Professional PHP5 (Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

~ Edward Lecky-Thompson (Author), Heow Eide-Goodman (Author), Steven D. Nowicki (Author), Alec Cove (Author) "Object-Oriented (OO) software development can be confusing topic for developers who create primarily procedural code..." (more)
Key Phrases: version control platform, public function draw, customer contact report, Assembling the Sales Force Automation Toolkit, Widget World, Finite State Machine (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“…really useful…well laid out…” (oraclehome.co.uk, October 2005)

Product Description

What is this book about?

With the release of PHP 5 and the Zend Engine 2, PHP finally graduates from it earliest days as a lightweight scripting syntax to an powerful object oriented programming language that can hold its own against the Java and .NET architectures that currently dominate corporate software development. This book has a pragmatic focus on how to use PHP in the larger scheme of enterprise-class software development.

What does this book cover?

Unlike Java or .NET, there is little discussion of the application of design patterns, component architectures, and best-practices to the development of applications using PHP. Software written in the absence of this sort of higher-order architecture will never be able to match the robust frameworks that Java and .NET ship with out of the box. This book addresses this issue by covering the following material: 

• Part 1 discusses the OO concepts that were initially explored in Beginning PHP 5 and a demonstration of how to implement them in PHP 5. This section also covers UML modeling and provides a brief introduction to project management techniques that are covered in more depth in Part 4.
• Parts 2 and 3 present objects and object hierarchies that, when completed, comprise a robust toolkit that developers will be able to reuse on future projects. These chapters are designed to arm the professional PHP developer with the sort of constructs that are available out of the box with platforms such as Java and .NET — from simple utility classes like Collection and Iterator, to more complex constructs like Model/View/Controller architectures and state machines.
• Part 4 shows how to use the toolkit from Parts 2 and 3 to create real-world applications. We look at the development of a robust contact management system that will leverage the componentry and concepts already discussed and introduce project management and software architecture concepts that enable developers to accurately identify business requirements, design scalable, extensible platforms, and handle change management effectively. It covers the waterfall and spiral project management paradigms and include a discussion on eXtreme Programming and other approaches to software development.
• The Appendices include an extended discussion on the effective use of CVS, introduce the Zend Studio IDE and related tools, and discuss performance tuning and scalability.

Product Details

• Paperback: 662 pages
• Publisher: Wrox (November 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764572822
• ISBN-13: 978-0764572821
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #359,009 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A biased point of view - but please, read on..., December 22, 2004

By	E. T. LECKY-THOMPSON "Ed" (London, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

OK, first off, I'll be totally honest - I am the lead author of this book. So, of course, I'm going to give it five stars.

But, I really do have to rebut the review of the above reader.

He's right - there's very little PHP 5 'specific' information on this book. This is a book for people with a solid grounding in PHP already. I can't stress that enough. If you don't know PHP inside and out, this book is not for you. If all you want to know is the differences between PHP 4 and 5, this book is not for you (to be honest, there's a web page on zend.com that tells you the differences in just a few pages).

If, however, you want to see how you can take your PHP development to a far higher tier than your peers, then this is the book for you. No other book treats PHP like a professional development language. Every other title insists on propagating appalling development practices, practices which are in part responsible for the majority of PHP on the web today looking like it was penned by a 13-year old in his bedroom.

Not this book. This is a book for professionals - either existing professionals seasoned in Java/JSP, C++ or some other 'traditional' programming language who is looking for how they can apply the 'best practice' techniques they've already learnt to PHP - or, for aspiring PHP professionals who have a solid grounding in and understanding of PHP 4 or 5 already.

Put it like this - I run a web agency. I am interviewing PHP people right now. Their code is truly appalling, universally, but I'm going to hire one of them. The one condition of their employment? That they read this book cover to cover before they start with us.

Hopefully this gives you a bit of an insight into what this book is about. If you're looking for a gentler introduction to PHP 5, take a look at Beginning PHP 5, also by Wrox (to which I also contributed). If you're ready to become a respected industry professional, take a look at this book.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ready to become a pro - Try the code before you buy, April 28, 2005

By	B. Solowiej "php maven" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First, visit wrox dot com and download the sample code that is available for free on their site.

If you think you want this book, you probably already have php5/Apache/mySQL installed on your development workstation.

Unzip the sample code, browse it using your favorite IDE. Note the usage of PostgreSQL instead of MySQL. Take a shot at executing the very simple OO sample files in the first chapter. Notice the syntax errors, the use of depracated functions, and errors in filenaming.

This book was rushed through development, much like most poorly developed applications. Very much a shame. I bought the book based off of previous Amazon reviews but failed to visit the user forum on the wrox site.

You'll notice there that the topic of greatest interest for this book is that of disappointment in it's development. In print for most of this year and not a single errata to correct the carelessness of the authors' inattention to detail.

0 stars for typos.
0 stars for poor sample code.
0 stars for the editors.
1 star for providing great general reference in the non-code oriented chapters.
1 star for giving me the chance to fix the errors in sample code and offering it up to wrox in exchange for refund of this purchase.

Be warned. This is a great reference book, the code is bukaki.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aptly named outstanding work, February 12, 2005

By	William French (Indianapolis, Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For years I have relied on the reviews on Amazon to help me select the technical books I would purchase, this is only the 3rd time I've been moved to actually write a review and the first 5-star rating I've given. I bought this book because it seemed to have a lot more depth on oop in php5 than other titles available. What I got was that, plus a whole lot more.

If you are a garage php programmer, a hobbyist or a novice... if you don't make your living programming (or aspire to) - then this book is not for you.

On the other hand, if you are a professional, you will find that this book is written by professionals with you in mind. All of the excellent PHP5 related instruction and reference is discussed in the context of serious development methodologies and practices. It gives you insight as to how a serious development team can (and does) approach large-scale development projects in PHP. Any by the way, it ends forever any doubts you may have that PHP could or should be used for such projects.

Nice job guys! I only regret that I have but 5 stars to give.