Good book for those not new to development, but new to php
597770
I've had trouble learning PHP from other resources before this book. I think it's because most books and tutorials take a "look at what this function you'll never use can do" approach. Not this book. As with most "FOE" books, the progressive learning centers around a (mostly) real world project that includes css and html issues. I think that is why this just "clicks" with me - I've never been able to get any use out of bland theory that is divorced from the rest of the whole picture. I've got to see the beauty of the design and the elegance of the code together - and this book does that.

Is it the complete all out reference for php? Probably not. And I don't guess an absolute web design beginner would be thrilled with it. But I don't think it is meant for either of those two things. I think it is best for those who may have tried php before but just couldn't stick with it. This book has enough in it to get you over the hump with php. At that point you can start answering your own question.

I just wish this book would have been around 5 years ago.
1918685
I am guessing that this book is a good addition to "PHP & MySQL Web Development All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))" Which I also bought recently. At the moment I have only skimmed it shortly but it looks like I could get some valuable info from it.
4380890
Cristian Darie, AJAX and PHP: Building Responsive Web Applications (Packt Publishing, 2006)

The best thing about AJAX and PHP: Building Responsive Web Applications is that it's short and to the point. This is not one of those doorstop-sized reference books that you risk giving yourself a hernia just from carrying around. Each chapter takes a look at one concrete project, showing how to produce a very simple piece of software that's easily extensible, if you're interested in that particular application. And these aren't necessarily lightweight pieces, either; a simple AJAX chat program, a dynamically reorderable task list, etc.

On the other hand, much of the book's three hundred pages are all about code repetition. I'm a big fan of printing all the code in a book rather than only including it on an accompanying CD or what have you, but really, you only need to print it once... in many cases here, we get the complete code listing for each piece up front, and then later in the chapter, much of the code will be reprinted in the analysis section. That seems overkill in a book this small. So there's a decent amount of productive material to be found here, but it seems a good portion of this book could have been used for more productive material rather than repetition. **
1880051
I have about every book related to PHP, Apache, and MySQL out there--from beginning to advanced.  This book has several things in it that are excellent, even to the professional.
I have read some of the recent responses.  I would hope these guys at least know what PHP is before buying a book.  This is EXCELLENT for beginners.  And quite honestly, what books don't have a few typos?
The book requires you to have a working knowledge of these items.
I would recommend this book to those that want to increase their knowledge beyond "Hello world".
761880
this is the first book by Murach that I have read and I have found it to be easy to read.  the examples and sample code are really helpful.  i knew nothing about php and mysql and now i can at least find my way around.  i have successfully done several small projects thanks to this book
3949751
I have been around computers for years, but am just beginning to enter the  programming world. This was a perfect book for me. In addition, when I did  run into trouble, the author, Julie Meloni emailed me back right away, to  show me where I went wrong.
I tried David Medinets' book, but it was a  little too advanced for me. Actually, now that I've read PHP Essentials,  I'm sure the Medinets book will be more useful.
The skills learned in  "PHP Essentials" are presented in an easy and logical manner. The  code is available 'online' at the book's website [...] (if you  need to copy and paste), but for beginners, I recommend actually typing all  the code (as I did). It's a great way to learn.
I can't wait for Julie's  next book!
2972088
If your new to PHP, this isn't the book for you, learning procedurally to program PHP before you delve into OOP should definitely be a beginner's plan of attack, and the concepts in this book are almost entirely OOP.

That being said, if you do want to learn OOP, then I'm sure there's something to gain from this book. I despise the wordiness and am more of a visual learner. I find charts and plenty of examples are easier to learn from.

I think the biggest drawback of this book is the lengthy explanations and $2 words. If your up for the challenge, or sincerely want to grasp PHP OOP then you should probably add this book to your collection, but don't expect it to be an easy read.
4008117
Not many PHP books begin with an Acknowledgments section written in the style of Medieval Literature with an English accent, but this one doth.

That is not the only original aspect to this book. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find a single unoriginal aspect to this PHP tome.

I warn you, these topics are not what I'd begin to learn PHP with...

Kevin is the technology evangelist for Zend...quite a famous company in the PHP world on the strength of the Zend engine and their newish Zend Framework. And he definitely stretches far beyond what most people do with the language...

If you're already a PHP developer you will learn something new. And you'll begin with a nice review of the OSI layer. Something I personally hadn't covered in many years....

I really enjoyed this book...if you're interested in using PHP for any of the following, definitely pick up a copy!:

Network protocols,
Character encoding,
Streams,
SPL,
Queuing,
Using ext2 filesystem,
Profiling...

You won't regret it...
834135
This book is essential for anyone starting out in PHP, but not only for them. It offers tips for almost any skill level, maybe you know some of the ways to keep your site secure but Chris really goes in depth on some of them.

The code snippets are short, simple, but convey the point exactly as intended... and I also like Chris's method for validating tainted data, similar to a fisherman. If the fish is bad throw it back and the same goes for user input.

I still have this book for reference and have lent it to a few people which resulted in them picking their own copies... all around a great resource.
3113034
I am relative novice when it comes to using web services but I have some experience with PHP. I found the examples in this book very useful for illustrating how to get up and running quickly while giving a good foundation for more experimentation. The Author does not give away all of the answers to building a complete Amazon app which I found to be be nice because it made me think of other more imaginative ways to use them.
1267941
* Note: I refer here to both the first and second edition *
This is the book I purchased to get started on server-side scripting; it probably says "user-level intermediate-advanced" to avoid lawsuits; I had no prior knowledge of server-side programming, and no trouble understanding.
It is divided in four logical parts:
(1) PHP tutorial
(2) MySQL tutorial
(3) General discussion on server-side scripting & e-commerce (very interesting)
(4) Projects
This book does an excellent job at explaining PHP & MySQL to the beginner, and goes much beyond the frustrating "intermediate" level where similar books often stop. It assumes a working knowledge of HTML, which everyone interested in this book already has in all likelihood.
It is cleverly written, clear and concise. The authors share their extensive experience with the reader, notably in the third part where common pitfalls are discussed.
The index is well done, which makes this book an excellent desktop reference in addition to being a good tutorial.
The CD contains all the code for the examples, the complete book in searchable PDF, and other goodies like the Apache Server and PHP.
My recommendation: go to phpide.de and download PHPTriad to install & configure Apache/PHP/MySQL on your PC, or have someone knowledgeable do it manually for you to avoid headaches.
The only reason I can't give five stars to the first or second edition is the number of mistakes/typos in the code examples. The upload code doesn't work, PDF generation uses obsolete functions even in the second edition, etc.
Although most of the code supplied as example functions properly, it is annoying to know that a book written to teach you to program contains errors in the programming examples.
The second edition adds a chapter about XML and removes outdated URLs. Otherwise, it is the same book (including code typos).
Combined with the PHP & MySQL manuals available for download from their respective sites, allow a week or two of reading and you should have everything needed to start working.
All things considered, I strongly recommend this book.
PS: if your heart balances between ASP & PHP for server-side, consider that more servers are PHP-enabled, since it is cheaper (free).
If you want to stay in known terrain and use JScript, than go for ASP.
1099772
I purchased this book after reading several reviews that described it as too light for a seasoned programmer. This is usually a good sign for someone like me and it turns out that I was correct. The book initiates new  PHP programmers with a very fundamental and broad "step-by-step"  approach that will help you build a PHP ap very quickly. If you are a  serious or professional programmer, you will still need the Wrox (or  comparable) book which is a very detailed reference book. If you are like  me, you will end of with several books on any specific topic anyway. I'm  glad I purchased this book first since I would still be digging in the Wrox  book to put it all together. The book doesn't cover all PHP functions and  capabilities but it doesn't pretend to be a reference book. Perl  programmers are going to love PHP.
1656190
UNLIKE ANY OTHER PHP BOOK.  I write that in all caps because I can't emphasize this enough:  this is NOT a typical "let's show you PHP" book.  There is no walk-from-beginning-to-end introduction.
PHP Developer's Cookbook is for INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED users that have already had their introduction, already used PHP for a while, and find themselves, while working on a project, saying, "How do you validate an email address?" or "How do we save sessions in a database?"
This is a book of PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS, broken into little categories for easy reference. (Look at the table of contents.)  Of course you could go through it from start to finish and learn quite a bit, even if you're not working on a big project yet.
All that being said, THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST VALUABLE PHP BOOKS I'VE EVER SEEN, and I've seen them all.  It's the only one I'm going to keep on my desk now as I work.  It's exactly what I was looking for.  (I work on PHP projects all day, and am constantly searching the mailing lists to remember how to create drop-down-menus, how to process individual words in a text file, etc.  This book has it all!)
Combine this with the new feature on [...] that lets you type "[...] to immediately look up the manual page for every PHP function, and you're all set!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
3841639
A well written book providing an excellent overview of the fundamentals and intricacies of PHP.  The substantial code examples really set this book apart by providing complete examples of working code rather than snippets.  I found the book's supplemental website to be much more comprehensive than I expected both for readers and instructors.
861104
I picked up this book at a used bookstore, as I was getting interested in learning web development.  That being said, I had no expectations.  This book was a good introduction for me, as a novice in programming, with with some experience using C language from experiences in working with microcontrollers.  I don't think this is the ideal book for a true beginner .. as I found some of the content to be a bit rushed and some crucial information far too condensed for someone just starting out.  The layout of the code examples might be confusing to someone still learning how to work with learning the syntax of a programming language.  This is a great book for someone with some programming experience, who wants a brisk, straightforward introduction to JavaScript.
2226060
Caveat: I am only basing my review on the sample chapter on Performance Tuning, a draft copy of the chapter on Zend Engine Internals, and the table of contents. Also, I may be biased because I've met George and he's really hard not to like--I'll try harder next time.
Go read the reviews of other PHP authors' blogs by doing a Feedster search of this book, you'll find that they highly recommend this book, sometimes over their own books!
Looking at the chapter list, you can see the topics covered are not what you see in a typical PHP book. In fact, if you don't know PHP, this is definitely not the book to be learning out of. If you don't know how to program, this is not the book to be learning out of. But if you use PHP professionally and need to get that extra mile or scale your PHP to a large site, then this is definitely the book to be buying.
There are simply no books, articles, or web references that provide a bird's eye view of the Zend Engine Internals. That is, until this book. The car analogy in this chapter is very apt for the potential reader of this book on a whole. If all you do is use PHP to get you from "point A to B" you certainly don't need this book. But if you are a PHP professional who is responsible for a high performance website, then you need to know the content of this book cold.
The chapter on Performance Tuning has a lot of gems you can't find in any other PHP reference and is essential knowledge when you use PHP on large sites. According to Michael Radwin, George's APD (the tool referenced in the chapter), is used to performance tune parts of Yahoo. But George also gives a nod to competing projects mentioning their strengths and weaknesses. (You can see why it's hard not to like the guy, his pragmatism supersedes his ego in every page.)
This neatly complements any other PHP book on the shelf (including any other "professional" PHP book). And I'll definitely have to give an updated review after I've read the other chapters.
I'm sure it will pay for itself many times over. Believe me, I speak from experience to know that George speaks from experience (he was involved in a PHP-based company that drove a company I worked for out of business).
(And to all of you who have received advanced copies... Grr!)
4283326
As a newcomer to Joomla and the LAMP stack, I found the background material showing how Joomla relates to PHP and MySQL to be very useful. Studying them separately is fine, but may not get a newbie very far in practice, hence the value for me of information on getting all the pieces related together.

The book is also very well-written; I say this because the presentation at no time gets in the way of the technical material. (Not all technical books have this advantage.)

I'm definitely going to get ahold of the author's Wrox book on advanced Joomla when it comes out, as I have been assured that it covers different material and Joomla looks like a good horse to bet on. As a practicing mainframer wandering from oasis to shrinking oasis, I find Joomla to be a promising new expertise to develop: although it may to be a little hard to grok at first, it plainly rewards whatever study you put into it. (That's why good technical books mean so much to me.)

Rating criteria:
This book didn't get five stars because nowhere is the Meaning of Life explained, so in my personal rating system four out of five stars means "Really Great."