PHP has become more and more popular and important as a Web programming language lately. There are several reasons for this, of course. To my mind, the focus on interactive, dynamic web sites, the Web 2.0 popularity, and the spread of blogging platforms like WordPress and others based on PHP are among the most important reasons for this development.

In creating dynamic, database-driven Web sites, MySQL and PHP provide a winning open source combination. Add this book to the mix, and there’s no limit to the powerful, interactive Web sites that developers can create. This is a great, and very popular book. And, as most books in the Visual Guide series, it is of good quality!

With step-by-step instructions, complete scripts, and expert tips to guide readers, veteran author and database designer Larry Ullman gets right down to business: After grounding readers with separate discussions of first the scripting language (PHP) and then the database program (MySQL), he goes on to cover security, sessions and cookies, and using additional Web tools, with several sections devoted to creating sample applications.

The progressive tutorial is paced at a very good rate, introducing just enough new material each time to keep the interest level high and not too much to be overwhelming. The database section of the book explains relational databases in understandable and practical terms too. Another good feature is the wealth of good quality reference material, encouraging the reader to supplement knowledge in specific areas if desired. The overall thrust of the book is towards making a database driven website. The book succeeds in this objective very well indeed.

This, however, is not an ideal book for beginners. This guide is indispensable for intermediate- to advanced level Web designers who want to replace their static sites with something dynamic. In this edition, the bulk of the new material covers the latest versions of both technologies: PHP 6 and MySQL 5.

Links to books about PHP at amazon UK, amazon US and at amazon CAN.

PHP and MySQL Web Development (4th Edition) (Developer’s Library), by Luke Welling and Laura Thomson

This excellent book introduces readers assumed to have little or no experience to PHP and MySQL for the purpose of creating dynamic Internet sites. Each section centers on a sample program that strips the task at hand down to its essentials, and that enables readers to fit the process into their own solutions as required. Tables listing options and other reference material appear as well. But the examples and the commentary on them take center stage.

Topics covered include the MySQL database server, accessing MySQL through PHP, database creation and modification, and, as well, a large number of PHP tricks in order of increasing complexity.

This book gets excellent customer reviews at amazon as well. One customer, Dianne Seaman, writes: “With very little previous web programming experience (though I have recent experience with PL/SQL), I started using PHP 1 year ago. I’ve read several PHP/MySQL books during the past year, but this one is the best. As others have noted, it may not be for the pure beginner, but at my level it’s perfect. It helps me better understand concepts (session usage) that I was justing using by rote before. It reminds me of things I should return to in my code (like authentication) that I may have been sloppy with. And it’s pretty easy to read.”

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