Reviews for Beginning PHP and MySQL E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition (Beginning: From Novice to Professional)

1. Not for beginners

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, May 12th, 2009

   This book really is not for anyone with no PHP knowledge. Even basic PHP will not be enough. The problem is that the code supplied, to integrate SMARTY with the application, has bugs in it. These are not easily fixed. In my opinion, web designers with enough knowledge to use this book effectively will be able to achieve 90% of the objectives set out, by using forums and blogs freely available on the internet, if there are gaps in their knowledge.
   There are some useful elements, on installing xammp etc but again these are not worth paying for.

2. This book is NOT very good

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, May 12th, 2009

   The tutorial process in this book broke down by chapter 4, which only covers the very simple first steps. After spending 2-3 days researching and resoolving the bug(s), I finally moved on to chapter 5, and have now discovered that there is an inherent bug with the database implementation used / recommended by the author, and that I am unlikely to progress further.
   
   Hilariously the database stored procedure cache bug only exists on the windows platform which the author has based the entire tutorial on, and the bug is even documented in Chapter 5, which states that a solution can be found in the books on-line Errata page. It is not. I have submitted an Errata report to the publisher, but have heard nothing, and the page remains blank.
   
   The book also contains much repetition and advocates the use of a lot of 3rd party PHP extensions and tools rather than pursue a much more sensible basic low level code approach.
   
   Don't waste your money on this.

3. Doesn't quite do what it says on the tin.

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2009

   This book suffers from the same problems that seem to beset a lot of php books; they can't make up their minds what market they are aiming at.
   
   From what I can gather from the various forums I frequent, there are two types of php programmers out there.
   
   1. Programmers working for a variety of clients, or for a web development company. These people will be primarily interested in code reusability etc.
   
   2. Programmers working for their own company, and developing only one or a few sites. These people will primarily be interested in raw functionality. These people are not interested in Smarty, Pear etc, and instead want to produce nice tight systems tailored for their sites.
   
   This book is aimed squarely at type 1. It concentrates on PHP enhancements like Smarty, Pear etc. The type 2 programmer tends to avoid these as they add unneeded bulk to their sites.
   
   However, the book is laid out, and titled, like it is aimed at Type 2 programmers. For instance, if I worked for a programming house, I would possibly want to buy a book about Smarty and Pear. I would look for a book called "Smarty and Pear on PHP". I would not look for a booke called "Beginning PHP and MySQL".
   
   I can't recommend this book, as it isn't what it claims to be.