Do not wish to use too many words. I can just say that this book was of great help to me. Though dabbling with PHP, I learnt a lot from the book, since it has dealt with lot of basic knowledge of databases. Was just the right one for a student like me who had very little knowledge of the databases. Kudos to the authors!!

I just got a copy of this book last week, and this was exactly the content that i was in search of - Getting upto speed with PHP and databases, to build robust database driven web applications.
Infact, this book manages to provide solutions to the large number of problems that newbie PHP programmers post on sites like phpbeginners.com,php.net and phpbuilder.
The approach to presenting a database agnostic solution, through the use of the most recommended PEAR::DB abstraction layer (i even found documentation about PEAR::DB, that i had spent ages figuring out for myself) sets this book in a class of its own.
The typos and grammar stand out at places, but who cares when you have gotten what you wanted.
I highly recommend this book to the BEGINNING/NEWBIE PHP Programmer.

This book aims to teach the skills necessary to develop any size web application with PHP, backed by a database. They start off with the now de facto PHP introduction and then jump head first into database fundamentals. Nearly half of this book is devoted to teaching database layout, design, and use. This is long over due in the PHP community. Too many PHP developers are creating database enabled applications that have absolutely no prior experience with databases! This book covers everything from elementary topics, such as table creation, selects, inserts, and deletes, to advanced database usage with joins, stored procedures, triggers, and cursors. While they did cover indexing, I feel that it was a bit lacking and could have used a more in depth exploration.

One pleasant surprise was that no one particular database is favored; in fact use of the database abstraction layer in PEAR is encouraged for code portability. I am encouraged by the use of PEAR in this book, as it can only help to bring the community together in its use and promote PEAR as a standard of sorts. The PEAR database abstraction layer is picked apart so that you may understand exactly how it works and be that much more efficient with using it.

At the end of this book, it offers two chapters dedicated to designing and implementing applications using a native XML database. The first of the two chapters concentrates on the fundamentals of native XML databases; what they are and how they work. The second chapter then presents a case study using Xindice.

I found this book to be very thorough and well put together. Cheers to Wrox for another fine book!

Rudyard Kipling writes concisely and with great insight on a wide range of issues. With each story only taking up a few pages the depth of characterisation is superb. 'The gate of one-hundred sorrows' is one of the finest short stories ever written.

My copy has 36 stories, but Kipling's Plain Tales tells about life in British-occupied India from every imaginable angle. It's touching, it's funny, and at times it's unbelievably sad. Don't let the author put you off, this is a highly readable book. My personal favorites are "Thrown Away" and "Beyond the Pale", but be careful; they're sad.

I have read this diary and could not stop! Imagine being able to ask today's military bosses, such as Colin Powell, what they REALLY think - and get the straight answer? Of course, you would'nt be able to get it. What Gen Bandholtz writes here is how he really feels about things. No punches pulled. Readers 80 or 90 years from now will get to see how Gen Powell feels about things.
This book shows how a man, just doing his job, comes to see injustice and underhandedness from all directions. Gen Bandholtz died a few years after this, but I'll bet his experience in Budapest stuck with him every day.

This is well worth your time and money.

Woodrow Wilson promulgated an idealistic solution for the problems of Central Europe: the right of national self-determination. This apparently simple and self-evidently just doctrine ignored a host of psychological, historical, geographical, and above all, political complexities. Sure enough, in the Versailles peace process following WWI, the major powers and minor players pulled and twisted the doctrine to tatters in order to promote their own interests. Nowhere was the result as geographically dramatic as in the case of Hungary. Harry Hill Bandholtz, the American Allied representative in Budapest during some of the chaotic years between the armistice of 1918 and the Treaty of Trianon of 1921, witnessed the conniving, skullduggery, venality, and sometimes brutality of both his allied "bretheren" and all the local nationalities at first hand. He stood alone, at times, trying to enforce order and justice. Thanks to a stroke of luck that put him at the head of the Allied Commission in the nick of time, he single-handedly saved Budapest from a complete sacking by the Romanian forces who occupied it briefly. His diaries display a straightforward military man of honor who nonetheless relishes the ironies and absurdities of events around him as he struggles to see the right thing done. Not only is it a critical primary source for an obscure but important piece of history, but it is a moving and, at times, screamingly funny read.

Some of Hill's earliest novels don't really compare to some of his later ones, but this is one of a couple of absolutely cracking exceptions.

It's got a wonderfully complex plot, some brilliant characters, a great setting, some surprising twists, and it is written wonderfully. Plus, Franny Roote is one of the best villains Hill has ever created. This one, indeed, is essential reading for those who intend to read the later books in the series, because it is Roote's first appearance, and he goes on to appear in quite a large role in all three of Hill most recent books ("Arms and the Women", "Dialogues of the Dead", and "Death's Jest Book"). It's also pivotal in that here Pascoe is first re-united with his former friend, and future wife, Ellie.

A body is found buried in the grounds of Holm Coultram College, and the police arrive, settling themselves in on campus. They meet a wonderful array of interesting and well-drawn interesting characters (students and lecturers alike), but then a new body turns up, and then another...

This is a wonderful crime novel, realistic and strangely chilling, that explores the underbelly of that bastion of the education system, the College, with its strong-willed students, and with it's lectureers all too ready to give in to temptation...

I would reccomend this novel to anyone, especially fans of the police procedural which not only entertains but challenges the intellect. The character, story, writing and setting are all marvellous. Fantastic. Certainly one of Hill's best.

The richest section of this book in the Anchor Bible series is the 90 pages introduction that deals with text, canon, literary and historical aspects of the book and its date. The author has kept up AB series' tradition of thoroughness in dealing with the biblical text. On the top of a detailed commentary the author has offered some useful appendices: "von Bulmerincq's Categories for dating Malachi", "Typological Analysis of the Postexilic Prophets"; "Intertextuality in the Book of Malachi", "Vocabulary Richness in the Book of Malachi." An extensive bibliography (36 pages!) is certainly a boon to students of the book of Malachi. The author argues for a 500 BCE date for the Book of Malachi. He suggests that Ezra and Nehemiah are responsible for the final redaction of it.

Be Quick But Don't Hurry is a quick read, a pretty good book and a different take on John Wooden's Pyramid of Success that he utilized in coaching the most successful teams in the history of college basketball (UCLA in the 60's and 70's.)

Mr. Hill played for Wooden during his amazing stretch of championships as a backup. The book is basically a reflection of how, after 30 years, Mr. Hill recognized how much he learned from Coach Wooden without knowing he was being taught anything at all.

He discusses how the Secrets of the pyramid are transferable to teaching, business, management and even friendships.

The book is very personal and well written. If you are trying to become a leader or want to learn the keys to success you would gain quite a bit from reading this book. Most importantly, just like basketball, you have to apply these secrets until they become second nature for them to have a profound impact on your life.

Andrew Hill did something that I have never seen an author do before - he wrote a loving and wonderful book about a man whom he bitterly "viewed as a teacher who had failed [him] in his class for three straight years." Hill's journey of introspection and ultimate friendship with his former UCLA basketball coach, the legendary John Wooden, is just half of this great book. The other half is John Wooden's twenty-one secrets, or teachings, for a lifetime of success. I highly recommend this unique and inspiring book to leaders and followers, teachers and scholars, coaches and players, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives.

After I read "Wooden" by John Wooden and Steve Jamison, I bought and read this book. I was initially disappointed with Hill's less-than-stellar, yet brutally honest, portrayal of a man for whom I have the deepest respect. I even thought about throwing the book away in disgust. I am glad I decided to keep it and read it all the way. I would have missed out on a truly fascinating and entertaining opportunity to learn many things that are helping me be a better person. I believe the same opportunity exists for anyone who reads this book.

Be Quick But Don't Hurry, by Andy Hill with John Wooden is not only a great and quick read, but Wooden's Pyramid of Success and Hill's description of how he utilized them as a former player of Wooden at UCLA is easily transferable to all business, teaching, and to anyone interested in discovering Wooden's secrets of success as a basketball coach. The book is also a touching story of Hill's realizing 30 years after playing for Wooden, how important he was/is in his life. For men today, their relationships with their fathers are often conflicted and tortured. But Hill's relationship with his mentor, Coach Wooden, is a model about what can happen in a teacher/pupil, employer/employee, mentor/disciple relationship. I recommend this book to teachers, clergy (of which I am one), managers of business and in the non-profit sector, for basketball fans, and for men and their wives. For women, this book will likely give you insight into who your husbands are and what they need from the men in their lives.

This book is wonderful. It simplifies the "art" of leadership and makes concepts clear. It's an excellent reference tool for anyone in leadership, or wanting to be there!

I was 100% satisfied with respect to my dealings with this user.

I read this book in one of my master classes and took the advantage of reading it in my life. Especially the communication chapter describes all the required traits that you should do in your both professional and personal life in order to become an effective people. I am sure that this book will be your potential consultant. Highly recommended...

Although this book was written over 60 years ago the principles are timeless! I first read this book back in 1977 and went from a $4 per hr job to a $2,000 income from a part time business, from a 3 yr old Ford Pinto to a NEW LINCOLN MARK V. New Self-Esteem and Aliveness. I have met and known many successful people, including millionaires with net worths upwards to a 1/4 of a billion and they all attribute Think and Grow Rich as having a major role in achieving success. Truly an all- time classic anda must read for anyone serious about success. I also recommend "SUCCESS THROUGH A POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE" by HILL & Clement Stone and "THE MAGIC OF THINKING BIG" by David Schwartz.

In 1992, I suffered three major crisis; loss of my job, marital seperation and loss of a loved one. These elements put me into a tailspin financially and emotionally. THINK & GROW RICH was one of two books that I read at that time and significantly turned my life around! I found myself with no money, huge debts, no friends and no job. I had lost my self esteem and felt powerless. The principles in Think & Grow Rich gave me the how to turn mylife around. After applying the technique descibed on page 36, opportunities began to come to me. Within two weeks, I found new employment actually at a higher income than before. I started a very successful part time home based business, within two months, all bills were caught up and within six months all debts were paid off! With a better attitude I started to attract new people into my life. I went from a extreme negative attitude to a positive attitude, from a negative cash flow to a positive cash flow and from a life of emptiness to a life of aliveness. I believe that THINK & GROW RICH is the very best self developent book of all time! I also own the 8-cassette tape program/course and highly recommend it to everyone. I mentioned that THINK & GROW RICH was one of two books that turned my life around, the other book was More Wealth Without Risk by Charles Givens which is to personal finance what Think & Grow Rich is to Personal Success. I make it a habit to review both books and their tape programs continously and get continued results and ideas.

For years I was stuck in a dead end position. I have a B.S. and figured that would be enough to attract opportunities to me. After talking with our companies V.P. he suggested that I read "Think and Grow Rich" He told me that the most successful people he has met, including the President of this company highly endorse it.The book had a immediate impact and positive affect on my life and carreer. Within a month I was promoted to a management position. That was after working for this company for 6 years and going nowhere. The principles in the wonderful book really do work. I am now recommending this book to all of my people which is incredible because prior to "Think & Grow Rich" I never would have considered reading, let alone recommending the positive mind books. this one is definitely different! I also recommend "SUPERSELF" by Charles Givens particularly for any management or sales person who wants the maximum in personal! effectiveness. And by the way, Superself is also a favorite book at the company that I work for!

For those that want to learn how to do all aspects of web development using PHP, this book for you. As co-author and technical reviewer or 3/4 of the book, I can say from experience that this book does indead cover everything you'll need to know when making dynamic websites.

This book is great for beginners as well as professionals since the introduction material can offer a good beginning to learning PHP and some of the later chapters on Internationalization, databases, xml, optimization, etc. will be suitable for experts.

I wish the book contained more object oriented examples and that some chapters contained more depth, but for a book of 960 pages, it certainly covers a lot of material.

If you are starting to learn PHP and want to expand your skills or are an expert and want some more indepth material, add this book to your collection!

Professional PHP4 Programming is the newer version after "Professional PHP" by Wrox. A lot of information regarding sessions and some on security. I would have liked more case examples, such as this book's previous version used. Granted, most examples are not adequate as full-blown applications, but they give you a good idea on how to structure your programs. NOT for the beginning PHP programmer; if you're unfamiliar with PHP, look for "PHP Fast & Easy Web Development" by J. Meloni, as it has a lot of simple applications to get you started.

In all, this is an excellent book; it's also very useful as a reference on the subject. I'm giving it four stars instead of five because, as stated, some example apps. would have been helpful.

I have been an ASP programmer for nearly 3.5 years now.It's almost 6 months now that i have dropped working on legacy operating syatems and had been on the lookout for an Open source scripting solution.I tried my hand at Perl, but i lost myself in the jargon.I picked up this PHP book on reviews from a friend at the bay area PUG and by golly!!! i seem to have stepped through the first half of this book with ease... it has definitely spurred my interset in learning PHP as an option for my work and i hope to learn a lot more from the entire book