Reviews for Wicked Cool PHP: Real-World Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems

1. A lot to like and recommend, if you don't mind the flaws

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, September 12st, 2009

   The most positive characteristic of this book is its accessibility: it's the only PHP book that I have read without frequently thinking "what on earth do they mean by that?" The writing style is not formal - in fact, it's too flippant on occasions - but it's well written and easy to follow. It succeeded in getting me to understand one or two functions that had previously been confusing and the introduction to regex would make a good grounding for reading a regex-specific title. I liked the "What can go wrong" segments, too: every coding book should have that kind of info separated out in this way.
   
   The structure is slightly less well-ordered, though: it has a habit of referring to previous or forthcoming information, so you will be flicking back and forth a lot. And I was left unimpressed by the incomplete code archive, which means that you will face some typing when you come to try out the examples for yourself. This is a second edition, so the archive should have been sorted by now.
   
   I must also mark it down for its incomplete treatment of most of its topics, more than is usual for this type of book. I was particularly interested in the finer details of processing form content into e-mails, but this important core function of any website gets little more than a brief discussion about validation. The first chapter is titled "The Scripts That Every PHP Programmer Wants to Know", but it surely missed a lot that could and should have been included. It was probably a bit too ambitious in its aims for a book of this modest size, and it left me with many unanswered questions. Although, I must point out that the other books in my possession didn't answer them either.
   
   I am not too confident in the book's accuracy: I noticed some advice about using pipes in regex as a way of dealing with slashes in content (eg. URIs) that failed to mention the true function of pipes and how this might cause problems. I would also like to have seen an explanation of the correct use of single and double quotes, with which many readers may be unfamiliar: the authors have used both types but never clarified why.
   
   Despite my concerns and caveats, I would still recommend this book as a handy addition to a collection of titles for any PHP novice who finds server-side programming to be esoteric and not as easy as even this book tries to claim. Just don't pick this up as your first and only PHP title or expect it to solve all of your scripting problems.
   
   If I could score it out of 10, it would scrape a 7.

2. Fantastic 2nd PHP book for anyone

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

   as the previous reviewer said this is not a first php book. However as a second php book it is really good. The book is packed full of useful examples of code and the writer has a nice easy writing style - not too much detail, but enough to get every example to work and understood to a good level.
   Great Job.

3. Best and most USEFUL book on PHP I have read.

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, April 12nd, 2008

   First things first, this is not a book for a complete novice. It is designed for people with a bit of programming experience who have stumbled upon php and want to get the most out of it.
   
   Consequently, it won't explain what a variable is, or how a for loop works.
   
   However, what it will do is answer all those questions you have because you have skipped most of the other books out of boredom.
   
   So, if, like me, you are a programmer trying to get to grips with php, you will find this book very useful indeed. The first chapter alone is worth the cover price. It covers the most common questions that get asked in php forums, and is a must read.
   
   Other than that though, most topics you would expect to find covered get a mention, and in a succint fashion. The issue is raised, and the solution provided. The solutions are top notch too.
   
   For instance, in the security section, they cover the usual use of htmlentities when screening $POST and $GET data. However, they go further than that. They present a function that not only uses htmlentities, but also strips any hex characters, and more. The reason for this is that hackers can get round the htmlentities by using hex in the string. No other php book (even oReilly's one on php security) is as thorough as that. Not only that, but there are a load of useful links for more security info.
   
   The bottom line is that this book is written by somebody who quite obviously uses php out in the wild themselves, and who knows the tricks, and is happy to share them with the rest of us.
   
   You will not regret buying this book.