Wicked Cool PHP: Real-World Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Contributor)
Key Phrases: intermediate projects, magic quotes, file permissions, Life-The Scripts Every, Uploading Images, American Express (more...)

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Product Description

PHP is an easy-to-use scripting language perfect for quickly creating the Web features you need. Once you know the basics of how the language works, wouldn't it be great to have a collection of useful scripts that solve those tricky problems and add interesting functionality to your site? We thought so, too.

Instead of starting at "Hello World," "Wicked Cool PHP" assumes that you're familiar with the language and jumps right into the good stuff. After you learn the FAQs of life-the most commonly wished for PHP scripts-you'll work your way through smart configuration options and the art of forms, all the way through to complex database-backed scripts.

"Wicked Cool PHP" contains a wide variety of scripts to process credit cards, check the validity of email addresses, template HTML, and serve dynamic images and text. The 76 easily implemented scripts will also teach you how to:

Send and receive email notifications Track your visitors' behavior with cookies and sessions Override PHP's default settings Manipulate dates, images, and text on the fly Harness SOAP and other web services Create an online poll, ecard delivery system, and blog

But it's not all fun and games: Security is a big concern when programming any web application. So you'll learn how to encrypt your confidential data, safeguard your passwords, and prevent common cross-site-scripting attacks. And you'll learn how to customize all of the scripts to fit your own needs.

Dynamic Web content doesn't have to be difficult. Learn the secrets of the craft from two experienced PHP developers with "Wicked Cool PHP,"

About the Author

William "The Ferrett" Steinmetz is an avid and eminently qualified gamer and LAN party participant, planner, host, and author. His gaming philosophy? "If it moves, shoot it."

Brian Ward, associate professor of history at the University of Florida, is the editor of "Media, Culture, and the Modern African American Freedom Struggle" (UPF, 2001) and the author of "Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race Relations," which won the 1999 James A. Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians.

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Product Details Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: No Starch Press; 1 edition (February 1, 2008) Language: English ISBN-10: 1593271735 ISBN-13: 978-1593271732 Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 0.7 inches Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,866 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) Popular in these categories: (What's this?) #4 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Web Development > Programming > PHP #55 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Languages & Tools #68 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Software Design, Testing & Engineering > Software Development

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Brian Ward

William Steinmetz

Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
intermediate projects, magic quotes, file permissions, bold text, browser info, curl setopt, php print, default dictionary, session tracking, login system, current timestamp, configure command

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Life-The Scripts Every, Uploading Images, American Express, Adding Extensions, Programmer Wants, Internet Explorer, Shivan Dragons, Happy Birthday, Encrypting Data, Netscape Navigator, Hacking the Script There

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews 5 star:  (13) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:  (1) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review 4.6 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 22 of 26 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A great resource for PHP programmers, March 26, 2008 By  Jay Taylor (Twin Cities, MN) - See all my reviews I saw this book on a friends desk and shamelessly took it before he had a chance to read it. I have many php books on my bookshelf, too many. I can now remove quite a few and replace them with this book. When I first glanced through this book, I was intrigued by the way it was laid out. There are 12 chapters covering many topics that php programmers should know about their language and how browsers interact with a web server using php. Each chapter has many sections that cover a specific topic and most have very useful code examples. The extra feature is a part labeled: "What can go Wrong?". This is a great time saver on how to deal with common issues that might come up when you are working on your php script and implementing the example code. Most of the issues have really good explanations of how and why something could go wrong. What makes this book a real keeper is that they have the "why" explanations. I've always hated it when books tell you to do something a certain way, but never go into any depth on WHY you should do it one way or another. This book has the WHY covered very well for a great number of the examples. The style of the book makes it easy to read and learn from the examples. In my case, it makes it easy to pickup, read a few pages when I get the chance and then put it down again. I find it easy to pick up right where I left off and keep reading right on to the next example. I like the humor level too. Often authors can get a little too cutesy with their wit and humor. I find that to be a real turn off. William and Brian (The authors) do a great job of keeping the humor light and laughable. I just made some room on my busy book shelf for this book of 76 time-saving, problem-solving php scripts. I hope my friend doesn't ask for it back... 20 of 25 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Become A PHP WaRRioR!!!, March 19, 2008 By  Daniel McKinnon (Tewksbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)       'Wicked Cool PHP: Real-World Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems' is a fantastic PHP cookbook that is written exactly the way I like books to be written: - it's fun to read and learn from - content is broken up logically at the right points - layout and design is a joy on the eyes and brain - length is around 200 pages which is within the 2-3 (hundred) range that I like most books to be Content is broken up over 12 chapters: 01. Basic script stuff 02. Configuring PHP 03. PHP Security 04. Form Fun 05. Text & HTML 06. Dates 07. Files 08. User and Session Tracking 09. Email Excitement 10. Image Tasks 11. Using cURL to talk to web services 12. Other Stuff The audience for this book hits the rare area of ALL developers from the expert to the newbie to the weekend hacker. There are 76 scripts contained within that nearly anyone could find useful in any project. I love No Starch books because they don't feel like reference materials, rather they package it in a fun way from the glossy cover to smart design. No Starch gets 'it' when it comes to what geeks want and PHPites you will WANT this book!! ***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Great jump start into the world of PHP, May 12, 2009 By  GJ Caesar (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews I had a background in HTML/CSS and Actionscript but had never done much with PHP. I was looking for a book with simple, real world examples that would get me moving in the right direction. This was that book. After quickly digesting several of the short, well written chapters, I was able to do a few things that I wanted to do as well as several things I never dreamed of. This book gave me enough of a start that I now feel comfortable using the vast array of free PHP resources available on the web to continue my learning. This is a not a reference manual or a tome on PHP/MySQL application development, but it's a great entry into working with PHP.		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 4.0 out of 5 stars Wicked Cool PHP - Great Book! This book offered me examples i badly needed to complete my online class assignment project. The examples are easy and well explained, so buying this book will not... Read more Published 18 days ago by Pule Nong 5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent cookbook for both new and expereinced coders I have coded a good deal in PHP and read a lot of literature on the language along the way. On one's way of coding this or that web site most programmers run across the same... Read more Published 1 month ago by Rolf Ernst 3.0 out of 5 stars Nicely laid out but not Wicked Cool Pros: The book is fun and easy to ready. Cons: Teaches some bad coding styles and has a number of spelling mistakes. eg. Read more Published 2 months ago by Chris Geo 5.0 out of 5 stars Good Product The most important things with online buying is a good price, fast delivery and the product received is the item and condition stated. Read more Published 3 months ago by Raymond White 5.0 out of 5 stars The book you have to own This is the best PHP book that I have read ever. It is very easy, and funny, to read. It has a lot of examples that everybody will need in some moment. Published 4 months ago by Dexteronomio 1.0 out of 5 stars not for people whose knowledge more than avarage writer collected some low level scripts that you can find from everywhere. my expectation was to find some cool and well designed and deliberated scripts that people... Read more Published 4 months ago by kadir erce erözbek 5.0 out of 5 stars Well Written Very well written, wonderful examples. Scripts are broken down and explained in detail, piece by piece. Published 5 months ago by G. Shaw 5.0 out of 5 stars Gets to the point This book doesn't waste your time. It isn't so much about code snippets as it is about tactics and strategy. You have a site. You want to put some dynamic content on it. Read more Published 5 months ago by Whitney Ellsworth 5.0 out of 5 stars Great for intermediate PHP programmers! I've been searching for a book like this for a long time, and it doesn't disappoint. 76 useful scripts, and even an introduction to regular expressions! Read more Published 6 months ago by soren121 5.0 out of 5 stars PHP Questions . . . Solved I was looking for a PHP script online one day and stumbled across this book in my search. After reading the reviews, I decided to give the book a shot. Read more Published 6 months ago by Willie Pritchett Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: No Starch Press; 1 edition (February 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593271735
• ISBN-13: 978-1593271732
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,866 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #4 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Web Development > Programming > PHP
  #55 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Languages & Tools
  #68 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Software Design, Testing & Engineering > Software Development

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great resource for PHP programmers, March 26, 2008

By	Jay Taylor (Twin Cities, MN) - See all my reviews

I saw this book on a friends desk and shamelessly took it before he had a chance to read it. I have many php books on my bookshelf, too many. I can now remove quite a few and replace them with this book.

When I first glanced through this book, I was intrigued by the way it was laid out. There are 12 chapters covering many topics that php programmers should know about their language and how browsers interact with a web server using php. Each chapter has many sections that cover a specific topic and most have very useful code examples. The extra feature is a part labeled: "What can go Wrong?". This is a great time saver on how to deal with common issues that might come up when you are working on your php script and implementing the example code. Most of the issues have really good explanations of how and why something could go wrong. What makes this book a real keeper is that they have the "why" explanations. I've always hated it when books tell you to do something a certain way, but never go into any depth on WHY you should do it one way or another. This book has the WHY covered very well for a great number of the examples.

The style of the book makes it easy to read and learn from the examples. In my case, it makes it easy to pickup, read a few pages when I get the chance and then put it down again. I find it easy to pick up right where I left off and keep reading right on to the next example. I like the humor level too. Often authors can get a little too cutesy with their wit and humor. I find that to be a real turn off. William and Brian (The authors) do a great job of keeping the humor light and laughable.

I just made some room on my busy book shelf for this book of 76 time-saving, problem-solving php scripts. I hope my friend doesn't ask for it back...

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Become A PHP WaRRioR!!!, March 19, 2008

By	Daniel McKinnon (Tewksbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

'Wicked Cool PHP: Real-World Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems' is a fantastic PHP cookbook that is written exactly the way I like books to be written:

- it's fun to read and learn from
- content is broken up logically at the right points
- layout and design is a joy on the eyes and brain
- length is around 200 pages which is within the 2-3 (hundred) range that I like most books to be

Content is broken up over 12 chapters:

01. Basic script stuff
02. Configuring PHP
03. PHP Security
04. Form Fun
05. Text & HTML
06. Dates
07. Files
08. User and Session Tracking
09. Email Excitement
10. Image Tasks
11. Using cURL to talk to web services
12. Other Stuff

The audience for this book hits the rare area of ALL developers from the expert to the newbie to the weekend hacker. There are 76 scripts contained within that nearly anyone could find useful in any project.

I love No Starch books because they don't feel like reference materials, rather they package it in a fun way from the glossy cover to smart design. No Starch gets 'it' when it comes to what geeks want and PHPites you will WANT this book!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great jump start into the world of PHP, May 12, 2009

By	GJ Caesar (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews

I had a background in HTML/CSS and Actionscript but had never done much with PHP. I was looking for a book with simple, real world examples that would get me moving in the right direction. This was that book. After quickly digesting several of the short, well written chapters, I was able to do a few things that I wanted to do as well as several things I never dreamed of. This book gave me enough of a start that I now feel comfortable using the vast array of free PHP resources available on the web to continue my learning. This is a not a reference manual or a tome on PHP/MySQL application development, but it's a great entry into working with PHP.