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Added 04 Aug 04 Updated Today
Publisher O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Publication Date 2004-05-16
Paperback - 680 Pages
ISBN 0596005431
Case in point: The ever-essential task of using PHP to open a connection to a MySQL database, submit a query to that database, receive a response, and format the returned rows, if any. The book addresses this problem with a straight code listing, followed by text that explains what’s happening in five numbered steps. Similar care goes to the other popular applications of the PHP/MySQL duo: session management, shopping carts, and authentication of users. --David Wall
Topics covered: How to use the PHP server-side scripting language and the MySQL database engine to underlie dynamic Web sites (those that rely on database queries) and full-on Web applications, such as those that require session management and maintenance of user rosters. Tutorials in both subjects begin with the basics and proceed through moderately complicated stuff, though there’s no absolutely comprehensive reference here.
Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL, Second Edition thoroughly reflects the needs of real-world applications. It goes into detail on such practical issues as validating input (do you know what a proper credit card number looks like?), logging in users, and using templates to give your dynamic web pages a standard look.
But this book goes even further. It shows how JavaScript and PHP can be used in tandem to make a user’s experience faster and more pleasant. It shows the correct way to handle errors in user input so that a site looks professional. It introduces the vast collection of powerful tools available in the PEAR repository and shows how to use some of the most popular tools.
Even while it serves as an introduction to new programmers, the book does not omit critical tasks that web sites require. For instance, every site that allows updates must handle the possibility of multiple users accessing data at the same time. This book explains how to solve the problem in detail with locking.
Through a sophisticated sample application--Hugh and Dave’s Wine Store--all the important techniques of dynamic content are introduced. Good design is emphasized, such as dividing logic from presentation. The book introduces PHP 5 and MySQL 4.1 features, while providing techniques that can be used on older versions of the software that are still in widespread use.
This new edition has been redesigned around the rich offerings of PEAR. Several of these, including the Template package and the database-independent query API, are fully integrated into examples and thoroughly described in the text. Topics include:
- Installation and configuration of Apache, MySQL, and PHP on Unix®, Windows®, and Mac OS® X systems
- Introductions to PHP, SQL, and MySQL administration
- Session management, including the use of a custom database for improved efficiency
- User input validation, security, and authentication
- The PEAR repository, plus details on the use of PEAR DB and Template classes
- Production of PDF reports
After a brief discussion of Web database applications, the authors offer a rapid tour of PHP essentials, including loops, expressions, functions and common mistakes. Next comes a quick-start guide to MySQL, focusing mainly on the SQL language itself. The following chapters tackle connecting to MySQL and other databases, implementing user-driven queries and enabling writing as well as reading data. There is a useful chapter on data validation, both on the client and the server and excellent coverage of another crucial subject: security and authentication. This looks at the fundamentals of HTTP authentication and examines security features in both Apache and PHP, identifying weaknesses and explaining pros and cons. The closing chapters form a detailed case study, an online wine store, with complete code available for download. It embraces user management, a shopping cart, searching, ordering and delivery, covering many key topics in the process. At the back of the book are appendices on a range of issues, including installation, Web protocols, database modelling and session management.
Web Database Applications is tightly-focused, packing in lots of solid technical information without wasting words. It does not pretend to cover all the potential uses of PHP, and the screen shots will not win prizes for design, but it’s a great handbook for building robust, secure database applications with these popular technologies. --Tim Anderson
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This book assumes you will be using PEAR. All the DB stuff is done using PEAR. Native PHP MySQL support doesn’t get a look in.
Also, this book assumes you will want to use templates. I don’t I keep my php apps as lightweight as possible, so templates are not needed for me.
In my mind, a good learning book will teach you the basics you need to get the job done, and leave you in a better position to explore the extensions etc for yourself, or with the help of dedicated reading matter. Had this book set out to teach you PEAR, I am sure it would have been pretty good. But it didn’t. It set out to teach PHP. And it failed.
I wish there was a section on MySQL commands.
One thing that seems strange, that I’m hoping someone can clarify:
In the section of chapter 8 dealing with transactions and concurrency, there is no mention of setting transaction isolation levels (SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL command in MySQL). Instead, concurrency is achieved solely by setting table locks.
I can sort of understand this in that the authors are using MyISAM tables. But why no mention of transaction isolation levels using INNODB tables, given that this is the more standard way of dealing with concurrency issues?
One thing that seems strange, that I’m hoping someone can clarify:
In the section of chapter 8 dealing with transactions and concurrency, there is no mention of setting transaction isolation levels (SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL command in MySQL). Instead, concurrency is achieved solely by setting table locks.
I can sort of understand this in that the authors are using MyISAM tables. But why no mention of transaction isolation levels using INNODB tables, given that this is the more standard way of dealing with concurrency issues?
However, it falls way short as a reference tool and could have included a more comprehensive list of mysql functions.
Altough this book is not for the absolute beginner, it teaches you just what you need to know to get you started, and even more. It lacks some subjects, like caching, or some advanced php 5 language constructs. Its focus is in real world development, without too much emphasis in application design or php/mysql internals. It teaches you just what you really need to know, and it teaches you that extremely well. You will learn php, from its basic syntax and usage, to object oriented programming basics. Then the book takes you to mysql, with a great introduction to sql, and how to use mysql from php. The following chapters deal with typical database concepts you must grasp, like concurrency issues and even performance tunning. It doesn’t get too deep in php as a language, rather it focuses on php and mysql interaction, with an eye towards constructing a real world web application (which finally gets its parts joined in the final chapter).
Things I dislike are its use of templating systems over many chapters. That was not a subject I was interested in. Althought a serious php developer can’t simply ignore this topic, it is not crucial in understanding the fundamentals, and it, in turn, adds a source of difficulty to the examples from chapter 7 on. Other thing I didn’t like was the development of a complete application that I didn’t have time to study, altough fortunately I managed to ignore it as much as I can, without losing too much.
In summary, I love this book, it is not perfect, but it’s just what I needed and I give it 5 stars because it is a really well written and focused book.
Altough this book is not for the absolute beginner, it teaches you just what you need to know to get you started, and even more. It lacks some subjects, like caching, or some advanced php 5 language constructs. Its focus is in real world development, without too much emphasis in application design or php/mysql internals. It teaches you just what you really need to know, and it teaches you that extremely well. You will learn php, from its basic syntax and usage, to object oriented programming basics. Then the book takes you to mysql, with a great introduction to sql, and how to use mysql from php. The following chapters deal with typical database concepts you must grasp, like concurrency issues and even performance tunning. It doesn’t get too deep in php as a language, rather it focuses on php and mysql interaction, with an eye towards constructing a real world web application (which finally gets its parts joined in the final chapter).
Things I dislike are its use of templating systems over many chapters. That was not a subject I was interested in. Althought a serious php developer can’t simply ignore this topic, it is not crucial in understanding the fundamentals, and it, in turn, adds a source of difficulty to the examples from chapter 7 on. Other thing I didn’t like was the development of a complete application that I didn’t have time to study, altough fortunately I managed to ignore it as much as I can, without losing too much.
In summary, I love this book, it is not perfect, but it’s just what I needed and I give it 5 stars because it is a really well written and focused book.
Whenever somebody tells me they are interested in PHP and web programming, this is the book I tell them to get. Many friends have borrowed my copy since I got it.
Whenever somebody tells me they are interested in PHP and web programming, this is the book I tell them to get. Many friends have borrowed my copy since I got it.
This book is a must !!!
This book is a must !!!
It would have been a lot more helpful to bash through and construct a database application (which is what this book is about actually) and explain the code and have a reference section or a pullout at the end.
I now regularly use phpfreaks.com for their tutorials as this is what they do. Take a chunk of useful code, break it down bit by bit, line by line. when properly structured this is a much better way of learning as one really digests the commands and syntax. Just reading an incredibly dry list of commands and functions or being expected to do this is pretty unreasonable. I am still looking for that book that has a complex web application project that includes nearly all of the fnctions and syntax of PHP and MySQL where the reader is led through and comes out of the other end with a thorough understanding of all that is involved.
Summary: great reference book with an example of a web application towards the end of the book.
The book is also very well organised which covers PHP fundamentals and demonstrates PHP’s tight intergration with MySQL. It also has an appendix covering Modelling and Designing Relational Databases.
The book also covers advanced stuff such as Sessions, Authentication and Security, etc.
The book has an installation guide for PHP, MySQL and Apache.
I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn PHP.
A must by!!!
Sean Morelli
RPG Designs, LLC
www.rpgdesigns.net
OK...lets begin.
I’ve read carefully and deeply this book WDA with PHP and mySQL.
Before that I knew very little about developing a web database application.
My job was first of all building nice(I hope VERY nice) web sites using Flash MX.
But today it’s incredible how many web sites with database interaction are required by my clients.
Then I began to study this book.
It was a long way to understand everything about PHP and mySQL and of course I always need to put those ideas in a FLASH(!) web database application.
OK...after many hours (days and weeks I must say) spent with this book, finally everything comes to life!
I want to thank Mister Williams and Mister Lane for the incredible support they gave me with that extraordinary book!
If you have time look at a Flash application based on this book at http://loadvars.sikactive.com/index.htm
Cheers
Silvano Branca
Macromedia Certified Professional
www.sikactive.com
My style for doing a project using a new language or development environment is to learn just enough to do the project. It is not my goal to become an expert in the system or language at hand, in this case Php and MySql. I just want to get the project done in fairly efficient and practical manner.
After having decided that Php and some open source database such as MySql is what I wanted to use for my project (an online testing system) I read through the book to get an overall understanding of these tools. I then designed the system for my project and began coding. At the coding stage I would go back to the book to get the syntax and details of coding. I rely on sample code a lot, one of the principal strengths of this book.
The authors have implemented a complete online store. The code is well written and the application exercises many features of Php and MySql. That the sample code is from the application or based on the application makes it eminently practical. Perhaps more importantly the fact that the book is grounded in a complete application means many details concerning issues such as security and user interface are covered which might easily have been overlooked.
The book, however, is not a regurgitation of the application code nor a tour of the creation of the online store. The book is a well thought out development of the tools and ideas for web database applications. It begins with typical details of the Php language and object oriented programming, database basics and queries with MySql and proceeds with features and ideas useful in web database applications culminating in the case study of the online store.
Except for an initial glitch in getting setup on my OS X system everything worked out well. We switched our online testing system from FileMaker Pro, QuidProQuo and Frontier to Apache, Php and MySql. Similarly our placement test system has been converted. I switched our department’s web site to one which dynamically creates interlocking web pages. I added a password protected system for staff to update text and calculator reference webpages and a simple means to create and edit our online schedule of classes. I built a similar system for instructors to access records of student use of tutor facilities for their classes.
I am very impressed by this book. I have not had a book which has been so thoroughly practical, complete and easy to use.
First of all, I like that this book teaches MySQL together with PHP. While PHP is a application development language in its own right, many will be choosing PHP to work solely with MySQL. I fit this category so I bought the book.
The book is completely geared towards creating a data driven website from the start. You are shown how to interface to MySQL, receive data from the user, save state information, and other common tasks. The paradigm of web programming is very similar from ASP to JSP, you interact with the database, store some form of state, process forms, etc. If you are already familiar with this style of programming this book will have you going with PHP in no time. However, this book spends NO time on how to install or setup either PHP or MySQL. For the total beginner this could be a problem.
For the total beginner this book could be challenging. It is assumed that you know SQL. SQL syntax is presented and not really explained. What state is, and when you should use it are not presented. You are simply told how to setup state for your web pages. No coverage of HTML is provided. It really seems as the author assumes you are already an experienced web developer, just not in PHP.
For an experienced web developer this is a great book!
Another thing that bothered me was the number of errors. O’Reilly have a good system for reporting book errata on their website -- and I used it in this case, going through all reported errors in the book, pencil in hand. However, despite the number of errors reported for this book, there are others I’ve discovered in only my first couple of weeks of using it.
It can be quite hard to trust a book with so many errors, and when one is learning something, it’s much harder to spot errors except the hard way.
Once you do manage to get an environment set up in which you can play, it is a pretty reasonable book -- and I don’t think their concentrating on their winestore example is such a bad thing.
The book show how to build up your web database system using php and mysql.
I am happy to have bought this book even if i do not using it a lot, i will rather prefer to use other references than this book.
Anyway this book provide a good practical usage of php and mysql.
I like:
- The step by step to learn php and mysql
- The author explain all the codes
- Good coverage of php and mysql
I do not like:
- Coding Mistakes
- Examples are missing: Only one example, the book Wine ecommerce system
- Some php function are not explained for example what will happen if we turn off the global variable off? does the script will work or not?
The book show how to build up your web database system using php and mysql.
I am happy to have bought this book even if i do not using it a lot, i will rather prefer to use other references than this book.
Anyway this book provide a good practical usage of php and mysql.
I like:
- The step by step to learn php and mysql
- The author explain all the codes
- Good coverage of php and mysql
I do not like:
- Coding Mistakes
- Examples are missing: Only one example, the book Wine ecommerce system
- Some php function are not explained for example what will happen if we turn off the global variable off? does the script will work or not?
Although there is a brief "What is a database?" and "What is a webserver?" discussion at the start of this book, you should not expect to learn web concepts, SQL or HTML here. Having done lots of Oracle/Ingres and Java development before I hit the ground running. However, it might be too much too soon if your background until now has been building static webpages with Microsoft Frontpage.
It is interesting that there is no discussion as to when PHP and MySQL might be an appropriate solution. Indeed the back cover of the book asks "What do eBay, Amazon.com and CNN.com have in common?", answering that "they are all applications that integrate large databases with web interfaces". Interesting choice of examples, as Oracle is almost always the database of choice for this kind of very large implementation (including those mentioned). It seems to me that the real advantage of going down the PHP / MySQL route is that the software is free and hosting is very cheap. A dedicated chapter outlining the strengths and weaknesses of the PHP / MySQL approach would have been a nice addition.
All in all, I’d recommend this book as an excellent technical starting point if you want to use PHP and MySQL for your next development project. Having this book to hand will mean you don’t need to delve too heavily into the nuts and bolts of the documentation for the first few weeks!
I therefore spent hours searching the Internet looking for articles on how to configure and set up MySQL. If only the authors had devoted a little time to Windows users.
The book seems technically acurate but they are obsessed with the sole example: their beloved winestore database. I would prefer to see more examples on a variety of imaginary databases than just their winestore.
I’m now looking for another PHP/MySQL book...
The book covers a very broad range of content - web protocols, database design, php essentials, sql, authentication, session management and much more. It doesn’t skimp on detail, though - There’s enough here to enable anyone with any relevant programming experience to build a web database application with PHP and MySQL. The style is very accessible - each topic is covered in tutorial style and then applied to an example application (an Online Winestore) which is developed throughout the book and the code is available to download.
I’ve got more out of this one book than any number of others combined - I’d highly recommend it.
Criticisms? Lacks the depth of a PHP or MySQL specific book, but thats okay. Main complaint is that the examples seem just a little to specific - more general example code rather than just the wine store would be nice. Thumbs up though, guys!
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