Product Description: PHP is an open source, server-side HTML-embedded web-scripting language for creating dynamic web pages. Outside of being browser-independent, it offers a simple and universal cross-platform solution for e-commerce, complex web, and database-driven applications.
Professional PHP4 will show you exactly how to create state of the art web applications that scale well, utilize databases optimally, and connect to a back-end network using a multi-tiered approach. This book also aims at teaching PHP by coding - among other things - FTP clients, e-mail clients, some advanced data structures, session management, and secure programming.
What does this book cover?
The whys and wherefores of PHP4 PHP installation on *nix, Windows, and MacOS X Sessions and cookies, coding FTP clients, network-related function calls, and directory services PHP support for LDAP Multi-tiered development using PHP PHP's interaction with XML PHP with MySQL PHP with PostgreSQL and ODBC Securing, optimizing, and internationalizing PHP applications PHP extension libraries A real world employee directory, an online library application, and a GTK interface to the application Case studies on a user privilege system and a multi-tiered WML-based shopping cart
Excellent I just bought this book in my local BORDERS, and I gotta say this is by far the best PHP book out there. Took me 2 hours to decide which booh to buy, and in the end, this was the best. Extensive professional explanations and it's well worth the money.
OK, but sloppy Having previously read Wrox's Professional ASP Programming, I tried this book, hoping for something of equal merit.
This volume is has some decent material, but is marred by a tendecy to sloppiness.
Firstly, as other reviewers have noted, there are too many authors (count 'em - 16!), which is unnecessary, and leads to inconsistencies in presentation. The book could quite easily have been authored by a single writer. There are only a few chapters that required specialist knowledge.
For example, the early chapters are quite good at advising the reader on PHP settings. Since there's no option explicit in PHP,the author correctly advises the reader to increase their error setting to report unused variables. Later, however, much of the code uses uninitialised variables. This is particularly the case in the chapter on form handling, the approach to which is too crude, and uses form variables directly in code, whereas a better approach would be to capture them and process them using isset(). The isset() function isn't even covered in this chapter,but is used correctly in other chapters.
Secondly, while the converstational tone of Wrox books is often appealing, it can also be a problem at times. The presentation is not always comprehensive enough, and Wrox authors have a tendency to give overly clever examples.
Strangely, there's no reference section. I found some of the explanations sloppy and confusing, especially the section of session variables. (I still can't get the WAP application to work properly.)
Thirdly, the chapter on OO design leaves the reader stranded. After a decent theoretical discussion, the writer informs the reader that there will be no code examples, as the reader now knows enough theory to work an example out for themselves! If I've paid for the book, I don't really want to have it set homework for me.
Fourthly, there are an annoying number of errors in the code. Many of these are corrected in the online errata, but there are quite a few that aren't at present. Furthermore, some of them are not typos, but seem to be the result of misconceptions on the part of the writer. This tends to reinforce the impression that some of the authors are relatively inexperienced.
Lastly, there are a large number of errors in the downloadable code. I suppose supplied code should be seen as a bonus, but it's poor quality control, and greatly adds to the user's annoyance.
Too many cooks spoil the broth There are a lot of good concepts here but many of them are poorly explained. This book has about a dozen authors and you never are able to settle down and feel comfortable with the way any of the chapters are written. Check out Programming PHP as an alternate.
Not impressed: they don't know who their audience is In reading this book, it's clear to me that the authors don't have a clear focus on who their audience is supposed to be and what they are trying to accomplish.
They sprinkle the book with trivial examples that don't give any "meat", concentrate on the details of what low-level functions are available, and gloss over completely how to make the best use of the features.
This book contains a lot of information, but it is not organized to get an experienced developer up to speed on a new language, nor is it geared towards a beginning programmer who might need basic concepts explained.
I don't know who would find this book at the "right level", but I wish I hadn't spent my money on it. I've gotten more out of the website than I got out of this book.
A Great PHP Book In simple words - a great book. If you are looking to dive into some serious developing with PHP, this book could definitely help you find a path.
Pros: - ammount of code as example - in depth real world case studies - the presentation of the book - programmer to programmer approach
Could have: - more about XML and PHP but you could buy 'Professional PHP4 XML'. - more about the PHP's multimedia capabilities but again the book 'Professional PHP4 Multimedia Programming' is present.
I am not promoting Wrox Press but they did a great job on this PHP thing. I would expect them to present something with in depth coverage of PHP and Databases.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
