The IBM i Programmer's Guide to PHP [Paperback]

Jeff Olen (Author), Kevin Schroeder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2009

This is the first book to comprehensively address PHP and how it can—and should—be deployed on the IBM i. With this IBM i-specific point of view, the authors examine how to transfer skills from a green screen environment to the Web, become intimately familiar with PHP’s commonly used features, and help start down the road of highly interactive Web-based application development.

For decades, the green screen has been the ubiquitous interface into an organization’s data. But with the advent of HTML, the Internet, and the browser, combined with the end user’s existing familiarity with the Web, green-screen developers are seeing much of the demand for their skills diminish in favor of more Web-enabled technologies. One of those technologies is the PHP programming language.

A flexible, forgiving programming style makes PHP easier to learn, and is just one of the many reasons PHP tops the list when developers seek to improve their Web-related skills. While not limited to Web development, PHP is designed from the ground up to be the ideal environment to easily build simple or complex Web-based applications in the most effective manner possible, while still giving programmers the control they need.

With this book you will learn to:

> Build basic PHP applications and how to structure them

> Access local and remote resources, as well as external data sources

> Manage persistence between requests and the life of an individual  request from browser to server to browser

> Tap System i DB2 database tables from PHP

> Install and access MySQL databases on the System i

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeff Olen is the owner and founder of Olen Business Consulting Inc. and has developed PHP applications on the System i for a wide variety of clients. In addition to extensive development experience with RPG, he has also developed applications using C, C++, Javascript, HTML, PHP and MySQL. He lives in Orange, California. Kevin Schroeder is a technical consultant for Zend Technologies and has developed production software using a wide variety of languages including PHP, Java, Javascript, HTML, SQL, Perl, Visual Basic, ASP, and C. He lives in Frisco, Texas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 450 pages
• Publisher: Mc Press (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583470832
• ISBN-13: 978-1583470831
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #513,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book - wish I'd written it!, August 24, 2009

By 

Jon Paris "Jon P." (Mississauga, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The IBM i Programmer's Guide to PHP (Paperback)

I've been teaching PHP to IBM i programmers for more than two years (as at Aug 2009) and my only complaint about this book is that if Jeff and Kevin had written it a few years earlier it would have saved me a lot of time and trouble.

The book does a great job of highlighting the PHP language from an IBM i programmers perspective - taking the beginning PHP programmer all the way from the basics to integrating their existing programs and other resources with PHP.

One of the reasons I often recommend that RPG programmers learn PHP rather than (say) Java is that it makes it easy to slide into the world of OO without having to completely change your programming paradigm. That is to say that you can easily use Objects in PHP (for example when using web services) without having to switch to a completely OO style. In this regard the section of the book on OO programming in PHP is "just enough" to give the reader a good feel for the topic and give them the confidence to move ahead into the world of OO.

Highly recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read for IBM i RPG Developers, June 11, 2009

By 

Brian May "Webmaster @ youngiprofessionals.com" (Starkville, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The IBM i Programmer's Guide to PHP (Paperback)

I have read this book from cover to cover and can honestly say that it is a great reference for anyone looking to move into PHP on IBM i. The topics are well organized, the examples are informative, and the information is easy to understand. This is a must read.

As the webmaster of [...]. have been around the block a few times using PHP on IBM i. In my opinion, PHP will become the web language of choice on IBM i. If you have not explored PHP, you need to do it NOW. This book is the perfect way to get started.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IBM i Programmers Guide to PHP, May 4, 2009

By 

L. J. Nies - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The IBM i Programmer's Guide to PHP (Paperback)

I read this book on my flight back from Common 2009, it is a must read book for the IBM System i RPG programmer who is interested in learning PHP on the System i. This book guides the RPG Programmer thru the basic steps of learning PHP, and includes many examples of PHP code to try. Each chapter ends with a brief test to verify knowledge of the PHP language just learned. Also included in the book is a chapter on OO to get the RPG programmer thinking along the lines of Object Oriented PHP classes. Overall it is an easy to read book and the authors have addressed the basic skillset levels needed to get started with PHP. An IBM System i RPG programmer who wants to extend there programming skills will want to get a copy of this book - hope you enjoy it as much as I did.