Comments about oreilly PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual:

I'm a big fan of the Missing Manual series of books. Their information is (generally) straightfoward and workable. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of this book. This book was riddled with errors (unworkable code)—even in the authors digital download. The author also jumped around and sometimes talked about placing code in a particular place, but never actually told you where that place was. That being said, the book does attempt to give you a ground-up approach to building sites with PHP & MySQL, but with all of the coding errors and sporadic navigation this book simply fails to deliver.

Comments about oreilly PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual:

There are no clear tutorials as in other Missing Manual titles. The examples weren't available until two months after the title was released. Grammar and spelling errors everywhere and poorly structured content.

A huge disappointment as I was eagerly awaiting a Missing Manual title on PHP and MySQL.

Comments about oreilly PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual:

There are no missing cd code online, this should be made available before the books hit the store for sale.

Comments about oreilly PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual:

I usually like the missing manual series. This book is a disaster. There are too many errors, most of the code just simply does not work. There are entire sections, specifically with MySQL, that are rushed over.

As of a month after the books release there still aren't code examples on the website.

Comments about oreilly PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual:

Right from the start PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual assumes the typical reader will have no knowledge of PHP or SQL. Instead it suggests they are likely to be an HTML, CSS and JavaScript programmer, wishing to explore server-side development. As such, at least a basic understanding of HTML is a prerequisite.

At close to 500 pages there's plenty of space to cover each new topic in detail. Detail that includes numerous images, code examples, tips, notes and advisory warnings. All supplemented with wise best practice advice and informative background information.

Despite the book's length a clean layout and bold page headers ensure flicking back and forward to specific areas of interest is undemanding and rapid. As the content is intended to be consumed in a practical, hands-on manner, it's good to find a complete set of code examples available for download at the website.

Brett has a light and entertaining style of writing, which he combines with a gentle wit. New information is presented in a fluid and coherent manner, even when introducing some of the more complex topics.

Structurally the book's thirteen chapters are divided into four main sections. While each section has its own well defined domain, they join together to form a smooth, interactive journey. A journey to assemble real-world PHP and MySQL-based web pages from scratch.

The first section successfully guides you through the basics. As you'll have to download the necessary software, instructions are provided for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac. This is followed by a step-by-step overview of the PHP and SQL languages, and the MySQL database product.

Located in the middle two sections are numerous web page examples, each designed to explore a specific element of server-side development. By the end of these sections you'll have the knowledge to create key elements for a typical website, and be able to dynamically retrieve, display and manage database-stored content. Any page you've created can be subsequently modified to address your own design requirements.

Important topics such as error handling are not only included, but covered in some depth. And Brett doesn't shirk from the more complex areas, such as regular expressions and managing database blobs (binary objects). However, this book isn't intended to be a PHP or SQL language reference and doesn't attempt to cover object-oriented programming or other advanced PHP techniques.

The final section covers the creation of a secure user authentication page - another essential website element. It builds upon the knowledge learned in earlier chapters, while introducing new topics such as authentication headers, credential validation, encryption, cookies and user sessions.

In summary, if you're after an excellent, straightforward, yet comprehensive introduction to web server application development, this certainly hits the mark.

Comments about oreilly PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual:

I am designer turned programmer. I won't pay for someone else to do the work if I can invest that money to learn myself. I have read other MM books that I thoroughly enjoyed (CSS & Dreamweaver c2c). I was looking for a resource to help me expand my skills. PHP & MySQL MM has helped me wrap me head around a language that was not making sense at the beginning. Where not the resource guide the others have become, it used simple construction to help expand on the concepts and how to improve on those. I did get lost at times in which scripts I was editing and am waiting for the companion missing cd so that I can actually work along with the book.