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PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual Quickpro Guide
Explains how to access and create MySQL databases through PHP scripting, including discussion of authentication, network connectivity, sessions, and content management.
640 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2007
12 people are currently reading
84 people want to read
About the author
Larry Ullman
69 books15 followersLarry Ullman is a writer, Web and software developer, trainer, instructor, speaker, and consultant. He has written 23 books and numerous articles. His books have sold over 350,000 copies world wide in more than 20 languages. As his readers, students, and co-workers can attest, Larry’s strength is in Translating Geek into English: converting the technical and arcane into something comprehensible and useful.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 8, 2011
Larry Ullman, PHP6 and MySQL5 for Dynamic Websites (Peachpit Press, 2005)
I finished this a while back (April 15, 2011; I'm writing this on August 4), and at the time I was pretty high on it. I do think that, given a certain person at a certain point in his or her development, it's an incredibly valuable tome, but the more I think about it, and the more I try to mesh the code Ullman presents here with general OO coding practices (specifically encapsulation), the more vertical-market it seems to me.
The vertical market in question: PHP beginners. And I mean raw-off-the-vine recruits who have not only never touched PHP, but are new to the entire concept of object-oriented programming. And if that's you, I can't recommend this book highly enough; it will get you up and running quicker than you can say Jack Sprat (or maybe that should be Jackrabbit Sprat), as long as you're not going to try and do anything needlessly complex. Ullman illustrates a number of concepts here, and as long as you're not a neat-freak when it comes to your code, and as long as you listen to his periodic warnings that the code in the book isn't optimized (and has the odd security hole or two; do a google search on “php security” and implement a few of the things you find before releasing any of this code into the wild), you'll learn a number of core concepts about data modeling, presentation, validation, and that sort of thing, and you'll learn them well; PHP6 and MySQL5 for Dynamic Websites was the first of the PHP books I read that explained some of those concepts in ways that actually made sense to me, as a coder coming from a C++/C# background.
That said, there are more than enough PHP geeks out there who would take one look at the code in this book and recoil in horror at the idea that the validation and presentation code are housed in the same file. And given my background, I can't really say they're wrong. Making a long, long story as short as possible, the end result of all that mulling is that, while I think you should pick this up if you're a beginner, I don't think you should pick it up by itself; read it first, and then immediately progress to something like Lea's PHP MySQL Website Programming: Problem – Design – Solution to get (slightly) more advanced ideas on what your code should look like, in the greater scheme of things. *** ½
I finished this a while back (April 15, 2011; I'm writing this on August 4), and at the time I was pretty high on it. I do think that, given a certain person at a certain point in his or her development, it's an incredibly valuable tome, but the more I think about it, and the more I try to mesh the code Ullman presents here with general OO coding practices (specifically encapsulation), the more vertical-market it seems to me.
The vertical market in question: PHP beginners. And I mean raw-off-the-vine recruits who have not only never touched PHP, but are new to the entire concept of object-oriented programming. And if that's you, I can't recommend this book highly enough; it will get you up and running quicker than you can say Jack Sprat (or maybe that should be Jackrabbit Sprat), as long as you're not going to try and do anything needlessly complex. Ullman illustrates a number of concepts here, and as long as you're not a neat-freak when it comes to your code, and as long as you listen to his periodic warnings that the code in the book isn't optimized (and has the odd security hole or two; do a google search on “php security” and implement a few of the things you find before releasing any of this code into the wild), you'll learn a number of core concepts about data modeling, presentation, validation, and that sort of thing, and you'll learn them well; PHP6 and MySQL5 for Dynamic Websites was the first of the PHP books I read that explained some of those concepts in ways that actually made sense to me, as a coder coming from a C++/C# background.
That said, there are more than enough PHP geeks out there who would take one look at the code in this book and recoil in horror at the idea that the validation and presentation code are housed in the same file. And given my background, I can't really say they're wrong. Making a long, long story as short as possible, the end result of all that mulling is that, while I think you should pick this up if you're a beginner, I don't think you should pick it up by itself; read it first, and then immediately progress to something like Lea's PHP MySQL Website Programming: Problem – Design – Solution to get (slightly) more advanced ideas on what your code should look like, in the greater scheme of things. *** ½
July 15, 2011
The author takes a difficult subject and does an excellent job at making it easy to understand.
There is the added bonus that if you still find a problem understanding anything, he runs a helpful website where he and others respond to questions quickly. I had posted questions on this website and found everyone to be helpful.
There is the added bonus that if you still find a problem understanding anything, he runs a helpful website where he and others respond to questions quickly. I had posted questions on this website and found everyone to be helpful.
June 23, 2016
2016-June-22
I read this some time ago, intended to go through it again, and started re-reading it, but it *appears* that I have "lost" the book. I don't really know where it is. So I can't continue reading it. I'll maybe find it some time.
--- Older Review ---
If you have a basic programming background this could be a great introduction to PHP and MySQL. One issue with this book is that despite being 2 years old, it was so much ahead of the curve with regards to PHP that the version of PHP that he is speaking of is not out of beta yet. Or at least isn't called PHP 6. Most of PHP 6 will be coming out in PHP 5.4, which also isn't out yet. PHP 6 will approach things differently than the book is talking about, especially around Unicode support. Lets see where this goes in the next few years (because it currently looks like it may be a few years before this happens).
I read this some time ago, intended to go through it again, and started re-reading it, but it *appears* that I have "lost" the book. I don't really know where it is. So I can't continue reading it. I'll maybe find it some time.
--- Older Review ---
If you have a basic programming background this could be a great introduction to PHP and MySQL. One issue with this book is that despite being 2 years old, it was so much ahead of the curve with regards to PHP that the version of PHP that he is speaking of is not out of beta yet. Or at least isn't called PHP 6. Most of PHP 6 will be coming out in PHP 5.4, which also isn't out yet. PHP 6 will approach things differently than the book is talking about, especially around Unicode support. Lets see where this goes in the next few years (because it currently looks like it may be a few years before this happens).
December 17, 2012
Best book on PHP and MySQL on the market... hands down.
October 3, 2011
This is a grate book to start PHP. I highly recommend it.
January 2, 2016
le livre est ancien ... déçu :( , il n'a y pas de POO , de plus php version 6 n'est pas sortie.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews