2 comments about XML Processing with Perl, Python, and PHP.

1. XML is not so difficult, but when coping with Perl or PHP, you need something to tell you exactly HOW to do that. Add to this Python, a very well written book, and you get Martin C. Brown's book.
   I think that if you're really serious into programming XML with Python and Perl, you absolutely must have this book.



2. This book is okay, but is your development team really using all these languages? If you need to learn XML with a certain technology, get Professional PHP4 XML or Manning's new Java and XML book and many others. Not only do these books cover the same material as this one, they cover some really advanced topics such as architecture and design issues as well as giving you heads up on the latest versions such as php 4.3.0. This book also doesn't nearly tell you about all the potential problems that you can have with working with PHP where Professional PHP4 XML will answer just about every question you ever had plus everything else you didn't think of.

3 comments about PHP For Teens.

1. Terrible book. I am a novice when it comes to programming however i understand that whoever typed in the php scripts into the book they did a bad job because they don't work!
   
   If you use the scripts out of the CD that came with the book those work and they are DIFFERENT then the books scripts that are supposed to be the same.
   
   Pathetic.
   
   Retarded Book I want to return it, and get my money back, I dont know how it even got published.



2. I am a 55 year old dentist in Davenport IA and I wanted to learn PHP. I started reading some beginner books, but I was having trouble just getting the basic concepts. After practicing a few lessons in this book, I began to write my first scripts and progressed on through a full PHP and MySQL course and now I can write dynamic webpages including logins with ease.



3. I purchased this book after unsuccessfully reading through a few others with little help learning the basic concepts. This book was very good for a primer in PHP, and allowed me to get my feet on the ground so I could move on to more in-depth content.

5 comments about PHP: Your Visual Blueprint for Creating Open Source, Server-Side Content.

1. This book is a must have reference to PHP programming. It's a bit difficult to read, but it's great to have around. If you are an absoulte beginer looking to learn PHP, this isn't your book right away...wait a couple of months and then buy it.



2. This thing was the best computer book that I have ever purchased. The way it was layed out was the easiest I've ever had to learn anything in computers...and I'm a network engineer, and have been for 10 years.
   
   Great book...get it!



3. Perfect for a newbie programmer. I had more trouble installing PHP than using the book.



4. After a long search and 3 PHP books later, I have finally found something that was perfectly structured and EASY TO UNDERSTAND. If you are looking to learn PHP fast, start with this book. 4 stars instead of 5 only because its a bit dated, though still an excelent foundation.



5. I bought this book several years ago for my son when he was in high school. Since then I've kept it in work and it's been borrowed many times by ASP and Java programmers looking to broaden their knowledge, modify existing systems or to customized any of the many PHP based applications and frameworks that are available on the internet.
   It's a great book to learn what is still one of the most commonly used language on the web.

5 comments about Beginning PHP, Apache, MySQL Web Development.

1. I used this book as a tutorial on the subject with graduate students who had only basic programming experience and we all agreed that it was a great way to get started with database-backed PHP work.



2. This book is really quite good. It's very interesting & definitely very readable. When I read it, I got straight down to business, so to speak. It gives very practical examples starting you off with making a movie review site which was very interesting! All in all, an excellent book to give you a working knowledge of PHP & MySQL.
   
   That said, there are some shortcomings.
   
   -Significant amount of typos in the code
   -Some minor parts of the code requires redoing (which I found out through a forum dedicated for the book)
   -For those of you with absolutely no experience in programming, you might find some concepts aren't covered enough in detail
   
   As I said before, overall, great book.
   
   -ive 1 star for the shortcomings.
   
   Richard



3. The authors are great PHP programmers, I have no doubt, but terrible writers. I do not recommend this book. Like most bad technical writers, they make a big production about trivial concepts, then gloss over difficult concepts without explaining them in detail.



4. Well its been on my shelf for a couple years and how I've opened it. I am on page 165 and back to Amazon to search for a book to replace it.
   The book is outdated. The forum for the book is not well visited. The support code for the book is failing images and some files. The code is written inconsistantly, different authors, and there is no mention of this or proper coding examples. Variables are created on the fly and creates some error messages with uptodate PHP. The explanations of certain things requires several readings sometimes to fill in blanks that a beginner should have explained. The use of CSS is not even mentioned so far and the html does not meet Xhtml standards. We must not forget the book was copyrighted in 2004.
   
   I have purchased "Beginning PHP and MySQL 5" by Jason Gilmore and it seems to be a resonable book but leans more towards a reference text. The search continues...
   
   Namaste,
   
   Kevin Tough



5. I think the people that criticize this book don't see the forest from the trees. Yes, there are typos, but this book goes into many of the things I was looking for in getting my ecommerce site going. I think a little more of an introduction/explanation of the basic concepts of html objects would be nice. That said, I have used many of the code examples in my site and am pleased with the results. I had an idea of the functionality I wanted on the site and every time I went to the book to find an example, it was there. Initially I was wondering about how I was going to install all of these tools (mysql, php, apache) and when I saw a reference to the xampp installer I was quite relieved. I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone interested in building a website with these tools.

5 comments about PHPEclipse: A User Guide.

1. I don't know how I ever wrote php code without Eclipse! And this book makes it easy and FUN to use Eclipse. Shu Chow is a master at explaining the concepts involved as well as the functionality of the tool.



2. I have struggled with PHP, always wishing I could just find a plain-language guide. This book not only makes the material clear, it is actually fun to read!
   
   Having finished the book, I am now writing codes and deploying sites with greater ease than I ever thought possible. If you are ready to make a big leap with your command of PHP, this book is all you need.



3. When you are first learning a new computer language such as PHP, you will want to complete each line of code and each phase of the program by hand and without using any shortcuts. This is the best way to learn. But as we all know, in the real world, we are all pressed for time. Many programmers turn to an IDE (integrated development environment) to keep them organized and to streamline the workflow. This book by Shu-Wai Chow will show you how to install, setup and use PHPEclipse which is a popular open source IDE for PHP programmers.
   
   The author begins with an introduction to IDE's covering their main features and the pros and cons of using them. Following this, is an introduction to PHPEclipse, its history and architecture. Then the fun begins. Chow's tutorial-styled narrative walks you through each step as you install the main software; Apache, PHP, Java, Eclipse and PHPEclipse. I especially liked that he used the free, open source distribution/installation software called XAMPP which automates the installation of Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl. He covers the installation for Windows, Mac and Linux. At this point you also install Java and PHPEclipse. Finally, he thoroughly discusses the user interface, the views (palettes) and dialog boxes and how you might want to customize these.
   
   Once you have these installed, you begin to work on a real PHP application project which is a database driven website for an animal shelter. You learn how to set up this project's files and folders within PHPEclipse. Then you begin building the PHP code and supporting HTML, JavaScript and CSS files for the website. You also begin to work on the database, program objects and classes. Chow introduces some helpful tools at this point including WTP (Web Tools Platform project), HTML Tidy, Eclipse Tidy and phpDocumentor. I especially liked the phpDocumentor feature that builds the documentation for your application from your source code comments.
   
   Debugging is the next topic and after an introduction to terms and concepts, Chow shows how to install and setup the DBG debugger. With this feature, you can use more sophisticated debugging practices than the basic echo ( ) function we all know so well. Chow walks you through a complete debugging session and discusses common strategies.
   
   The next step is to turn PHPEclipse into a database client by the addition of the Quantum DB plug-in. Chow demonstrates how to use this with a relational database and how to perform common tasks such as writing SQL statements and manipulating tables.
   
   Depending on your projects, you may or may not feel that you need the help of version control software to keep track of the changes made to your application. However, you will be surprised at how helpful this software is with even the simplest project. Chow helps you install, setup and use the CVS version control software with PHPEclipse and also discusses some common terms and concepts along the way. Lastly, Chow covers how to setup PHPEclipse to work with FTP, Secure FTP, WebDAV and Ant for publishing your new site.
   
   As you can see, this book is more than just instructions on how to install these programs. It also gives you hands-on practice using them. You can download the complete application and sample files from the supporting website. Shu-Wai Chow has been working in the programming field for over eight years and is proficient in Java, JSP, PHP, ColdFusion, ASP, LDAP, XSLT and XSL-FO.



4. I'm a long-time PHP developer but a relative newcomer to Eclipse (love it).
   
   This is a fair guide to PHPEclipse. I don't think there's anything about PHPEclipse I'd want to know that I couldn't find in this book, particularly about adding debugging and phpdoc, which don't come bundled with PHPEclipse.
   
   On the other hand - for what you pay, this is a really, really short book. If they needed some filler space to justify the cost, more information on Eclipse in general would have come in handy for a noob like me, or some basics on PHP (the book assumes a fairly high level of PHP knowledge, as it goes right in to OOP in its examples). Some of the graphics work and text layout leaves a bit to be desired, which surprised me, as I've had good luck with this publisher.
   
   If I had it to do over again, I probably would have skipped this book and toughed it out, but overall it isn't a bad book and it did help some. If you are a PHP ninja but you don't know anything about PHP in Eclipse (and you have some cash to kill), it isn't a bad pickup. I give it an "eh" rating.



5. PHPEclipse: A User Guide is a quick read. Having already worked with Eclipse for PHP development the book didn't present any drastic or life changing additions to my technique with Eclipse.
   
   The book is greatly geared toward the newest of PHP programmers, ones still looking to make a mark in the world, or those who are looking to escape the claws of another IDE and want to know what Eclipse and PHPEclipse are all about. Shu-Wai does and excellent job of explaining what Perspectives and Views are and how they work together to make up the meat of PHPEclipse.
   
   Each chapter is full of quick information about how to setup a specific aspect of Eclipse to better work with PHP development. Chapters 3 and 4 explain how the IDE displays information about your application to you, and where to look for more information. Chapters 5 through 8 explain different plug-ins (CVS, Debug, Deploying code) and explain how they work integrated with Eclipse. The best part of each of these latter chapters is they explain in detail how to get the particular plugin installed and configured. It was a fresh and welcome look at plugins and how they work.
   
   What peaked my interest in the book were two things. The first was Appendix A which explains more about where to get more plugins and information about the plugins. The second was the overview of Eclipse. A short history and explanation of how Eclipse came to be what it is today. I was particularly interested in the plugin development, which is built right into Eclipse.
   
   Although the book is short, and a quick read, if you are thinking about picking up Eclipse and using it, you should get this book and read through it while you are in the process.

5 comments about Creating Interactive Web Sites with PHP and Web Services.

1. I am a graphic designer turned web designer with years of experience now coding HTML and CSS directly. Wanting to broaden my overall web site development abilities I started looing at books on basic scripting and database development for creating more efficient and dynamic sites. My interest was not to learn PHP for the sake of knowing another language and becoming a master programmer (as the aim of most other programming books out there seems to be), but to find a book that was geared toward immediately effective and productive learning-while-building with programming and database basics, for someone who hasn't done those things before. This book seemed to have posed the same question as myself, and out of the shelves and shelves of 'standard' programming books this one answered my query.



2. This book has a misleading title. It has a small section talking about web services API by amazon. This book would help a beginner PHP programmer though.



3. Rosebruck gives a book well suited to you if you have already done some PHP, but want to migrate to the more complex challenge of using it to make a website. He shows how this is harder than just writing PHP to make 1 HTML page. Now you have many pages. Probably divided into various thematic groups.
   
   Of those groups, or tasks, he gives examples. Like hooking to a back end database. He chooses MySQL for the latter. Or, how to impose a membership system, with passwords and members-only pages. Plus, how to add a shopping cart and various payment scripts. And he shows quickly how a content management system might be used, so that visitors can read and write content.
   
   However, the book's coverage of Web Services is very rudimentary. In this aspect, the prominent billing in the title is a trifle misleading. If you need a text on it, look somewhere else.



4. This is a wonderful book. The code is easy to understand and is broken down. Eric did a wonderful job with this book. I successfully developed a member management system thanks to this book.. I give it five stars.



5. I'm using this book for a class. Most of the students have had bad experiences with PHP before this -- I'm one of them. The back of this book states it is rated for an Intermediate/Advanced user level. The rating is totally accurate. Unless you have a basic but decent PHP background you will be lost. The author uses special characters, terms, etc. that are not previously defined, and assumes a basic understanding of programming. If you do not have a basic understanding of programming and an elementary knowledge of PHP, find another book. This one does not give enough background in PHP to get a novice up to speed.

5 comments about Zend PHP Certification Study Guide (Developer's Library).

1. Coming from "The PHP Company", I fully expected this book to be "up-to-snuff" on everything it covered. I was sadly mistaken.
   
   I barely made it past the third page of the first chapter, and I had to shelf it. The technical errors, the grammatical errors (I know, I'm not perfect), and the cheesey analogies all made it a very uncomfortable experience.
   
   As another reviewer mentioned, this book needs to be updated to reflect the errata and such. I'm very displeased with it, and I will be sharing my opinion with Zend.



2. I just took and passed the the test today and read this book cover to cover twice. I think it is a great book, but it seemed that the book's questions were a lot harder then the exams.



3. When studying for a technical certification exam, there are two things that you must do. The first is to achieve the appropriate level of expertise and the second is to become familiar with the forms that the questions may take. Questions on technical examinations can be very tricky, a common cause of failure is to misread or misinterpret the question. Programming is such a precise activity that it is easy to write a question where the "obvious" answer is in fact wrong.
   While this book does have some description of how to program in PHP, it is a review only and there is not enough to impart the appropriate level of expertise in PHP. A small number of sample questions are given at the end of each chapter and there is a sample exam with eighteen questions at the end. Solutions to all of the questions are included.
   Although I found the study questions to be good, my personal opinion is that there are not enough of them. It would have been better if there were at least fifty questions in a sample exam, or two exams with at least fifty. When providing study questions, overkill is difficult to impossible to achieve, and eighteen is nowhere near that lofty goal.



4. This book was a good overview, but be careful. There are numerous mistakes in the book and on the "practice" tests. Not that his book will even be worth anything since the PHP4 test will no longer be given in a month, but if it's any indicator of what the PHP5 book is like I recommend you use more then one source of study material. Certain topics that are in the test were very briefly covered in the book, but I had two or three questions on it. I would recommend the cert course through Zend if you are worried about your knowledge.



5. this is a good book, good review of the php4 language, but useless if you want to get a PHP5 certification.
   
   I buy the book cause i want to make the certification on PHP5 so i wasted my money...
   
   Could help if the title of the book specify the language version.

5 comments about Essential PHP Tools: Modules, Extensions, and Accelerators.

1. I have found HTML & Smarty chapter very useful. You will also find other chapter useful if you have to work on them in real life projects. Overall very practical book.



2. This book does alert you to many useful modues, extensions and accelerators and given that many of these are open source and their documentation can be skimpy, it's good to have examples and documentation from another source.
   
   However, this book is not comprehensive in it's coverage of said modules, extensions and accelerators and in areas where it covers material already explained in the documentation, I preferred the original documentation's style and explanations. The book does mention things that the original documention does not, but the original documentation talks about things that the book does not.
   
   In short, I had to read both the documentation and the book to fully understand the code.



3. I bought this book with high expectations.
   
   It is a very good book, well written, and David Sklar really has done a good job writing it. However, I didn't find it that useful. It wasn't even remotely close to comprehensive about what it covered, and made only footnote mention of other tools that are out there.
   
   I ended up returning it -- something I rarely do. I didn't think it was worth the money. Most of this info is available for free online anyways.



4. This is really only for advanced PHP programmers. If you are one, it maybe will render in 5 star.



5. You would think that a PHP book that actually mentioned "Extensions" as part of the title would cover extensions wouldn't you? Well in the case of this book you would be wrong. The index has exactly 1 entry for 'extensions' and even that is a 1 sentence footnote! Compare that to the 45 pages devoted to the subject in George Schlossnagle's book "Advanced PHP Programming" and you can get an idea of actually how deficient this book is in this aspect.

No comments about A Web-Based Introduction to Programming: Essential Algorithms, Syntax and Control Structures Using PHP and XHTML.

5 comments about How to Do Everything with PHP and MySQL (How to Do Everything).

1. If you want to work directly with HTML, PHP, and SQL without extra tools like PEAR, Smarty, Dreamweaver, etc., you may like this book. For small projects that do not need to be pretty and especially for learning how the code all works together, I like the approach of having the SQL, HTML, and PHP all on one page for a change. I am using the examples to convert an old ASP/Access project to PHP/MySQL and find the examples helpful.



2. I skimmed through this book once, and I read the reviews here. I thought this book could not have been that bad. It is a well structured book (from reading the Titles and SubTitles). Then I started reading it in details - lucky I borrowed this book from the library.
   
   This book started off so well. It promises "best practices", yet delivers very bad coding habits and taking shortcuts. The book outlines and titles were well designed, but the details were nothing more than, "Hay, here is the syntax, this is the usage plus some simple examples..., and you can use this to design database." Nothing that I couldn't find from the online PHP manual, and probably with better examples. Functions and keywords used were never explained properly. Its like, "Kid, now that I taught you addition, multiplication, subtraction and division.... You should be able to go out and solve the 2nd law of Thermodynamics because all mathematics built upon plus and minus."
   
   Not only that you can't do "Everything" reading this book, having read it I think I know less PHP.
   
   This book reflect badly on the publisher as well, I'd think twice buying similar book from them.



3. In the Introduction, the author claims that this book "is targeted at novice web developers". And true enough, the first two chapters guide the novice how to install and configure MySQL, PHP and Apache. Obviously these chapters have been written or thoroughly edited by an English speaking person. Then, from third chapter, the geek takes over ! He writes assuming that the reader has prior knowledge of PHP and MySQL, using terminology that he does not explain. In almost all chapters, instead of elaborating the subject under discussion, he suggests that the reader should look up the recommended website.
   
   I thoroughly recommend any book on PHP/MySQL written by any author other than Vikram Vaswani. I did not learn anything new from this book, which is "the worst" computer book I have ever read. How can any reputable House publish a book that consistently urges the reader to seek knowledge from elsewhere ?



4. Material is poorly presented. Author assumes programming knowledge on your part. You are often left floundering, wondering what the author meant. Found a much better book at my local library but it was, as you can imagine, seriously out of date. I have made it 1/3 of the way through this book and am considering tossing it in the trash.



5. Great book. It really got me started when I first had started my trek on learning PHP. It goes more in depth than other books I had read before. The only thing I would recommend is a better chapter on error coding and security. Over all I recommend this book.