Some of the more interesting customizations you can do with your Movable Type weblog require using PHP scripts, either on their own or in conjunction with the MySQL database. Some scripts are easy enough to install and require very little configuration. Others, however, require that you know something about how the script works, or how your MT database is set-up, or both.
Larry Ullman's PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites
is a well organized, fairly comprehensive, easy-to-follow introduction to PHP and MySQL. Ullman expects you to know basic HTML and have had some exposure to programming. I took a basic Pascal programming class 25 years ago, but that's about it and I still managed to learn a lot from this book. The book is filled with examples and clearly laid out code. I had never heard of PHP or MySQL before using Movable Type, so the basic introductions to both were very helpful. I highly recommend this book if you are wanting to do more customizations with your MT blog that require knowing more about PHP or MySQL.
thanks for the tip - I'm currently trying to create a particular kind of output from my mySQL db (and I have no prior mySQL experience!) and your recommendation was super helpful (I already ordered the book from amazon.) :-)
Thanks mucho.
I would also recommend PHP and MySQL Web Development by Luke Welling and Laura Thomson.
This is the only book you will ever need to learn PHP and how to integrate with MySQL! I learned a heck of a lot from this book!
I really liked this book. I just got the second edition (today actually), it's a few hundred pages thicker!