PHP and MySQL Web Development
Book Details
Availability: This item is currently not available.List Price: $49.99
Our Price:
You Save: $49.99 (0%)
Spotlight Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 4.45Customer Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent feature demonstration -- a buyer!
Comment: I don't write alot of reviews, and hardly ever give 5 stars, but this one is worth it. This massive text (800+ pages) includes all of the basic elements that either a beginner or an advanced user may look to a text for assistance with (note: these subjects, PHP and web databases, are traditionally self-taught at this time, a good text is ESSENTIAL!). The CD includes open source licensed Apache, PHP and MySQL (Linux and WIN), and all code from the book.
The book format is logical and good for self-pacing; early sections teach PHP language features (including arrays, regular expressions, objects/classes), then MySQL language and calling constructs (RDMS design theory, SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, and advanced SQL). Later chapters discuss implementing user authentication and security, session mgmt and other advanced concepts. Final chapters (over 250 pages) provide ample example web database applications that probably cover about any project you would use these languages for (including shopping cart, content mgmt, web-based e-mail, mailing list mgr and a web-based forum). The final chapter describes using PDF to format text documents (my ISP does not provide this module therefore I skipped that section).
I recently began a private web database project and made the decision to proceed open source (PHP, MySQL) versus going the Microsoft way (ASP, SQL Server). This meant I had to learn PHP and MySQL. I purchased 4 books and the Welling & Thomson text was most utilized of all. My only gripe is they don't provide summary reference sections on PHP and MySQL functions / commands. You will probably just download the official user manuals for these anyway.
This book is well worth the price, IMHO.
Customer Rating: 5
Summary: In short: A Wonderful book.
Comment: I purchased this book after having carefully studdied many books about the subject. I fell for this book, simply because it got the best rating and when I went to my local book store and scanned it, I had to own it. It starts out with a PHP crach course (syntax and semantics), moves over to cover string manipulation, expressions, function calls etc. All in all, very simple stuff that you should be able to grasp easily, are you known to other high level programming or scripting languages. Then you get introduced to basic database design, dynamic image generation etc. What makes the book special however, is that the whole second half of the book, shows you real world examples of things like session control, user authentication, shopping cart management, a mailing list manager, an email web-interface, web-forums and more. This second part is what you really will learn from! The book should be called "Real World PHP and MySQL development." The only little thing that I miss in the book, is a reference list of all common functions for PHP. I am not complaining though, the book does not state to be a reference book!
Customer Rating: 5
Summary: Comparison between Mao's Last Dancer and Chinese Cinderella
Comment: Mao's Last Dancer Li Cunxin (Penguin Books; $29.95)
Mao's Last Dancer, by Li Cunxin, is a richly detailed autobiography highlighted by Chinese legends and childhood stories. It is an inspiring text for anyone interested in Chinese history, life throughout the Communist regime, dancing or just anyone wanting an insightful, gripping book.
In this memoir, a Chinese boy from a loving, hardworking but impoverished background whose destiny laid working as a peasant suddenly sees his life change when one of Madame Mao's officials recruit him to join the Peking Dance Academy. He was one of the very few children selected from all over China. Chosen only for his physique, age and resilience to pain he was forced to leave home which turned his life around as he began to ascend the steep learning curve ahead of him.
The lack of previous interaction with unknown people combined with the hardship he endured at the academy just worsened his social skills. Gradually, becoming an introvert and retreating from others he solely focused on his dancing.
Li's perseverance, determination and constant striving to attain the best result he can gives readers motivation to strive towards achieving their life long goals. Writing this book provided an outlet for Li to share his amazing story with the rest of the world. Memories, childhood games and Chinese legends interwoven into the intricate details described in the book enrich the story's plot as well as the small, personal details given in the descriptions, which bring life to Li's emotions. For example, one lonely day at the academy Li comforts himself in a willow tree while crying. The tree symbolises life and nature which he desperately misses in the cold environment of the academy in the midst of the built up city. The author's use of symbolism gives the text a multi layered effect.
It would be difficult to criticise this text as it is well balanced between descriptions of his childhood, life at the academy and his accomplishments as a professional dancer in the United States.
Li is a very likable character to whom the majority of people can relate. He considers his success as the duty he had to live up to and remains very close to his people in Qindao despite their hugely different lifestyles. Throughout his life, he is conscious of the fact that he was given an opportunity others were not given and remains very humble.
Chinese Cinderella Adeline Yen Mah (Penguin Books Ltd; $24.95)
Chinese Cinderella, and Falling Leaves, like Mao's Last Dancer is an autobiography graphically detailed with emotions throughout the individual's life, in this case a young Chinese girl. However, unlike Li, Adeline has been made to feel rejected and unwanted by her own family. Later on, ricocheting from one institution to another without ever hearing from her family she, like Li, engrosses herself in her studies. In the end, both achieve outstanding results in their domains: Adeline in writing and Li in dancing.
From her birth, Adeline was despised by her siblings and father and was made to believe that her bad luck had brought about her mother's death. Throughout her schooling years, Adeline dreamed of feeling accepted by her family and thought she could only achieve this by excelling at school.
Due to the fact that Yen Mah's judgement of situations was blurred by her jealousy towards her siblings, her perception of her life is possibly biased. However, readers do not realise this, as both in Li and Yen Mah's texts the author is the main character enabling readers to see life through their eyes.
Chinese Cinderella is written in an easy-to-understand, hard-to-put-down manner. The book is aimed at the 10 to 19 year age group. The author once said that she wanted other unwanted children in the world to feel as if they were not the only ones and they could make something of their lives. The text is written in a optimistic but realistic manner which encourages readers to aim high scholastically despite the surrounding pressures they might be confronted with. The readers are made to understand that through determination they can overcome obstacles what for many years seemed imposible. Yen Mah emphasises how important it is to have a passion to distract yourself from your worries and problems. In her case, literature was the answer as she clearly expresses in the following quote, "I was alone with my beloved books. What bliss! To be left in peace with Cordelia, Regan, Gonoril, and Lear himself--characters more real than my family... What happiness! What comfort!".