Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8

Php Books

Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 with ASP, ColdFusion, and PHP : Training from the Source (Training from the Source)

Format: Paperback
Author: Jeffrey Bardzell
ReleaseDate: 11 November, 2005
Publisher: Macromedia Press
Rating:

No online errata for this book
I found the author to be well skilled in explaining the concepts as well as the procedure when using Dreamweaver 8. I'll say something good first. Each chapter is written like a good lesson plan, and takes you through the book task by task. I usually have to read more than one book on a technology because what one author fails to explain adequately, another explains very well. That is the case with this book, But don't buy this book.

When I did run into a problem with the code in the book, I went to the website and found that there was no erata page or anything else for this book, the last update was for Dreamweaver MX or some previous version. So now I have to figure out on my own why the code in the book is giving me errors. Unforgivable.

I also read "Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8", and of course it also had errata, but it was fully corrected on the accompanying site. I did not have the problems with the server as the other reviewer did, because I didn't use this book for it after reading about his problems. I used the Foundation book to set up the PHP/MySQL, and it worked just fine, although I haven't tested it on the remote server yet. . .

Anyway if he's not going to support the book by listing errata on an accompanying site (that he references in the book), then don't bother buying the book. .

wow.
it opened my eyes to coldfusion, asp, and php web site design. i enjoyed this book.

Disappointing At Best
I went through the excercises developing on a remote server running PHP/ MySQL. The book was good up until the 10th Chapter in my opinion. Up until the 10th chapter the author made several minor mistakes in the hand code to insert for both PHP and also in how to modify the existing SQL file to upload it to a remote database server via PHP My Admin. I must admit that researching and solving these mistakes on my own was a valuable learning experience. The real problem occurred starting with chapter 11. After uploading and testing my pages after each step as coached to by the author I began getting MySQL syntax error messages prompting me to consult the manual for my version of MySQL. I verified that my hosting company was running the same version of MySQL that the author demonstrated to those developing locally to install so I loaded the completed pages for the lesson from the CD and they would not open at all. At least the pages I was developing would load and had some functionality so that tells me that there was not even continuity between the completed pages on the CD and the text in the book. I think that is pretty inexcusable that nobody bothered to make sure that the completed projects worked in all development environments both locally and remote. I would have to say that the book is a complete waste of time for the PHP/ MySQL developer. To be fair I plan to upgrade my hosting account to include Cold Fusion so I can go through the book again following the Cold Fusion steps. Maybe they will work fine, one can only hope. Right now I can't recommend the book as it was extremely frustrating to put in all the time I did in the earlier chapters only to run into an insurmountable roadblock. One other thing of note is that the author invited readers to visit his website for updates and errata but when you go there you find that it has not been updated since 2004 and doesn't even mention Dreamweaver 8. It also says that the author's company is out of business so I must assume that Adobe/ Macromedia just copied the MX 2004 book (errors that it had and all) and just put a new jacket on it and changed the label on the CD and put it to market. I would have expected more from a $45. 00 book that supports a $500. 00 program. There is a book called "Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8" written by David Powers that has received high reviews that I am going to try next. .