Reviews for Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache in 24 Hours (Sams Teach Yourself in 24 Hours)

1. Yep, teach yourself.

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, January 12th, 2010

   I bought this book in the hope that it would teach me the fundamentals of Apache, PHP and MySQL. In one way, it did. After trying time after time to install the horribly borked packages on the CD, i gave up in frustration and downloaded the latest versions of Apache, PHP and MySQL from their respective websites. I then tried to follow the badly proofread installation codes only to again give up in frustration and ask the internet. I eventually found a decent blog that gave full and complete instructions with PROPERLY FUNCTIONAL code examples that allowed me to set up the software properly (tip for the proofreaders: code that requires the use of quotation marks, ensure that they are "PRESENT IN THE EXAMPLE!" (see what i did there?)). I got this far in the installation despite the book's best efforts. Now to work through the actual lessons provided in the hope that more rigorous proofreading was applied in these sections...
   
   Please, if you buy this book, do as has already been recommended by another reviewer: DO NOT USE THE INSTALLS PROVIDED ON THE CD! Go to the individual websites (whose URL's are supplied in the book) and download the latest stable releases from there. Also, make sure you download both the installer and the .zip of the latest version of PHP -that way you can see which DLL's are missing and, if necessary, migrate them over to your PHP installed folder. Finally, check some of the blogs/forums out there against the code provided in the book (regarding modifying the hhtpd.conf and the php.ini files post-install) to make sure that you also do not fall victim to the proofreader's incompetence.
   
   Sadly, a very frustrating first experience...

2. Awful start

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, December 12nd, 2009

   Having ignored the advice of other reviewers here, I bought the book and have just been going through the first few chapters. I'm about to set it on fire. The installation processes are so poorly explained that I cannot even be bothered with the rest of the book. I'll go and buy another from someone who knows how to write a 'teach yourself' book. Appalling.

3. easy to use

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2009

   bought this book to help with part of my website development degree. I recieved quick delivery and it was in perfect condition. The book is easy to use for people wanting to know how to use PHP etc, and has some really useful guides. Thankyou :)

4. installation instructions are wrong

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

   I followed the installation instructions several times and they don't work. I can't really comment on the rest of the book because I can't get past the installation. I'f anybody knows how to remedy this I would be immensely greatful, the internet seems to be a mess of contradictions and bad advice (which is why i bought the book).

5. Massively flawed installation makes getting to other material impossible

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

   I bought this book as a beginner to programming, as I'd found php tricky to install. Unfortunately, whilst using the CD to install apache and sql is very straightforward, there is a fundamental error in the php section.
   
   The book recommends you don't use the installation version of php, but rather download the zip and manually install it yourself for which it gives complicated, but presumably achievable instructions.
   
   Here's the problem - the CD for some reason contains ONLY the direct installation file, not the zip explained in the book. And now the zip explained in the book is no longer available to download online, and the newer versions don't fit the script alterations detailed in the book.
   
   I spent, literally DAYS trying to locate the right zip, and mash to accompanying code into a best fit with new zip files, just to install the learning environment and get started. To make matters worse the instructions are very much aimed at those with experience of scripting and include basic typos (A lowercase C in the C: drive for example, which for a beginner is quite fundamental, and vague explanations like 'install it on your windows path - if you don't know how to do this look online")
   
   Why the CD doesn't have the zip which the book states it will I have absolutely no idea, but to me it is a fundamental error not to allow beginners to set up their learning environment with any ease. If you've bought this book and experienced the same problems as me, you can, however install the whole lot (apache, sql, php) with a single click as a wamp file. Just google wamp server.