I went through this entire book and was quite impressed. After reading the reviews on how people didn't learn PHP using this book, I have come to the conclusion that they are mentally handicapped. This book is straight forward and gives you plenty of examples on how to manipulate MySQL databases and how to use php syntax and how to integrate it into your site. It covers cookies, sessions, and other VERY useful super globals. The book contains minor errata, like all text books, but these errors are easily noticed and fixed (ie missing semicolon). If you copy the code exactly and you dont bother to read about the concept of what you are doing I can see how you might not be able to learn, BUT if you actually read the book you will learn from this book! From this book I have been able to write my own database for a user authentication, forms, message boards, and much more! This book rocks my socks.

This book is very problematic in the fact that, despite the author's claim of "three or four technical reviewers", there are coding problems which could have been easily caught 90 for a script generate errors abut undefined variables and . I double checked my code against the book and found no differences. I downloaded the source code from the author's web page and used that and received the same errors.

The author's website also makes it clear that she is somwhat unreceptive to these errors being pointed out when I went to the site advertised for her to see if there were any corrections and such. She does not even provide a means to contact her and from the tone of her "Contact Information" page, she does not take to kindly to being called on the carpet.

This book is definitely a work in progress and should not be purchased by anyone wanting to actually learn PHP.

This is an "ok" book for web developers. It has some nice features if you can get past the amount of errors in the coded examples and the sometimes confusing and contradictory explanations. There is very little discussion of basic concepts, therefore, I would not recommend this book for anyone who does not have some programming background.

The title, PHP 5 fast & easy web development, is indicative of the book's contents. It provides a series of potentially useful PHP scripts that you can adapt to develop database interactive web pages (emphasis is on the MySQL database). However, like the 2nd edition of Julie Meloni's "PHP fast & easy web development," this book is plagued with coding errors which are not only annoying, but also make understanding the various features of PHP more difficult.

The book starts with instructions on how to install PHP, Apache and MySQL. The remainder of the book consists of a series of increasingly complex scripts, detailed step-by-step. For the first half of the book, the examples are relatively easy to read and carefully documented. However, halfway through the book, segments of code begin to appear without adequate explanation, and as the book progresses, it becomes more a cookbook of code to retype rather than a clear explanation of what the code mean. Instructions about where to insert new lines of code are difficult to follow. In addition, some explanations appear contradictory, which adds to the confusion. The errors in the coded examples are excessive. I can understand a few typos, but lines of code that are substantially different or are missing completely can be found in every chapter. This is unacceptable and unprofessional in a book that is supposed to help you learn a new programming language.