"Practical PHP and MySQL reflects Jono's commitment to the spirit of making open source subjects accessible to everyone. The book carefully walks you through the code for eight useful, dynamic Web applications. Projects are presented in a playful way, like the forum project that touts horror movies that make you 'hide behind the couch.'"
-From the Foreword by Christopher Negus, Series Editor, Negus Live Linux Series

Build Dynamic Web Sites Fast, with PHP and MySQL...

Learn from Eight Ready-to-Run Applications!

Suddenly, it’s easy to build commercial-quality Web applications using free and open source software. With this book, you’ll learn from eight ready-to-run, real-world applications—all backed by clear diagrams and screenshots, well-documented code, and simple, practical explanations.

Leading open source author Jono Bacon teaches the core skills you’ll need to build virtually any application. You’ll discover how to connect with databases, upload content, perform cascading deletes, edit records, validate registrations, specify user security, create reusable components, use PEAR extensions, and even build Ajax applications.

Working from complete examples on the CD-ROM, you’ll create

• Generic dynamic Web sites

• Blogs

• Discussion forums

• Shopping carts

• Auction sites

• Calendars

• FAQ systems

• Reusable components

• Content management systems

• News sites

JONO BACON is Ubuntu community manager for Canonical, Ubuntu’s sponsor. He is an established speaker, author, and contributor to the open source community. Bacon co-authored Linux Desktop Hacks and The Official Ubuntu Book; has served as a columnist for Linux Format, Linux User & Developer, and PC Plus; and is an O’Reilly Networkweblog author. He is a lead developer onthe Jokosher (www.jokosher.org) project,and co-founder of LUGRadio—a podcastwith more than 15,000 listeners, andan annual event that attracts visitorsfrom around the world.

CD-ROM Includes

• XAMPP for Linux: easy-to-install, preconfigured Apache distributions containing MySQL, PHP, Perl, and more

• Source code for all eight fully-working applications discussed in the book

• A remastered Ubuntu live CD, set to run all eight applications live

System Requirements

• CPU: Pentium III, 650 MHz. RAM: 256MB (recommended 512MB).

• Hard disk: No space required to run live CD; 250MB of space needed to put XAMPP server and projects on installed system.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 20 Ratings

Title should be IMPRACTICAL PHP and MySQL - 2009-09-06
Reviewer Rating:
I read and work through a lot of computer systems books and this is the most insensibly organized and written one I have ever dealt with. While Mr. Bacon's writing sounds friendly enough, the code examples are presented backwards and intermixed. Instead of starting at the top of a code file, he has you write the middle, and then the top, then jump around for a while before going back to the bottom. Code chunks are simply missing, or they generate errors.

As a competent person and a fast learner, I struggled with the book for a few days thinking it was just that I was tired from all of the overtime hours I have been working, but then I threw in the towel to look for errata figuring the problem was just publishing errors. Instead I found the Amazon page came up at the top of the search results with only two stars! Most other reviews reflect my experience, so I am going to more carefully choose a different book on PHP.

I've built a dedicated Virtual Machine and installed XAMPP myself to work through the code this book. Finally, in frustration, I booted the included CD, and the code on it seems to resemble what is in the book (I'm tired of looking at it so I did not make a thorough check). The presentation and explanations of the code as a learning tool is just too unnecessarily complicated, making learning difficult. I've learned more searching PHP forums to resolves errors from working the poorly formatted examples. I recently learned CSS with an O'Reilly Head FIrst book, for which I was very grateful because Bacon's explanation of CSS was also confusing. Fortunately I already know MySQL very well so I mostly skipped over his discussion of MySQL.

I bought my copy at a trade show so I can't return it but I would if I could.

The book code fails - heres why. - 2009-05-31
Reviewer Rating:
In the intro on page 3 "WHAT YOU NEED TO USE THIS BOOK" it claims enthusiasm and a computer ... may I add phsyic powers and advanced programming skills in PHP and mysql. Even then the code is so broken it will be simply easier to write your own from scratch than look for multiple needles in a haystack.
There is a page for errata someone tried to write but quit.

First let me say to those who complained you cannot get the source code you can if you click the blue fish at the top of the cd ... however the code is bad so the source code is close to useless. Once you actually tweak it to work you will find code is missing eg: register.php is entirely missing for the shopping cart. The book itself looked impreesive enough for me to buy, was well laid out visually and well written but the code fails without tweaking and some rewrites. The reason it works from the cd is because the date has been tweaked on the data cd but not updated on the book. Everyone who bought this book at a bookstore or here should get a free updated edition and prentace hall the publishers are partially responsible as well.

Fact 1: There is no errata because even the errata is incomplete and has errors. The eraata addresses one header error in one application (a needle in a haystack). Sad for a book written in 2006 and published in 2007.

Fact 2: Every one of the eight applications are riddled with errors. Some are typos, others are simply poor coding (missing lines).

Fact 3: The code downloaded from the cd is error ridden and the print version in the book is error ridden.

Fact 4: Consumers complained at http://www.jonobacon.org/2006/11/20/practical-php-and-mysql-boo-yah/ but no replies. Take the money and remain unaccountable?? I have several pcs. The cd worked on a laptop but didn't like my graphics card on a tower and froze on a machine with a dual monitor setup. The cd is not compatible with some video cards.

Fact 5: The screen prints in the book (of what the page should look like) were not based on the books code. eg: Page 70 the weblog omits the code to display categories as a link yet the screen print, page 72 shows a index page with a categories link. What you code and get is NOT what you expect.

Fact 6: Jono Bacon has a position as an Ubuntu community manager. The cd is a good cd if you are into promoting or experiencing Ubuntu. I am wondering if the minority of the positive comments on the link in fact 3 above are related to loyalty and not usability.

Fact 7: To the editor. You and whoever 'proofread' and 'tested the book examples' should be fired.

Fact 8: I have purchased many books addressing various markup languages. My library exceeds a couple of hundred and this book is not the first containing errors, most do, however this is the first one that remains unaccountable for infers false and misleading statements, such and claims no errata to date and despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, refuses to address such. You only need 6 people for a class action and Prentice Hall and Pearson Education Inc, should be concerned and address these issues. (There are probably typo errors in this review BUT YOU CAN BET YOUR BUTT IF I WAS CHARGING FOR THIS I WOULD HAVE IT PROOFREAD AND CORRECT SUCH).

I do like Jono Bacons style and his approach (apart from his failure to be accountable for the errata and instead burying his head into writing a new book), and although you will walk away learning several things you will likely be focused and fustrated at the point where the code breaks and quit. I simply suggest before you buy any book period, google 'errata errors' the author name and the book title because obviously you cannot rely on the book site and rely on "no Errata to date" as being true and base your purchase on such.

To Christopher Negus: I like the Live cd concept however you need to revisit the book to make your ideals a reality, or make a retraction regarding the word quality, as well as high quality results, used by you in the foreword (page xi). I am glad you 'enjoyed learning from this book' because for the majority that I am sure learned alot, the journey was a far cry from enjoyable and was actually painstakingly fustrating. The solution ... make an errata page and use it. An errata page is not a shameful thing it is something that shows that it is truly about learning and improving code and not just about the money.

To Jono Bacon: you seem to be interested in have multiple books under your built. You need to follow through and realize the relationship begins after the sale. Don't be known as the author to not support. Get a url and address these issues. It's your reputation on the line. Also most php publications (not this one) indentifies PHP version.

My real name is Juanita Ray and I spent money but did not get the value I expected. Bottom line is nothing is perfect - errata helps increase the value especially for those of us who bought offline at a higher price.

Trying to stay optimistic about this book - 2009-05-04
Reviewer Rating:
Like all the other reviews are saying, there are dozens of typos in the projects, neglected lines of code, deprecated code, and a lot of sloppy mistakes.

But I can say one positive thing about this book: If it's teaching me anything, it's how to troubleshoot and error check! All those errors are making me a better developer.

I don't want to forgive Prentice Hall for printing this book with SO MANY ERRORS, but if it weren't for those mistakes, I probably wouldn't understand PHP and MySQL nearly as well.

If you can find it for cheap, I do recommend picking it up just to get some really good troubleshooting practice.

[...]

Horrendous! - 2009-02-17
Reviewer Rating:
This book is absolutely horrendous.
I'm taking a Web Programming class this semester at my local community college and for whatever stupid reason the professor decided to use this as our textbook. He has admitted that it is the first time he's attempted to use this book, but I wonder whether or not he actually throughly reviewed it before selecting it to teach his students with for a couple reasons:

1) It is riddled with errors in both text and coding

2) It does not teach the content in a logical, sequential manner, but rather jumps from topic to topic and then back again, which can be rather confusing.

Whatever you do, do not buy this book!

Full of Errors - 2008-09-21
Reviewer Rating:
Don't waste your time with this book, there are to many errors in the code.
This one's heading to the burn pile.

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