Open Source Development with LAMP: Using Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl, and PHP (Paperback)

by James Lee (Author), Brent Ware (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Practical guide presents a broad survey of LAMP technologies, and shows how these solutions can be implemented efficiently and securely while improving reliability and dramatically cutting costs. Provides the most useful, practical information on a broad range of open source technologies. Softcover.

From the Inside Flap
Is This Book for You? This book's target audience is the person who wants to get an interactive database-based Web site up and running without spending a whole bunch of money on a large stack of books and software. That person might be a technically competent Linux user who is not necessarily a Perl or a CGI whiz; a graphic designer, with a technical bent, who wants to build a Web site without becoming a certified computer whiz; or an MCSE who has heard rumors that there might be another way to do things.Up to now, these folks would have had to purchase four or five thick books and wade through them, picking out the knowledge needed to accomplish necessary tasks. It's likely they would accomplish this in a less than optimal way, picking up some things and missing others, revamping and redoing as they learn new things without being aware of the security considerations necessary to keep their site and computer safe. The goal of this book is to summarize much of the information about Open Source in one place and to do so in a manner that will get the prospective Web developer up and running safely and efficiently, including pointers to other resources when it becomes necessary to have more knowledge than provided here.Our target audience, ideally, would have some familiarity with Unix, some sort of modern programming language (C, FORTRAN, Perl, Pascal, C++, Java--most anything will do), and HTML. The scope here, and the sheer constraints on its size, force us to limit explanations and assume some background knowledge; we touch on a lot of things, enough so that you ought to be able to ask the right questions on a search engine. If you don't have any Unix experience, or if you are not a seasoned programmer, this book can still be useful, with motivation and, perhaps, the purchase of other computer books.What It Will DoIn this book, we introduce you to the pillars of LAMP--Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl and PHP--with mod_perl, Embperl, Mason, and WML tossed in for good measure. We are biting off a lot with this book, and this is what we intended to do. We want to cover as much ground as possible and present you with various approaches for programming a Web site with Open Source products. The goal is to point out the part of each of these Open Source approaches that provides the most functionality. Another goal is to make you aware of current techniques and standards: what is easily possible, what might be possible with more work, which tool is appropriate for which task. Just as important is how to discern the things you need from those you don't, or don't need just yet. Not least of all is how to do these things in as secure a fashion as possible. After all, you are opening up your "box" to the world with these techniques and should be wary of those with impure motives.Based on experience, we believe that 80 percent of the utility of any complicated tool is a result of knowing 20 percent of the uses of that tool, whether that tool be software, hardware, mechanical, or electronic. Swiss Army knives are excellent and versatile tools, but most of the time, you just use the blade or the screwdriver. The purpose of this book is to introduce you to that 20 percent--the blade and the screwdriver--that opens up the most functionality and to make you aware of the remaining 80 percent so that you can use the other tools when appropriate. And, to teach you to not use the blade as a screwdriver.Four PartsThe book is divided into four parts:Part I, Structural: Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl - the structural system foundations on which LAMP is built, and the other programs run.Linux is the operating system this is all based on. We'll touch only lightly on Linux because it's a big subject, but also one that doesn't need to be dealt with much after it's installed.Apache is the Web server software that serves Web pages up to clients, and decides how requests for documents, forms, and so on, will be processed. Chapter 1 talks about the basics of configuring and setting up the Web site.MySQL is an SQL database program. It is "the world's most popular Open Source Database" (it says so on their Web site).Perl is the programming language of choice for interacting with text files, shell scripts, and a million other things. (Python is similar to Perl in functionality; however, we chose Perl for our purposes because we know it better, and like it.)Part II, Static: WML - a set of programs which facilitate building and managing large-scale static Web sites using HTML files.Part III, Dynamic: CGI and mod_perl - the programs with which to build dynamic Web sites.CGI is the tried-and-true way of generating dynamic content.mod_perl is a better, faster and stronger way of generating dynamic content; mod_perl combines two pillars of Open Source: Apache and Perl.Part IV, Embedded: SSI, Embperl, Mason, PHP - embedding programs within HTML pages.SSI is built into Apache. Its job is to preprocess HTML files, turning SSI directives into HTML text; it allows Web programmers to embed executable code into HTML files.Embperl and Mason are Perl modules for building embedded Web content.PHP is another way to embed executable code with HTML files. PHP does what Embperl and Mason do, just differently.So why have so many choices? Read on, gentle reader, and you will discover that a myriad of choices is the Open Source way!Does This Free Software Come with .docs?Of course, with free software, there's free documentation--see linuxdoc and httpd.apache/docs/, to name two. The ultimate documentation, the source code, is available to anyone. (Thus, the Open Source joke, "Use the source, Luke!") Because of the large community of developers and users, there are many newsgroups and discussion forums in which it is likely that someone else has had the same problem as you and has posted a solution. Search using Google (google) and its interface to the USENET archive (groups.google).If you've installed Linux from a distribution, much of the documentation is likely sitting on your hard drive. In an ideal world, you would just read it--that's what we did. Excellent resource though it is, it leaves something to be desired as a learning method. Much of it was written for reference, not instruction. Some of the documentation has not been updated along with the software. (Hey, these folks work for free. In any case, this is a problem to which closed-source software is not immune.)The Old Bait and SwitchFor all our talk of being self-contained, realistically, two books that you can't escape having handy are Hacking Linux Exposed and Unix System Administration Handbook--or , more generically, a book on security and another on system administration. These two are our favorites (hereafter known as HLE and USAH). Each of these subjects is much larger than can be covered here, and both are crucial and unavoidable subjects (but also fun). Get them, read them, grok them.Companion Web SiteIn the course of this book, you'll be shown examples of how to do all the things we discuss on an active Web site (opensourceWebbook/) so that you can see the code and the results, and also be pointed to additional resources. We're striving to be self-contained, but like books, and often tell you which other ones you might want to look at. The entire Web site can also be downloaded from opensourceWebbook/sourcecode/. 020177061XP08092002


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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (May 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 020177061X
• ISBN-13: 978-0201770612
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #118,448 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource for anyone interested in LAMP, May 9, 2004

By	Harold McFarland (Florida) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

If you want an interactive database-based web site without spending hours and hours wading through dozens of books to figure out how to do it, then you will want "Open Source Web Development with LAMP". The book starts with the very basics and proceeds step by step so you can get your web site up as quickly as possible and with a minimum of problems. So what exactly is LAMP? It stands for the four components of a LAMP server - Linux operating system, Apache web server, MySQL database server, and the Perl programming language.

The book is divided into four distinct parts and organized in an unexpected way. Instead of giving each part of LAMP its own section the four sections focus on structure (getting them all up and working together), static web pages (creating and using them), dynamic web pages (getting the pages to do something via Perl and MySQL), and embedded programs (to make the whole system run quicker). Each section covers all the components of LAMP as applied to that section. For example, the structural section examines installation, configuration, security, and basic usage of Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl. For Perl it includes a discussion of variables, arrays, operators, flow-control, regular expressions, functions, and file input/output. For MySQL it includes working with tables, insert, select, update, and similar basic commands. This is a very well done section and gives all the basic information necessary to get each of the components up and working with each other. The section on static web pages mainly covers the use of Website META Language (WML) to generate a consistent look and feel across all the web pages on the server. The part on dynamic web pages covers CGI and mod-perl so you can process information submitted by an html page or other CGI script. It also includes information on using Perl to access the MySQL server and generate dynamic information. The final section examines embedded programs such as Server Side Includes (SSI), embedded Perl, MASON, and PHP and how they are used to make a faster dynamic web site.

I have to say that I really liked this structure. Once a system is set up it is rare to have to refer to the installation information again. If it were organized by Linux, Apache, MySQL and Perl then I would have to flip to what I assume is the appropriate section turn past the installation portion and try to locate what I am looking for. This way, since it is organized by the various stages of getting the system up and running it is easier to find what I want.

The text includes lots of example coding so you can actually write and test it right away. This is a great way to learn the basics. It is not a thorough course in any of the four components but it does give you enough of a background to do most of what you might need to do. Of course, what makes it really valuable is the fact that it covers how to get each of the components to work together without problems. There are good books on each of these components but it is rare to find one that focuses on the interrelationships between them. "Open Source Web Development with LAMP" is highly recommended for anyone who wants to set up a LAMP server or needing to work with one.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Super Reference, February 5, 2003

By	Chad Stevens (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

Open Source Web Development with LAMP is a very long title, but an absolutely killer book. LAMP is Linux (OS), Apache (web server) MySQL (database), Perl and PHP (scripting). This book also includes many languages not covered in other titles. I was particularly glad to see WML (Website Meta Language) which is useful for generating static pages through a robust programming construct. Static pages load faster and without any security concerns that you have with dynamic scripting languages like perl, php, embperl, or mason, all of which are covered extreemly well in this book.

I've been doing web development for about 8 years, which probably makes me pretty old in the business. I've seen the dynamic web content languages from infancy, but I've never seen a good way of learning them until now. OSWD w/ LAMP is absolutely fabulous.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for any web designer., January 2, 2003

By	Brian Hatch (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

Open Source Development with LAMP (hereafter "OSWB") is the perfect book to learn a wide variety of server technologies that will have you writing useful, clean, fast, and productive websites before you finish reading.

I was one of the technical editors of this book, and was able to watch it evolve as they wrote. The authors have made a huge effort to make the book appropriate for multiple Linux distributions, and they have achieved the highest degree of technical accuracy.

OSWB covers many different technologies, some complementary, some discreet. By showing you many of the possible tools, this book lets you decide which is best for the job at hand.

The theory behind OSWB is that knowledge of 20% of a tool's capabilities will let you accomplish 80% of the tasks you face. OSWB does a superb job of giving the user a sizable introduction to webserver technologies that will be sufficient for most rojects, and tells you where you can get information for advanced needs...This is the first book I know of that has written their website with the exact same tools they teach you in the book, and they offer the entire source of their website for download for your investigation and reference.

The gold in this book is not just the descriptions of how the languages work, but how you can use them singly or together to create interactive websites. Their are many sample projects which let you see how everything fits together, and much of the ode can be adapted immediately to your needs. The book is extremely well integrated and organized.

I have used some of the languages described in this book, while others were completely new to me. I am definitely not a web design person, preferring to write back-end server software. owever while reading OSWB, I was charged with creating a MySQL database with a customizable web interface for my alumni organization. Using only this book and a few perldoc commands, I was able to create an interactive mod_perl website in a few days.

This book offers something to everyone, even advanced web designers. If you are starting out in Web technologies, or are curious about other ways you can get the job done, this is the book for you.