If you're ready to create web pages more complex than those you can build with HTML and CSS, Head First PHP & MySQL is the ultimate learning guide to building dynamic, database-driven websites using PHP and MySQL. Packed with real-world examples, this book teaches you all the essentials of server-side programming, from the fundamentals of PHP and MySQL coding to advanced topics such as form validation, session IDs, cookies, database queries and joins, file I/O operations, content management, and more. Head First PHP & MySQL offers the same visually rich format that's turned every title in the Head First series into a bestseller, with plenty of exercises, quizzes, puzzles, and other interactive features to help you retain what you've learned.

• Use PHP to transform static HTML pages into dynamic web sites

• Create and populate your own MySQL database tables, and work with data stored in files

• Perform sophisticated MySQL queries with joins, and refine your results with LIMIT and ORDER BY

• Use cookies and sessions to track visitors' login information and personalize the site for users

• Protect your data from SQL injection attacks

• Use regular expressions to validate information on forms

• Dynamically display text based on session info and create images on the fly

• Pull syndicated data from other sites using PHP and XML

Throughout the book, you'll build sophisticated examples -- including a mailing list, a job board, and an online dating site -- to help you learn how to harness the power of PHP and MySQL in a variety of contexts. If you're ready to build a truly dynamic website, Head First PHP & MySQL is the ideal way to get going.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 21 Ratings

unacceptable - 2009-10-14
Reviewer Rating:
The reason I bought this book was because I breezed through the Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML in less than a week and found it to be a superb tutorial. I soon found out that NOT ALL HEAD FIRST BOOKS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL however. Head First PHP & MySQL has a horrible format for training someone. You're reading along and it's telling you about various concepts and you're thinking ok, am I supposed to code this now? But instead of spelling out exactly how the code should be written in PHP they never get that detailed. They just keep using hypothetical labels, as if you're having a conversation with someone who has no intention of actually making such a page. Then after covering about 5 new concepts they finally tell you to stop and create a page that displays this, moves that, inputs this, calculates that (as if you've been doing this long enough to already know all the details by memory). Even if you do manage to piece together what they want you to do, it always has errors because they intend for it to be that way! After agonizing for hours about what I could have done wrong, I finally just gave up and decided to read past it where I encountered "So... such and such didn't work right? Here's what you need to do to fix it," followed by "better, but we still need to change blah blah blah for it to work," followed by "we're getting there, but you should have done blah blah blah," each time telling you to upload the page and test it out again. You may get some general concepts or techniques out of just reading through the book, but don't expect to be able to follow along and get any real hands-on experience.

You can learn PHP with this book - 2009-09-14
Reviewer Rating:
This book can teach you dynamic web development using PHP and MySQL quickly. I bought this book because I needed to learn PHP quickly for a site I planned to build. I was able to write scripts quickly using this book. I gave this book four stars because there were problems with setting up the environment which could of been avoided if they gave more attention to the setup. For beginners that never setup a local test environment, this will be very frustrating. But, that's the only problem. The book keeps you on your toes and noticed as you went along in the book they left stuff out of the instructions because at that point in the book you should know what to do. So you get weened off the hand holding for simple tasks such as creating a database. So, this is a great learning book. Don't get scared off by the setup. I found if you google WAMP and download the WAMP server, it will set the environment up for you. They should mention that in the book. If you're purpose is to learn PHP and MySQL, this book is the one to get.

Excellent for beginners, students, those new to PHP - 2009-10-11
Reviewer Rating:
Because of the style, careful pace, and thorough coverage, this book is excellent for beginners and for those transitioning from another web programming language to PHP.

Pros: The style of the book is graphical and there are large numbers of examples. Each chapter contains a specific set of goals to accomplish.

Chapter 1-2:

Shows how PHP and MySQL interact with the HTML code to produce interactive web pages.

Chapter 3:

Shows how to set up tables in MySQL and retrieve the data.

Chapter 4-5:

Creating interactive web pages to gather data from the user.

Chapter 6:

Security; Securing the web application

Chapter 7:

Persistence, Session Management, Cookie Management, Logging in. Creating template pages and include pages.

Chapter 8-11:

Adding functionality to pages using PHP functions and the MySQL database.

Chapter 12:

Publishing with XML, RSS, video.

In each chapter, the lessons are taught using a combination of pictures and story telling. This is an entertaining way of presenting the material and should help new PHP programmers understand the material better. The information is shown in a non-threatening way. This will be welcoming to those who think "normal" computer books are condescending to newbies.

The book uses another approach to pass on the ideas. It shows the programmer how to get the page working first, then explains why the first attempt is not optimal. As you proceed through the chapter, it explains ways to improve the initial code. Because of this the book builds up to a better and better site, but the reader will not easily be able to skip around. The book works best when read from start to finish instead of choosing topics here and there.

Other mechanisms used are checklists. Critical areas have lists that the reader can follow to make sure they have accomplished specific tasks. This is very useful to prevent the reader from missing an important step, getting to far ahead, then not knowing why the examples do not work.

There are also "dumb question" sections that ask and answer what are actually very good questions. These are generally used to clarify points that tend to be confusing.

"Sharpen your pencil" areas give the reader a question to answer or a learning check to do. There are lines to write answers into the book itself. Readers should probably get the answer correct then copy the answer into the book to avoid making a mess out of the pages.

Summary: This book is excellent for beginners, intermediate programmers, students, and those transitioning from a different web programming language. Definitely recommended for these groups.

Cons: Because the book is intended for beginners, the pace may frustrate experienced programmers that are looking up a specific topic. Also, the book states many concepts that would be known by an expert to be "obvious". It is these same features that make the book great for beginners and intermediate PHP programmers and/or non-professional programmers.

Additionally, the book focuses on "getting things done" A.K.A. getting the projects up and running. Many best practices are mentioned and even emphasized;however, some security concepts are skipped in favor of easier ways to accomplish the goal. For example, the book recommends closing the database connection when done (great tip) but also uses query strings to interact with the database rather than using stored procedures (not so great). This style may leave security holes in the applications. In my opinion, I would rather see the security concepts rolled into the training material even if the security concepts were not the focus.

Note: Chapter 6 covers security topics well. Following chapter 6 will result in a reasonably secure site. I would have rather seen the "security stuff" incorporated in all chapters though then explained later in chapter 6. For example, in chapter 2, stored procedures could have been used to access the data rather than queries. This would have required teaching MySQL procedures though, which would have been more difficult. It is a balancing act to be sure. The book needs to encourage beginners (which it does) but also produce secure code. Perhaps a compromise would be to add notes to pages saying "be sure to see how to secure this topic in chapter 6".

Good book. Couple of errors. Interesting style - 2009-10-09
Reviewer Rating:
I purchased three PHP/MySQL books to get a feel for the language and learn how to do things. I was skeptical with this book given how strange it appeared. I liked the style where they really asked you to think about possible answers to things before they told you how to do it. In some cases this was far too early and overly silly given you could really have NO clue whatsoever, but it's fun to look back and see how your guesses worked out. I think Head First is on to something. If you actually do the pencil and thinking exercises without just going for the answer you really do pick things up nicely.

I'll compare this against other books, but I did not love the way it had you do certain things early in chapters you would never do in real coding. Why teach you to write code you won't write, only to say you should do it the way they end. I'd have started with how it should look and explain why you shouldn't just do repetition or you should have clean files with calls to other PHP files, so think that way. I found it confusing at times to have to shift gears from thinking about how to do something then realize I just learned it the wrong way and I'd have to do it another way.

In all this was a helpful book. There are some errors in the book's code as well as the downloadable code online. Mostly with sticky forms. This was annoying as I thought it was an exercise to figure out how I screwed up when I first encountered it. Still, the book was entertaining and kept me interested and coding in my first experience with the language. It really brought concepts together and I can see a number of things I'll use in the real world. But for the code errors I'd have given it a four.

An awsome way to bang your head... - 2009-10-08
Reviewer Rating:
While this pretty much goes over the basics of PHP and MySQL, a subject that I had broached more than 8 years ago, the shine on -this- particular book comes from the way that knowledge and information is presented. It brings it to you up front, clear and concise but it tricks you into learning by making it weird, and interesting. IE FUN!!!

I found myself moving through the book, and on more than one occasion saying. "Hey I never thought of it that way!" or just plain laughing out loud. I love this book, and this format, and can't wait to see what the do with advanced topics, such as Object Oriented PHP, and the likes.

Good job dudes!!!

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