Posts tagged ‘PHP Book Reviews’

November 5th, 2011

CodeIgniter 1.7 Professional Development – Review

I am done a considerable amount of web development over the years ranging from HTML to MySQL/PHP driven web applications utilizing the power of such things as javascript, AJAX, jQuery and many more…

I finally decided that it was about time for me to get serious and look into a FrameWork to better standardize my work. As such, I purchased a couple books on the matter, one of which was CodeIgniter 1.7 Professional Development by Adam Griffiths (272 pages) and published by PACKT Publishing.

All I can say is in comparison with the ZEND Framework in Action book, this was a real treat! It was easy to read and they started out with the very basics; Installing CodeIgniter!

The book is written in a manner that I found very fluid and the chapters just seems to flow one into the other.

I think this book is a great purchase for any new CodeIgniter developer looking to learn the basic quickly and easily. At +/-300 pages it isn’t too heavy to be intimidating, but does cover a lot of material in a manner you will understand.

I don’t regret this purchase in the least.

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November 2nd, 2011

ZEND Framework in Action – Review

I will keep this very short and to the point.

I recently purchased a series of books, one of which was:

ZEND Framework in Action by Rob Allen, Nick Lo & Steven Brown, published by Manning with a total of 401 pages.

I can’t quite explain it, but something just doesn’t work. I seem to end up reading 3-4 times the same sections as if I am continually missing some key piece of information to allow me to actually understand and follow?! They cover everything I wanted to learn, but it just doesn’t seem to be complete. It just doesn’t seem to flow like other books I have read.

For instance, I had to go online to find out how to generate the ZEND directory structure, they seem to make a lot of assumption and/or skip over certain basic issues that, in my humble opinion, need to be part of the book to make it complete! I say this as I am also reading another book about CodeIgniter, which makes this one pale in comparison.

Case and point, I have been unable to date, to create a functional version of the helloworld example as explained in chapter 2 of the book! I keep getting errors no matter what I try. This book has ended up being more frustrating than anything else.

I think for a beginner looking to learn from scratch, this book leaves a lot to be desired. I’d keep looking. For an intermediate Zend developer, this book may be more appropriate.

I am still trying to complete the entire book and will post back with a final verdict.

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