Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites (Animal Guide)

• #2 in Best PHP Books
• #4 in Best Mysql Books
• #6 in Best Javascript Books

8 Reviews

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Here is my background:
Java, Cold Fusion, ASP.net, C#, Rails; sys admin for Windows and Unix boxes.

Picked up several books to learn PHP - yuck!

Picked up this book. Wow. In 2 days I was on my way!

1. all the code examples actually work. Yes, it's true. I know it's shocking.
2. the explanations are excellent. Wow can this person communicate. Again shocking.
3. Tons of examples. Talking is great but I learn through code examples. There are plenty here. That is why in 2 days you will be like: Wow I can code in PHP.
4. Here is the best part - Nixon helps you setup everything so it works. I mean in less than 30min I was running PHP via Apache on my Windows using Mysql. I have days with other books trying to make things work because the author did not care enough to actually help me do setup.

Then pick up the PHP Web Dev Wellin/Thompson book and bang with Nixon's - you are a PHP intermediate level programmer.

Really - that easy.

I wasted so many hours with other books - crap. Live and learn.

Thank you Robin Nixon. This book is a godsend. With the hours I saved, I am partying - yee ha!

I agree with what's already been said about the code working and the author communicating well. Too often I've been disappointed with an over-abundance of typos or just bad instruction, both really frustrating when already faced with the challenge of learning something new. But this book definitely delivers there.

The reason I was really excited about this title and why I'm loving it so much as I go through it is that it focuses on combining all three and talks about real-world situations. You might read a PHP or javascript book that does the job teaching you those on their own but when it's time to close the book and use them on a real website, you'd be lost or Googling a LOT of things. Most "cool" sites do a good job of making their scripting languages work well together, and this book will show you how to do that, and it serves as a great jump-off for more advanced scripting later. It's like the author said "I know what you're trying to accomplish, here's how to do it."

Awesome job and I hope to see more like this!

I had the pleasure of being a technical reviewer for the book, and this follow-up to O'Reilly's Learning PHP & MySQL is an enormous improvement over its predecessors. Robin Nixon maintains a comfortable, conversational tone throughout the text, so newcomers to the topic should not find the material daunting. The contents are very well targeted to novices of the craft, cutting out needless technical details and jargon to focus on what a new developer ought to know to create a functioning website. This is not a reference manual or intended for advanced users, but most people will find something useful within its pages, even if all you're looking for is a refresher on the topics.

I've only gotten through the first two and a half chapters, but so far it's a great introduction to the web technologies necessary to make a Web 2.0 site. The author has a great writing style for this kind of book--he is engaging and knowledgeable, while not speaking down at you too much.

No programming knowledge is required, and the book does discuss basic concepts like variables, arrays, etc. But it does look like that is all covered in the first few chapters and that by the end you can create working, powerful websites.

And when you're done with this book, the author himself gives you a list of what books to go onto when you want to learn more about any of the technologies covered.

Overall, a great book so far and a fine addition to the stellar O'Reilly series!

It is rare that I am so inspired to write a review for something. This book made learning easy. I must say that without the experience of taking a Java programming class at my college (the only programming experience I have), I would have likely had to make use of additional sources to fully grasp the PHP - object oriented section of this book. But even so, I still highly recommend this book to anybody wanting to create a highly functional website.

After spending about 2 weeks with it, I am already building dynamic websites that are impressing even myself. It is written very well and has great examples for practice coding. FIVE STARS without question!

Let me start out by saying that I originally gave this 4 stars because it doesn't explain concepts for new developers to php. The books assumes that you have computer programming knowledge even though it states you don't have to in the description, which luckily I have programming experience so I could understand the concepts but just gave a warning to new developers with no programming experience in my first review. I had to then take it down to 1 star because the book has no logical order in which it teaches you the concepts, gives examples and gives answers or follow-ups. Example: the book would show you an example of the concept(an actual hard code example), then explain the concepts, then tell you what happens when the code runs. Because of this style/order(or lack of it) it makes it hard to learn. There is useful information in this book but you can find far better books out there that have some form of logic and order to the construction of the material. I really have no idea how this book made it past his editor and publication company because O'Reily usually has great books. Do yourself a favor and save a lot of headaches and try a different book. I usually don't write negative reviews(you can look in my review history) but this book is COMPLETELY nonsensical and has no logical order.

I'm a beginner at php, MySQL and javascript, but reading through this book and doing the examples simultaneously made learning fast and easy. The writing style is easy to understand and topics are repeated enough to refresh your memory through the chapters. I strongly recommend this book!

I have been invited to participate on a project which includes Creating Dynamic Website. My only option to acquire appropriate knowledge has been a self teaching undertaking. From a variety of books covering the subject, so far as I can see I picked the right one, the one I am writing about.

I received the book by post 16, January of this year and so far I have covered one quarter of the book, almost all first part about PHP coding. Although I am not a novice in coding and programming, all I can briefly say, was that I picked the right book for my problem. It is very neatly presented, leaving little doubt and confusion students might have when facing a new subject. I hope that the same quality of presentation will continue to the last page. My sincere thanks and prize to the author of the book for a job well done.