3 comments about Beginning PHP and MySQL E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition (Beginning: From Novice to Professional).

1. Buyer beware! There is no help for this book. Downloads (code) does not work. Email messages to authors help links are not answered.
   
   I have read and used many books about PHP and MYSQL, this one is impossible to get through the 3d Chapter successfully.



2. This is an excellent book. It has enhanced my PHP, MySQL, object oriented programming and e-commerce skills. It is challenging, (because of the wealth of knowledge), but well worth the effort. And when I had a problem, author Cristian Darle responded accurately and courteously to my email. Very highly recommended.



3. Even though it can be argued that this book's title should actually be interpreted as "Beginning E-Commerce (using PHP and MySQL)", I still think that the word "beginning" should not be printed on the cover of this book.
   
   The book deals with topics that fall into the intermediate developer's skill set, like OOP, templating with Smarty, PDO for DB access, Ajax and even REST/SOAP in the final chapter. YOU HAVE to have prior knowledge of those technologies before attempting to successfully complete this book, as the authors spend very little time introducing them.
   
   Along with "Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP" this book is one of the few full length practical tutorial books available on PHP. So, if you're an intermediate developer looking to sharpen your skills by taking on a larger project, then this is a book you definitely want to buy.
   
   I also want to point out that despite being from the same country as the authors, I've never heard of them before seeing their book on Amazon.

4 comments about Understanding MySQL Internals (Understanding).

1. MySQL is assuming increased importance as an enterprise database and has become the de-facto standard with web hosting companies. A number of books have appeared in recent years, covering various aspects of MySQL. In Understanding MySQL Internals, Sasha Pachev, a MySQL-focused consultant and former member of the MySQL development team, takes us on a tour of how MySQL works and how it is built.
   
   Starting with an overview of MySQL history and architecture, the book quickly moves us through working with the source code to build and run the product in a debugger. Drawing on his deep experience with the software, Mr. Pachev explains the coding conventions used to develop MySQL and why you should use them when modifying the software yourself.
   
   The author delineates the different functional "modules" (a term he coined himself to better explain the database, technically speaking there are no defined modules in MySQL's architecture) of MySQL and how they interrelate. Herein lies the key to how this book teaches the reader the vast intricacy of such a complex piece of software. The author recognizes the subject is huge and the source code changing. What he does in the book is serve as our tour guide, driving us through the various areas and explaining as much relevant information as he reasonably can. He constantly illustrates key pieces of source code and data structures; but perhaps more importantly he makes reference to the actual source files utilized by each functional component of the system, while encouraging us to explore further on our own. His approach is very much "top down".
   
   As he takes us on this tour, the author explains many of the design decisions behind the various MySQL components, often imparting the historical perspective behind them. I appreciate how, throughout the book, the author shares some of his "inside information" about MySQL's development. There is also a section where he examines the code stability of each module and speculates on what the future may hold for each module. The author's writing style is clear and easy to read. I found Understanding MySQL Internals interesting and fun, and surprisingly easy to read for a book covering such a sophisticated piece of software. The author also does a good job explaining the engineering trade-offs of different MySQL configurations. Speaking of configuration, the book shows you how to add your own configuration option to the mysqld daemon.
   
   Chapter 7, the largest chapter in the book, is 41 pages long. It covers the MySQL storage engine interface. This chapter explains how to integrate your own custom storage engine into MySQL and contains the source code for two custom storage engine examples (one for MySQL 4.1, the other for version 5.1). You can download this source code from O'Reilly's web site. Despite this one long chapter, the book is surprising short, only 234 pages.
   
   I believe this book has value outside of MySQL. It does a good job showing how MySQL is essentially a well designed piece of software: a high-performance, reliable Unix server. The book also touches on the multi-platform aspects of MySQL design. Those of you designing other types of server software may benefit from studying how MySQL is constructed.
   
   This book isn't for everyone, but if you are serious about MySQL in particular or database software design in general then this title certainly deserves a look.



2. Sasha Pachev's UNDERSTANDING MYSQL INTERNALS: DISCOVERING AND IMPROVING A GREAT DATABASE provides clear insights into one of the most popular open source codes on the market. It comes from a former member of the MySQL development team, so offers the author's own insights into the program's creation and use, covering everything from communication protocols between client and server to the parser and optimizer that execute SQL commands, advantages and disadvantages of using threads, and more technical insights.



3. Sasha knows the mysql code well, and he has done a fantastic job of presenting it. This is an important book for anyone who would like an enhanced understanding of mysql, including DBAs who might need a detailed understanding of locking or replication to. And it's a must-have for anyone working on a storage engine.



4. An excellent overview of the MySQL codebase, philosophy, and the design decisions that have made MySQL what it is today. Even though I have never touched the MySQL source before (it can be a daunting beast for the uninitiated), Sasha's explanations made me comfortable with the 'internals' and finally lifted the 'magic veil' off the engine. 'MySQL internals' has a perfect balance of high-level explanations, and low-level code samples to help you understand the inner workings of the database.
   
   After reading this book you should be comfortable enough to tackle the source, and you'll also have deep understanding of the storage engines and how to configure them, how the query parser works, how the optimizer decides on the execution plan, and much more. This is a must read for any DBA, or a programmer who wants to see a great example of a high-performance, reliable UNIX server.

2 comments about Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express for Developers: From Novice to Professional (Expert's Voice in .Net).

1. This is an excellent book for learning SQL Server 2005 Express. I started learning MS Access in 2003 when my wife asked me to develop a database for her to use at work. At the time I knew only the words "relational database". Over 99% of what I needed to know to develop that contact and resource management database to its fully featured capability came from multiple books.
   
   The expectations have changed over time and now I need to use SQL Server 2005 Express as a back end with Access as the front end for that database. Knowing nothing about SQL Server 2005, I needed a very good book to help bring me up to speed. I found that in Robin Dewson's "Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express."
   
   From the installation of SQL Server 2005 Express through an explanation of Triggers and Reporting Services, there is a clear and concise explanation of each aspect with the opportunity to Try It Out. I needed to know all of what he presents and I was especially interested in Installation, Security, and Database Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance. The Installation chapter explains very carefully and clearly authentication mode, service accounts, user instances, etc. The Security chapter clearly explains logins, server roles, database roles, and schemas. The Database Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance chapter is also clear and carefully written with information on types of backups, detaching and attaching a database, and transaction logs.
   
   The Chapter headings are:
   1. SQL Server 2005 Express Overview and Installation
   2. SQL Server Management Studio Express
   3. Database Design and Creation
   4. Security
   5. Defining Tables
   6. Creating Indexes and Database Diagramming
   7. Database Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance
   8. Working with the Data
   9. Building a View
   10. Stored Procedures
   11. T-SQL Essentials
   12. Advanced T-SQL
   13. Triggers
   14. Reporting Services
   
   Robin Dewson is a very good teacher with the gift of knowing how to present a concept and then build concept on concept. He also provides helpful tips on things to do and not to do.



2. I have been querying SQL Server databases for six years using .Net. This book took me inside SQL Server and showed me how to manage tables, relations, stored proceedures, indexes and triggers.
   
   The book achieves great mix of instruction and best practices. At times, I found myself wanting to know more but the book is already over 400 pages.

2 comments about SQL for Microsoft Access, 2nd Edition.

1. As promised. Easy transaction. This Book is not easily found in bookstores. I saved the price of the book in gas alone!



2. This book is an excellent primer for the SQL novice. It is well organized and offers an excellent exposition of Microsoft's version of the SQL language. There is just on big problem; it is just about impossible to download the book's companion file offered on the Wordware site. This problem is a serious flaw in an otherwise outstanding book.

3 comments about Microsoft SQL Server 2005 For Dummies.

1. This author often forgets who he is talking to. At one point he describes in painful detail on how to join tables and yet in other places he introduces terminology with no explanation. One chapter is devoted to creating a windows application in VS 2005 to display data and the description is incorrect. Is this a book about SQL Server or Visual Studio? I think the publishers of this book would do well to recall this book and rewrite with a particular audience in mind. Is the book an introduction for newbies or a reference for those coming from some other platform or for programmers looking to familiarize themselves with SQL Server? The fact that this is a dummies book would seem to indicate to me that it should be for newbies. I have always been a fan of the Dummies series of books but this one falls flat on its face.



2. I agree with the previous reviewer. This book is not focused and not targeted to an audience. Most of the features are not covered with enough depth and background to make the information useful. The chapter on replication, which is an advanced feature, was pretty good, but the chapters on backup and recovery where poorly explained.



3. Actually I just start to read this book. So far I can say it very disappoints me. The author use the first two entire chapters to 'list' the features in MS SQL Server 2005. For me, a newbie, totally have no idea what he is talking about.

3 comments about MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-442): Designing and Optimizing Data Access by Using Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2005 (Self-Paced Training Kits).

1. This book is the training manual for taking Microsofts 70-442 certification examination on SQL Server 2005. And like other training manuals, it gives an excellent introduction to the exam and provides the information that you'll need to pass the test. It includes sample tests, a time limited version of SQL Server 2005 to help with the examples, all the usual things.
   
   This book, however, goes beyond the normal cram for an exam book in that it provides descriptions and explanations that go well beyond what will be asked on the test. This provides a basic understanding of SQL Server that goes well beyond what will be asked on the test.
   
   For instance Appendix B runs for 70 pages and covers the internal architecture of the SQL Server product with special notes as to its operation on the new multi core CPUs, the use of CLR programming techniques (part of the .NET environment) and a lot more.
   
   This is a book aimed at the expert. The SQL code examples are way above the trivial level. You may find that you'll need another book on SQL programming for the 2005 product to help explain what this book is covering fairly briefly.



2. Having studied similar material by both Sybex and MS Press for other Microsoft's SQL 2005 exams, I found this particular book a good preparation guide for the 70-442 exam.
   
   As you would expect, it covers the appropriate material and presents its material in an easy to follow and relevant manner. Having just sat the 070-442 exam today, I can strongly advise that just reading this book alone is not enough preparation. Having a thorough understanding of the different locking mechanisms, Multiple Active Result Sets (MARS) and transaction isolation levels, as well as using the supplementary material frequently quoted in this book (website articles, practice lessons and the companion CD included) are an essential must for anyone planning to sit the 070-442 exam.
   
   The companion CD included contains practice questions, a PDF version of the book (great for searching), as well as excerpts from the other four MS Press Inside/Programming SQL books.
   
   Having prepared by also studying other SQL material (namely the Inside-SQL series), I kept forgetting this was the official Microsoft exam guide - the style and format is less like a classroom/lab and more like an informative text with hands on examples. As a negative, the end of section review question are very light on, and the one scenario question at the end of each chapter is also extremely brief and not at all indicative of the exam. But that's precisely why you need the companion CD to fill the void.
   
   Another negative - there were some exam questions on topics that never received a mention in this study guide: "Begin Transaction WITH MARK", and using "savepoints" as examples. That alone prevents me from awarding 5 stars.
   
   Overall, this is an excellent resource, but supplemental study on the sections that emphasize "This is on the exam" is definitely required, as well as the areas mentioned above.



3. This is a good book that covers all you need to know for this exam.

No comments about Head First PHP & MySQL.

5 comments about SQL In A Nutshell, 2nd Edition.

1. I have the 2nd Edition, which is 600+ pages.
   
   The amount of information included is incredible. Each description of the individual statements has a "Programming Tips and Gotchas" which can be really helpful. I appreciated the "Rules at a Glance" in each section which give just a quick overview of each statement - the details are described in the section for each database (DB2, Oracle, MySQL, etc).
   
   However, for me personally, the massive amount of quantity also leads to my frustration trying to look up a specific statement. The font is small (or at least appears small) and the text looks crammed together - it's tough to see where one thing starts and another ends. There is a margin indicator marking 400+ pages as the "Statement" section, which is just a big black streak down the edge of the book. I think would have been more helpful had it been alphabetic margin indicator tabs (A, B, C and so on) - this would have made finding statements easier.
   
   So, there's my problem - a great book on content (I wouldn't want to see less), but tough (at least for me) to quickly find what I'm looking for - which is what you want in a desktop reference.
   
   Content = 5 stars
   Readability = 3 stars



2. [A review of the 2nd edition, 2004.]
   
   Perhaps the best virtue of this book is that it spans all the major variants of SQL - db2, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Microsoft's SQL Server. The authors are not beholden to any particular vendor. Thus the book describes the common ground. That is, the commands and usage that are most likely to be the same or similar across these implementations. Because a major use of this book might be in migrating. To this end, the more code you can have in this common area, the less painful the migration.
   
   Another possible usage is if you are a DBA in charge of running 2 [or more] of these implementations. Perhaps due to some legacy issues, you have to support them. If you cannot merge SQL code into one common version, you can get problems. Being able to use this book to find quickly common commands and options to those commands might greatly help you maximise a common body of code.



3. This is a solid desk reference for SQL syntax which provides invaluable material on the portability of each type of statement. The heart of the book is the four hundred pages of statement reference. Each statement is described with it's syntax and options. Then the support for each database (DB2, MySQL, Oracle, PostgresSQL, and SQL Server) is described in detail. There is a similar 120 page reference on SQL functions.
   
   This is classic O'Reilly. The text is well written, and the book is very dense and well organized. There is a little introductory material but the heart of the book is the statement and function reference. You will get the most out of this book if you already have a reasonable understanding of SQL. This is not a book for beginners.
   
   This would make an ideal desktop reference, particularly for someone working in a cross-platform environment that goes directly to the SQL.



4. This is a nice, quick guide for referencing SQL. This book is not a 900 page behemoth to teach you all the ins and outs of SQL setup and performance tweaking, nor is it a 30 page list of commands. Rather, it is a nice "tweener" guide (200+ pages) to get your feet wet and remind you of what commands are and how SQL can be used. 'SQL In A Nutshell' covers SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, and PostgreSQL, going over the SQL standards that you can expect from these favorite flavors of SQL. Light on examples but heavy on syntax, I feel that this is a nice companion manual to have at your side when you need to remind yourself how a particular command should be written.
   
   If you are a SQL developer could you live without this manual? Yes you probably could live without it, but it's handy to have at your side and I would recommend it.
   
   **** RECOMMENDED



5. This book covers various "flavors" of SQL, but not all of them. This was a "recommended" reference book for a college-level Introduction to SQL course. I will keep the book around as a technical reference even though I discovered it was a lot easier to find PostgreSQL syntax information by typing a command into Google and scanning the results for examples.

5 comments about MySQL Administrator's Guide and Language Reference (2nd Edition).

1. The MySQL Administrator's Guide by MySQL Press is the ultimate reference for anyone installing, upgrading or maintaining the MySQL database server. I found this guide to be completely invaluable when using MySQL, even before I had downloaded the software. The Guide uses clear, easy to read, formatting which makes shell instructions stand out from MySQL statements. A detailed index takes no time to show you where in 600 pages your answer lies. And you can bet you'll find the answer in this Guide. Beginners beware, however, this is no introduction to MySQL. Readers should have a clear understanding of their system, along with experience of MySQL, although an insight into MySQL AB and MySQL's history is included in Chapter 1.

   As I began reading through this Guide, I couldn't help notice immediately how it sets itself apart from similar books. The MySQL Admin Guide has a detail which you will not find anywhere else. Such is to be expected from the company who make the software, and this book certainly shows the high quality of MySQL. After reading through this book, I can't help but agree with Kaj Arno (Vice President Software Engineering, MySQL AB) who is quoted on the back page; "'It is not possible to find a more thorough and more current reference in print, anywhere'". One of the best example I can make of this fact is in Chapter 2 which focuses on Installing MySQL. Not only does this Guide list all the option of a source distribution, all the ins and outs of installing MySQL on all likely platforms - Windows, Mac OS X, NetWare, Linux and other general Unix systems - this guide also deals with Upgrading and Downgrading the most recent version of the MySQL database server. And of course, to ensure that the entire knowledge is in print, Perl installation notes are included too. What other book covers the often troublesome installation process in almost 150 pages of detail?

   And that's only the second chapter. Throughout the book you're assured to find comprehensive information straight from the people who know it best. You may think that this book simply offers too much information, and for most people I would have to agree. It is unlikely to bother a system administrator how MySQL server optimizes the WHERE clause, or how to avoid table scans. Even if someone was interested in understanding something like this, they'd have the opportunity of looking at the MySQL Reference Manual online. So why buy the print version? The printed Guide not only allows for offline viewing, it also includes information which has not been included in the Reference Manual, such as how details are stored and the many feature of MySQL's MaxDB. If your not content with only having part of the story, you'll want to get this Guide.

   The MySQL Administrator's Guide is the ideal book for system administrators who want to get the most out of their MySQL server. With all the advice on installing, maintaining and administering that you'll ever need to know, this Guide by MySQL AB is ideal for those who long for a comprehensive printed reference.




2. This is a good book gives out the details in an easy to understand format.



3. Good stuff. But the MySQL Administrator's guide (2nd edition) and Language reference is out and on Amazon. That contains the same book in a later edition with the language reference on CD on top of it. Buy that instead.



4. This is an excellent book, but it is written for MySql 5. Check your version before buying.



5. Excellent delivery service and the condition of the book was new. The price was also excellent.

1 comments about A Developer's Guide to Data Modeling for SQL Server: Covering SQL Server 2005 and 2008 (The Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology Series).

1. This book is a timely and helpful overview of the strategic importance of logical and physical data modeling. It also provides some useful insights into new modeling-related features in SQL Server 2008.
   
   While some aspects of the book are likely to be somewhat controversial (e.g., the use of plural entity and table names [I prefer singular; the authors use plural], and the use of views for logical/physical data independence [I agree with the authors on the role and power of views, but some people prefer other abstraction mechanisms]), I believe the book should be required reading for anyone responsible for data modeling and database design aspects of working with SQL Server.