Anybody learn PHP/MySql/Apache from a book?

py2006

Hi guys,

I did a short crappy course a couple years ago which cover Php and mysql. The course was crap and I wasn't really into it at the time!

I bought a couple books last year on PHP/Mysql and Apache to try and get back into it but I just found it very hard to get into.

Have any of you learned PHP/MySql/Apache by yourself from a book? If so, can you recommend any?

Also, can you recommend any institutes that are good at delievering courses on this. Thanks!

Syth

I learned PHP from an O'Reilly book ('Introducing PHP 5' or something like that). O'Reilly books are usuaully of high quality. To be fair, I pick up langauges very easily. The best way to learn is with practice. Motivate yourself to programme and you'll get good.

py2006

Syth wrote:

I learned PHP from an O'Reilly book ('Introducing PHP 5' or something like that). O'Reilly books are usuaully of high quality. To be fair, I pick up langauges very easily. The best way to learn is with practice. Motivate yourself to programme and you'll get good.

Yea I was looking at that back today! Its more expensive than some of the others!

Also it lacks the nice glossy coloured pictures! :P

DonkeyStyle \o/

Reading through PHP5 and MySQL Bible at the moment, it's pretty good all 'round... it assumes no prior knowledge of php/sql and has specific primers for people who're coming from other languages.
As well as giving you a good grounding in the details, it takes some real-world practical examples and talks you through them... pointing out the where, what's and why's of the code.

I can't say I've learned just from the book though... prior to reading this book I'd had a look at the video tutorials over at 3dbuzz.com, which I found excellent for setting up your development environment (apache/php/sql) ... getting the three of these working together can be confusing the first time you do it, so having someone show you exactly what to do, really eases you into it nicely and can save a lot of head-scratching.
The videos cover a decent enough amount of material... just about enough to get you comfortable with things... then you can expand your knowledge from there with books/online resources.
Some video tutorials you have to pay for, but the ones for php/mysql are free... you just have to register, which is quite painless.
Definitely check it out if you've got a reasonably fast net connection.

py2006

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

Reading through PHP5 and MySQL Bible at the moment, it's pretty good all 'round... it assumes no prior knowledge of php/sql and has specific primers for people who're coming from other languages.
As well as giving you a good grounding in the details, it takes some real-world practical examples and talks you through them... pointing out the where, what's and why's of the code.

I can't say I've learned just from the book though... prior to reading this book I'd had a look at the video tutorials over at 3dbuzz.com, which I found excellent for setting up your development environment (apache/php/sql) ... getting the three of these working together can be confusing the first time you do it, so having someone show you exactly what to do, really eases you into it nicely and can save a lot of head-scratching.
The videos cover a decent enough amount of material... just about enough to get you comfortable with things... then you can expand your knowledge from there with books/online resources.
Some video tutorials you have to pay for, but the ones for php/mysql are free... you just have to register, which is quite painless.
Definitely check it out if you've got a reasonably fast net connection.

Cool,thanks alot for that! I will check out that site! I remember trying to set up PHP/Mysql and Apache a year or so ago and it did get quite confusing!

I downloaded a programme that automatically installs all 3 for you. I think it was called PHPDEV !

kyote00

Also check out LAMP at http://www.lampware.org/news.php

(PS hows the Java going ?

py2006

kyote00 wrote:

Also check out LAMP at http://www.lampware.org/news.php

(PS hows the Java going ?

Haven't started on the Java yet! It probably wouldn't be wise to be wrecking me head with PHP and Java at same time!

cianuro

I actually picked it up from "PHP and MySQL for Dummies" and a lot of practice. That was a long time ago.

w3schools.com is a pretty decent resource, but like all programming (Which I learned from C) You need to just dig in and get building apps, then learn from your mistakes as you go along. Thats how I did it anyway.

AARRRGH

Buy this book: PHP and MySQL Web Development

It's the best. I read a **** load of tech books (3 a month) and it's one of the books I've learnt the most from (I was thrown into the deep end in a job 4 years ago. This books saved my life!! )

py2006

dublindude wrote:

Buy this book: PHP and MySQL Web Development

It's the best. I read a **** load of tech books (3 a month) and it's one of the books I've learnt the most from (I was thrown into the deep end in a job 4 years ago. This books saved my life!! )

Cheers thanks for that! I can't seem to go by online tutorials! My eyes get tired reading them!

DonkeyStyle \o/

Yeah I can't stand things like e-books either... I prefer to get into bed with a big book so I can give it my full undevided attention... no changing tracks on winamp or stopping to check my mail.
It's easier to keep your place in a book too I find... I can't seem to find a page bookmark feature in acrobat reader at all. (but then I didn't look very hard)

kyper

Been there.. bought the books etc but never read them really. I really only learned PHP when i needed to use it. The php documentation is really excellent. My advice would be to have a very small project in mind (Maybe without ay mysql at first) and just work on that. A good one to start with is a simple hit counter that prints the current hit total in plain text and use a file to store the hit count. You can then expand on that and add maybe collection of more info like browser details or whatever.

My point is the best way is to just jump right in...

Best of luck with it

py2006

Hmm, I like the idea of getting stuck right in! But not sure where to start!

Cake Fiend

I tend to learn the basics of (insert technology here) from reading the manuals, then getting a load of hax0red pdfs of books (O'Reilly, SAMS, etc) and leafing through them to see which one to buy the newest version of, to pick up ideas and tips. Then it's all a matter of experience and hard graft.

squibs

Buy this book: PHP and MySQL Web Development

Heartily endorse this. Huge book, but very readable, source code on disk. Best computer book I ever bought.

bishopLEN

Hi,

Haven't fully read the thread yet, just thought I'd give my pennys worth.

I found a few PHP apps on sourceforge and that's what sparked my interest in getting setup.
I got the trio setup in a mad four hour night session, a few hickup along the way though.
I am currently creating a Java servlets app but I would love to know PHP and learn it by converting the JSP to PHP.

Rollo Tamasi

i have a php5 book but i haven't got into it yet, the best way to get into the code is to look at it and try to make sense of it. Follow the tutorials online, comments are a god send