PHP 5: Your visual blueprint for creating open source, server-side content (Paperback)

by Toby Boudreaux (Author) "PHP is a scripting language used primarily on Web servers running the Apache HTTP server software..." (more)
Key Phrases: database resource handle, public function construct, function setname, Print Mail, Back Forward Stop Refresh Home, Internet Information Services (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
* Now revised to cover features found in PHP4 and PHP5, this new edition shows Web developers step by step how to create dynamic, data-driven Web applications
* Two-color screen shots accompanied by concise callouts demonstrate how to tackle more than 100 key PHP tasks, including using cookies to monitor the activity of Web site visitors, retrieving information from MySQL or other databases, creating images and Web pages on the fly, and processing XML documents
* Shows how to use PHP with Apache Web server, process data forms, access data files, troubleshoot PHP scripts, and migrate scripts to PHP5
* A companion Web site features a fully searchable e-version of the book, plus all code that appears in the text-ready to plug into users' Web pages

From the Back Cover
PHP 5

Welcome to the only guidebook series that takes a visual approach to professional-level computer topics. Open the book and you'll discover step-by-step screen shots that demonstrate over 150 key PHP 5 techniques, including:

• Setting file and folder permissions
• Using interfaces
• Writing object-oriented code
• Processing data in forms
• Using cookies to manage visitors
• Working with databases using MySQLi and SQLite
• Migrating scripts to PHP 5
• Parsing XML files using DOM
• Transforming XML with XSLT
• Troubleshooting PHP scripts

"Like a lot of other people, I understand things best when I see them visually. Your books really make learning easy and life more fun."
—John T. Frey (Cadillac, MI)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Visual (May 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764583328
• ISBN-13: 978-0764583322
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #553,669 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Friendly and Practical Reference, June 7, 2005

By	Brian - See all my reviews

Programming books tend to fall into two categories, learn by example and reference books. If you are new to programming, it's generally easier to start learning by example suspending your knowledge of everything a language can do in favor of examining a few simple scripts to learn the basics. Once you have written a number of small scripts, a good reference book can guide you in writing more complex and functional applications.

On the spectrum of how-to vs. reference, "PHP 5: Your visual blueprint for creating open source, server-side content" falls on the near-side of reference yet is organized in a practical solution based fashion. One of about six PHP books on my bookshelf (and perhaps only second to the php.net website), I find myself referring to this book more than any other reference. It is an excellent reference for things like recalling the syntax of a loop structure to the application of a loop in processing multiple form elements.

Beyond being a solution-based reference, two things I really like about this book is the consistent two-page layout for each concept - a short description followed by code - and code shown in an actual editor window. (I'm not sure what it is about seeing screenshots of code but it seems to sink in better than code formatted in plain text on a page. Hence the Visual approach.)

If you are new to web programming and are looking to buy your first PHP book then you may be better served with a learning through sample projects approach like "Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL" by Kevin Yank. In reviewing this book, expert programmers might scoff and say RTFM. For the rest of us somewhere along the PHP and programming learning curve, I believe this book serves as a friendly and practical reference.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars If you're not familiar with programming already, steer clear., October 28, 2008

By	Tetradecimal (Waltham, MA United States) - See all my reviews

Despite the fact that this book is marketed as an easy, fun "visual learning" tool, the truth of the matter is that if you're a beginning programmer or even someone who just knows their HTML and CSS and was wondering what all this server side scripting was about, you should give this book a wide berth.

As a student and a web developer, I have often been thrown at one programming language or another and been expected to hit the ground running. The result is that while I know how to use certain languages, the why or how is often fuzzy for me. Thus, I was hoping PHP 5 would clarify for me just what it is php is doing with that mysterious Apache.

Unfortunately, the author(s) simply thrust you into installing Apache and PHP, then telling you that you can use echo statements to insert data into the output stream, something like so:

$time = 'Wednesday';
echo 'It is $time.'

That's great, but...
a) What do echo statements actually DO?
b) What is the output stream?
c) So if I want to display the value of a variable, I just stick the name into the string argument of an echo statement?
d) IS that a string I'm supplying to the echo statement?
e) I'm assuming this means I need to escape any $ characters in case php decides whatever comes after it is a variable name?
f) What happens if it doesn't find any variable named $time?

All this from one innocuous little screenshot. This is fine for people who already know what they're doing, but if you're not prepared to puzzle out the answers to these questions and more, or if you have no idea what those questions even mean, I'd suggest waiting for Head First's take on PHP, as the Head First series is much, much more friendly to beginners:

Head First PHP & MySQL

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stop looking. This is what you need., February 14, 2006

By	Robert Cox "Robert Cox" (Sunnyvale, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

So satisfied with their first book - "PHP", I had to see if the second could be as informative and it was. The method of explaination in these books should be the model for all computer books. Nothing is over or under explained. While this book does not cover all that PHP has to offer, it does what it intended - making PHP easy for beginners to learn visually.