Professional PHP Programming
ISBN 1-861002-96-3 Price £35.99 UK
Jesus Castagnetto Harish Rawat Sascha
Schumann
Chris Scollo Deepak Veliath
22 Chapters, 8 Appendices and Index in 893 pages
Chapter List
Appendix A
PHP Functions
Appendix B
PHP4 and Zend
Appendix C
The Wrox Ultimate HTML
Database Listing
Appendix D
HTTP Request and Response
Appendix E
Regular Expressions
Appendix F
Open source Software
Appendix G
Resources
Appendix H
Support and Errata
Index
Synopsis
PHP has come a long way. It can be used to produce all sorts of web based applications and utilities. Professional PHP Programming explains what to do with PHP and even suggests new ideas that you might not have even heard of. PHP can be used as either a standalone CGI interpreter or as an Apache module. It is much more sophisticated than most people think it is.
Review
There have been few times in my life when I have seen something which compared with looking at my first train set. This particular book had a similar effect on me. It makes PHP programming so easy to understand. Don't leave it alone on a table it will disappear.
After the initial explanation about PHP there is a chapter that gives invaluable information about installing and configuring PHP. This has saved the lives of many sys admins who can't make head or tail of the documents that come with most open source software. It's nice to know that the cryptic clues that are in most man pages are not seen to be a part of PHP. Someone has finally changed their habits of a lifetime ? There is even a section on configuring the WIN32 version. Programming in a web environment is also something of a bonus.
All of the chapters to do with variables, constants, data types,
operators, arrays and so on are the kind of thing that should be shown
to everyone. One of the early examples at page 93 is Building
an Online Job Application form. As always Wrox give you an example
of the code........
| " [begin quote]
<HTML> <! -- jobapp.html -- > <BODY> <H1>Phop's Bicycles Job Application</H1> <P>Are you looking for an exciting career in the world of cycling ? Look no further ! </P> <FORM NAME= ' frmJobApp ' METHOD=post ACTION= " jobapp_action.hph "> Please enter your name : < INPUT NAME= " applicant" TYPE= "text" ><BR> Please enter your telephone number : < INPUT NAME= "phone " TYPE= "text " ><BR>
Please select the type of position in which you are interested :
Please select the country in which you would like to work :
< INPUT NAME= " avail " TYPE= " checkbox " > Available immediately <BR><BR>
|
All Wrox Press books are laid out in this way and it does make them easy to understand. After this we go into the explanation of how PHP interacts with servers and other applications on those servers. SQL databases, LDAP, XML and even Phorum and e-mail connectivity are discussed. Phorum is the bulletin board software that we use on the ShefLUG site for long term announcements. Click on Phorum on the front page. You'll be able to see just how sophisticated it really is.
The section on PHP and SQL databases is particularly useful with lots of detailed code examples and many tips on how to get everything to work the way you want it. PHP and LDAP gives similar help. Very useful for those people who haven't really used LDAP in anger so far. The section on XML is absolutely invaluable and is worth its weight in gold. As not much is known about XML with Unix or Linux this is as good a way to learn as any. There is even a bit about Web-Enabling Enterprise Applications. You could save your company a great deal of money with this ? This, combined with image generation and manipulation, provides the adaptability and reliability that you might have been looking for. Here it's shown how any HTML based web browser can view XML with the help of PHP acting as the converter for the code.
The Debugging and Error Handling chapter is extremely useful. If we were to believe that all software would work first time out then we wouldn't be good programmers ? The Security section is a good deal more sensible than most of the MS Windows books that pretend that Microsoft know anything about security or software (which they don't and never will).
The case studies at the end of the book finish off what can only
be described as a finely hand made mahogany and hand polished piece of
furniture that you would want to keep for a long time. I'll show
something about case study 2 here. Phorum discussion software.
As the case study says " Why PHP ? " ..... and the answers
are......
The summary at the back of the case study says.....
" Phorum is a bulletin board application that makes good use of PHP and what it has to offer. It is a growing open source project that anyone can use to add a message forum to their web site, where the site's users can post messages to exchange information. It demonstrates the potential that lies in well written PHP code. "
The final part of the book shows PHP functions and gives some equivalents for PHP 4 so that you can use that as well.
If you want a general web application that does it all then you should
use PHP. It connects and interacts with everything that is available
and is yet to be made available for the internet. The future is bright,
the future is PHP. Buy the book. Change your life. Become
a better person.
Review by Richard Ibbotson