Hi, my name is Ken Egervari and I am one the authors which make available this great title to you fellow PHP programmers and XML enthusiasts. Seeing as I wrote 3 chapters (SAX, DOM and XSLT) as well as the Object Oriented Programming appendix, you might assume there is a conflict of interest with this review. Let me assure you, despite my involvement with this title, I promise to be objective and simply state the goals of the book. This really isn't a review as some thoughts about the book.
After receiving my copy, I've been reading the entire book and as a whole, Professional PHP4 XML covers every inch of these topics in fantastic detail. I sincerely believe that new-comers to XML (and even PHP) will definitely find a wealth of information to get them started and expert programmers will enjoy the rich, deep knowledge contained in each subject, demonstrating the experience and thoroughness of all the authors who contributed to make this book the very best.
To start off my review, I want to take a look at the chapters in which I contributed, making clear to you the goals of each topic. Unlike many PHP books on the market, I didn't 'just' want to demonstrate the concepts and APIs; I really wanted to engage the reader into thinking creatively about their PHP applications by thinking about architecture and design and sharing valuable insights in areas concerned weather it be programming issues, common solutions to recurring problems, best practices, or changes to the APIs in future releases. Given that I am as much of a businessman as an architect, I also wanted to reader to consider the various business-related issues with each technology by providing valuable insight on the consequences to using these technologies in your organization. I wanted to enlighten the reader rather than bore them with functional descriptions and basic examples. As you read the book, you'll clearly see the book lives up to these goals.
My first task was to write a chapter on SAX. I've read many chapters on SAX from other texts or articles on the Internet, but I really wanted to take this one over and beyond what was already out there. Besides looking at the core concepts, process and various implementations, I explain in detail on how to create highly reusable, maintainable parsers by making use of object-oriented technology. I further explained how to deal with common problems when parsing erroneous generated XML content. Given that there are many hacked up Web Service-like URLs and XML generators out there, this section was much needed.
The DOM chapter continues teaching the reader about XML parsering by diving into the details on creating and manipulating DOM trees using PHP 4.2.1 and 4.3.0. This is something no book on the market has at the time of this review. The chapter shows countless number of examples to ensure the reader understands how to construct trees. The chapter dives into the architecture of DOM parsers and suggests much easier ways to simplify the construction of your applications. Given the DOM API is still new, the chapter outlines many of its current limitations and problems in great detail, ensuring the reader doesn't get fowled up in any dirty business that they can't fix without starring at their monitor for several hours only to see it's a problem with the API itself. This chapter discusses several larger applications that are interactive using HTML forms to show the reader how to construct XML content in an organized manner.
The last chapter, XSLT, discussed most of the XSLT standard as well as its use within PHP. This is useful since you don't need to purchase another XSLT book in the future as this chapter, as well as the appendix, should provide you with all the knowledge you'll need for years to come. Given that XSLT isn't used as much as it should, I spent a great deal outlining the various advantages and disadvantages pragmatically. Besides looking at the concepts and the XSL document standards, the chapter goes beyond simple XSL documents and explains how to build dynamic PHP scripts, interops with legacy applications, discusses the construction of multi-tiered applications, uses XSLT as a functional language, and even explains some recursive techniques to solve complicated document generation problems. Many times programmers are confused on which technology to use; this chapter compares SAX, DOM and XSLT and helps the reader decide which technology is best for your project and organization's goals. Lastly, XSLT is often overlooked when it can offer a very elegant and platform independent solution! The chapter thoroughly explains the various applications XSLT is used and even gives the reader with some vision and direction as I described how various projects used XSLT skillfully.
I hope these review helps inform you about the book's content. I hope you enjoy the book as we all did writing it. Happy reader and thanks for listening.
ISBN-13: 978-1861007216
ISBN-10: 1861007213
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