Reviews for Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional

1. Difficult

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2007

   I got this book off Amazon few months ago, and now its just sitting on my shelf. I couldn't get past the first hurdle, which has halted my progress.
   
   It requires libraries (extensions/templates) Pear and Smarty. If you don't know what these are, I recommended that you don't buy this book. The Pear library was difficult to install, and the Smarty wasn't very accessible.
   
   There are other alternatives to Pear and Smarty extensions, such as using the php include(); function, which I feel works in a better way.
   
   Yes, the code is easily available, so if you do know about Smarty and Pear libraries, it could be worth a go.
   
   I haven't been able to test the database side of it because the extensions weren't installed properly.

2. Could be better

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, August 12th, 2005

   The book starts off well, for any PHP novice looking towards e-commerce, but the use of templates makes this book fall from grace.

   Let's face it a person who writes all his websites by hand wouldn't buy a book on dreamweaver. The same here, I wan't to learn how to build excellant shopping carts, not build shopping cart templates.

3. Great stuff!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2005

   This book has enabled me to build an e-commerce website with absolutely no PHP or MySQL experience at all! The book is written in such a way that it breaks down all the sections on code for each part of the site and explains what they do.

   Once you have worked through the book and have a working site it is extremely quick and easy to re-use the code and create new ecommerce sites with almost no development time.

   Highly recommended.

4. Very disappointed

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, June 12th, 2005

   I bought this book based on the reviews it already had and now I wish I had not. In fact, I am going to return the book to Amazon. If you are like me you won't like it. So here goes.
   1) I am technical, and am fully used to PHP and MySQL.
   2) I needed something to guide me through writing a shopping cart.
   3) I have written a shopping cart before, but wanted to be aware of the finer points when I write the new improved verison.
   4) I am the web developer AND the web designer.

   When I opened the book I was horrifed (yes - not too strong a word) to see the authors had based the whole book not just on PHP and MySQL (GOOD), but also on SMARTY templates and the PEAR database libraries (BAD). If I had known this from the outset I would never have bought the book as it is cluttered with the fallout from these two pieces of flabware. Now I know that SMARTY and PEAR are useful used in the right context by interested parties, but when you trying to find out more about the finer points of shopping cart design, they are simply clutter.

   The decision to use these products is not to be confused with e-commerce in general. Of course none of this may matter to you, but if you like me don't want to have to ignore half the book, or spend the time learning about SMARTY and PEAR, then this is not the book for you.

5. Great Book

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2005

   The book is absolutely fantastic! I can't think a better place to start learning about e-commerce. Really opened my eyes.
   Congrats to the authors.