Flash and PHP Bible [Paperback]

This is a solid book, with great examples of PHP and Flash together; however, this isn't ideal for PHP novices .

I've waited for this book for a while, and I put off sharpening my PHP skills until I received it. I wish instead I had more experience building MySQL databases with PHP first. It's odd, there is some introduction to PHP and MySQL, but it doesn't really prep you enough if you're a newbie...

The title "Bible" is misleading; rather, it's more a cookbook. There is a lot of great info in here- lots of code and explanation of it, but the scope of the explanation is only how it pertains to the example given. For example, while explaining an example to output dynamic XML from a database, the author only focuses on the PHP script to retrieve the data, then parsing it into XML. I would have liked to have seen the XML as a file and how the MySQL database was structured. It would be repetitive, but that's what makes a good teaching book- or at least a "Bible" book.

The other drawback for Mac PHP newbs will be: the author does a good job of explaining installation of Apache and PHP on Windows and Unix, but NOT Mac. I contacted the author as he promptly replied:

"The reason for no OS X install notes was due to OS X shipping with a version of PHP which would cause issues without a large amount of editing and modifying.. which I felt was beyond the scope of the book."

He did tho, create a forum on his website for readers to post questions. He quickly replies. On this forum I posted a walkthrough (with pictures) on how to quickly get PHP and MySQL running on your mac.

On the whole, it's full of excellent code and various examples, but the scope is narrow and explanation is right to the point. Experienced users will welcome it, others may feel discouraged and have to look to other sources to fill in the gaps.

This book is not for beginners, but full of real world examples if you understand the basics of PHP, MySQL, and Actionscript already. I liked the fact that the book doesn't treat you like an amateur and gets down to the working examples right at the start (after a short part about creating a server). Its full of code that's usable right out of the book, like a shopping cart and a user login service and many more advanced topics.

I am on the 4th chapter of this book and so far, NONE of the code examples have worked. I know I have Apache Server, PHP and MySQL installed properly because I have found other tutorials online and they work. Whoever wrote the positive remarks about this book must either be the Author or friends thereof because it's not a good book. Then I get on here and find others who are having the same issue, so I know it's not a coincidence. I would like a refund Mr. Keefe, or atleast a free version of one with working code!