PHP MySQL Website Programming shows the development process for a web site using a specific set of technologies: the Apache web server, the MySQL database system, and the PHP scripting language. It takes the reader through the construction of a complete application driven site from design to deployment.

Each chapter in the book identifies a task to be accomplished that is necessary for the construction of the site. It suggests a way to go about the required programming, and finally implements a solution based on the discussion. The ideas that are presented and the code that is written are indicative of the way real world tasks are being completed.

PHP MySQL Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution shows the development process for a web site using a specific set of technologies: the Apache web server, the MySQL database system, and the PHP scripting language. It gives you a completely hands-on experience and guides you through the construction of a complete application-driven site from design to deployment.

Each chapter in the book is broken into three parts:

• Problem: The authors analyze each task and identify areas that may be particularly hard to implement.
• Design: Once the problems have been identified, a proposal is sketched out for solving them.
• Solution: The code is developed and deployed to accomplish the task at hand.

Throughout the book, good object-oriented PHP coding methods are used where appropriate. The site you construct features a modular design, so the individual chapters are generally focused on designing and building a specific piece of the site’s functionality.

On the whole, this book provides a lot of insight into the ways you can implement web applications with PHP and MySQL in real-world situations.

Not for the beginner or intermediate programmer
There is absolutely no PHP or My-Sql teaching in this book. If your looking to see how a professional group of programmers use functions and how they outline their sites then this book is for you. BUT if you’re looking for a book to learn any PHP My-Sql programming, don’t buy this book. But if you do buy it, buy it used... It’s not worth the new book price.

Another USELESS Book on PHP
It appears as if most of the earlier reviews for this book were for the first edition. (Which brings up a good question - WHY is this book now useless?)

As with essentially every other book I’ve spent $40 - $50 for, this one is filled with poor content and code that does NOT work. If you look at the "sample" website for this book that uses the code that this book is supposed to help you build (http://apress.mediatemple.net/site/news/), many people hit a roadblock by page 28! The site is filed with comments from others who have been stuck on the same problem and can’t move on. Perhaps the most revealing question there is "has anyone been successful in getting all the way through the book?" Not surprisingly, no one has answered.

The publisher’s site (http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=200) also does NOT include an errata sheet (that would be asking too much).

Don’t bother buying this one - unless you enjoy throwing another $50 down the toilet. I bought this book based upon the positive reviews found here - little did I realize that the second edition must be worse than the first!

Maybe Not So Hot...
I know all of the other reviews are glowing, but I was actully disappointed by this book. While it is very thorough, I found the structure of the book to be haphazard and unintuitive. There are a lot of occurances of "but first, lets go back a bit," a sure sign of poor writing. While trying to keep to the problem-design-solution framework, the authors often introduced ideas in the problem phase, but never clearly addressed them in the design and solution phase -- often vaguely tying it all together with a statement like "and we took care of this problem as well" without really referencing it.

There is a great deal of information in this book, but I found it very difficult to extract coherently. And saying "but its not for beginners" is no excuse for poor writing.

Great book, great topic, great team behind it
(This review is of the Wrox Press 2002 edition)
This book gives you a thorough course in building a PHP-MySQL website, working up a complete system in stages. The book contains lots of useful code and techniques that can be used in your own websites. As a previous reviewer said, it is not for complete beginners in PHP/MySQL, but in combination with a good fast intro to these topics (I used SAMS "Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache in 24 Hours"), I reckon this book should be all you need to get your cool interactive database-driven site out onto the web. And when I contacted the authors to find the download code (which is available from Apress now that Wrox no longer publish it), they were extremely helpful. So go on - the software cost you nothing after all: why not splash out a few pennies on this excellent book?

Good Book, but not for Rookies
OK Guys,

I recognized that every review is always so clean (no spelling mistakes, no grammar errors). Sometimes I think the Team itself writes some of them to impress readers. ;-)

I can agree that this Book is not to bad, but if somebody says it’s the best way to learn PHP then he’s not completely right.
There is no way that you can see thro the whole php-code without having read a "PHP-only" book before.
I don’t say that every little step has to be explained (the book would be 2000 and more pages big), but i couldn’t find that this book is not made for beginners anywhere on the book-explanation page.

Nice book, but please when you are a beginner, try a more explaining book first. Then go and buy this one.

Thank you

Don’t miss out
This is the most rock solid computer science programming text that i have read in the last decade.Period.No one should miss out on this buy.