Review by George Edwards for Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP (Expert’s Voice)
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This is my third book I’ve bought on the subject. I do love this book because I bought it looking for a challenge and looking for an introduction to the Zend Framework and Smarty. This book provides all, and a lot, lot more.

The book “holds your hand” through the process of creating a full scale Weblog that makes efficient use of all the Web 2.0 technologies such as AJAX, Zend, Smarty and it even helps you create dynamic image galleries and integrate Google Maps. This is very very good, however my main concern is that the book is a little too easy to just “take in” without actually realising the content.

For example, I often find myself typing out the provided code without actually understanding what it’s doing, so I have to refer to another book I own for help regarding Object-Oriented PHP syntax, and then re-read the chapter and code listing.

I really do love this book because I feel like I will have achieved a result when I finish it, but my concern is that will I have learnt enough to reapply the knowledge elsewhere, having simply just copied the code from the listings? It’s a tough one.

To summarise - I’d recommend it to anyone who is quite seasoned in PHP and Object-Oriented Programming. The author submerges you in an ocean of Object-Oriented PHP using the Zend Framework within the first few chapters, and so if you aren’t so good with Object-Oriented Programming then you may be more at home with something else.

That said, if you’re prepared to learn Object-Oriented PHP beforehand and you are looking to learn how to apply all of the typical buzzwords of today’s technology such as AJAX, MVC (Model View Controller), Zend, Smarty etc to an example, with expert guidance, you’ll be right at home.

Good luck

Review by Andrew M. Coates for Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP (Expert’s Voice)
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I recently bought this book along with the PHP: Objects, Patterns, Practice book. I was hoping that this book will cover a bit of Zend and then work with general PHP to create Web 2.0 apps. Sadly, the book starts with installing Zend and everything you do, requires Zend. Not all web apps require the monster size of Zend. The book covers an older version of zend. I tried installing and setting up Zend as per the instructions found in the book. Sadly, nothing worked. I later found that lots had changed in the way Zend was setup.

I was hoping to see some Web Apps and all I saw was some monsterous Zend Framework learing book. I bet the Table of contents is impressive. What they do not tell you is that everything the book teaches is through Zend and not pure PHP.

Review by Mr. J. M. Street for Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP (Expert’s Voice)
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I recently received a copy of this book to review from the publisher and thought I would post a quick review here.

In this book the author takes us through creating a web application from concept to deployment. The “Web 2.0″ application used here is a blogging application supporting images, tagging, microformats and geographical data. To speed development existing libraries and frameworks are used including Zend framework, PEAR and Smarty on the server side and prototype and script.aculo.us on the client side. Chapter five is entirely dedicated to introducing the javascript libraries. Through the rest of the book the application is slowly built up.

With a book like this it is easy to criticise the decisions taken. There are almost as many different ways to create a functioning web application as there are people developing them. This book can only ever present one approach to application development and it does this well. The book is dominated by code, as would be expected, but the supporting text is informative and easy to follow. Overall it is a solid introduction to putting together a complete web application with some real gems. The chapters on google maps and deployment I found to be particularly good.

If you’re considering purchasing this book be sure to check out the publishers site as they have a sample chapter freely available for download.

Review by C. Webster for Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP (Expert’s Voice)
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This book is a wide-ranging guide to using PHP with frameworks and Web 2.0 technology. It also includes a very useful introduction to the excellent Zend Framework for PHP, although this is slightly out of date now that ZF version 1.5 is available. The book provides plenty of practical examples of how to use a variety of tools and techniques for PHP and AJAX (Prototype and Scriptaculous), including database access, user authorisation, templates with Smarty etc, all in the context of a sample blog application. It is not for complete beginners, but it will take you a long way towards building a robust MVC-based web 2.0 PHP application with the latest technology. Thoroughly recommended.