Review by N. R. Kitchen for Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache All in One
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I bought this book to get me started with PHP. I’ve used all the other web development languages like JSP and ASP before, but having heard good things about PHP I decided to give it a shot. This book will give you a great introduction to PHP. I managed to install the included version of PHP /Apache without any hassle at all.The book covers accessing data from MySQL and gives you a quick and concise tutorial on SQL queries. Also covered is uploading, security, dates and times, php classes, and cookies/sessions.I honestly can’t believe that they managed to cover everything I can think of doing in a book this small. And its pretty good value for money as well.If you are looking at getting into PHP, buy this book and you won’t be disappointed.

Review by Tom Turton for Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache All in One
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‘SAMS Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache’ is a brilliant guide whether you are a complete beginner or a pro.

I bought this with only prior knowledge of HTML and managed to sucessfully learn PHP with MySQL in a few weeks using only this book. A year later I am still using this book as a good reference.

The author covers everything from setting up a local server with Apache to manipulating images using PHP. And most importantly, talking to a MySQL database from PHP.

If you had no idea what I was just talking about don’t worry because the book covers it all. There is also a handful of example projects to do using what you’ve learned from earlier on in the book.

I would recommend that you have at least some experience with programming, but it’s not essential. However I would suggest learning HTML (or even better, XHTML) is essential before learning any server-side language, not just PHP.

Review by Ronzilla for Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache All in One
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This has to be the worst teach yourself book I have come across!

There are errors and omissions which will cause the newcomer hours of frustration when the software doesn’t do what he expects.

For example in chapter 18, when describing the use of the mysqli_connect() function, the example erroneously gives the code as mysqli().There is no such function!! This is simply shoddy proof reading. Fortunately in this case, the code on the CD is correct. There are other examples which are not so obvious.

Another significant problem is the way the book skips over many details of the set-up of PHP and the way it links to MySQL. For example, there is no mention of tailoring the PHP.INI file to ensure that it loads the appropriate DLL files to run with MySQL. In my case, having set the software up (running under Windows XP) as described in the manual, PHP would not connect to MySQL, and because the book provided no guide as to how to turn on PHP error reporting, I was completely in the dark as to the cause of the problem. It took several hours of searching the web to identify how to turn on error reporting which then enabled me to identify the missing DLL files. Further web searches showed me how to include these PHP components and I now have a working set-up. No thanks to the authors of this book.

Review by for Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache All in One
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Having bought many a title from the Sam’s Teach Yourself range, I took this home keen to learn how to create dynamic web pages. This book does do that, if you can get through the installation process. I eventually figured it out, but following the step-by-step guide for installing Apache led me down completely the wrong path. The indexing in this book is poor, and the coverage of what MySQL can do, although stretching for many pages, is quite low. But perhaps the most annoying discrepancy is the huge contradiction running throughout the book. The opening pages ensure the user that they will need “no programming skills, although some C++ would be an advantage”. Great! But at the beginning of the MySQL chapter, it is assumed that the reader has “some knowledge of issuing SQL commands through MySQL”. Actually no, I don’t. That’s kind of why I bought the book?!?Getting this book will provide the user with a small understanding of PHP and MySQL, but there are many far better than this.

Review by Harry Michaels for Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache All in One
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Studying towards a degree in programming, I have access to a large selection of programming books at my institute. Having sampled at least half a dozen PHP books, this was definitely the most help. PHP is a fairly easy language to learn (especially if you have some experience with HTML), although many other books will overcomplicate the learning process by elaborating on small details to a ridiculous extent (think the Wiley ‘Bible’ books).

This book teaches you everything you need to know to learn PHP’s fundamentals and by the time you’ve finished the PHP section of the book, you’ll be capable of writing various PHP scripts. Everything you learn is accompanied with examples. Everything is explained clearly. I didn’t find myself losing track even once. Thorough but to the point, this book is my highest recommendation for anybody wishing to learn PHP. A few days after finishing the book, I had written a purely-PHP image gallery interface that thumbnails and displays details for all of the images in a folder on a web server. I had to use forums to finish the gallery off, but the book is owed the main thanks.

As with most programming books, you won’t walk away able to program the most complex scripts. “Expert” is a title no book will get you. Luckily, there are countless forums online that will expand your knowledge of the language further than any book on the market.

Unfortunately, the book’s section on MySQL is rather poor. It assumes you have foundational knowledge of MySQL’s commands and using the command prompt to modify database tables (why would you?). Quite disappointing, really, as the PHP section of the book (almost 300 pages) is fantastic.

Still, this book puts many of the other PHP books out there to shame.

Review by Keith Whyman for PHP Object - Oriented Solutions
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read several of the various php oop books arround and can honestly recommend this one as the best arround.

Well written, nice examples and understandable - what more do you need

Review by Tendai for PHP Object - Oriented Solutions
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A sequel to Dynamic solutions by David powers. Brilliant book if you want to take your PHP ability to the next level. It assumes you are conversant with basic programming… Get it if you want to join the elite club!!!