the text of the book itself, leading to wasted space.

In addition, for some unknown reason they decided to lay the book out using narrow columns. As a result, nearly all of the lines of code wrap considerably, even where it would be problematic for them to do so. The line wraps are clearly marked but in my opinion it would still be confusing for a beginner.

So the graphics are a waste of space, the columns hinder reading of the source code, and the instructions assume a user who doesn't even know the basics of creating a web page (which I would recommend as a prerequisite to making a dynamic web site).

I am not sure what a replacement guide is, but I don't recommend this for experienced OR new programmers.

And the overwhelming positive reviews found here only add to the disappointment.

I will admit that the book gives a very good first impression. Sadly, after the initial reading and usage, it quickly becomes obvious that the book falls short in most critical areas.

Each and every line of code is repeated (and explained) over and over again, very redundant and annoying. Not only that, but the layout is very hard to read or follow.

Unfortunately, the book's contents do NOT make up for its weak presentation. For a 600+ page book, surprisingly little content (to accommodate all the repeated code) , making this book absolutely useless as a reference.

The worst part of this book is just how impractical it is. It teaches you the VERY basics of web programming as a concept (it doesn't even touch on the subject of OOP). Otherwise, just think of it as a detailed PHP lexicon. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, and most certainly not to someone who's at all serious about web programming.

I give this book 2/5 because I did end up learning something from it. The author is obviously knowledgeable and writes beautifully, I will not shy away from his other books, just proceed with caution.

This is definitely not for someone new to programming or relational databases. The pace is fast which works well if you already know those things but need to know how to do them in PHP and mySQL. Those new to either of those two concepts should probably look for something more basic

I purchased this book having absolutely zero PHP or MySQL experience. I had just finished reading a book on HTML and CSS (my only coding experience by the way) with the intention of creating a dynamic web site but first needed to learn how to do it.

Larry's book was EXTREMELY HELPFUL in teaching a total beginner such as myself how to read, write and understand PHP and MySQL scripts. Not only are the scripts and exercises in the book easy to learn, they are also incredibly practical and transferable in terms of customizing for use on personal projects. There are all kinds of wonderful scripts that can be reused hundreds of times once they have been written.

By far, one of the greatest things about this book, is that the author, Larry Ullman has an online forum which he moderates and personally answers questions from all the people who have purchased one of his many books.

I have not read any of Larry's other books yet, but I can honestly say that his teaching style in this one is absolutely fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone with a desire to learn PHP and MySQL!!!

I give this book 100 stars!!!

I have had this book lying around the office for about a year, but never opened it because I program with Coldfusion, not php. But recently I have been working with a MySQL database and needed to read up on it. I had already read "Teach yourself MySQL in 10 minutes a day" and found that to be a bit confusing. I don't think it lays enough groundwork. So I thought, what the heck I'll read the chapters on MySQL in this book. They were excellent! The author lays the groundwork and gets you up to speed in just two chapters. The book is worth the price for just the sections on MySQL.

I got this book because I was taking a course in LAMP development and couldn't find a copy of the textbook. I figured this book would be a nice temporary reference, until someone got the textbook (the WROX book, "Beginning PHP, Apache, MySQL Web Development") in stock. It turns out that even after I got the class text, I almost exclusively used this book. It has a nice index and a lot of tabular references which make finding information quite easy. It's perfect for my style of learning, where I like to experiment and just turn to the text when I need to look something up. In my opinion, it's much better than the WROX title. It *was* written for PHP 3 & 4, and MySQL 3 & 4, but virtually all of the material is still accurate and relevant.

For the past 3 months I've trying to learn PHP & MySQL without any luck. After trying to understand books like:

1) Spring into PHP5 by Steven Holzner (bad learning format)
2) PHP5 fast&easy web development by Julie Meloni (simple but not with great depth)
3) and others

I've finally bought this book last week and been learning ever since. It's unfortunate I've been wasting my time and even feeling like fool for not understanding the concepts from the other books.

This book is amazing. I'm setting up my first big web project which includes a CMS (Content Mangement System) / Updatable Staff list and other things and I finally making it all happen. Thank to Mr. Ullman.

Thank you for giving me hope Mr. Ullman!

Let me preface this review by stating that I am a reasonably well educated person. I read voraciously - fiction, psychology, history, archaeology, volumes of techno-geekery, and so on. I'm comfortable using XHTML and CSS. In short, I'm no dummy. Also, I truly loathe having to give a book a poor review.

Having said that, I found this book impossible to get through! It is neither "visual" nor "quick". I cannot comment on the accuracy of the code because I still haven't made it past the introduction. I actually dread attempting the rest of it.

The writing style is dry as old dust. I didn't buy this book to be entertained, so theoretically the writing style shouldn't matter - except when it gets in the way of my learning. Personally, I don't learn much when my eyes are crossing from tedium.

Much of the text seems repetitious - not in a "let's repeat crucial concepts so they will sink in" kind of way, but in a "let's turn a 475 page book into a 602 page book (not including the index) so we can charge more for it" kind of way.

Even the layout is mind-numbing.

I have a great deal of respect for the author for tackling the subject, and I'm pleased that so many others have found this book helpful. It simply isn't the right book for me - so much so that I felt compelled to present an alternate point of view, to help keep the reviews more realistic. If this is the right book for you, fantastic! Just bear in mind that it is not without its flaws.

PHP and MySQL For Dynamic Web Sites is one heck of a book for both beginner and advanced users of PHP and MySQL. If you are an advanced user you will probably find more than just a couple things that can speed up your coding techniques and you may even just learn something new that you didn't know before. If you are a beginner user then the book will take you step by step from the beginning of learning how to use PHP and MySQL.

The book starts out with the fundamentals of PHP with basic syntax. From there you end up going through basically everything there is to know about PHP untill you get to the introduction to MySQL which will start you out just like the PHP chapters with basic syntax. Once you have gone through both sections of PHP and MySQL introductions you will then start to learn how to put both together to start making websites. From there you will gain more and more knowledge, hints, tips, and shortcuts to optimize and create professional PHP and MySQL code for a PHP/MySQL driven website.

There are many strong points in this book, but I must point out the strongest out of all of them which is the fact that at the end of this book it provides in depth detailed tutorials or examples of some very helpfull things to get you started with your own website. There are only three, but if there were anymore the book would weigh 20lbs. The three tutorials/examples include: Content Management, User Registration, and E-Commerce.

As I read through this book there were not many weak points to the book besides the fact that I threw my life away and read it because it was filled with so much interesting content. If I had to pick one weak point it would have to be the fact that all of the code in the book is restrained to a two-inch wide block and the code wraps around to the next line which kind of makes it hard to understand, but there is a fix for this as there is a website inside the book that you can go to where you can download every peice of source code in the book so you don't have to manually type it out.

After you've finished reading all the information in the book you'll find yourself drooling for more and the author apparently knew you'd be drooling for more as he put in seven pages of resources for you to read on the web.

In conclusion, if you are looking to learn PHP and MySQL or are just looking for a good refresher on the PHP/MySQL coding language then this book would be perfect for your needs. I give the book a five out of five stars.

PHP 6 and MySQL 5 by larry ullman is one of the best book I've read in my life , the book contain 17 chapters , covering topics for beginners to advanced topics and it is explain the most common web application examples like (develop user registration , build message board , e-commerce website) .

the book covers the fundamental details in very quick way and specific which is makes the reader build the web application in very short time .

the great thing about this book , it discuss the new improvement mySQL and unicode which is help non-English developers.

I am about half way through the book, and as the title says - very new to PHP. So far I have found the book very useful and easy to understand, 80% of the time. The other 20% is just my ignorance to the subject matter. The author suggests that if you feel a slower pace might help, to try his other book "PHP for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide," which goes at a more "tempered pace." I felt this might behoove me but when I found the book at Borders Books they only had the second addition which was copyrighted for 2004, the book before us is copy 2008, and I believe the easier version Mr. Ullman referred to only went to PHP 4. Perhaps that is the latest version of that book, and maybe it would not make that much difference about the versions. I did read them side by side and I believe he is right if you are a total beginner, as it seemed to be a little more hand-holding and pedantic with the details. I did not buy it however, as I feared there might be a newer model. Back to PHP 6 and MySQL 5, I will add that I am the type that does a lot of reviewing and checking up on these purchases, especially since I am having to self-teach on every subject from Dreamweaver and Photoshop to CSS and PHP, so I think it's accurate to say that I found this book always the top rated, and thus purchased it. I tend to lean toward the Head First series on the programming subjects, because they are perfect for the "real" beginner, but there was not an offering exactly like PHP & SQL from Head-First, , and as I say the Larry Ullman book always popped up as the book of choice in this subject. So far, it has been very helpful and I have no real complaints. Good job Mr. Ullman.
Richard Seymour
Boston, MA

After reading this book, I can very quickly set up dynamic web sites built upon a MySQL database. In one weekend I created a new website that displays information from a database. The next weekend I built in a content management system so my client could update it on their own. I'm very impressed with the quality of this book series and the author, so much so, that I will likely purchase the other books by Ullman as reference. Well done.

I'm a professional programmer but was new to Php and MySql. This book answered all my questions and allowed me to create a sophisticated php page with a database backend in just a couple weeks. I designed my page layout and then just worked on it as I read the book learning the needed techniques. He covers everything I needed. You can't go wrong with this book.

One of the other readers provided a glowing review of this book. I can only second those thoughts.

Having spent 2 years working on learning PHP and MySQL and having purchased 5 other books on PHP-MySQL, I can say without a doubt that Larry Ullman's book is a gem, well worth buying. It may take a beginner awhile to complete the entire book, but there is no doubt that anyone with beginning to intermediate computer skills can learn PHP-MySQL from this book if you take the time.

Without listing the other books that I no longer even open, I would suggest that you put this book at the top of your choices if you are hoping to learn PHP-MySQL. It will take you well into intermediate to advanced skill levels in short order. Congratulations to Mr. Ullman. (P.S., I have no conflict of interest and decided to write this review because I was so impressed with the book).

This is the best PHP and MySQL learning tool I have ever picked up. In fact, it's the best learning *anything* tool I have ever picked up. Larry Ullman teaches PHP and MySQL in a way that makes it very, very easy to understand. He has made most of the other PHP and MySQL references I have seen look embarrassing. I found this book to be better than the short course I did on PHP and MySQL, which was 20 times more expensive.

If you're wanting to learn PHP and MySQL, I can not recommend this gem more highly.

Easy to read and understand, this guide can help both beginners and experienced people in writing web sites using php and mysql.

Larry Ulman is an excellent writer and makes this book VERY easy to learn from. I am 18 years old and making thousands with new interfaces I have designed solely from learning the practices Ulman talks about in this book. Trust me people, this book is an investment that will shoot right back into your wallet in the thousands.

This author is trying to make money off of by selling a misrepresentation that PHP 6 was due out soon. It claims that PHP 6 was due out in 2008 but there was never a set release date or even target for PHP 6. In fact most of the features for PHP 6 has been ported to a version of PHP 5. This book is going to be a complete misrepresentation of the final product that PHP 6 will be. In fact there are more features in the upcoming php 5.3 that are hugely important (namespaces and closures) that were implemented in php 5.3 before they were even a twinkle in this books' eyes. I think I'll write a PHP 7 book full of bs and sell it for more money.

I have been trying to implement a simple to moderately complex PHP/mysql/website for some time and have searched all over the 'net' looking for simple practical ways to implement such a web site with PHP and mysql. I have purchased several books, and have tried demo versions of software that 'build' sites for you, but my lack of expertise in PHP makes it impossible to edit or customize the generated sites for my purpose. For newbies (and not OOP geeks) looking to learn PHP, this book is excellent and well written and will probably be my last 'shot' at building the site that currently exists only in my mind. But as the 1 to 3 star reviews point out, it is definitely a learning tool, not a reference book. Also, it does take time to get used to the two column format and the small print - but the effort is well worth it. (You can download all the scripts and view them in a 'php text editor' of your choice - that definitely helps when reading the book). And the scripts have lots of comments so reading and comprehending what they are doing and how they do it is fairly easy to accomplish. To conclude, if you cannot learn the basics of PHP and MYSQL from this book, and put together a simple web site, then you (and I) should probably find another hobby!

I don't understand why the same exact code needs to be repeated twice on the same page, every page. It's not only a waste of space, it's distracting and difficult.

The whole book could have been printed with less than half this number of pages. I'll work through it when I get the time and PATIENCE.

Shees.

I'll keep it brief since "Customer" nailed it with their review already, but wanted to say with this book and the free manuals on PHP and MySQL I was up to speed and developed my first dynamic web site in a matter of weeks, reading and learning part-time at night.

I wanted to go a bit further than just basic PHP and MySQL as part of a current personal project; researching and learning about open source CMS, web applications and web application frameworks, and how it all fits together.

Larry Ullman's extensive experience as a developer and writer shows. This book is very well structured and builds upon itself intuitively to the reader. The exercises are pragmatic. The only thing that he might have touched upon in this book is OOP--fortunately his book PHP 5 Advanced: Visual QuickPro Guide covers the subject extensively.

This book also provides several key reference tables that I go back to often, e.g., MySQL data types (pg 110...got that memorized). So, the ongoing value is there. There have been a few times where the index didn't point me to the page I was looking for even though I know it's in the book somewhere.

I noticed that Larry's next book is on AIR (has his enthusiasm shifted, or perhaps it's just that he's covered PHP from every conceivable angle at this point??). While I'm sure he'll shed valuable light on AIR, I look forward to his return to PHP prose.

On a side note, Larry makes himself tirelessly available to his readers on his forum and via email. That's pretty extraordinary, too, I think, yet I'm bewildered how he finds the time.

One of the best and easy to understand book. The author is very helpful as well. He is a serious author, who wants to please the readers. So for those who might not like his present books, be sure to check his future books. :)

I used to have the old version of this book as well as PHP4 & MySQL 4.1. I was in limbo, at the time I upgrade my version of MySQL 4.1 to MySQL 5.0. The current and stable version of MySQL has a lot of changes and added new features. It is not easy to just move to this new version without good knowledge of the old version and a good reference
to the new/current one. Currently, I am in chapter 8, enjoying it and learning it the right way. Thanks Larry great job!
John Anthony
Web Designer & Applications Programmer

This book was an excellent introduction for someone like me, a professional programmer with no web programming experience, to get started. The project being carried through the book was broad enough to cover a diverse set of topics, and the code examples permitted exploration and experimentation. It doesn't cover object-oriented PHP, but that can be picked up later. I don't think the book will serve as a reference later, but it provides a lot of pointers to other reference information, including the web site associated with the book.

this book was great. the author explained everything very clearly and was easy to follow. I read and understood everything the first time through. I now use the book as a reference and it also does the job there for basic to moderate PHP.

When I first started reading this book, I thought that it was going to be another one of these things that I get through the first 40 or so pages, try a couple of the examples and throw it on the pile of worthless computer books I've tried to this point.
How mistaken I was. After getting a thrd of the way through this book, I realized the attention to detail the author has put into it. I love it and would recommend it along with any of the "Head First" series of books.
One thing I am impressed with is the errata section on the companion wesite which is an indication to me that the authors and editors take into consideration the users experience once the book is purchased.
So many times I've been to an errata guide on a publishers website only to find 10 or 11 listings in regards a 700+ page book.
I realize that in technical books such as these, there are going to be editing errors. However it is also true that with technical books such as these, even the smallest editing error can make a huge difference. It seems that other books don't include extensive errata guides in fear that their books will be percieved by the buyer to be improperly edited or else that the errors are to frivolous to point out.
The problem however is when I follow along with the code and the code doesn't work as expected, I question whether it was my fault, or the fault of the code presented to me. With the marvelous job done by the authors on editors on this book, I know exactly when the problem is with me or the sample code. Too many other books overlook this issue.
I highly suggest this book.

It's actually kind of fun to work your way through this book. It is definitely a beginner's book with reference scattered through the tutorials, but I am learning a lot very quickly from this book. After every section I feel like I have accomplished something and made one more step toward mastery of PHP and MySQL.

Larry Ullman deserves credit for making a dry and complex topic interesting and learnable. Thanks.

First off, I'm an outright dullard when it comes to coding. Let's be clear about that. But I'm smart enough to know a good thing when I find one. This book is just such a thing. Not just because of what's inside the book, which is excellent. And that it's well-written and easy enough for a simpleton such as myself to follow. But also because there is a companion web site to the book with a forum that the author moderates himself. The author doesn't know me from Adam (scout's honor), but he's spent the past three days walking me through a snag I encountered while installing MySQL and PHP on my computer. I am truly humbled by how generous the author has been with his time. And how well he explains things. These are all abundantly clear in the book. It's just surprising that he's so committed to making sure his readers understand the material he covers that he would also devote so much time to fielding questions from the book's forum. I've purchased many Visual Quickpro Books over the years; there isn't a finer one on its respective subject than this. In my opinion that is. And I'm just a dullard. Don't be one too. If you're new coding dynamic websites, buying this book would be a smart first step.

This book is full of coding errors. I completed an errata form on the first one I found and, at the same time, wrote to Peachpit about my disappointment. They rudely replied just to complete an errata form. No "sorry about that" or anything.

I was going to continue entering the new errors I keep finding. But, why should I have to buy this cruddy book and PAY THEM for the privilege of doing their quality control and editing for them?!

This is the best book on PHP scripting that I have found to date. It provided me with a lot of good information and enabled me to learn php to the extent to be able to effectively develop server side scripts. I am an experienced programmer, but feel this book is good for those who have limited programming or scripting knowledge. I was a bit disappointed in the depth of coverage, ie not enough for me. As an example, it covered how to set up a script to email information, but it did not cover how to attach a file to the email. I would recommend this book, but like most subjects, multiple sources of information are needed.

If you're looking for a book on this subject then look no further. Not only is the author clear and concise, even more importantly, he is responsive. There is a companion website with all the sample code and support forums. Don't be a twit and ask the author to debug your code for you but if you have a valid question, don't hesitate to ask. I've found the author to be very responsive, friendly and knowledgeable. The support alone makes the purchase worth it. Throw in a good book and it's a deal that can't be beat.

Extremely well written, good learning curve, the author knows and explains the problems that you'll encounter in real life, rather to babble about some useless theory.

Highly recommended!

This is an excellent book. All the codes works! I recommend to buy it. It is worth for the money.

I liked this book as an entrance to PHP and to lessen the somewhat steep learning curve of web site scripting. This book does that great! However, I don't like that the author seems to get lazy and doesn't fully explain an admin page that a user will get automatically redirected to when they log in with the correct username and password. "For the sake of brevity" is used too much. While sometimes this is fine and it can be figured out, the author really needs to elaborate on some permission and security issues with password authorization in PHP. There is really no mention on whether it can even be done with PHP and MySQL alone. Overall good book but I really wish Larry included at least one fully functional example.

We had to hire a programmer to construct a MySql database and construct the PHP code to complete the site project. Time was critical.
After the job was done, however, I had the time to teach myself the basics of MySql, especially, and enough PHP to modify the new code, or at least understand what was done.
I am still going through the book as time permits, but the book is an excellent starter, and gets you through the basics with excellent examples, well-written explanations and plenty of screen prints to show you what you should see onscreen. I really like the MySql section. I would highly recommend this book to anyone anxious to get up to speed on MySql and PHP.

This is a great book, easy to understand and use as a reference guide through my first PHP/MYSQL creations. The supporting website is informative and the supporting forums are very helpful, Larry (the author) has replied to my posts a few times which led to fixing my problems quite easily. Well done Larry and thanks for your support!

If other tech book writers could learn to write like Larry Ullman does, we'd all be a hell of a lot smarter. I picked this up as a complete newbie to php, with some sql experience and found it very easy to use, but also very informative. I have used it as both a learning php guide, and also as a quick reference to re-check my syntaxes and code use. The book contains useful and intelligent examples, backed up with great support from the publisher and the author. I count this as one of the best investments in a book I have ever made.

The book itself is very helpful. I wish that tutorial books such as this would present the bottom line code first and then go back and explain. This one presents several different versions of a certain script, then improves on them in future chapters. I would have preferred doing it the best way the first time.

Also, another reviewer mentioned that the binding was faulty. Mine was as well. The very first time I opened it, the back of the pages tore from the spine. It's been a pain to use, but I really needed the information and didn't have time to send it back. Since I used it extensively and highlighted important info, I'm probably pretty much stuck with it now.

I've bought and begun so many technical books that just had me bored or baffled in a few pages. This book is a refreshing change! Larry Ullman is a very talented writer/teacher who not only has a thorough knowledge of his subject, but also has the skill to communicate that knowledge in such a way that he doesn't talk down to you or leave you in the dust. Although I'm not too far along in the book, I can tell that this is going to give me a good grasp of PHP and MySQL, something I haven't found in a lot of online resources I've tried. It's rare that I feel this way about a technical book, but every time I pick this book up and read a bit more, I am more and more glad I chose this book over some of the others. Another excellent part of this purchase is that the author has made himself available to answer questions. How great is that? It's like getting access to a professor for a fraction of the cost of taking a class. I plan on buying other books from this author as needed.

If you want to write PHP coded webpages...this is the book for you. SQL is a pretty common backend for the data that PHP sites use, so having both in one book is ideal. I have a PHP book and an SQL book, but I use this combined book MUCH more frequently than either of those. It is a great resource for learning from the ground up, or for a more advanced programmer it is a good reference guide. It has many full examples that are explained throughout, so it is easy to see EXACTLY what they are talking about.

I have learned a lot with this book by looking at the examples provided. The technic provided in this book helps you to undrestand the code and reasons for using certain functions. Also it has the URL of all of the examples in which you can download and play with them to help yourself better undrestand PHP. Once you complete reading the book and experementing PHP with the book examples then you may download PHP manual from offical PHP websites and learn more functions to tuneup your codes. Reading this book helps you to better undrestand PHP manual.

This book is amazing. I say that being an HTML programmer entering into the world of PHP and mySQL. The steps are simple, well thought out, and current to today's technologies. Not to mention, there is an onlineforum with the author, Larry Ullman, as moderator which he is usually online and ready to assist with any questions within his book. Fantastic buy and the best beginner to intermediate PHP/mySQL book out there... Period.

I was simply looking for a book to teach me the basics of PHP and MYSQL. This book is amazing! It's just what I needed and I am already mastering php on page 50 of 600. Every day I work through this book and what would usually be a chore is really fun. The guided code tutorials and the way in which this book is teaching me is excellent, it's like having a personal tutor. This book is teaching me in a way in which I can understand and most importantly enjoy :D.

I must also mention that I tried using php and mysql for dummies but, it just doesn't compare in the way it teaches! I am a student, recommended to anyone wanting a future career as a web professional. It has screenshots, code comments and guided tutorials.

I took a class in PHP in the Fall 09 semester that used "PHP 6/MySQL For The Absolute Beginner" and found it to be extremely difficult for a "beginner" book. The examples were not "real world" applications and were very hard to follow. However, I did learn a few thing in that class.

To build on the little I did get out of that book I bought this book and I'm glad I did. It takes you step-by-step through examples explaining what you are doing, and most importantly why and where you would use them.

The way this book is written it is very easy to follow along with and would be perfect for someone brand new to PHP, SQL and MySQL.

GET IT NOW! If you have a basic HTML understanding and want to learn PHP and how it is used with database and MySql... GET IT NOW! And go to the author's website - [...] - to download the scripts to save typing! The publisher offers a FREE online limited (45 day) edition so you can learn anywhere, anytime! You must use the URL and coupon code in back of book.
This book is used by University of Texas at Arlington for Beginning and Advanced PHP web design. It belongs in your library!
[...]

An excellent book, for beginner to intermediate range, as the author states, with no OOP as also the author states in page xii. Helpfull for teaching Dynamic Web sites with PHP and MySQL.

I am a programmer that looked into acquiring some PHP & MySQL knowledge, and this book was the perfect choice. For those with some experience in another programming languages, the pace of the book is perfect and thoroughly covers what needs to be known.
For complete beginners with no programming experience this book might be too hard, as it assumes the reader has some knowledge of programming principals and does very little to cover them.

Peachpit Press' books seemed geared for the literary minded, so that what shaped my decision while scanning this book. For someone who had written some code but really didn't understand the concepts, this is a great book. However, it's still just a beginning, as I find myself referring to the manuals and forums for further clarification.

I liked the layout, although sometimes it was confusing to match the code to the explanation, which might appear on a separate page.

The author has a website forum where he responds to queries about the content of his books.

The book is very good for novices and intermediate PHP WEB developers who want to master the advanced skills of PHP and mysql , the book contains alot of scripts and figures illustrating each concept in the language in 620 pages by larry ullman a very expreienced programmer, the book devote the first three chapters for PHP fundamentals for creating dynamic web site including : PHP syntax , Handling user supplied data , validation , Templating system , Sticky forms and more ...
The second part of the book which begin with chapter 5 introduce Mysql database assuming that you never heared about it , then chapter 5 learn you the SQL syntax that you will need in any application you write like creating databses , retrieve, update, delete, using conditionals and functions also assuming that you don't know anything about SQL , then Chapter 5 for advanced SQL and mysql , this chapter rocks cover advanced database design concepts with figures, normalization, Full text searches and transactions for e-commerce web apps .
The third part of the book rollback the wheel again to Common programming techniques illustrate using hidden form fields, paginating query results and making sortable displays, sending mails, file uploads, PHP interaction with HTTP through PHP headers, cookies and sessions , then chapter 12 dive into security methods like preventing spam, improving seesion security, SQL injection attacks and database encryption .
The fourth part of the book illustrate Perl compatible regular expressoins, and Making universal websites through Unicode for non english programmers and translitration, and discuss language and timezone with Mysql and working with locales .
The last three chapters (120 pages) for three real world application Message board, user registeration and e-commerce website that will wrap your mind around all the concepts for best programming practices of php .

If you want to know how to set up an interactive web site where you want to set up a MySQL database and have internet users interact with that database through PHP code, and also learn how to implement security measures, and learn all of this in a step-by-step build up fashion from the first to the last chapter, then this is the book for you. You learn because you are literally forced to try out the code, FTP it to your site, and try it out.

If you don't have a domain name, along with the domain services offered by domain server entities, you will need to do that first before giving this book a try. I know that you can install Apache and MySQL on your local machine, but it's just not the same. There are certain things that this book will not tell you, simply because of the different ways that technical issues and procedures are set up in the different domain services out there.

This book is a complete waste of money. You can find all the material covered here for free online. The book is difficult to read because of all the author's tips, the small size of the letters in the text, and because the text in each page is divided in two columns wich is absurd. buy something else instead.

Larry Ullman's "PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide" is great because it can be applied to real world websites. Mr. Ullman does a fine job in conveying the finer points of PHP.

I like this book. The postage packaging was good. That was good business.

Thanks a lot

Franklin

When I started trying to learn PHP on my own via web tutorials a few months ago, I almost gave up. Actually, I DID give up. But then I saw this book and decided to give PHP one more shot...

Larry Ullman does a fantastic job of explaining things as basic as what PHP is and why you would use it, to more intermediate-level things like login scripts, etc.

There are plenty of examples in the book, and the last few chapters basically walk you through the creation of a dynamic website. I have also found it to be a useful reference guide for quick look-ups.

Although it says on the back to be from beginner to advanced, I would just say beginner to intermediate. It gives the reader a great starting point in PHP and makes it easy to continue learning more advanced topics, but does not cover them.

Overall, it is a great book and I would not be creating dynamic web simulations today if it weren't for this book. I would definitely suggest this book to anyone interested in learning PHP and MySQL.

This book helped me a lot with the basics. And it freshens up your html-knowledge. Well written and easy enough to follow. Still it left some unanswered questions.

Very good starter book on PHP and MYSQL. It really explains the interaction of PHP with the MYSQL database. I already have my website in progress.

But not for a seasoned programmer either. Luckily I fit that description! I found the book useful and the examples were easy to follow. Can't say I always understood but it has given me a better understanding of PHP and how it works with MySQL. I was able to adapt the code in most instances for a project I am working on. Although I would of loved to have seen more in the ecommerce example, such as how to add custom options to products (i.e. size/color/qty) as well as adding coupon codes to the checkout. I still am clueless as to how to do this and will need to outsource this portion :(.

Despite treating this book with care, the binding began seperating from sections of the book after a few months, and now, after only five months or so, whole sections of the book are falling out. I basically agree with the concensus as far as the content goes, but what is the good of it if the book is falling apart, and so soon after I bought it. I expect a book to stay in one piece for years, not a few months. Another case of a business which cuts corners to make more money at the expense of their integrity.

PHP and MYSQL for dynamic websites for Larry Ullman is another member of Visual Quick Pro Guide series that gives you a fast efficient way to learn. The book covers PHP 5 and MYSQL 4.1 for beginners, intermediate and advanced users.
The introduction of the book gives you a fast definition for some important terminology about dynamic websites, what is PHP, why use PHP, how it works and what is MYSQL.
The first chapter is an introduction to PHP language, the basic Syntax, sending data to browser, writing comments, variables, strings, numbers, constants and quotation marks.
The second chapter covers the programming with PHP such as creating forms and validating forms data. The next chapter covers dynamic websites.
Chapter 4 and 5 covers SQL and MYSQL. And using PHP with MYSQL is covered in chapter 7.
The following chapters covers different related issues such as web application developing, cookies, sessions, security, CMS example and ecommerce example.
The book is good start for beginner to learn web developing with PHP and SQL.

This book has a ton of practical tips and examples for the real-world usage of PHP and MySQL. It is not the book to get for a basic introduction to the languages, or for an in-depth tour of esoteric constructions. Where it excels is its coverage of a broad range of issues relating to installation, layout and security of your website; database design, layout and manipulation; and lots of particular examples of PHP to solve intermediate-complexity problems. For one small example, every security cheat-sheet says you should strip_tags when processing most form inputs, but how many discuss the problem of making sure the data really came from your own form, not someone else's?

The examples are not just a grab-bag of esoterica, like the " Cookbook" series. They build up as solutions to problems which arise in the course of implementing the usual examples (shopping cart, CMS, etc.). The real "value-added" is that Ullman goes beyond the basics necessary to get a minimal example running. He then goes into the practical follow-on problems that most books never mention.

Minor quibbles:
(A) It uses two-column layout. This makes some of the code nearly unreadable, as the listing comes out almost vertical.
(B) There does not appear to be a companion website of the code.

I have a shelf of PHP and MySQL books, sorted from "shouldn't have bought" to "check first". This one goes directly into the check-first end! Considering the time and frustration saved, it's worth far more than the price.

Book in New condition as stated and expedient delivery.

The book in great. But don't buy it for your Kindle DX. It is terrible slow. I guess due to the size of the book.

Best PHP and MySQL book for novices or for programmers not familiar with PHP & MySQL. Thank you Larry, for writing this book!

The author teaches a complicated subject in plain English. I needed to learn PHP quickly and had practically every question answered on how to write PHP code and create a database.

The very few questions I had remaining were found on the author's website where a message board exists. The board is also supportive if you run into problems or have questions.

It was also a plus that I was able to download the scripts from the site instead of having to type them.

This book is really great! I am just a neophyte at PHP and this book makes so much sense. I followed all the steps the book listed and so far everything is working. I haven't used the online forum community that comes with this book, but I imagine that it'll be useful when I am stuck. This book is very fun, easy to understand and really enjoyable to read.

PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro GuideI have just completed this book and will now be moving on to apply what I learned on my website. If you are familiar with HTML/XHTML then this is the book for you, this book is well written and is good for both beginners and advanced programmers alike. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn PHP6 & MYSQL 5.

Hi there,

this was one of the great online purchase, i am looking forward to buy new books fromk amazon. they have a perfect customer assistance.

Excellent Book. It's not to slow yet it never assumes that you know how to do something. It goes step by step through every php and sql command, explaining how it works and when to use it and then it gives simple examples to follow up to see how it commands works.
I hightly recommend this book.

As a beginner in the PHP & MySQL world, this book provided everything I needed to go from nothing to a fully functioning dynamic site within days. Great examples, and most importantly he covers security concerns as well as best-practices for keeping everything running smooth.

I was also happy that he answered my questions on his support forum within 24 hours of posting. I'm very happy I bought this book, it's been a great learning experience.

I will be ordering more books from this author in the future, and if you are looking to extend your knowledge of dynamic websites, this is certainly a great first step.

As a whole, the Visual Quickstart and QuickPro guides are a great series, and this title - now in its second edition - is no exception.

Ullman provides an excellent overview of PHP, from the basics of the language to advanced features such as implementing shopping carts and using PHP to send email. Ullman's writing style, combined with the easy-to-follow design that this book shares with the rest of the series, make this text easy to follow and learn from.

In addition to PHP, Ullman also covers MySQL development - a necessary secondary skill for PHP developers - over the course of several chapters.

The final three chapters of the book are essentially labs that allow readers to pull together the skills learned through the rest of the text into actual sample applications, including an e-commerce site and a content management system. This seemingly obvious step of creating a practical, realistic site is missing in the vast majority of texts, which leave it up to the reader to pull together the information gleaned in the rest of the book, and they alone would make the book worthwhile.

The book also provides an excellent appendix that provides step-by-step instructions for downloading and configuring PHP, MySQL, and the Apache web server. Here again, many authors seem to think that this is a simple and intuitive process and tend to skip it altogether, leaving readers not left in the dark, unable to even get started, because the software isn't working. Ullman never makes this assumption, and instead makes sure that he covers all of this bases.

Given the popularity of PHP, the market is flooded with books on the topic, but I would never hesitate to recommend this one above the rest, and think that this is the one PHP book every new developer should have on their shelf.

This is a great book for beginners. Each new idea is immediately followed by an application/example. If, like me, all you know is that you need to learn both together, pick this book up. If you already know PHP and want to expand your knowledge to use MySQL, a few chapters you can skip, but this is still recommended for you.

My only complaints would be the lack of information on necessary functions for most programming purposes. I had to search online for information on obtaining the length of an array in PHP and how to easily insert a value from an array in with text being displayed through echo or print or into a string like I would in Perl.

Nonetheless, this has been a great book to get me to start using PHP and MySQL, though you will want to get a book devoted solely to PHP after you make your way through this book.

This book feels like an entire course on PHP and MySQl. It skips right past beginner concepts and assumes you know a fair amount of php. Luckily, I do, but the book can be a bit challenging. All in all, I love how thorough it is in covering intermediate and advanced topics. The writing is fairly easy to read (though 1/3 of the book's 600+ pages are code.) I looked through several books and found this one the most helpful.

The web applications you can build with a good knowledge of PHP and mySQl will knock your socks off.

I knew a tiny bit of php prior to reading this book, but this has really helped me. The book covers all the useful stuff and is definitely worth the money. I use it now mainly as a reference guide when building web applications, but it is still very useful.

My only criticism is that it doesn't cover any object oriented programming.

A good buy

Very, very, very good book. I couldn't be happier. The last example chapters are great, and I like the way he dedicated an entire chapter to error handling. The author is very friendly and happily provides help. I have been very happy with all the visual quickstart and quickpro books I've purchased.

If want to learn how to start writing PHP and setup a MySQL database and you have a good understanding of html and how databases work, then this book is for you.

The book explains the structure of PHP scripting and hooking into a MySql database, using practical examples. There are also plenty of references to useful sites as well.

My only criticism would be that in setting up the ecommerce example at the end, I was left wanting to take the site to the very end, but I guess it needed to stop somewhere, but there are additional scripts available to download to do that yourself.

The other useful thing about this book is the book's forum. Larry and friends actually answer your questions!

Well worth the cost!