Programming PHP (Paperback)

by Rasmus Lerdorf (Author), Kevin Tatroe (Author), Peter MacIntyre (Author)
Key Phrases: performance tuning, windows directory, color handling, Rasmus Lerdorf, File Edit View Favorites, Language Basics (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
PHP is far more than a cult language or open-source icon. It's a remarkably capable language that's well integrated with lots of technologies--notably mSQL and MySQL database servers--and quite easy to learn. Programming PHP helps you up the PHP learning curve, very nearly guaranteeing that you'll find in its pages an example that illustrates every fundamental aspect of the language and its most important extension modules. Plus, there's some cool advanced stuff, like recipes for manipulating images, working with Extensible Markup Language (XML) content, and generating Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files. Rasmus Lerdorf invented PHP and quarterbacks its ongoing evolution, so there's little question of the content's authority.

The authors use a Talmudic style to explore PHP's capabilities and explain them to their readers, meaning that they like to present code and commentary in close formation, with each enhancing the other. Typically, they'll present a capability generically and show the relevant code. Then they'll dig into variations on the theme, calling attention to required code alterations as they go. This is a book about PHP itself, so practically no attention is paid to PHP Builder or other development tools. Regardless, this book will help you solve programming challenges with PHP, and enable you to write efficient, attractive code. --David Wall

Topics covered: The PHP programming language, for people who are coming to PHP with a bit of programming experience in other languages or who want to expand their existing PHP knowledge beyond the basics. Sections deal with the core language, as well as HTTP session management, database connectivity (to MySQL and Oracle, as well as with PHP Extension and Application Repository--PEAR), graphics file manipulation, XML parsing, and PDF creation. There are instructions for building a PHP extension library in C, as well as a function reference and guide to existing extensions. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
"Programming PHP," 2nd Edition, is the authoritative guide to PHP 5 and is filled with the unique knowledge of the creator of PHP (Rasmus Lerdorf) and other PHP experts. When it comes to creating websites, the PHP scripting language is truly a red-hot property. In fact, PHP is currently used on more than 19 million websites, surpassing Microsoft's ASP .NET technology in popularity. Programmers love its flexibility and speed; designers love its accessibility and convenience.

As the industry standard book on PHP, all of the essentials are covered in a clear and concise manner. Language syntax and programming techniques are coupled with numerous examples that illustrate both correct usage and common idioms. With style tips and practical programming advice, this book will help you become not just a PHP programmer, but a "good" PHP programmer. "Programming PHP, Second Edition" covers everything you need to know to create effective web applications with PHP. Contents include: Detailed information on the basics of the PHP language, including data types, variables, operators, and flow control statements Chapters outlining the basics of functions, strings, arrays, and objects Coverage of common PHP web application techniques, such as form processing and validation, session tracking, and cookies Material on interacting with relational databases, such as MySQL and Oracle, using the database-independent PEAR DB library and the new PDO Library Chapters that show you how to generate dynamic images, create PDF files, and parse XML files with PHP Advanced topics, such as creating secure scripts, error handling, performance tuning, and writing your own C language extensions to PHP A handy quickreference to all the core functions in PHP and all the standard extensions that ship with PHP

Praise for the first edition:

"If you are just getting into the dynamic Web development world or you are considering migrating from another dynamic web product to PHP, "Programming PHP" is the book of choice to get you up, running, and productive in a short time."

--Peter MacIntrye, eWeek

"I think this is a great book for programmers who want to start developing dynamic websites with PHP. It gives a detailed overview of PHP, lots of valuable tips, and a good sense of PHP's strengths."

--David Dooling, Slashdot.org

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 540 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 2 edition (April 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596006810
• ISBN-13: 978-0596006815
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,231 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great PHP book, but for programmers, June 27, 2003

By	Gerald Ford "pho_kin" (The Jack n' the Box at the corner) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Programming PHP (Paperback)

The creator of PHP himself, Rasmus Lerdorf, put together a thorough and enlightening guide to PHP. In this book you will find everything you need to know about PHP from variables to a long list of all the PHP functions and how to use them. I found many features of PHP that I had no idea existed (such as creating PDF files). I use this book as a reference for a PHP course I teach, and its examples have been more than helpful to me in designing lesson plans.

The one caveat of this book is that it is not geared toward brand new web programmers. PHP as a language derives from C, C++ and Perl, and if you are not at least somewhat familiar with these langauges, you can get lost in this book. The authors really want to draw a parallel between PHP and its predecessor languages so that programmers can pick up PHP more easily. I really like the fact they try to do that, and it has helped me enjoy this book more. But on the flip side, it will be more difficult for new programmers to read this book. I really hope O'Reilly comes up with a "Learning PHP" book that will be more for beginning programmers, because PHP is a great language to learn, and it would be nice to have books to appeal to all levels.

In any case, for a book about PHP, you can ask for no better book than one written by the author itself. This book does keep up the tradition of professional, useful O'Reilly programming books, and is worth the time for web programmers to read. Thus I think it earns 5 stars.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding tutorial on PHP along with all of its possibilities, January 20, 2007

By	calvinnme "Texan refugee" (Fredericksburg, Va) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Most of the books I've looked at on PHP have tied it in a three-legged race with mySQL. I was looking for something that taught the core language itself and its place in applications besides those in which it is teamed with mySQL. This appears to be that book. The core PHP language is very good at handling strings and arrays and objects. Along with standard and optional extension modules, a PHP application can work with databases like Oracle and MySQL, draw graphs, create PDF files, and parse XML files. You can write your own PHP extension modules in C to provide a PHP interface to the functions in an existing code library. You can also run PHP on Windows and use it to control other Windows applications such as Word and Excel with COM or interact with databases using ODBC. This book is a guide to all of these capabiliies of the PHP language, as well as a tutorial on the core language itself. This book assumes you have a working knowledge of HTML and that you know how to program - preferably in either C, C++, or Perl.

The first six chapters teach the core language itself. The six chapters include a dedicated introduction and a chapter on language basics which acts as a concise guide to PHP program elements such as identifiers, data types, operators, and flow-control statements. The next four chapters after that concern functions, strings, arrays, and objects respectively. The following is an outline of the remaining chapters of the book:

Chapter 7, "Web Techniques" - PHP was designed as a web-scripting language and, although it is possible to use it in purely command-line and GUI scripts, the Web accounts for the vast majority of PHP uses. A dynamic web site may have forms, sessions, and sometimes redirection, and this chapter explains how to implement those things in PHP. You'll learn how PHP provides access to form parameters and uploaded files, how to send cookies and redirect the browser, and how to use PHP sessions.

Chapter 8, "Databases" - PHP has support for over 20 databases, including the most popular commercial and open source varieties. This chapter covers how to access databases from PHP. The focus is on the PEAR DB system, which lets you use the same functions to access any database, rather than on the myriad database-specific extensions. In this chapter, you'll learn how to fetch data from the database, how to store data in the database, and how to handle errors. The chapter finishes with a sample application that shows how to put various database techniques into action.

Chapter 9, Graphics - Many web images are dynamically created, such as graphs of stock performance. PHP supports the creation of such graphics with the GD and Imlib2 extensions. This chapter demonstrates how to generate images dynamically with PHP, using the GD extension.

Chapter 10, PDF - PHP has several libraries for generating PDF documents. This chapter shows how to use the popular fpdf library. The FPDF library is a set of PHP code you include in your scripts with the required function, so it doesn't require any server-side configuration or support, meaning you can use it even without support from your host.

Chapter 11, XML - This chapter shows how to use the XML parser bundled with PHP, as well as how to use the optional XSLT extension to transform XML. Generating XML is also briefly covered here.

Chapter 12, Security - PHP's convenience is a double-edged sword. The very features that let you quickly write programs in PHP can open doors for those who would break into your systems. It's important to understand that PHP itself is neither secure nor insecure. The security of your web applications is entirely determined by the code you write. This chapter gives tips on making that code secure.

Chapter 13, Application Techniques - This chapter demonstrates some techniques you may find useful in your PHP applications, such as code libraries, templating systems, efficient output handling, error handling, and performance tuning.

Chapter 14, Extending PHP - This chapter demonstrates writing C language extensions to PHP. Although most functionality can be written in the PHP language, sometimes you need the extra speed and control you get from the C API. C is the mechanism for creating the thin middle layer between PHP and any third-party C library. For example, to be able to talk to the MySQL database server, PHP needs to implement the MySQL socket protocol. It would be a lot of work to figure out this protocol and talk to MySQL directly using "fsockopen" and "fputs" from a PHP script. Instead, the same goal can be accomplished with a thin layer of functions written in C that translate MySQL's C API, implemented in the libmysqlclient library included in MySQL, into PHP language-level function calls. This thin layer of functions is known as a PHP extension.

Chapter 15, PHP on Windows - The most common reason to use PHP on Windows is to develop web applications on your Windows desktop. What can be confusing at first is the number of various configurations and choices available. There are many variants of the Windows operating system, and many web servers are available for those operating systems. PHP itself can run as either a DLL or a script. This chapter explains how to install, configure, and make the best use of PHP on Windows systems. One approach is taken and followed to its conclusion, although there are a number of different ways to arrive at the same destination. Also explained is how to take advantage of the features unique to the Windows platform, such as connecting to databases with ODBC and controlling Microsoft Office applications through COM.

As you can see this book really provides two functions. It is a very thorough tutorial and reference on the PHP programming language, and it is also a tutorial and showcase of all of the different uses PHP can have. Well commented code and instructions are provided throughout. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs to learn the PHP programming language as well as those that know the basics and want to put the language to work. Just make sure you know HTML and programming - preferably both C and PERL - first.

37 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rasmus *is* an author, June 5, 2002

By	Nathan J Torkington (Fort Collins, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Programming PHP (Paperback)

I'm the editor of Programming PHP. I can vouch for the fact that Rasmus was a fully-fledged author. Besides fact-checking everything that the other authors wrote, he contributed many chapters of his own. I don't know where the idea that Rasmus was "just supervising" or "has not done any major writing" came from (it's not a conclusion you could come to from actually *reading* the book) but it's absolutely wrong.

By all means be vague ("fairy land") and strange (LDAP and SNMP as "what makes PHP what it is today"?!) in reviews, but please don't be dishonest.

For my rating of this book, by the way, I came as close to the current average ranking as I could. I'm obviously not impartial (I think the book's a 5!) but I don't want my partiality to bias the reader ratings.