This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL® and Apache All in One

Fourth Edition

Julie C. Meloni

Starter Kit

CD-ROM includes a complete starter kit for Windows®, Linux®, and Mac® OS X

In just a short time, you can learn how to use PHP, MySQL, and Apache together to create dynamic, interactive websites and applications using the three leading open-source web development technologies.

Using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, each lesson in this book builds on the previous ones, enabling you to learn the essentials of PHP scripting, MySQL databases, and the Apache web server from the ground up.

Regardless of whether you run Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X, the enclosed CD includes a complete starter kit that lets you install all the software you need to set up a stable environment for learning, testing, and production.

Learn how to…

• Install, configure, and set up the PHP scripting language, the MySQL database system, and the Apache Web server

• Get these technologies to work together to create a dynamic, database-backed website

• Interact with MySQL using PHP

• Work with forms and files

• Create a web-based discussion forum or mailing list

• Add a storefront and shopping cart to your site

• Optimize your MySQL databases

• Fine-tune the Apache server’s performance

• Restrict access to your applications

• Set up a secure web server

Julie C. Meloni is the technical director for i2i Interactive, a multimedia company located in Los Altos, California. She has been developing web-based applications since the early days of the web, and is the author of several books and articles on web-based programming languages and database topics, including Sams Teach Yourself MySQL in 24 Hours.

CD-ROM Includes

• A complete PHP, MySQL, and Apache starter kit for Windows®, Linux®, or Mac® OS X.

Category: Web Development

Covers: PHP 5.2, MySQL 5, Apache 2.2

User Level: Beginning

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 50 Ratings

a "B" on hype a "D" on execution equals 2 stars! - 2009-08-17
Reviewer Rating:
I wish I had taken the time to review this book before purchasing but that's on me. I bought this book because of the title and the work sessions described; very practical material. Fortunatley,these three applications(Apache,PHP and Mysql) came preconfigured with Fedora 10 so I was spared the headache of setting this up like so many others on this forum.I have programming experience but I am quite new to php and mysql. I started off with a little bit of the introductory chapters to become familiar with the syntax and then jumped to chapter 11,Working with forms.
I've never experienced a book with so many typos! Even worse, it's the fourth edition. These things should be hammered out by now!What put the icing on the cake for me was that when I went to the disk for clarification, sections of code on the disk were incomplete. I can't even return this piece of cr*p because I unwrapped the useless disk. This book should be called "Sams Teach yourself Trouble Shooting" because that's what you will be doing.I couldn't get half the projects to work until I check out other sources.I finally had to put this book down after losing faith in the code to actually work. If you are new to Apache, PHP and MySQL, this is not the book for you!
Fortunately, I had another PHP book which had accurate examples; PHP For The World Wide Web: Larry Ullman. This book also has a chapter on working with MySQL.I haven't finished the book but all the examples I've typed have worked so far. Another book I've been working with is Fedora 9 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Bible: Christopher Negus. This gives pretty good information on setting up apache and MySQL. Not so much on PHP. There probably is a "Bible" for other OS. For both of these books I paid less than $8. This compares to $35 I spent on this soon to be door jam called Sam's Teach Yourself!

Great for beginning - 2009-05-14
Reviewer Rating:
This book is a beginner's book that requires absolutely no prior knowledge or experience in PHP/MySQL/Apache to use. I bought this book while completely new to the Linux environment. I want to point out that I used Debian and "aptitude install", so I skipped chapters 1-4. I read chapters 5-18 and glanced at chapters 19-27.

As a complete beginner to server side coding, I found this book to be everything I needed to get started with PHP and MySQL. Before I was even finished reading, I had already created 20-30 different PHP scripts apart from the examples in the book with different, but useful functions and was already developing and coding a journal web page.

The subjects in the book are definitely rudimentary in nature, but the author gives an appropriate amount of time to all subjects that helped me became far more independent a coder. This is compared to other beginner's books that tend to have far more subjects at the expensive of ample descriptions leaving me, the reader, confused. Unfortunately, this book, sometimes, falls into this trap as some sets of code require more diligence in reading than others, but never gets to the point where the code is indecipherable or full of functionality that hasn't been fleshed out or explained at all.

In the end, I found this book to be everything I needed to get started with PHP. I still keep the book handy as reference for my projects.

Fantastic book, covers everything from the basic to the not so basic!! - 2009-08-02
Reviewer Rating:
Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache All in One (4th Edition)

Im new to PHP and MySQL with only minimal coding experience in other web languages. I found this book an invaluable resource when developing my business' website. So many books and reference material give you blind instructions to go from A to B to C with no information as to why you're doing it and how you can use this information in any other way that the specific example they provide.
This book is happily, very different! You gain an understanding of why you're using the code provided, what it's function is and how you can use it in other ways.

I highly recommend this book to anyone setting up a dynamic webpage, anyone new to MySQL, PHP or Apache, and anyone looking to broaden their programming skills. You can't go wrong!!!

too much missing data - 2009-07-25
Reviewer Rating:
I do not recommend this book to anyone. It is sketchy and it keeps pointng you to the internet to accomplish simple tasks. The whole purpose of buying a book is to not have the aggravation of hunting on the net. This author also seems very confused, especially in the beginning. Had it not been for data I hunted for on the net, I would not have been able to install the PHP, MySQL or Apache. Take for example, after installing Apache, she mentions that you need to first configure Apache via the httpd.conf file then does not tell you how. She then goes on to the next section of installing PHP leaving you to figure out how to get Apache working. The MYSQL for me did not install either; I had to download a copy off the net.
Too much missing data in this book.

Marc

My Review will be short and sweet - 2009-07-11
Reviewer Rating:
PROS:
* Learned a lot PHP syntax
* Learned concept behind PHP
* Easy to read and somewhat to follow

CONS:
* Instructions are accurate
* When installing CD i got lost and had to find a way to get back on track
* Difficulty following author when she use codes with which platform(should of stick to Windows ONLY since its the most popular)


OVERALL:
Worth buying, I don't regret it. I recommend this book for people with some experience in programming not a total beginner.

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