Build an online catalog and a members-only site

Everything you need to know to create a dynamic PHP and MySQL Web site!

Been thinking of creating a high-quality interactive Web site? This book is just what you need to get started! Here's the fun and easy way(r) to develop a Web application in PHP 4, 5, or 6 and MySQL 5, test your software, enable your Web pages to display, change, and move database information, and much more.

Discover how to
* Plan and implement a Web database application
* Design and build a MySQL 5 database
* Build dynamic HTML forms
* Create scripts that store, retrieve, and update database information
* Display database information in a Web page

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 19 Ratings

Great intro into PHP & MySQL - 2008-10-27
Reviewer Rating:
I picked up this book to build a registration and payment page for my group's website. The only web programming experience I have was an html class I took in '96 and a little bit of javascript I learned in 2001 for a short term job. I am however and expert VBA and intermediate C# programmer.

I found the book very easy to read. There is a lot of repetition of some concepts that can get annoying, but they are always things that you really need to remember!

I had a couple minor issues in getting Apache and MySQL set up on my XP machine, but a short google search fixed my problems very quickly. I would definitely recommend that either you do all your testing on your actual webhost or that you make sure that you install the same versions of Apache and MySQL that they are using. I installed the latest MySQL, then found out when I tried to run it on our site that the MySQL version the host is running was an older version that required some alterations to my code. Nothing major, but annoying.

The chapters are laid out very well to bring from the most basic "Hello World!" program to a fully functional interactive website. If you don't know HTML, some of the code may not make much sense at first, but the book uses such a small amount of HTML that a quick google search will answer most of your questions. To get a slick, professional looking website, you certainly need to know HTML, CSS, etc. (or someone who does), but I wouldn't say that you'll be stuck if you get this book and don't know HTML. As I said, just google each of the tags you don't know and you'll likely find a satisfactory answer.

This is a fairly basic book in terms of what php and MySQL are capable of, but it's designed to be an introduction.

After reading it, and developing my own site based on it, I feel confident in picking up a more advanced php book.

Least Helpful Book Ever - 2009-11-07
Reviewer Rating:
I had a little experience with both PHP and MySQL before I bought this book. While the first few chapters make it seem easy enough, I found that using most of the information in the book - even copied letter for letter - led to error after error. Frustrated, I finally used my DREAMWEAVER textbook which, with as little information as it provides ABOUT both PHP and MySQL was a lot more helpful.

Extremely confusing at times, leaps of logic - 2009-07-02
Reviewer Rating:
Picked this up after reading two worse books (there are many) and found the first explanations clear, possibly because I was already familiar with some of the terms.
After the first two or three chapters, however, Valade gets complacent, doesn't explain minor issues which can leave you puzzled.
The examples are not very useful and, although she explains some of the steps, she leaves out details. Again, confusing.
The book has numerous errors, one which left me reading the same page for about half an hour. Rather than approaching the topic for beginners, she does assume some programming knowledge at time.
After reading the explanations of object oriented programming (classes), I nearly gave up.
The author is not a good teacher. There are scripts on her own web site with corrections.

OK but confusing... - 2009-05-23
Reviewer Rating:
Unfortunately the author of this book is so engrossed in her knowledge she isn't able to step back and tell the beginner (after all this is the Dummies guide) what to do step by step. She informs you 'about' PHP and MySQL with little comprehensive instruction on how to build a database website in a logical clear step by step order.

Overall in my opinion this book is far from 'even a dummy can do it if they follow the steps' guide but more of a poor attempt by an expert to teach people a complex topic without the understanding of what is means to be a beginner.

Good solid start for someone who knows some programming - 2009-04-16
Reviewer Rating:
I knew nothing about PHP and very little about MySQL at the start. I wanted to build an application that used both so I could see the code level details of how they worked together. This book did an EXCELLENT job of meeting those requirements.
It took me about 3 weeks at about 1-2 hours each weekday to complete the 418 pages of text.
The book has some sections that aren't intuitively obvious. This turned out to be both bad and yet good because I had to work through the problems. And I was able to do that, thus learning even more in the process. I used my MySQL reference book, "The Complete Reference MySQL", and an HTML reference, "The Complete Reference HTML & XHTML Fourth Edition".
I now have the Pet Store application working with Membership Login and it was a great learning experience. I think anyone with previous programming experience would benefit from the challenges as well as the many solid, good sections of this book (especially includin the installation appendices).
I don't think this would be a good book for a true "Dummy" who has no programming experience - the flaws in some of the code examples and the steps that are sometimes out of sequence would probably prompt them to pitch the book before completion.

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