I really enjoyed reading this one! The authors have an easy style that lets you accelerate if you already have a good grasp of that topic but want a refresher. If the section covers something you don’t know then there are clear code examples and text that explains what the code does.

Don’t make the assumption you’ll learn lots of PHP and MySQL from one book! You’ll get an introduction to both that is much lighter than covered in other O’Reilly books. Where this book shines is in the juncture of the two; it really makes clear some of the ways you can customize web pages using a database. Once you lay this one down you should spend a few hours with a favorite beverage; just toss some of the possibilities around in your head.

If you have a beginning understanding of PHP and/or MySQL, this book will help you take the next step. It will also help you understand technologies like Joomla and other database-driven websites. You won’t learn how to program, in a general sense, but you’ll get turned on by the possibilities. If you’re already a coder but new to PHP and MySQL, you’ll get a taste of what can be accomplished with this powerful combination.
Rating: 4 / 5

This is definitely below the bar for an O’Reilly book. I am about 1/3 way thru and already have to spend hours searching the Internet for the right steps on phpMyAdmin and Apache2 config on MacBook Pro. I am debating if I should finish the rest of the book, best to avoid this book to begin with.

[update] The second half of the book is a bit better, I would recommend skipping the first few chapters and start at Practical PHP.
Rating: 2 / 5

This book is full of errors and I never got any thing to work. Stay away from this book. I suggest the Friend of Ed series.
Rating: 1 / 5

I bought this book thinking that it could teach me well and I could try to make a nice PHP & MySQL script on my website to manage news.

I was utterly wrong.

I am really a fan of the O’Reilly books, they are pretty well made, except for this one.

There are quite a few errors in the coding where I get a TON of parsing errors.

It would be really nice if they could completely re-write the book and take out using PEAR, It may be a useful tool, but I don’t like it that much.

I would suggest not getting this book, but for one of the other O’Reilly books, like “Headfirst PHP and MySQL”.
Rating: 2 / 5

Michele E. Davis and John A. Phillips may have had the best intentions when they set out to write a “Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic, Database-Driven Web Sites” for the beginner to intermediate user, but the wheels fall off pretty early on in the undertaking.

I’m no PHP expert (and I really don’t want to be), but I do know a thing or two about MySQL, and I’ve tinkered around enough with my own blogging software to understand the reasoning behind developing a dynamic web application. I tend to judge an author’s ability to explain new concepts to me by how well they explain what I already know. To that end, “Learning PHP & MySQL” thundered so quickly and clumsily through it’s rudimentary explanation of server-side application theory (one typo, two flagrant contradictions in one paragraph, and a smattering of poorly-executed visuals), that I have to wonder what care Davis & Phillips devote to the rest of their project.

The answer was pretty clear by the time I skimmed past the “How to install Apache, PHP, and MySQL” explanation and landed smack in a very dry, code-littered treatise on PHP variables and strings, conditionals, and arrays. So much for the foreplay.

Like 99% of the free information available in the open source community (and every other O’Reilly reference I’ve ever purchased -you think I would have learned my lesson by now), this book is poorly organized, shoddily edited, sparse, and mind-numbingly arcane.
Rating: 1 / 5