Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition

by Hugh E. Williams, David Lane

There are many reasons for serving up dynamic content from a web to offer an online shopping site, create customized information pages for users, or just manage a large volume of content through a database. Anyone with a modest knowledge of HTML and web site management can learn to create dynamic content through the PHP programming language and the MySQL database. This book gives you the background and tools to do the job safely and reliably. 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

Genres: Reference, Programming, Nonfiction, Technology, Web, Computer Science, Computers

680 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Sammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one. Reminded me a bit.

[Kernel Panic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the technologies used being surpassed as of 2021 (case study projects are built with PHP5 and MySQL4) and security measures adopted being insufficient by contemporary standards (ie. no mentions of PDO whatsoever) the book still represents a valid hands-on introduction to the world of web development. The fundamentals of OOP are outlined in simple, example-backed terms, and so are SQL fundamentals. For those looking for a good compromise between theory and practice, this book has it both.

[Jarrodtrainque]

PHP and MySQL go hand in hand; the former has been carefully adapted, through the efforts of the open-source community, to the latter. For situations that require dynamic content but don't merit the complexity and development time of Java or .NET enterprise applications, the PHP language and the MySQL database server fit the bill perfectly. That's the point Hugh Williams and David Lane make in Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, which combines language tutorials with application design advice to yield a comprehensive picture of its subjects at a reasonable price. Williams and Lane--both Australian academics who use an online wine store in many of their examples--deserve tremendous kudos for their way of presenting recommended coding strategies. Though the code listings themselves aren't remarkably well commented, the authors do a commendable job of explaining in prose what the code is up to./ 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./

[Andrew Nite · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is great when it comes to learning PHP syntax, fundamentals, and concepts; such as conditions, comparisons, functions, PHP's OOP, and connecting to a MySQL database. If your interested in PHP and want to see what it offers compared to other web scripting languages or you're already familiar with the concepts of programming I feel that this book will be a great start. Thought I would not recommend this book to someone just beginning programming since it may become a little confusing. It will walk you though the steps on creating basic to moderately complex function and classes that will help give you a feeling on how they are constructed and can be used. You will then conclude by developing a basic web application. By the end of the book you will know how to script/program using PHP and be on your way to developing your own web applications.

Please Note: That this book is great for learning but will not teach you best practices, design patterns, extending Standard PHP Library classes, services, etc. Which are many of the things you will need to know to be able to really use PHP for web application development. This book is best for the PHP beginner to pre-intermediate learner.

I am big supporter of O'Reilly Media. They make great books for learning and keeping up-to-date with Information Technologies. If you choose to read this book you'll be sure to find another by O'Reilly that will advance you even further.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alternative title: "How to Teach Yourself Enough WebApp Fundamentals to Convince Yourself You Can Do the Job."

The approach is a good enough one. They give you a project (a wine store) and you slowly build its various components using PHP for the front-end and MySQL for the back. It's written in such a way that even though the particulars and mechanics center on these two specific technologies you should (if you're reasonably intelligent) be able to transfer those lessons easily to another environment (e.g., Perl, Ruby, etc.) That is not to suggest that reading this will prepare you for coding in such an alternative environment, just that you'll have already been exposed to the fundamental concepts.

That said, if you're teaching this stuff to yourself, I would hope that you already have a good idea of what webdev is before even entering into this learning contract with yourself. (And at that point, why not imagine your own project and get your mechanics from books or other tutorial items that are more specific and/or focused?)

[Jamie Collins · Rating 2 out of 5]

it's a solid introduction to PHP and MSQL. The book delves into what I consider intermediate PHP (session management, advanced authentication) without much of a transition however, and unless you have a strong Web dev/HTML background, the material gets a bit sticky and you are left on your own to resolve some gaping holes. Add to this that some of the example code simply doesn't work and happens to be conveniently left off the web resource. That's just poor technical editing which sucks when shelling out the dough for these books. Lastly, given the number of additional texts that O'Reilly puts out on PHP, I think they could have left the introducton to PEAR out. It served no real purpose other than filler and would have been better placed in an intermediate users book, sticking to just it's brief mentioning and function in the beginning.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, it's setting in my desk at work, so I figured I better add it. This is a pretty dated book, and I was hoping it might be useful on my current project at work, but I haven't actually opened it yet. This may be on a shelf at my garage sale this weekend, come to think of it . . .

[Marcus Lira · Rating 2 out of 5]

It bought it in order to improve my programming skills, but the book is often confusing, and I'd often look up some of the stuff on the internet anyway.

[Devin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book got me started in web programming. I've moved on to Django now, but I would recommend this for the fundamentals.

[John Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite interesting, learned a couple neat tricks ;)

[Hashim Tamah · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40...#