PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy (Solutions)

I bought this book in December 2006. I bought other books in Php. However, none of them were as good as Php solutions. I agree with the previous comments that is not a bed time book but more an exercise book with very good and useful tutorials. In addition, a good understanding in HTML is expected from the start as stated in the introduction. Most of the tutorials were incoporated into the two websites that I maintained. I still use this book when I got stuck for example when I created an intention to rejoin online form for a sailing club.
One fundamental good point of this book is that the examples are written on classic and advanced PHP. Not all the hosts allow advanced PHP when dealing with database.
I have not given full mark because, although one of the best, it is not perfect. There are a few typos although the amendum are online and are minor. The tutorials synthax could also be improved.
Saying all that, I strongly recommend this book.

An absolute must (0/0 people found this helpful)

I work with php and mysql every day and i find this book completely invaluable. It is very well written and easy to read and includes lots and lots of useful information and best pratice issues.
As well as lots and lots of secure and useful code, it incorporates enough information for you to be able to create complex and simple web applications without breaking into a sweat. I highly reccommend this book to anyone wanting to learn how to write dynamic web applications, i have hundreds of these books, and this is by far my favourite.
Once you have mastered the concepts in this book, you may need something more techinical and in depth, but for beginners and those with some skill this book will not dissappoint.

clever things to do with php (1/1 people found this helpful)

PHP Solutions is a gentle read with some worthwhile tricks. I haven't finished it yet and to be honest I don't know that I ever will. For me it's more of a useful manual than the best way to learn php from scratch.
It's written in a rather wafty and paternalistic style:

"Your head is probably reeling by now, but - believe it or not - you have covered all the fundamentals of PHP... take a short break and then move on to the next chapter." !

This on page 64 - of 446 pages. The comment deflated me and set my hackles up. Sorry David, but it did.
That said - and it's more a personal point than anything else - this book has some real gems in it. I'd previously struggled to find ways of dealing with photos via php.
Want to randomize images on a page? This book tells you how. Want to give each of those images its own caption? Read php Solutions. Is a photo gallery more what you're looking for? You've guessed it - Mr Powers shows you how in php Solutions.
I did manage to work out how to read and write files using this book's instructions - an achievement that has eluded me through a number of previous tutorials in other volumes.
Actually, from the snippets I've read and the code I've tried, I have a great deal of confidence in this text. I've learnt some really useful techniques from it - useful tricks I'd known were possible but didn't know how to do. - Like styling a page to indicate which part of the site a user is on.
I'm not clear why I find php Solutions disappointing. Perhaps it's because I experienced Blog Design Solutions - another friendsofed publication - to be encouragingly written as well as reliable of content, and I assumed the same for php Solutions.
Make no mistake this is a great 'how to' read. Poetry it ain't. A handy manual it certainly is.

A great book for the PHP beginner (14/14 people found this helpful)

This book was exactly what I was waiting for. An introduction to PHP for the designer with instantly applicable examples. Even as I worked through the chapters I was able to use my new found powers in real life projects.

That's the most important aspect of a book like this; that you can see the results immediately and are buoyed along by small successes, rather than getting bogged down in massive amounts of theory and code before you can do anything practical.

I would recommend this book to any web designers who are comfortable with XHTML and CSS, but are daunted by the server-side side of things.

PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy (Solutions)

David Powers

Reader Reviews:

Very good book (0/0 people found this helpful)

An absolute must (0/0 people found this helpful)

clever things to do with php (1/1 people found this helpful)

A great book for the PHP beginner (14/14 people found this helpful)

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