Beginning PHP and MySQL

norburym writes "W. Jason Gilmore and Apress have put together an impressive volume, both in girth and content, in Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL, From Novice to Professional. At first glance, it appears that any technical manual that tries to approach such heady stuff such as PHP and MySQL for an audience ranging the span from beginner to the uber-geek is headed for failure. Happily, I can report that Gilmore and Apress have given the world one book that will replace many other PHP and MySQL volumes. This is one that the reader will consistently rely on and keep near to hand." Read on for the rest of Norbury-Glaser's review. Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional author W. Jason Gilmore pages 800 publisher Apress rating 9 reviewer Mary Norbury-Glaser ISBN 1893115518 summary PHP and MySQL

One key to the book's success is the manner in which Gilmore approaches his subjects. The text is split neatly into three sections: the first deals exclusively with PHP and comprises the bulk of the book's content, the second section goes into depth with MySQL and the final chapters deal with PHP/MySQL integration. This layout is where the promise of appealing to such a wide range of user abilities succeeds admirably. The beginner can read cover to cover and come out of the pipe with a solid, practical knowledge of PHP, MySQL and how to combine the two to build advanced web applications. An experienced MySQL or PHP guru can skip the area of his expertise and gain much from the chapters on the other. A more advanced user can use this book as reference material, skim the chapter outline, pick and choose topics of interest and quickly find the answers they seek. Everything is cleanly written, with little or no anecdotal filler or asides. Each chapter begins with a nice overview of what will be covered and ends with a brief but concise summary.

Gilmore begins with nine chapters specific to the PHP language and its many core features and extensions, taking particular care over installation and configuration issues (platform specific instructions are included for UNIX/Linux (Mac OS X users can swim in this pool very easily) and Windows), basics (data types, variables), functions, arrays, PHP's object-oriented functionality and expressions. The next ten chapters delve deeper into PHP's file and operating system functions, web form integration, http authentication, file upload management, LDAP, session management (one of the best aspects of PHP and incredibly easy to use), Web Services (SOAP, SimpleXML extensions as well as NuSOAP and MagpieRSS -- cool stuff!), security and PHP's SQLite database extension. SQLite is an exciting multi-platform database engine that will most likely prove to be hugely popular in the near future. It's interesting to note that Apple plans to integrate SQLite into their next release of OS X, Tiger. Also of note is Gilmore's well-written chapter on PHP and LDAP. He provides an extremely competent introduction to LDAP and PHP's LDAP extension. If you work in an enterprise environment, this knowledge will become an integral part of your mindset and vocabulary.

The SQL section of the book is compact and concise. Gilmore manages to take the reader through a fast but detailed introduction to MySQL. Installation and configuration, clients (the standard set and some GUI based administration clients), table structures and security/user management are all explained with precision and an eye toward practical expectations.

Chapters 26 through 30 stand out, with an integrated approach to both PHP and SQL. This is where Gilmore pulls it all together. The reader is introduced to PHP's MySQL functionality, creating MySQL database classes, indexing and searching, transactions and importing and exporting data. There are numerous excellent real-world examples throughout this section that will enable the reader to create elegant, advanced web applications.

Gilmore removes the complexity and ambiguity inherent in many technical books and gives the reader a detailed approach to these two wildly popular open source packages. Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL will definitely serve the novice, the professional and those in between. For anyone wondering what all the fuss is about with PHP or MySQL or for anyone who has wanted that one volume that will explain it all, this is definitely the book for you. It is at once an excellent tutorial and an indispensable reference manual.

You can purchase Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

other training materials here...

[ubiquitin]

For the basics, there's an online course that I put together for an undergradute class last year here: PHP Consulting training.

Why MySQL?

[Megaweapon]

I've found PostgreSQL to be an easier database to work with and admin. When properly tuned I can't tell the difference between the two for most queries. Just my $0.02.

Switch from asp - php(5)

[Albert Sandberg]

I'm a good asp programmer with a lot of access and sql server experience, how will this book help me from that standpoint, will it help me to set up php and mysql with at least some pointers on a linux system?

Anyone who has done the above step and can recommend this book for me? Other suggestions?

Thanks
Albert "thec" Sandberg

Re:Switch from asp - php(5)

[downward dog]

What would motivate you to switch?

I've done quite a bit of both ASP and PHP. Both languages are pretty good for web development, and in a lot of ways they're comparable. However, PHP5 moves PHP in the right direction, especially in terms of object orientation and XML. And personally I think .NET moves ASP in the wrong direction.

In terms of moving from one to the other, you could probably move to intermediate PHP proficiency quickly, with just a good PHP book and a few projects to build. The two languages have very little in common syntactically, but on a conceptual level they are similar.

If you know Javascript or C or (especially) Perl, and you work freelance / your boss doesn't care / you don't care what your boss says, then I say go for it.

register_globals = off

[Neil Watson]

I hope line one tells us to always leave register_globals = off. Better yet, I hope PHP5 always runs that way.

Re:register_globals = off

[Nos.]

Not only that, but for new people,
magic_quote_gpc = On
For those not familiar with php, this will escape single quotes in GET/POST/COOKIE data. Helps protect the unfamiliar from things like SQL injection attacks. Once you know what you are doing they can be a bit of a pain in the ass, but for new people, it can help make your code a bit safer.

Re:register_globals = off

[humankind]

Yep, if your PHP guy or host tells you that you need to turn register_globals off for security reasons, you know that the twit doesn't know how to code properly. register_globals is only a security problem for badly written code.

Bull. There's no good reason to use register globals unless you don't know how to program secure applications. There's NOTHING that can be done with register_globals on that can't be done with register_globals=off, except expose slacker, lame programmers and lame applications.

It's cheaper at Amazon than at BN

[civilengineer]

$26.39 at Amazon.com. $31.99 at BN.com

Re:It's cheaper at Amazon than at BN

[blackmonday]

Never buy a tech book without checking bookpool.com!

$25.95 + shipping, free ship with $40 order (sadly, most tech books are pricey)

Ack!

[Nos.]

that should be
magic_quotes_gpc = On
That's quotes, plural. Sorry for any confusion.

My PHP reference...

[Darth Maul]

http://phpbuilder.net/

All you need. Includes all the MySQL functions, too.

Re:Anyone recommend c# books/tuts for beginners?

[Anonymous Coward]

O'Reilly's "Learning C#" by Jesse Liberty really helped me out -- i'm a non-programmer, so this book really spoonfed me the basic concepts.

My PHP reference...

[temojen]

All you need.

Includes all the functions, too. Without advertizements.

Re:ummm

[DrMorris]

I think the parent posters point was another one:
PHP is a programming language for "web-things". MySQL is a relational database. These are two separate things. Even if you know how to access a database from a programming language, you do not necessarily know how to design a database. With a badly designed DB and a relatively small amount of data, the advantage of using a DB might mostly be vanished.

Re:Why MySQL? create user foo createdb;

[Anonymous Coward]

I find that most people that talk about constraints generally have no idea how a proper constraint should be constructed. The constraints and attribute types available in SQL are so limited as to almost be worthless.

For those who wish to buy this book

[Pugio]

Cheapest price I've found is $23.52 (this includes shipping) from here. Now the question is... PHP or Perl? Which do I choose? (Old debate I know.)

Re:For those who wish to buy this book

[AGTiny]

Perl works fine on Windows, even in IIS. http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:It's PostgreSQL, please

[AstroDrabb]

Saying PostgreSQL is like saying supercalafradjalisticexpialadosous. A real pain.

It is not hard to say Post-Gres-Q-L. Or if you want to hear it.