Author(s): Daniel López Ridruejo
Publisher: Sams Publishing

Sams Teach Yourself Apache 2 in 24 Hours convers a wide range of topics about Apache but, in my opinion, half of the book would be hard for begginers to understand.

PROS

Hour 1, Apache and the Web, introduces the reader to basic concepts such as DNS, SSL, URL, HTTP status codes and more.

Hour 5, Using Apache to Server Static Content, contains information and easy configuration tasks for URL Redirection, MIME types, Icons for Bookmarks and others.

CONS

In some sections, it tries to cover a lot of information in a few pages and lacks easy-to-follow, practical examples. For a Sams Teach Yourself book, it needs more step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish certain tasks.

For example, I found some concepts in Hour 7, Restricting Access, hard to grasp such as File-Based Authentication, Database File-Based Access Control and Digest-Based Authentication.

Also, Hour 22, Dynamic URI Resolution with mod_rewrite, would be difficult for a begginner to comprehend and customize the examples to his/her own server.

Author(s): Kevin Yank
Publisher: SitePoint Pty. Ltd.

Excellent book for people with absolutely no knowledge of PHP and MySQL.

I’m a self-taught programmer. After learning HTML, CSS and some Javascript, I found out I also had to learn a server-side programming language. Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL was the first PHP/MySQL book I grabbed and it really got me started into the subject.

PROS

This book uses a hands-on approach. The code and examples it contains are well-explained.

It guides you throught the PHP and MySQL installation in Windows, Linux and Mac. I followed the instructions and installed PHP and MySQL in Windows and Linux, but I haven’t tried Mac.

It does a very good job at teaching you the MySQL basics in chapter 2, teaching you the PHP basics in chapter 3 and then working with both PHP and MySQL in chapter 4. Learning how to integrate PHP and MySQL together feels effortless.

This book also walks you through programming a content management system that administers jokes, categories and authors.

Chapter 5, Relational Database Design, discusses a subject which is difficult to grasp for some beginners, but it’s very well explained in this book.

Chapter 7, Content Formatting and Submission, briefly explains Regular Expressions and illustrates it by examples.

The last chapters cover more advanced topics such as granting database priviledges, locking tables, grouping select results, file uploads and cookies.

CONS

Any PHP/MySQL beginner should learn how to prevent MySQL injection attacks as soon as possible and this book doesn’t cover the subject.

There is almost no form submission validation in the PHP code examples.

Author(s): Harry Fuecks
Publisher: SitePoint Pty. Ltd.

The PHP Anthology Object Oriented PHP Solutions Volume I book is mainly oriented to people that already have some knowledge of PHP.

If you want to quickly learn the basics for object-oriented PHP and save time by using object-oriented code repositories available online, then this is the book for you.

If you already are a PHP coder and want to convert from procedural to object-oriented programming but would like to learn to figure out your own code and write your own classes, you may want to get another book.

PROS

In chapter 2, PHP and MySQL, you learn by example these basic objected-oriented concepts: class syntax, objects, methods, constructors, scope, references, pointers, inheritance, overriding, aggregation and more.

In chapter 3, PHP and MySQL, I found the section How do I solve database errors caused by quotes/apostrophes? very useful. It discusses 3 possible solutions and their pros and cons.

Chapter 3 also explains SQL Injection Attacks, something all PHP/MySQL developers should know how to prevent.

From chapter 3 on, you will use packages available online loaded with PHP classes to assist you at writing your web applications.

CONS

The first paragraph of chapter 2 reads: “There is a growing number of object oriented code repositories, such as PEAR and PHP Classes, which can save you from hours of work spent solving well charted problems, and leave you free to focus on the specifics of your application”.

While this is very true, I bought this book with the intention of learning how to program object-oriented PHP. I didn’t want to borrow somebody else’s PHP classes. As you read deeper into the book, you realize the author relies more and more on PEAR packages.

Maybe this book should be renamed to something like “Object Oriented PHP Solutions using PEAR”.

I will read another PHP object-oriented book to learn how to write my own complex object-oriented code and then maybe go back to this book to learn how to apply some shortcuts in case I decide to use them.