Rating:  - Well Written and Hard to Stop Reading
Being a productive web developer, I am constantly buying new books and looking through information online to better myself and make my online applications better. This is the first book that I have run across which reads easily and doesn't bore you to death. It is VERY well written and covers information easily and with great examples to help you understand something when you need it. That was the greatest thing - EVERY time that you get to a point where you are about to scratch your head and think, "huh?!", you are given a more detailed explanation, graph, diagram, image, etc. The authors and the publisher did a great job with this book and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone thinking about using PHP 4 and MySQL for web development. I cannot say enough good things about it.
Rating: - The ONLY book I needed to master PHP/MySQL
This is an excellent book! It took me from a complete novice (the last programming experience I had was with structured BASIC back in the 8th grade, over 15 years ago) to developing complex, secure, database-enabled sites. I couldn't have done it without this book. The sample projects are excellent. I owe all my PHP/MySQL success to the authors of this book.
Rating:  - Excellent book - poor publishing (1st & 2nd edition)
* Note: I refer here to both the first and second edition *
This is the book I purchased to get started on server-side scripting; it probably says "user-level intermediate-advanced" to avoid lawsuits; I had no prior knowledge of server-side programming, and no trouble understanding.
It is divided in four logical parts:
(1) PHP tutorial
(2) MySQL tutorial
(3) General discussion on server-side scripting & e-commerce (very interesting)
(4) Projects
This book does an excellent job at explaining PHP & MySQL to the beginner, and goes much beyond the frustrating "intermediate" level where similar books often stop. It assumes a working knowledge of HTML, which everyone interested in this book already has in all likelihood.
It is cleverly written, clear and concise. The authors share their extensive experience with the reader, notably in the third part where common pitfalls are discussed.
The index is well done, which makes this book an excellent desktop reference in addition to being a good tutorial.
The CD contains all the code for the examples, the complete book in searchable PDF, and other goodies like the Apache Server and PHP.
My recommendation: go to phpide.de and download PHPTriad to install & configure Apache/PHP/MySQL on your PC, or have someone knowledgeable do it manually for you to avoid headaches.
The only reason I can't give five stars to the first or second edition is the number of mistakes/typos in the code examples. The upload code doesn't work, PDF generation uses obsolete functions even in the second edition, etc.
Although most of the code supplied as example functions properly, it is annoying to know that a book written to teach you to program contains errors in the programming examples.
The second edition adds a chapter about XML and removes outdated URLs. Otherwise, it is the same book (including code typos).
Combined with the PHP & MySQL manuals available for download from their respective sites, allow a week or two of reading and you should have everything needed to start working.
All things considered, I strongly recommend this book.
PS: if your heart balances between ASP & PHP for server-side, consider that more servers are PHP-enabled, since it is cheaper (free).
If you want to stay in known terrain and use JScript, than go for ASP.
Rating: - great book!!
I really looked around before buying a php/mysql book, and bought this one based on: Amazon reviews! I have to say, it was a great book! For someone who knows nothing about either, but wants to jump right in working on web sites with php and mysql, this is the perfect book! It's well organized, it�s easy to understand, and the examples are very useful and straightforward. I really recommend this book to anyone interested in php/mysql web development!
Rating:  - Don't waste your money
The more pages that a computer book has the less value it seems to have and this book is no exception. The authors try to cover too many topics and as a result almost nothing is covered adequately. I've had problems making sessions work properly and the chapter on sessions was of absolutely no help. You can find better information on the Internet. To be fair, I did get a couple of ideas from this book that I've used in my web design. The most positive thing that I can say is that I'm very grateful that I got the book from the library rather than buying it.
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