Customer Reviews

Creating Interactive Web Sites with PHP and Web Services

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Let me start by saying that I did find this book quite helpful. It contains a wealth of ideas about topics that a Web site developer would want to know about. The author doesn't just talk about designing a Web site with static data. These Web sites really are interactive, which is the direction that many Web sites are headed today. For example, if you want to create a blog, Chapter 6 will get you started. Are you a merchant that wants to get started with online payments? Chapters 8 and 9 will get you started; although, they probably aren't the end of the journey because the book doesn't address security and privacy concerns. Even so, you can get a lot of information out of this book.

The book does have a few problems, one of which is the title. I didn't really see much in the way of real Web services coverage. Yes, there is a simple example of working with Amazon Web Services in Chapter 7, but that's not really a lot of coverage. The supposed coverage of Google Web Services in Chapter 7 doesn't deal with Google Web Services at all--it discusses how to create request URLs for the standard interface. Does this make the techniques less useful? No, I found them quite helpful, but this truly isn't a Web services book.

I found it a little jolting that the author has just barely introduced functions on page 17 and on page 18 you're already working with databases. I wouldn't consider this a book for the novice--it's not a gentle introduction to PHP at all.

The author also has a tendency to either omit necessary configuration details or mention them in passing so that a reader could easily miss them. For example, the reader needs a developer token to work with the Amazon example, yet the author devotes a single sentence to this topic and it's buried in a paragraph with other details. Consequently, even though the code probably all works, some readers have probably gotten frustrated trying to figure out the missing details.

Given what I know about the book now, it's still a very good purchase and will stay on my bookshelf. The author introduces too many good ideas and interesting concepts to ignore this book. Hopefully, a second edition will fix some of the annoyances that kept the first edition from being as good as it could be.

The title of this book is unfortunately misleading. If you believe, as I do, that "Web Services" has something to do with SOAP (or more specifically, nuSOAP or other PHP-specific library) then prepare to be disappointed if you buy this book!

The closest thing you will find is a short discussion of the Amazon API and Google translation services, a slim 24 page chapter out of the entire 400+ page book. These are both already documented online.
The rest is an intermediate-level discussion of common PHP applications, which are addressed as well (if not better) in a number of other books...

Not recommended.

Postscript: Based on the ratings for this review, I felt it necessary to add the following clarifying comments:

This book is a decent introduction to general PHP web programming. However (and most PHP newbies would not know this), "Web Services" is a VERY specific programming term used to describe some relatively advanced concepts, e.g. Remote Procedure Calls between hardware-agnostic servers.

So what we have here is a book that explicitly claims to provide some specific, advanced programming knowledge. THE BOOK DOES NOT DELIVER ON THE PROMISE IMPLIED BY ITS TITLE! No matter how good an introductory book this is, readers should be warned that they will not come away with any increased knowledge of "Web Services". Caveat Emptor.

I'm using this book for a class. Most of the students have had bad experiences with PHP before this -- I'm one of them. The back of this book states it is rated for an Intermediate/Advanced user level. The rating is totally accurate. Unless you have a basic but decent PHP background you will be lost. The author uses special characters, terms, etc. that are not previously defined, and assumes a basic understanding of programming. If you do not have a basic understanding of programming and an elementary knowledge of PHP, find another book. This one does not give enough background in PHP to get a novice up to speed.

Rosebruck gives a book well suited to you if you have already done some PHP, but want to migrate to the more complex challenge of using it to make a website. He shows how this is harder than just writing PHP to make 1 HTML page. Now you have many pages. Probably divided into various thematic groups.

Of those groups, or tasks, he gives examples. Like hooking to a back end database. He chooses MySQL for the latter. Or, how to impose a membership system, with passwords and members-only pages. Plus, how to add a shopping cart and various payment scripts. And he shows quickly how a content management system might be used, so that visitors can read and write content.

However, the book's coverage of Web Services is very rudimentary. In this aspect, the prominent billing in the title is a trifle misleading. If you need a text on it, look somewhere else.

First, I want to say that the book's code (downloaded from the website) has been a real boon in getting an operational PHP-based website up in a short time. I'm not sure what errors the previous reviewers are describing, but I've been very happy with the framework provided by free by the author. There are some minor errors but if you come up to speed on PHP, you'll catch them quickly.

I've programmed for a while in C, C++, and a smattering of other languages, but I'm basically a database and dynamic website newbie. I picked up this book to help me learn PHP and dive into building a data-driven community website from the ground up. One reason I rate the book highly is that while other PHP books provided watered-down website examples, this one starts at a reasonable level -- and by reasonable I mean (1) authentication & authorization through a database, (2) a framework for having all web pages in the site follow a consistent layout. Rather than "hello world" elementary pages, the book starts with useful pages and explains the code as it goes. The website run by the author probably uses similar techniques to the ones described in the book, although tweaked and enhanced, much like I'm doing with the book examples for my site.

The reason I didn't give it 5 stars was the lack of some advanced topics like better use of object oriented design and separation of content and logic with Smarty (or a look at how phpBB does it). The author does provide a layout framework that gets reused among all web pages (i.e. consistent headers, sidebars, and footers), but HTML portions still have some embedded code. The book also provides some insight into payment processing, amazon/google interfacing, and visitor tracking.

The bottom line is that of all the PHP-oriented books I bought, checked out from the library, or browsed at the bookstore, this book was the one I used to get me out of the gate quickest *because* of the quality of the downloaded code/examples and the no-nonsense explanations. Don't get this book expecting to learn PHP with examples of gradually increasing complexity. This is a book for people wanting to make data-driven websites, and as such, this book (in combination with books on general PHP programming and databases) will serve you well.

This is the perfect book if you're planning to build a complex website and don't really know how to achieve this. If you need to build a web site with a membership system, news section, content management system, online store, process payments and track visitors, but you don't know very much about PHP scripting, don't think twice. This is your book. It just get to the point. The author gives to you all his experience building large interactive web sites with PHP.

The only drawback that I can see in this book is the title. The chapter about webservices does not tell you anything about building SOAP or XMLRPC servers, instead of that, it tells you how to connect to the Amazon or Google Web services APIs and get the information you need, which is also good.

I definitely recommend it to anyone with this kind of interests, even if he really doesn't know anything about PHP or MySQL.

I became webmaster for a large (?) website (over 200 pages in the root folder alone) that had been designed for Contribute (a "distributed" Dreamweaver, sort of). I read this book, implemented almost verbatim the entire website configuration descriptions and have been running this for several years now with not a regret. I knew PHP, JavaScript, MySQL, and CSS somewhat when I started but had never worked at a large formal website before. This book was exactly what I needed, the way I needed it at the time I needed it. I literally converted in place and while live that web site to the model configuration description in this book by using this book, completely successfully. In retrospect what it taught me now seems self-evident which means that it did its job. If you want solid grounding in how to configure a template website then in my opinion you will be greatly benefitted by this book - I read it, I used it, and it worked. I've modified much over the years but what I learned and used from this book continues to be my foundation and it is a solid, effective efficient foundation, as time has well proven.

A good book, I am intrigued in how he uses PHP. I keep the book because it gives a good understanding of how to use PHP in a professional manner. Although it has a ton of typos and examples which need code to make them work. I made them work which expanded my knowledge of PHP and MySQL. I am half way through the book hopefully the typo's will get less.

This is a wonderful book. The code is easy to understand and is broken down. Eric did a wonderful job with this book. I successfully developed a member management system thanks to this book.. I give it five stars.

This is a very informative book! It is extremely thorough from start to finish, with real world examples and solutions. It is obvious that the author put a great deal of time into this book, as evidenced by the in-depth coverage of the code and services. This book, along with www.phpfreaks.com, gives the average coder the tools necessary to become a superior developer.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is working with PHP and web services, beginner to advanced levels. Great job, Eric!