5 comments about Foundation PHP 5 for Flash (Foundation).

1. "Foundation PHP 5 for Flash" by David Powers is a great book, as I've come to expect from both David Powers and his publisher, Friends of ED.
   
   The word "Foundation" in the title may lead you to think this is a beginner's book; it decidedly is not. As stated on the back cover, the book is aimed at the "reasonably experienced Flash user who has mastered the basics." I'd even say that it takes a mastery of more than just the basics to get the most out of this book. Without a very good knowledge of ActionScript, much of the material would be difficult to follow.
   
   That being said, this book is not about ActionScript. It's not even really about Flash. It's a book about PHP -- and a very, very good book about PHP at that. It's also a book about MySQL. Prior to the most advanced chapters, the tie-in with Flash (and ActionScript) is said in one word: LoadVars. Once you get past that, you can pretty much forget about ActionScript for much of the book and focus on learning PHP and MySQL. Although the book does show by example how to get variables between your Flash user and LoadVars in ActionScript, you really do need to be comfortable with the ins and outs of Flash in general and ActionScript in particular in order to make full use of those examples, and this is not the book for learning that part of it. In the more advanced chapters, more ActionScript comes into play, and it can get confusing if you're not already comfortable with it. (I'd liken diving into this book without knowing ActionScript or PHP to learning to speak Spanish and Italian at the same time: at some point, you're going to say "dónde" when you mean to say "dove.")
   
   What this book does cover extremely well is everything that happens on the back end, outside of Flash. The chapters that introduce PHP do much more than just introduce it: they are an excellent tutorial in the language that would even be a great resource for people who just want to learn PHP without having anything to do with Flash. Concepts are explained clearly and completely, and the examples are extremely useful and illustrative. The same can be said for the MySQL chapters: You really do learn MySQL, and not just by breezing through one or two superficial examples as in most PHP books.
   
   The nuts-and-bolts chapters are particularly brilliant. David Powers's walk-throughs on installing Apache, PHP and MySQL are legendary. You simply couldn't ask for a better guide! The appendices -- including 20 whole pages on various things that might go wrong and what to do about it -- are indispensable.
   
   My only criticism is of the often convoluted examples. The author's style is to build up the examples iteratively, retracing and revising the code, step by step, over many pages as you learn new techniques. He will often walk you through the "obvious-but-wrong" way of doing something, then make changes little by little, introducing new concepts along the way. While this is perhaps a good way of learning, it sometimes feels like you're reaching over your head with your right hand to scratch your left ear.
   
   As usual, the Friends of ED name on the cover means you're buying quality. Everything from the paper to the layout to the typography is top-of-the-line. While black-and-white printing usually doesn't work well for Flash books, it's perfectly fine for this book (remember, I told you that this isn't really a book about Flash). The author is very active in the Friends of ED readers' forum, so you can be certain that any questions you have about the examples (or about pretty much anything else for that matter) will be answered by the author himself in great detail if you address them on the forum.
   
   So if you know ActionScript and want to learn how to put a database behind it, or if you're a skilled PHP programmer looking for another way to apply your knowledge, or even if you have no real interest in Flash but want to gain a deep understanding of PHP/MySQL, this is a great book for you. Be prepared to spend lots of time with it -- it's nearly 700 pages and it has zero fluff -- but it is time very well spent indeed.



2. I'm a Flash developer transitioning into creating RICH applications and decided you use PHP for that technology. I wanted a book that would guide me from the ground up with integrating PHP into Flash. This book did the job!!!!
   
   It showed me step by step how to create my own local Apache and MySQL servers with ease, and clearly explained the configuration woes a newcomer when face. Very impressive!!!
   
   The book then guides you through several examples of using Flash and PHP together. In fact you'll end up with a pretty cool game on HangMan once you're done.



3. I came to this book with a basic knowledge of ASP and Microsoft SQL Server. Using back end technologies with Flash is quite a change from (X)HTML, and this book really helps you get your head around the change in logic needed to effectively use Flash with a back end.
   
   I haven't quite finished the book, but everything I've read so far has been great. Highly recommended.



4. THE BOOK IS EASY TO FOLLOW BUT THE FLASH DESIGNS HAVE TO BE DOWNLOADED SO COMMONSENCE IS IF YOU DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE THING AND THE BOOK DONT TEACH YOU TO DO IT YOURSELF THEN YOU DINT LEARN ANYTHING,,,, YOU WILL LEARN PHP BUT I ALLREADY KNEW PHP SO I GOT THIS TO LEARN FLASH***THE PHP FOR FLASH PREVIOUST TO THIS IS BETTER SINCE YOU HAVE TO MAKE YOUR OWN FLASH BUTTONS STEP BY STEP SO YOU CAN LEARN, IF ITS TO LEARN FLASH I COULD GIVE A 0 STARS BUT FOR PHP I COULD GIVE 6 STARS OUT OF 5,,,,, ONE LAST THING IM JUST RATING THIS ACCORDING TO FLASH SO I GAVE 1 BECAUSE THE WEBSITE DONT PERMIT ME TO GIVE CERO



5. I have read and studied a lot of books on web development. So far this is the book where I found how the author explicitly and clearly explained every aspects of details. I should have purchased this book much much earlier. Now my flash and php mysql skills and knowledge had extremely improved. This is the best buy for me and I am now searching for other books by David Powers.

5 comments about PHP5 and MySQL Bible.

1. As the other reviewers have stated, there are quite a few code errors. However, I was impressed by the content. The dialog within the book is comprehensive as well as enjoyable. This is not a dry manual. It does jump around, but with so much covered, there's no correct navigational path to develop each topic in succession. I found it great to read the book, but create my own code based on examples found in the book. (Copying the code line by line didn't help me. However, copying the general information contained really expanded my knowledge.) This is a book for beginner and intermediate programmers interested in PHP.



2. This book is not meant to be a profound cache of code-snippets. Indeed there are some coding errors. I freely admit that I learned raw html "OJT" years ago, with little reason or time to learn anything more involved that wasn't required of me. I was a designer, typesetter and layout hanger, not a programmer. I have no experience in C or in Java. Call me a programmer groupie, I have dozens of family, friends and acquaintances who program miracles daily in all different alleys while I play a "very aesthetic game of tiddleywinks". When I began getting clients who wanted websites that DID things instead of just glorified yellow-page ads, this "turkey" asked all of the "eagles" which way to turn -- they looked at what I needed and what paths that might lead to, and they all said PHP. I started playing around with canned PHP webapps about two years ago, and I quickly picked up how to install mods and then modify those same mods no sweat, but even with a few different sorts of PHP/MySQL in 24 hours, one week, etc. books -- I never really understood the WHY's and HOW's of the GUTS of those webapps [framework, huh?!], let alone how to create even the simplest of freestanding flat calls, all of which have recently begun to make my life SO much easier. I quickly learned that those 24 hours/one week/etc. style books are ALMOST STRICTLY made for folks with C and Java experience even though the books desperately claim otherwise. Why did I choose this book? Because a few friends of mine who have been working with PHP since near the beginning told me that this was one of the few version'd books that always has a worthwhile amount to offer both beginners and seasoned pro's, as well as everyone in between. I actually started reading this one cover to cover, and was not the slightest bit disappointed in my investment. Let me clarify -- I actually COULD read this one cover to cover without wondering what magical decoder ring I was missing. Instead of a code snippet "Instant PHP" book, I finally wound up with one that I can look at the examples in the book, and without even trying the examples verbatim, write my own similar but original code for what *I* want to accomplish. I don't know Jane Adams, I am not her banker, and I don't know what I would do with her recipe database so 6 page long examples of how to code any of that to be used verbatim in 24 hours are of little value to me. Yes, the book jumps around -- there's a heck of a lot to cover here! 1000+ pages might seem rather hefty, but it has been a godsend for me. Take the reviews however you will; I found it extremely educational AND entertaining, and having seen dog-earred copies in the offices of some of said "eagles" -- I am fairly certain there is some great stuff in here for PHP pro's too. If you really feel the need, give it a few minutes at your local bookshop -- then come back to Amazon for the killer discount. You won't be disappointed!



3. This book often uses concepts and code explained only in following chapters. I should have read the other (bad) reviews on Amazon before buying my copy in a library. Unfortunately I was in hurry. Now I am at page 202 and I am not sure whether I should continue or quit and wait 8 more days to get a better book.



4. I purchased this book off the shelf before reading any reviews. I was looking for a specific solution for one of Viking Water's clients, so I reviewed the books by looking through their indices. Of all the PHP books on a well-stocked shelf, this was the only one to tackle dynamic drop-down lists, which is my heartburn of the moment.
   
   After reading through 1/4 of it (skimming in some cases), I agree with other reviewers that it may not be the best way to learn PHP from scratch. If you're conversant with "C" or Perl, it can be a slightly useful tool. However, if you're new to programming this may not be the book for you since a lot of PHP is modeled on "C" and the authors unconsciously assume a basic familiarity with that language, even though they attempt to cater to the non-C programmer.
   
   One of the interesting features of the book is that the authors often explain surrounding HTML code, even though the book assumes a familiarity with the HTML language. If you're not an HTML guru, it will be nice to have the explanation right in front of you rather than having to haul out (or look up) your HTML reference. For instance: their explanation of the subtle difference between POST and GET would be very interesting to someone who is weak in that area.
   
   However, the code examples are poorly commented which can make them difficult to follow if you are trying to learn the language(s) involved from scratch.



5. Most of the Bible series of books are worth the money you pay for them, and this one is no exception.
   
   Good informative book, great for the beginner and a good read for the advanced.
   
   Not good for reference, but then it isn't supposed to be.

3 comments about The PHP Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks (Anthology).

1. I ordered this from the publisher and it literally fell apart as I started reading it. I'm going to have to 3-hole punch it and find a thick binder for the over 500 pages! I thought it might be the publisher (Sitepoint), but I just read that a Peachpit book (the new Scott Kelby book) is having the same problems. I wonder if they use the same binder? I can't actually review the book, as it's unreadable in the present condition. I have read other Sitepoint books though, and find them quite good, particularly the Yank book. This is the first one to fall apart.



2. While I wouldn't read this book cover-to-cover, it makes a very handy and current reference title for any intermediate PHP programmer.
   
   100 Solutions, neatly divided into 13 chapters, make it very quick to find what I was looking for. The downloadable code from the publishers website also helped a great deal and saved me some time.
   
   I found the security checklist at the back of the book particularly useful and helped me pinpoint and solve some potential vulnerbilities. Chapter 13 on best practices was also a clear standout in my mind, as it covers PHP coding best practices and helped me improve how I work.



3. I really wasn't sure what to expect with the book, my shelves are already packed with a stack of good PHP books that I've read through once, got a few good gems of info from, put on the shelf, and never touch again.
   
   It was the title that got me first interested in this book, sort of like the greatest hits of PHP which, in theory, is a book that I expected to get a little more use from.
   
   I'm happy to say that this book delivered on it's promise and them some.
   
   The difference between this book and say some of the other more tutorial style PHP books I own is that it doesn't follow the one size fits all approach. It actually explains solutions to problems that your able to adapt you your own world. I downloaded the code from the books website which made my life even easier.
   
   It's organized into stack of little mini tutorials covering most of the challenges you'll face if you're programming with PHP. I didn't read this from cover-to-cover but more jumped straight to some of the specific sections that I was keen to learn about. The layout and design of this book enables you to jump around from section to section easily.
   
   I'm now finding myself going back to this book time and time again as new problems crop up, just today I had to solve a caching issue and violia a nice little example of exactly what I needed was there in chapter 11. It saved me a stack of time so I thought I'd use it to write this review.
   
   It's also worth noting that chapter 1 contains a nicely written introduction to object-oriented PHP and is worth a read if your just starting with PHP and everyone should read chapter 13. Even though I've been programming in PHP for a while now this chapter opened my eyes to why I experience some of the frustrations I do... I'd probably be happy with paying the cover price just for that chapter alone.
   
   It's my first sitepoint book and I've got to say I'm extremely happy. They seem to do things a little different than you're old schoolers and I've got to say the approach is refreshing. I'd have no problem with recommending this to PHP developers at any level.

5 comments about Sams Teach Yourself PHP in 10 Minutes (Sams Teach Yourself).

1. Chris Newman's Sams Teach Yourself PHP In 10 Minutes is Enthusiastically recommended as a thoroughly "user friendly", no-fluff, just-the-answers, step-by-step working guide to building dynamic websites using PHP. Broken down into 10-minute lessons, the novice will gain a rapid working knowledge of PHP 5 and be able to immediately put that knowledge to use in practical applications.



2. I'm still trying to learn PHP after going through this book. I have HTML, XHTML, actionscript, and CSS experience. It teaches interesting points about the language, but it's difficult to put the language into use with this book.



3. This book was written in clear language with small examples of code that are perfect for a beginner to make learning PHP easy. The best thing is that the author chose an excellent set of topics to cover in an introductory book: programming concepts ( arrays, variables, functions, etc. ), web concepts ( forms, connecting to MySQL database, cookies and sessions, etc. ), and a smattering of installation and configuration information ( ... just enough, not boring ). Moreover, I really liked the smaller size of the book so that I could easily hold it while typing up the examples at my keyboard.



4. I recently found a need to do a little PHP programming on a website. When I went looking for books what I found were any number of two to six hundred page texts. Then I found this little gem. It fitted my purposes perfectly as it explained the basics of PHP with examples for things I was trying to accomplish.
   
   I will say that I that the treatment of classes was too brief and was the major reason that I didn't give five stars. The important things is that it provided a basis for me to experiment with the examples, accomplish what I needed to do, and allowed me to gain enough knowledge in a few short evenings that I'll be able to get another book on the subject without being totally lost from the first page. That is all I can ask from a cheap book.



5. I started with a good computer background but limited coding experience and no knowledge of PHP. I got this book. I looked at it for an hour. I started writing a php test site. I worked my way through the rest of the book in four hours. I worked on the site for the next two days. I got the Sam's PHP in 24 hours book. At the end of a week I had my own online photo management / backup / sharing application up and running.
   
   For high yield learning I've never seen anything that can rival this book. It both told me how to do what I wanted, why to do it that way, and what not to do. Simply, this book is a wonderful starting point for someone who is tech savvy and wants to learn by doing.
   
   Advice:
   Buy it so it arrives on a Friday before a free weekend, you are going to kill the weekend. Go on and buy the Sam's teach yourself PHP in 24 hours now and save yourself the frustration of waiting for it to ship.
   
   About Sam's
   I was so happy with this Sam's book that I got PHP in 24 hours and the MySQL in 10 mins books to help with the same project. MySQL in 10 mins is also a great book. I didn't find it as good as PHP in 10 mins, but it's hard to say if that is a difference in the books of a difference in the two topics. (PHP in 24 is great, as I said earlier.)
   
   Unfortunately those are really my only success stories with Sam's. I got both JavaScript in 24hrs and Ajax in 10 mins from Sam's and neither lived up to the PHP books. They were both much more of a cookbook feeling and less of an introduction to a topic.

4 comments about The Zend PHP Certification Practice Test Book - Practice Questions for the Zend Certified Engineer Exam.

1. I just passed my Zend Certified Engineer test. It wasn't easy. For preparation, I used both the Official Zend Study Guide (by Zend Technologies) and this book. I often found myself frustrated by the numerous errata in both books, but there were significantly more mistakes in this book (ranging from having the wrong answer listed in the answers section to typos). The positive aspect of this is that it forced me to spend more time with the online php manual answering my questions. I found the questions on the actual exam to be more like those in this book, than from the Official Study Guide, but you really need the Official Study Guide to make some sense of the answers in here as well. There were questions in this book covering exam topics that wheren't covered in the Official Study Guide. That's reason enough to get it.
   
   The print quality on the pages is sub-standard, but the questions and thorough answers were very helpful.
   
   Simply put, I wouldn't have had any chance of passing the exam if it weren't for this practice test book, even though it's aggravating at times.



2. The previous reviewer was too generous. The numerous flaws in the book were so offputting that I finally gave up in disgust and discarded the book. One might expect that a book which asserts to prepare you for any exam would be proofread especially carefully. It appears that the only proofreading was just of simple grammar. Nothing on the logic or accuracy of what was actually written.
   
   I strongly urge you to look for another text. Don't waste your time with this one.



3. I purchased the Adobe Acrobat version of this book. It is convenient to be able to get it immediately, and to save on international postage, but I find it the fact that it is protected against printing extremely frustrating. This makes it hard to take the tests.



4. Pros
   - By working out and understanding the reasoning behind each question in this book, you will do "well" on the Zend Certification Exam.
   - Excellent questions, many tricky qwerks about PHP is explained.
   
   Cons
   - The book has errors that will confuse you for hours and the authors are not too responsive in taking care of it. [...]
   Note
   - This book was not designed to teach, please don't expect to be taught PHP through this book.

5 comments about Beginning Ajax with PHP: From Novice to Professional.

1. The author gives a good intro to Ajax and PHP combined. Gives you a good understanding of what those two are able to do together.
   Sadly this get ruined by a lot of mistakes in the sample code provided, one example being an SQL phrase that actually will make the script not work. Also he dump several pages of code right in your face, but fails at explaining properly what's going on, leaving you with the feeling he might have "borrowed" the code from somewhere and not really knowing himself what it does.



2. Wish I'd read the reviews more carefully before buying this book. Stephen Rider's criticisms are exactly right. I was particularly disappointed with excessive use of the innerHTML object. It's been deprecated and should not have been included in a book published in 2007. The long code examples are as Stephen says, too. At the very least, some way of highlighting the difference or addition in them to bring it to the reader's attention would have been better. I read "Head Rush Ajax" before this, and it does a much better job overall of teaching the right way to code Ajax--I was just hoping for a book with more PHP-specific coding in conjunction with Ajax.



3. I was excited about this book until I realized how many errors there are in the source code! It makes it very impractical to work with, too bad!!



4. Were the editors asleep when they put this out? A couple other people commented on the errors, but still gave it a 3 star rating. They were being kind. You can't learn anything when the examples are so completely riddled with errors. Others commented on the use of the deprecated innerHTML. For $35 I expect better from an author and his publisher. This one is being returned.



5. The samples you can download from apress are NOTHING like what the writer has written in his book. He mixes his languages in the code in the samples, then when things don't work, you can't go back to the code that you dl'ed from him, as it's nothing like the book. I had more headaches from this book than any other technical book I've ever owned.
   
   It's unfortunate apress didn't bother to really go over this book with a fine tooth comb, or they would have noticed the simple things like using a "try" in php... then catching it.

3 comments about Rails for PHP Developers (Pragmatic Programmers).

1. This is one of the first practical books to be published that is entirely Rails 2.0 focused, but its real strength is in the terrific, direct comparisons to how to accomplish the same tasks in PHP. By directly linking specific features, functions, and other programmatic process in PHP to Rails, this book lets you learn something new (Rails) by revealing the similarities (and differences) with something you already know (PHP).
   
   The author is clearly an expert PHP programmer, and while you will certainly come away with an appreciation for the elegance and parsimony of Ruby the programming language and Rails the web application framework, the book is by no means "down on PHP." Indeed, I learned a couple of PHP tricks, that let me do a few (simple) Rails-like patterns in PHP.
   
   In all, this is a terrific book, and if you're a PHP developer interested in learning about Rails, this book is *the* way to do it.



2. Pragmatic has truly become the #1 resource on the market today for great Rails reference books and with 'Rails for PHP Developers' that tradition continues. With ~400 pages of material spread over 13 chapters, you will learn to get Ruby working with PHP and you will find that it's one relationship that is a happy one!
   
   Rails is one of the newest "hot" technologies in the marketplace and it's due to ease of use and rapid deployment. PHP has been a web technology long popular for dynamic content. If you are an existing PHP developer that is looking to add Rails support to your web app, this is a great resource to have by your side. Content is good, and the "all bells no whistles" design serves well for the reader.
   
   Easy to recommend, great to learn from.
   
   ***** RECOMMENDED



3. This book is not only an excellent guide to Ruby and Rails for PHP developers, it is, quite simply, an excellent resource on professional web development. It offers insight into how to properly manage a product and customer expectations, from the planning stages to site delivery. I cannot recommend this book enough.

5 comments about Beginning PHP5, Apache, and MySQL Web Development (Programmer to Programmer).

1. I bought this book a couple of days ago after reading the cover (Bad Jon, never judge a book by its cover) and learning that it teaches you in both Windows and Linux. This is not the case. I am still in chapter one trying to configure Mysql under Linux. There is very basic linux setup configuration and then the book just assumes Windows is what you will use. I am retiring this book and picking up another.



2. Great book for those, like me, who wants to start from zero with PHP5 and MySQL. I had no previous knowledge about this two languages, and in short time began to understand about it all. You may buy this book for sure!



3. For a novice in these 3 fields, it's a good introductory and step-by-step guide to get familiar with them.
   However, since the book was first published in 2005, many contents about installations are outdated. An update in these parts will benefit new readers because it can help them get into the main topics easier.



4. This is a decent book, but the MySQL syntax is very out-of-date. If you're working with a current version of MySQL, this isn't going to do you any favors. Until they see fit to update this volume, I recommend buying something else.
   
   I've had great luck with "PHP, MySQL and Apache" by Julie C. Meloni (Sams Teach Yourself) third edition (2007). Its example projects are different and not quite as applicable to what I'm needing to do, but who knows - they may be just what you need. The biggest benefit is that it uses the mysqli commands that PHP 5.xx demands.



5. I would truly love to give this book 5 stars; however, as some of the more recent commentators have indicated, it's out of date. Unfortunately, that's a show stopper when you're using the most recent version of MySQL! I was going over this book as a refresher course, since I have been generally well satisfied with Wrox's books, but the outdated syntax in the MySQL sections are real deal-killers. It's been years since I touched PHP, so I figured I could pick this up and get back into the groove of things and truly get into MySQL at the same time -- no dice on that one.
   
   In short, this book is largely handicapped by two things:
   
   1. It needs to be revamped for the latest version of MySQL and PHP (6 is right around the corner), and
   2. The errata section on the website needs to point some of these things out.
   
   I'm giving it four-out-of-five stars because it would have been a righteous book in 2005.

3 comments about Flash and PHP Bible.

1. This is a solid book, with great examples of PHP and Flash together; however, this isn't ideal for PHP novices .
   
   I've waited for this book for a while, and I put off sharpening my PHP skills until I received it. I wish instead I had more experience building MySQL databases with PHP first. It's odd, there is some introduction to PHP and MySQL, but it doesn't really prep you enough if you're a newbie...
   
   The title "Bible" is misleading; rather, it's more a cookbook. There is a lot of great info in here- lots of code and explanation of it, but the scope of the explanation is only how it pertains to the example given. For example, while explaining an example to output dynamic XML from a database, the author only focuses on the PHP script to retrieve the data, then parsing it into XML. I would have liked to have seen the XML as a file and how the MySQL database was structured. It would be repetitive, but that's what makes a good teaching book- or at least a "Bible" book.
   
   The other drawback for Mac PHP newbs will be: the author does a good job of explaining installation of Apache and PHP on Windows and Unix, but NOT Mac. I contacted the author as he promptly replied:
   
   "The reason for no OS X install notes was due to OS X shipping with a version of PHP which would cause issues without a large amount of editing and modifying.. which I felt was beyond the scope of the book."
   
   He did tho, create a forum on his website for readers to post questions. He quickly replies. On this forum I posted a walkthrough (with pictures) on how to quickly get PHP and MySQL running on your mac.
   
   On the whole, it's full of excellent code and various examples, but the scope is narrow and explanation is right to the point. Experienced users will welcome it, others may feel discouraged and have to look to other sources to fill in the gaps.



2. Like the other review, i also was waiting for this book to come out, but found it to be pretty disappointing when it did. The topics covered are useful for real world projects but its the way the book is laid out that had me confused.
   
   For example, in the section for installation of PHP the author describes what to do for Windows, then Linux then on the same page of installation for Linux it says about configuring PHP, does this mean for Linux or Windows or both? There are quite a few cases like this that spoil the book.
   
   The books just seems a bit garbled and not put together as well as it could have been.



3. I am sorry to say this, but this has been one of the worst books I have ever read on Flash and/or other type programs.
   
   I made it to Chapter 5, and was hoping it will get better, but no such luck..it was getting worse.
   
   Particularly, whether you are an advanced or a novice programmer, if you try using the book's examples with the available downloads, it will be a nightmare.

5 comments about php|architect's Guide to Programming with Zend Framework.

1. Didn't like the way the book is written. I do not understand the point of chapter called 'super ninja secret classes', why not use simply zend_registry? The author sounds so pretentious sometimes, it's really annoying. I've read Zend Framework In Action from Manning and Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP from Apress and there are really ten times better and richer.



2. Good book to start with if you know MVC but don't know ZF. If you're looking to learn the MVC model I'd suggest picking up something else along with book. There is some organization and placement talk but I think it could have been even more in depth. One thing I noticed is he refered to things that were in the sample code and not in the book directly. So if you hadn't downloaded the sample code and worked with it you wouldn't have known what he was talking about. Also the books editing was so so, as there were a good number of typos and thing improper english. But all and all if you want to see how Zend Framework functions it's a great starter piece for that.



3. Although there is some good information. You have to fight the book to get to it. Some of the code examples are broken. Nothing major, but when you buy a book to learn new coding techniques. It helps to not have to troubleshoot the example code. ( plus the author names the application directory "application" but in his paths he refers to it as app ). Also there is only one reference that I saw that points you to the example code. Maybe I missed it but I looked again before I wrote this, and I only found it listed once and within an explanation of some code. Since he doesn't print the entire files in the book and points back to the example code. I would think that you might make a bigger deal about making sure you download the example code. I don't mind not having all the files printed out. But if you going to do it make easy for the people buying your knowledge to follow.
   
   Also when showing you the code example the author doesn't give the file name that you are looking at. So you will be looking at code and you dont know if you are looking at Controller code model or view code ( although view code usually has a lot of print( echo ) statements )
   
   If given the chance to do it again. I would not buy this book.



4. I purchased this book, despite the negative reviews. As other reviewers have already mentioned, the book was poorly edited and several errors exist in code samples. The sample application is esoteric for a general guide. I'm not saying we need another blog tutorial, but jumping into consuming web services certainly doesn't consider what most readers will want to know.
   
   Discussion of the flexibility provided by the Zend Framework in comparison to other PHP frameworks is missing. I also think more references to generally accepted MVC design best practices should have been included.
   
   The Model chapter gets off to a good start describing conventional thought on data modeling in MVC but the rest of the chapter doesn't support the introduction. I did find the Data Access chapter helpful and appreciated the mention of Data Profiling.
   
   Until more ZF titles are available, I recommend reviewing the Zend Framework documentation and available blog posts.



5. Don't bother.
   
   I ignored the advice of others here and ordered this book anyway, mainly because it's the only book in print on the subject. It sucks...bad.
   
   I got the book this afternoon and had the RMA paperwork filed before bedtime. No thanks.
   
   Super thin on information, and it's not even basic of information. Lets skim the surface of some pretty important concepts and libraries, shall we? At least thats how it felt to me.
   
   The database chapter was the final straw for me. You're introduced to the basic db library then promptly directed to the online documentation for all the REAL db libraries that likely even the most trivial of web apps would require.
   
   Good job Nanobooks on being first to market, but don't pat yourselves on the back too soon. You may have hurt ZF more than you're helping it with this book.
   
   If you want a better (albeit not perfect) introduction to the Zend Framework then go check out Mannings Early Access Program and download 'Zend Framework in Action' (or pre-order here). A lot better footing after reading that plus some time spent with the ZF online docs.