Product Description

PHP and MySQL are popular open-source technologies that are ideal for quickly developing database-driven Web applications. PHP is a powerful scripting language designed to enable developers to create highly featured Web applications quickly, and MySQL is a fast, reliable database that integrates well with PHP and is suited for dynamic Internet-based applications.

PHP and MySQL Web Development shows how to use these tools together to produce effective, interactive Web applications. It clearly describes the basics of the PHP language, explains how to set up and work with a MySQL database, and then shows how to use PHP to interact with the database and the server.

This practical, hands-on book includes numerous examples that demonstrate common tasks such as authenticating users, constructing a shopping cart, generating PDF documents and images dynamically, sending and managing email, facilitating user discussions, connecting to Web services using XML, and developing Web 2.0 applications with Ajax-based interactivity.

The fourth edition of PHP and MySQL Web Development has been thoroughly updated, revised, and expanded to cover developments in PHP 5 through version 5.3, such as namespaces and closures, as well as features introduced in MySQL 5.1.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3483 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1008 pages

Amazon.com Review
The PHP server-side scripting language and the MySQL database management system (DBMS) make a potent pair. Both are open-source products--free of charge for most purposes--remarkably strong, and capable of handling all but the most enormous transaction loads. Both are supported by large, skilled, and enthusiastic communities of architects, programmers, and designers. PHP and MySQL Web Development introduces readers (who are assumed to have little or no experience with the title subjects) to PHP and MySQL for the purpose of creating dynamic Internet sites. It teaches the same skills as introductory Active Server Pages (ASP) and ColdFusion books--technologies that address the same niche.

Authors Luke Welling and Laura Thomson's technique aims to get readers going on their own projects as soon as possible. They present easily digestible sections on specific technical processes--"Accessing array contents" and "Using encryption with PHP" are two examples. Each section centers on a sample program that strips the task at hand down to its essentials, enabling the reader to fit the process into his or her own solutions as required. Tables that list options and other nuggets of reference material appear as well, but the many examples and the authors' commentary on them take center stage.

For reference material on MySQL, have a look at Paul DuBois's MySQL. On the PHP side, Web Application Development with PHP 4.0 is excellent. --David Wall

Topics covered:

• The MySQL database server (for both Unix and Windows)
• Accessing MySQL databases through PHP scripting (the letters don't really stand for anything)
• Database creation and modification
• PHP tricks in order of increasing complexity--everything from basic SQL queries to secure transactions for commerce
• Authentication
• Network connectivity
• Session management
• Content customization

Review
“This book by Welling & Thomson is the
only one which I have found to be indispensable.
The writing is clear and straightforward
but never wastes my time.The book is
extremely well laid out.The chapters are the
right length and chapter titles quickly take
you where you want to go.”
—Wright Sullivan, President,A&E
Engineering, Inc., Greer South Carolina

“There are several good introductory
books on PHP, but Welling & Thomson is an
excellent handbook for those who wish to
build up complex and reliable systems. It’s
obvious that the authors have a strong background
in the development of professional
applications and they teach not only
the language itself, but also how to use it
with good software engineering practices.”
—Javier Garcia, senior telecom engineer,
Telefonica R&D Labs, Madrid

“This book rocks! I am an experienced
programmer, so I didn’t need a lot of help
with PHP syntax; after all, it’s very close to
C/C++. I don’t know a thing about
databases, though, so when I wanted to
develop a book review engine (among
other projects) I wanted a solid reference
to using MySQL with PHP. I have
O’Reilly’s mSQL and MySQL book, and
it’s probably a better pure-SQL reference,
but this book has earned a place on my
reference shelf…Highly recommended.”
—Paul Robichaux

“The true PHP/MySQL bible, PHP
and MySQL Web Development by Luke
Welling and Laura Thomson, made me
realize that programming and databases are
now available to the commoners. Again, I
know 1/10000th of what there is to know,
and already I’m enthralled.”
—Tim Luoma,TnTLuoma.com

From the Back Cover
PHP & MySQL Web Development teaches the reader to develop dynamic, secure e-commerce Web sites and Web applications. The book shows how to integrate and implement these technologies by following real-world examples and working sample projects. It also covers the related technologies needed to build a commercial Web site such as SSL, shopping carts, and payment systems.

The CD includes a Linux distribution, MySQL, PHP4 and utilities for the projects and code listings.

Customer Reviews

Complete resource for practical PHP/MySQL Web applications
This is such a good book that I wanted to take the time to write a review and give it 5 stars, which it richly deserves. The other glowing reviews helped me to choose this book over others, and they were right on the money.

I'm an experienced C/C++ programmer on Windows, but I knew nothing about PHP and MySQL -- and very little about Apache and Unix -- prior to opening this book. I've now read about 80% of it and, in the process, I've built a commercial-grade Website with user registration and shopping cart facilities, which was my objective. Reading this book was a very efficient use of my time -- it gave me exactly what I needed to build a practical Web application system with PHP and MySQL, and very little extraneous stuff.

The main prerequisite for this book is a working knowledge of HTML, and just a little background in procedural programming. Some of the earliest examples use HTML tags for tables and forms, with PHP use thoroughly explained, but without many notes on the HTML. A beginning programmer can learn effectively from this book, but as an experienced programmer I felt that it also worked well to bring me up to speed quickly on a new language.

Another value of this book not mentioned in other reviews are the many good recommendations for organizing your PHP code (applying basic software engineering principles) as your Web application gets larger and more complex. Many, many Websites have been built haphazardly and are now difficult to maintain because they haven't followed the excellent advice in this book.

I did notice the typos mentioned by other reviewers, but after reading 80% of this (867-page) book I feel they are very minor and really do not detract from the book significantly at all.

All in all, this is one of those rare books that is probably worth ten times the amount that you pay for it, and much more if you use it effectively.

Sams vs. O'Reilly PHP & MySQL books: Which one to buy?
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.

Impressed
You never know what your really going to get when you buy a book online but I am totally happy with this purchase. This book offers real world examples and full source code for many of the PHP/MySQL projects developers tackle on a day to day basis. Details can be found on: Image generation, cookies, user authentication, shopping carts, content management, mailing-lists, PDF document generation and a lot of detail on how to set up and install both PHP and MySQL on your server. The authors do not only show you the code but explain what's happening so that you can customize the scripts for your own use and they do this very well. This book is aimed at intermediate web developers who are familiar with HTML, some type of programming (ASP, Perl), but you certainly do not have to be an expert programmer to understand what's going on. All and all-the best web programming book I've bought, period.