Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition

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• #23 in Best PHP Books

55 Reviews

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I have just started learning some PHP & MySQL development using "PHP & MySQL Web Development" published by Sams and "Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL" from O'Reilly. Prospective readers might be wondering the difference between the two in deciding which one to buy, so I hope to shed some light on the issue.

Sams: The Welling and Thomson book is more "hands-on" in that it takes the reader step-by-step in developing an e-commerce website. The chapters are organized in a goal-oriented manner: PHP, MySQL, the basics of e-commerce, security, and design of the site.

O'Reilly: The Williams and Lane book is structured in a similar way by showing readers PHP and then MySQL. Examples to reinforce concepts are also provided. While the O'Reilly book also tries to take the reader in developing an e-commerce site, it is a bit more theoretical. Also, there are some differences in focus: the O'Reilly book has a section on using JavaScript while the Sams book has a final chapter on creating PDF files using PHP.

If I had to choose just one book, I would go with the Sams book due to its more gentle learning curve. However, I believe that the O'Reilly book is no slouch, and I will probably come to appreciate it more once I gain more experience in PHP and MySQL development.

One last word about my programming background: I knew a bit of Perl, Java, HTML, and JavaScript before tackling PHP and MySQL. I consider myself to be an "advanced beginner" (an oxymoron, of course). To get the most out of these two books, you should know HTML well enough to read it (you should at least recognize some tags) and it would definitely be helpful if you have some programming experience. You could very well make PHP your first programming language, but I would advise against it. Start with something like Perl (whose syntax is very similar to PHP's).

I highly recommend both books to prospective PHP and MySQL developers who are willing to spend some time and effort.

I've been entrenched with JSP heavily for the last couple of years, so I haven't familiarised myself with PHP yet. I needed a book that would show me a larger picture than I got in a web developer's job, and showed me how to put it together with more modern techniques.
This book is a perfect example of why I choose O'Reilly whenever in doubt. Chapter 1 is an overview of how web applications are put together. Chapter 2 goes through all the basic PHP syntax (stuff that would take other books several fluffy dry chapters to process). Chapter 3 gets you through all the mySQL and sql basics so you feel comfortable with that, too.
There's no 4 page tutotial entitled: "Using a text editor: Wordpad" There's also no kitch "Employee Database" example cop-out. Instead, Hugh and Dave give a realistic and usable storefront application. This book alone is probably enough for the independent web developer to get a functional site up for her/himself or a client.

As the title indicates, this book is all about building websites powered by database applications. The book uses PHP and MySQL for a scripting language and a database technology respectively. Familiarity with programming and computers is assumed but other than that, not much else is assumed. The authors do an excellent job of explaining some of the fundamental concepts underlying database driven websites. All this is done in simple terms without too much jargon. To top it all off, a tutorial style approach is taken to illustrate how all these concepts come together. The tutorial is on building an online retail site that sells wines. The sample code used in the book can be downloaded from the publisher's website.

PHP is a powerful language that is open source and that can be used in lieu of Java and .NET technologies for many web applications that aren't too complex. For most small business owners, this should suffice. I am not too sure about using it in large corporations. This is one of the most popular open source technology along with Linux and MySQL.

MySQL is an open source database that can be used instead of SQL Server, Access, or Oracle. Once again, when the database application gets complex, I am not confident of its ability to handle the complexity. This is also excellent for small businesses but not large corporations.

There are about 13 chapters and 5 appendices spanning 550 pages starting with an introduction to database applications and the web, continuing with an intro to PHP and MySQL, covering the main concepts behind web technologies and ending with the sample wine store application. The main concepts discussed are querying databases, writing to databases, validations on the server and client, session management, user authentication and security. The appendices handle installation, modeling and designing relational databases, managing sessions in the database tier, etc.

Overall, the selection of topics is perfect for Intermediate programmers and the explanations are very detailed yet simple. This is probably one of the reasons this book is so popular. I have thoroughly enjoyed using this book and I am not surprised to see such a high quality book from this publisher. I am not familiar with the authors but I am going to keep an eye open in the future for other books by them.

I felt it was a bit pricey for a book of this nature but this is the only one I could find that covered these specific topics so I am not going to complain. Enjoy creating your own database driven website!

I recently began a web database project and had to self-teach myself PHP and MySQL, therefore I bought several books from Amazon looking to cover the bases. I disagree with some other reviews posted here, the text IS AN INTRODUCTION but this is not obvious from the title or the editorial reviews on Amazon. The review referring to editing errors I COULD NOT AGREE WITH, I did not find "errors" or typos, maybe I'm not very observant or don't know the subject well enough yet.

Anyway ... the text does a good job at presenting the PHP language and how to operate on MySQL database back-ends, that is the purpose of the book. The sections on PHP are introductory, but well done. Comprehensive descriptions of string and reg-exp functions are provided. A good section for beginners is titled "Common Mistakes" that describe why you get a blank browser screen or what those darned header messages are about. The MySQL section is well done, providing ample samples of the different query types and advanced joins and keys. I also liked the portion that describes using PHP with other RDMS systems via ODBC and to Oracle. Linking PHP and MySQL is well handled and sections on authentication and session management are practical and real-world. The text ONLY includes one overall application system, a psuedo online winestore that includes a shopping cart and purchasing concept. The appendix include a really good treatise on HTTP and describing how Requests and Responses are handled and the status codes.

I had great expectations for this O'Reilly text as many of their critter-adorned texts are in my library. I expected the text to be more advanced than it is. The lack of other sample applications is a weakness, for the price you can get other texts with more comprehensive samples. Afterall, many of us buy these books to try and help us quickly solve "Our Immediate Problem", more samples would have helped this effort better.

Like others I've found this text an absolute corker for getting started with on-line databases.
However, after struggling with one of the examples for several hours I was disappointed to finally realise that the code was woefully short.
Just in case, I thought, I'll check the book's web site for errata, and found several pages of it! Some of which contains errors, like wrong page number!!!!!
I don't know about you but I find it hard to learn new stuff when the examples don't work.

Well I finally got the code to work and I've submitted it to the publishers. But, whilst I'm quite an experienced developer, I've only been looking at PHP, MySQl & Java for a couple of weeks and presumably it takes longer to write a book.
So how come the readers are fixing the authors code?
Maybe I should write a book ...

Was going to give 4* but because of the errors went down to 3.

This is a solid book on PHP and MySQL, but it's not organized in the standard O'Reilly style. It follows a single example, in depth, through the entire book and in the later part of the book dedicates whole chapters just to explaining the code of the example.

The first six chapters, which cover PHP, SQL (and MySQL) and PEAR are the best in the book. The SQL chapter is particularly good.

Overall the book is well written and thorough. My problem is two fold. I think the organization would be better if it spent less time on the example project. And on a technical level the MySQL access is not proper or secure and is vulnerable to SQL injection attacks.

I would recommend Advanced PHP Programming from Addison Wesley for experienced PHP users. For beginners this book is a good start, but you should not use it for example code for database access.

For anyone first learning how to write database-backed Web applications, this is an excellent introductory self-contained text. The selection and organisation of topics, style of presentation, emphasis and writing are all excellent. The main topic lacking from its online shopping example is the issue of online payment, and hopefully this will be included in a second edition. Despite being an introduction the text goes far enough to allow readers to implement serious applications.

It would make a very suitable text for an undergraduate course, though, as it lacks exercises, instructors need to invent their own application development assignments. Also, for a class inexperienced in data modelling, it would be useful to supplement the text with a wider range of examples, such as those in Wellings and Thomson, PHP and MySQL Web Development (SAMS, 2001). One reviewer here criticised the text for not going far enough, but this is unfair as it's only intended as an introduction; experienced developers would certainly need to access more advanced material. This does not detract from the value of this text to its intended readers.

Web Database Applications by H.E. Williams and D. Lane is a truly wonderful book if you are looking to learn how to get an online database application up and running fast. The book eases you into PHP with a decent length chapter on the basic syntax of the language, followed by an introduction of MySQL.
After that, each chapter will teach you new techniques which are instantly applicable to a real-world online database system. Among others this book will teach you how to: write scripts that interact with MySQL, deal with security issues, handle sessions, handle shopping carts and lots lots more.
The book was written before the introduction of PHP 4.2, so certain 4.2 (and up) specific issues are not covered. However, most of the examples in the book have been re-written for use with 4.2 and can be downloaded freely. On top of this the authors supply a level of support that is all but unheard of. Every question that I asked was answered within 1 day if not within the same day.
All in all this book is at the top of it's league, I can highly recommend it!

If you want to read 400+ pages of Hugh and Lane's secret vineyard , then buy this book...BR>The content barely scratches the surface of what you can realise with PHP and MySQL.Gone are the days of creating mediocre small level applications with PHP/MySQL.Today PHP has grown by strengths and this text is hardly and sadly not reflective of that fact.

You know a little HTML. You know a little programming. Perhaps you've used Perl to create a simple CGI form handler so that you can get feedback from a website. Williams and Lane methodically guide the reader through the steps needed to create a MySQL-driven web application written in PHP. Readers will get a solid introduction to using PHP, SQL and a deeper understanding the HTTP protocol than they may have had already. Williams and Lane use the practical example of building a retail website to highlight such issues as taint-checking user input and automating application maintenance with cron. Sure, veterans of web application design may not learn many new tricks here, but for those that want to become veterans some day, this book provides an excellent launch pad.

I've found Web Database Applications with Php and MySql to be an excellent book. It is an excellent book for learning from scratch as well as a useful reference. For the projects I've done I've only occasionally looked elsewhere (online) for technical references.

My style for doing a project using a new language or development environment is to learn just enough to do the project. It is not my goal to become an expert in the system or language at hand, in this case Php and MySql. I just want to get the project done in fairly efficient and practical manner.

After having decided that Php and some open source database such as MySql is what I wanted to use for my project (an online testing system) I read through the book to get an overall understanding of these tools. I then designed the system for my project and began coding. At the coding stage I would go back to the book to get the syntax and details of coding. I rely on sample code a lot, one of the principal strengths of this book.

The authors have implemented a complete online store. The code is well written and the application exercises many features of Php and MySql. That the sample code is from the application or based on the application makes it eminently practical. Perhaps more importantly the fact that the book is grounded in a complete application means many details concerning issues such as security and user interface are covered which might easily have been overlooked.

The book, however, is not a regurgitation of the application code nor a tour of the creation of the online store. The book is a well thought out development of the tools and ideas for web database applications. It begins with typical details of the Php language and object oriented programming, database basics and queries with MySql and proceeds with features and ideas useful in web database applications culminating in the case study of the online store.

Except for an initial glitch in getting setup on my OS X system everything worked out well. We switched our online testing system from FileMaker Pro, QuidProQuo and Frontier to Apache, Php and MySql. Similarly our placement test system has been converted. I switched our department's web site to one which dynamically creates interlocking web pages. I added a password protected system for staff to update text and calculator reference webpages and a simple means to create and edit our online schedule of classes. I built a similar system for instructors to access records of student use of tutor facilities for their classes.

I am very impressed by this book. I have not had a book which has been so thoroughly practical, complete and easy to use.

I bought this book with the hope I could learn just enought to get me started with web application development. I only had little programming experience at that time, I I didn't even have any experience with databases. Well. This book was the perfect introduction to web applications. From security to authentication, from php basics to multi-table join sql queries, this book got me into this world, and I appreciate it so much because I am working now in web development, thanks to what I learned from here.

Altough this book is not for the absolute beginner, it teaches you just what you need to know to get you started, and even more. It lacks some subjects, like caching, or some advanced php 5 language constructs. Its focus is in real world development, without too much emphasis in application design or php/mysql internals. It teaches you just what you really need to know, and it teaches you that extremely well. You will learn php, from its basic syntax and usage, to object oriented programming basics. Then the book takes you to mysql, with a great introduction to sql, and how to use mysql from php. The following chapters deal with typical database concepts you must grasp, like concurrency issues and even performance tunning. It doesn't get too deep in php as a language, rather it focuses on php and mysql interaction, with an eye towards constructing a real world web application (which finally gets its parts joined in the final chapter).

Things I dislike are its use of templating systems over many chapters. That was not a subject I was interested in. Althought a serious php developer can't simply ignore this topic, it is not crucial in understanding the fundamentals, and it, in turn, adds a source of difficulty to the examples from chapter 7 on. Other thing I didn't like was the development of a complete application that I didn't have time to study, altough fortunately I managed to ignore it as much as I can, without losing too much.

In summary, I love this book, it is not perfect, but it's just what I needed and I give it 5 stars because it is a really well written and focused book.

I'm really happy I've got this book. I wasn't looking for a really advanced book, and this book met my needs.

It does a great job of the PHP 4 sessions library (it even includes how to store your session data in a MySQL database). It also covers lots of other PHP 4 specifics that are way beyond the depth in other popular books. The MySQL stuff is nice too...The winestore application that is explained through the book is pretty neat. It shows you how to build a real application that includes all of the common validation, sessions, and shopping cart tricks. I found I could use their code directly in building an application I needed.

If you want to learn how to build a large scale php web app from start to finish this is the best book you can buy. Nearly every question i had was clearly explained, from user input validation to file uploads, from database queries to session management, its all here. Some books show you lots of small toy projects, this one builds a (nearly) industrial strength e-commerce site. The lessons are fairly universal, too - i used what i learned form this book to build a full scale dating web site.

The only beef i have with this book is that the code is entirely procedural, as opposed to object-oriented. This may not be a problem for most people, but i really feel that, after a site reaches a certain level of complexity, objects really make the code a lot easier to manage. There are also a truly heroic number of typos, so be sure to read the errata on the books web site. That i can still give this book 5 stars is just another testament to its excellence.

For seasoned developers, this could be the book that you wish you'd had when you started out building web database apps and data-driven sites. Keeping a copy around for reference, especially if you frequently jump back and forth between projects in different languages/environments, also might be helpful - for those occasions when you need of a quick refresher in PHP/MySQL dev. Moreover, if you find yourself in the position of having to mentor junior developers (or helping non-coder friends) tasked with building or maintaining PHP/MySQL-based sites or apps, then lending them your copy or recommending that they buy their own could save you quite a bit of time and frustration. You almost couldn't ask for a better step-by-step guide.

I just finished creating my first PHP web application, with this book as my guide. It is very valuable information, whether you are going to be using PHP on the job, or for a personal website of your own. If you do decide to use it for your own site, there are many web hosting companies that will let you use PHP & MySQL for less than $10/month.

First of all, I like that this book teaches MySQL together with PHP. While PHP is a application development language in its own right, many will be choosing PHP to work solely with MySQL. I fit this category so I bought the book.

The book is completely geared towards creating a data driven website from the start. You are shown how to interface to MySQL, receive data from the user, save state information, and other common tasks. The paradigm of web programming is very similar from ASP to JSP, you interact with the database, store some form of state, process forms, etc. If you are already familiar with this style of programming this book will have you going with PHP in no time. However, this book spends NO time on how to install or setup either PHP or MySQL. For the total beginner this could be a problem.

For the total beginner this book could be challenging. It is assumed that you know SQL. SQL syntax is presented and not really explained. What state is, and when you should use it are not presented. You are simply told how to setup state for your web pages. No coverage of HTML is provided. It really seems as the author assumes you are already an experienced web developer, just not in PHP.

For an experienced web developer this is a great book!

This book is worth the first 7 chapters alone, but also covers advanced sql commands, how to create pdf's with php, has a fantastic section on using regular expressions, and an excellent set of appendices. It's perfect for beginners and still a very good reference for those of who just need a reference book or refresher course on certain sections. My personal copy is quickly joining the ranks of beat up books that I have that are filled with post it notes and bookmarks.

I am a well versed programmer who has read many programming books by many different authors. If you are a person who learns by visual do not get this book. Here are some of the pitfalls of this book.
1. They throw globs of code at you and do not explain what any of it is doing. You have to figure it out for yourself.
2. This book is not a step by step book for beginners, you will get lost.
3. The name and the reviews fooled me. This book is not for the beginner who would like to advance into the subject of creating Dynamic web sites.

If anyone knows of a good book on the subject of creating dynamic web sites using php, and that is very visual and in a step by step format please let me know.

If only I had purchased this book two months ago, I would have saved myself some headaches. The PHP/MySQL combination is both powerful and popular for creating dynamic, data-driven sites. But not many resources explain this combination so thoroughly. I have plenty of PHP books that touch on databases briefly and other resources that concentrate on MySQL, but don't delve into PHP. But this book fills the need of developers for a thorough and clear guide to using the PHP and MySQL combination.

I have primarily been using the book as a reference guide - browsing entries of interest via the index; however, someone needing an introduction to PHP/MySQL applications would be well served by starting at the beginning and reading straight through the book.

As I would expect from any competent development guide, example code and screenshots are sprinkled liberally throughout the chapters. Accompanying explanations are succinct and written to be understandable to novices and experts alike. This is a good book to pick up the moment you decide your site needs to be powered by PHP and MySQL. It will be useful from the moment you create a table to the day your first customer uses your homemade shopping cart application successfully.

I'm new to PHP and MySQL, but a programmer for over 3 decades. I'm customizing some PHP code, using code examples for ideas. When I (a) see something I want to understand better or (b) want to find the PHP analog for basic functions, I naturally turn to the index to try to find the information I need. However, I found the index very disappointing because of what it doesn't have. For example, simple and basic keywords are not in the index: "comment", "logical operator", "and", "or", etc. I'm going to have order a different book as a PHP reference.

This is an EXCELLENT book for an intermediate programmer, likely the best PHP/MYSQL combo book out there. Intermediate programmers have programmed successfully before, but now want to write code and use techniques that are more fundamentally sound. This requires that someone share with them the various OPTIONS, explain their strengths and weaknesses, and then recommend a good way. That's what this book does (more often than not) on subjects ranging from sessions to MySQL locking to regular expressions.

This book provides an EDUCATION as opposed to mere instructional advice as to one way something can be done (without context).

From another angle, it has been my observation that the inability to understand a programming explanation in a book normally results from the author simply omitting one or two explicit references to minor elements in the causal link that comprises understanding. (think about that one a bit)

The authors of this book tend NOT to make this error in their explanations/tutorials which makes for easy, informative reading. They are much better educators than the average techie author.

If your having trouble deciding on a book for your php & mysql development buy this book. It covers all major aspects of php and mysql web development and then some. You will find something useful on every page of this book, and theres a good amount of book here.

After reading dozens of PHP/MySQL books. The Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition book has been a tremendous asset to my web design company. My web developers love it! Full of straight forward resources and practical applications for web design and database development. Kansas City businesses are now being equipped with solid database applications and web designs thanks to this book and our web designers.

Sean Morelli
RPG Designs, LLC
www.rpgdesigns.net

This book has its conceptual merits and demerits. But let's give the authors the benefit of the doubt, and let's assume that this is a decent introduction to its subject matter. I'd still advise against purchasing it, as in detail it's extremely unreliable and often confused.

Since I started counting, I've found an error every 4 to 5 pages. Some are cosmetic, but some seriously damage the value of the examples and descriptions. The text contradicts itself at several points; some examples don't produce the results the text says they will; some figures are glaringly broken.

This book is the victim of an obviously poor editing job, for which I blame O'Reilly more than the authors. Either way, you should probably look elsewhere unless you already know enough to silently correct all the errors you'll find.

Web Database Applications by Hugh E. Williams (Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science & IT, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia) and David Lane (Software Engineer and IT Manager, Multimedia Database Systems Group, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia) is a solid and accessible resource for web programmers who seek to create powerful, practical, and useful web database applications. Individual chapters address a brief overview of PHP and MySQL, shopping carts, security features, effective querying, and much more. Sample code, black-and-white screenshots, and straightforward instructional text make Web Database Applications a first-class reference and a highly recommended instructional guide.

This book is an excellent introduction to PHP, MySQL, and the interaction of the two. It has a few chapters introducing PHP, then a few introducing MySQL, and then walks through the steps necessary to build a functioning dynamic website. They also include an elaborate and detailed case study of a Winestore application the author's developed.

Whenever somebody tells me they are interested in PHP and web programming, this is the book I tell them to get. Many friends have borrowed my copy since I got it.

I purchased this book along with Programming PHP [Lerdorf and Tatroe], and i have no regrets, this book covers every aspect of application web development, a very simple way, and references a lot of resources to get deeper knowledge, it encourages and motivates you to choose PHP as a WEB Application Language.

This book is a must !!!

First of all Im sorry for my very bad english cause this is not my mother tongue...
OK...lets begin.
I've read carefully and deeply this book WDA with PHP and mySQL.
Before that I knew very little about developing a web database application.
My job was first of all building nice(I hope VERY nice) web sites using Flash MX.
But today it's incredible how many web sites with database interaction are required by my clients.
Then I began to study this book.
It was a long way to understand everything about PHP and mySQL and of course I always need to put those ideas in a FLASH(!) web database application.
OK...after many hours (days and weeks I must say) spent with this book, finally everything comes to life!
I want to thank Mister Williams and Mister Lane for the incredible support they gave me with that extraordinary book!
If you have time look at a Flash application based on this book at http://loadvars.sikactive.com/index.htm

Cheers

Silvano Branca
Macromedia Certified Professional
www.sikactive.com

Coming from a VB, ASP and SQL Server background, I found this book to be very well laid out, extremely informative and easy to ramp up on PHP and MySQL.
I've 'inherited' a live ecommerce website which was written in php and mysql. My 'client' has been complaining about how terrible the performance is, how its not responsive, etc... Now using this book as my 'guide' I can clearly see that the site wasn't put together very well.
I've been asked to rewrite the site, and so as I'm developing website version 2 the existing site will run in maintenance mode, but now looking at the code and referring back to the book, me thinks with a bit of refactoring of this site, my client could keep using this site for at least another year...
Anyways I thought y'all might be interested to hear a different (though maybe off-topic) review.
Overall this book is helping me get my job done, I'm learning alot about PHP and MySQL (its a shame that MySQL doesn't have stored procedures... yet)

Arguably, this is the best introductory PHP + MySQL book around. The material is very readable and well organized, making the book an excellent foundation for additional detailed study. My only peeve is that some of the code samples are sloppy. For instance, Example.9-9.php does not run because $databaseName is not specified. Maybe it was the authors'intent to have the debugging effort provide part of the learning experience. Overall, though, it's a great buy.

A fine work that covers all aspects of this fascinating field. The worked example of the on line wine store that runs through the book is both helpful and interesting and brings to fore the workability of the content. Great work!

Wouldn't it be great if you could get the source code for only $50 of a complete online store? You could start with a working system and modify it as you like, provided of course that it is well documented. In "Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL" you have excellent documentation of a well-designed application with lots of extras like introductory tutorials, the reationales for design decisions and alternate implementations of many subsystems. The application is a fictional online wine store, with credit card payment, a shopping cart, merchandise browsing and searching, and automatic selection of the lowest prices in inventory. Security features include user authentication, password management, and hacker protection. Documentation this good is worth more than the source code, which by the way is fully printed out in the book and can be downloaded for free. This book has saved me lots of time!

Serving up dynamic content with scripting applications is all the rage now in the website development world. These scripting applications can provide customized information pages, shopping carts and content-management systems, and user-influenced web experiences. While "old-fashioned" static sites and pages still have their place, dynamic content sites are becoming more and more prevalent, primarily due to their obvious advantages, but also to their modest costs. The reason for these low costs is because the software applications are generally free, thanks to the open-source movement.

Apache is an open-source web server application widely used. The most prevalent and preferred scripting application is PHP; MySQL is the predominant database management program. These three drive the great increase in dynamic content web development. While essentially free, their installation, configuration, and use requires some technical and programming skills and knowledge, but small and medium-size database-driven web sites can be managed by those not expert in programming or database management.

While there is a lot of material available on the Internet about this software and database-driven sites, and a number of books available on these topics, none is as thorough and complete as "Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL", by Hugh E. Williams and David Lane. This volume is in its 2nd edition and is a 2004 publication of O'Reilly Media Inc. The book presents an overview of dynamic web sites using open-source software and relates the principles behind generating dynamic content with database applications. The focus is on PHP, the scripting language, and MySQL, the database management software.

As befits a couple of university-associated authors, the book reads much like a college textbook. The twenty chapters include an introduction to PHP, SQL (Structured Query Language), and my SQL, covering PHP v.5, the very latest version and MySQL 4.1. The PHP chapters describe the components of the language and its syntax, variables, conditions, loops, arrays, functions, types, and more. The SQL and mySQL chapters cover database basics, tables, queries, and functions. All this material is presented systemically and thoroughly.

The thrust of the earlier chapters is to prepare for the comprehensive web example of "Hugh and Dave's Online Wines" site. That site is constructed from the component materials covered individually in the prior chapters - how to manage customers, creating a shopping cart, dealing with orders and shipping, searching the inventory, and authentication of buyers. There is a lot to developing a medium-sized site like this, but everything one needs to know is described and explained as the book progresses.

Extra materials are included as well, including information on PEAR, which is the repository of PHP extensions - script additions which are additional functionings to PHP, or are pre-made containers of code to be used modularly with your existing code; an introduction to object-oriented programming in PHP 5; a chapter on error handling and reporting , including customized reporting; a chapter on the mixed usage of Javascript and PHP; and an important chapter on security of scripts and databases.

All this includes access to the code snips at a website maintained at O'Reilly for downloading.

For intermediate level developers, this is a worthwhile resource.

My background - a little bit of perl, BASIC language, html.

This book in the first 2 or 3 chapters walks you through as to 'what is PHP?', after that it becomes confusing, like what one reviewer have posted, the book becomes more of theoritical in its approach.

I would highly recommend 'PHP and MySQL Web Development' for those who are looking for that 'step by step' approach. Nothing like PHP for Dummies but just an indepth guide to proper PHP scripting.

The authors of 'Web Database Application' may be experts in PHP scripting but should need to develop their teaching ability.

Needless to say, this book is gathering dust.

This book is excelent for Unix/Linux users, it explains everything for the Unix/Linux users. For other operating system users it will be a pain in the head.

This book is truly amazing. It gives you in-depth information in a compact book, and it makes finding things very easy. If you are learning MySql and you seem to always have a question, this book is for you. It has given me shortcuts when coding and gives full detail on why certain ways work better. This book is top on my charts.

I really liked this book as a tutorial on how to write apps in PHP. I've done so in Javascript, and needed to learn the change-over from the ground-up. This book provided me with what I needed. I thought it was really clear and well written.

When I got this book, I already had experience programming in Perl, but PHP was entirely new to me. I also had database/SQL knowledge, but had never touched MySQL. I knew the powerful combination of PHP and MySQL was the key to solving a big programming problem, but I didn't know where to start. This book made learning a breeze. Just a couple days after I picked it up, my test PHP/MySQL application was working. The rest is history.

I think this book would be great for intermediate programmers who want to implement PHP and MySQL, but don't know how. I was amazed at how quickly this book got me off the ground. (Hint: people with no clue about databases may want to supplement this with a MySQL- or database-specific reference, though this guide does provide some basics.)

I've done several PHP and MySQL development jobs, and there
are problems which constantly hunt me...until I find this book.
O'Reilly has done a great job brining this book to readers.
It started with useful introduction to PHP, with details
showing how great PHP is--all the useful functionalities,
arrays, objects, etc. Then the MySQL part is also great,
with introduction to SQL language for people who are not
familiar.

Strongly recommend.

This book, as most O'Reilly books I own, contains a wealth of information that has taken me from being a novice to being able to construct my own dynamic website. I recommend this book for both beginners and experience users as it is a great reference too. The authors have also been helpful when prompted for questions and help. The code in the book is available for download and also contains updated code for PHP 4.2. The only drawback is this version of the book does not address the changes in 4.2, but I would assume the next version will. In any case: I Highly Recommend!!!

I really like this book--direct, no-nonsense, and intelligently written with a minimum of jokes.

One thing that seems strange, that I'm hoping someone can clarify:

In the section of chapter 8 dealing with transactions and concurrency, there is no mention of setting transaction isolation levels (SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL command in MySQL). Instead, concurrency is achieved solely by setting table locks.

I can sort of understand this in that the authors are using MyISAM tables. But why no mention of transaction isolation levels using INNODB tables, given that this is the more standard way of dealing with concurrency issues?

My background - a little bit of perl, BASIC language, html.

This book in the first 2 or 3 chapters walks you through as to 'what is PHP?', after that it becomes confusing, like what one reviewer have posted, the book becomes more of theoritical in its approach.

I would highly recommend 'PHP and MySQL Web Development' for those who are looking for that 'step by step' approach. Nothing like PHP for Dummies but just an indepth guide to proper PHP scripting.

The authors of 'Web Database Application' may be experts in PHP scripting but should need to develop their teaching ability.

Needless to say, this book is gathering dust.

For my money one of the better examples of PHP with MySQL is the source to ubbthreads by Infopop. This source code seems to be very easy to read and well written. After reading the above book which I've only flicked through briefly, you'd be well advised to study a body of work like ubbthreads. Most programmers coming fom a JSP background will easily be able to pick up the differences.

New to PHP and haven't touched SQL in quite a few years. I was looking for a good beginning PHP book, not overly simplified as I have some programming experience. I needed to see how PHP and MySQL were to interact and how to set up everything on my machine (Mac). I've used MANY O'Reilly books and they're always topnotch, but this one is so disappointing to me as I find it is riddled with errors and typos. It is one thing to see typos in text and another thing altogether to have to figure out what a mistake in a code example is supposed to say. I expected more, especially since it's a 2nd edition. If it wasn't for all the forums on the web, I never even would have gotten Apache/PHP/MySQL up and running. This book isn't useless. Just not good.

This is a good book with a nice overview of the stated subjects.

However, I cannot evaluate the application presented because the appendix on installing Easy PHP on Microsoft Windows has SO MANY ERRORS that I simply cannot get this software running. In particular the PEAR installation instructions are just completely wrong.

I will try a Linux environment next, since I can debug better in that environment.

As usual in text books, there is a lot of useless information that is not necessary, but since writers are paid by the word, this is to be expected.

I wish there was a section on MySQL commands.

The book got me off the ground with my first client application, a rudimentary database maintenance system. Most valuable were the techniques and thorough understanding required to build a satisfactory security component.

However, it falls way short as a reference tool and could have included a more comprehensive list of mysql functions.

Excellent book, O'Riley always publishes excellent books. Highly recommended if you want to build a sophisticated website from scratch using a linux based server and PHP. This book covers everything you need from start to finish including sessions.

This book is the only technie guide that discusses the theory behind building a web database application. It's written in a concise, information packed style. You'll learn everything you need to know from the ground up, and you'll think a lot more about applications as you build them after you've worked your way through the book. Great book guys! The only downside is that it is about PHP 4.0 and not 4.3. However, the authors have put up PHP 4.2 code on their website.

I can't agree with the negative reviews of this book. You need an attention span to read it -- it's a serious book. If you "learn by visual" (I don't understand what this means) or you don't want it too "theoritical" (you can't even spell it "A reader"), then this isn't the book for you. It worries me what sort of programmers these people are. Can you really learn a serious topic with pictures and no theory? I don't think so.

A thorough and well-written cookbook for building a web shopping cart using PHP and MySQL. The authors assume some programming background but also cover fundamentals of database design and software engineering. A great choice for someone relatively new to applications programming.

If you're an experienced programmer looking for a more streamlined reference manual, I recommend O'Reilly's "Programming PHP" instead.

database application is very popular now. but how to efficiently use it? find the answer here

This is a superb resource for anyone who wants to understand the development process for web database applications. When I started I knew a little about PHP and almost nothing about MySQL. I knew no other scripting or programming languages. By the time I had worked through the first 10 chapters, I had a solid grasp of the fundamentals and was able to apply them to other projects. The book has a very purposeful style: the authors manage to explain challenging topics concisely and yet thoroughly. I found it accessible, and I enjoyed working through the sample winestore application. Note: the book has a comprehensive website where the authors have provided up-to-date code for the latest version of PHP. This book is full of practical, real-world examples, and I recommend it strongly.

I bought this book for a university assignment(create online bookstore, with functionality like Amazon). It helped me a lot, lots of example. The best part about this book is it's Appendix, which contain a short, yet useful tutorial on how to DESIGN your database. My friend has the book by Welling and I read it, I think this one explain the concepts better.

One more thing, this book is a lot smaller than the book by Welling, but it contain everything I needed for the assignment, cheaper, lighter to carry, easy read = GREAT BUY

I have to agree with Dave Hilton's review. I love PHP, MySQL and ORA, but as good as this book was to give you a beginning to end HOW TO of creating a database backed web site with the two, it's far from a definitive guide. I'm still waiting for a Canonical PHP book and definitely for a decent MySQL book. There really isn't anything in this book you can't learn from PHP.net, MySQL.org and DevShed, but if you want a nice and compact "course" type book, this one will do. You'll still need to reference PHP.net.

Unfortunately, after taking a Database Design class in Oracle, I've become a lot more aware of MySQL's limitations. Yes, it's free, but postgreSQL may be a better choice if some of MySQL's lacking features aren't added in the next version.

I've been entrenched with JSP heavily for the last couple of years, so I haven't familiarised myself with PHP yet. I needed a book that would show me a larger picture than I got in a web developer's job, and showed me how to put it together with more modern techniques.
This book is a perfect example of why I choose O'Reilly whenever in doubt. Chapter 1 is an overview of how web applications are put together. Chapter 2 goes through all the basic PHP syntax (stuff that would take other books several fluffy dry chapters to process). Chapter 3 gets you through all the mySQL and sql basics so you feel comfortable with that, too.
There's no 4 page tutotial entitled: "Using a text editor: Wordpad" There's also no kitch "Employee Database" example cop-out. Instead, Hugh and Dave give a realistic and usable storefront application. This book alone is probably enough for the independent web developer to get a functional site up for her/himself or a client.