PHP books

Learn to develop high-quality applications and frameworks in PHP

Packed with in-depth information and step-by-step guidance, this book escorts you through the process of creating, maintaining and extending sustainable software of high quality with PHP. World-renowned PHP experts present real-world case studies for developing high-quality applications and frameworks in PHP that can easily be adapted to changing business requirements. . They offer different approaches to solving typical development and quality assurance problems that every developer needs to know and master.

• Details the process for creating high-quality PHP frameworks and applications that can easily be adapted to changing business requirements
• Covers the planning, execution, and automation of tests for the different layers and tiers of a Web application
• Demonstrates how to establish a successful development process
• Shares real-world case studies from well-known companies and their PHP experts

With this book, you’ll learn to develop high-quality PHP frameworks and applications that can easily be maintained with reasonable cost and effort.

If you can build websites with CSS and JavaScript, this book takes you to the next level—creating dynamic, database-driven websites with PHP and MySQL. Learn how to build a database, manage your content, and interact with users through queries and web forms. With step-by-step tutorials, real-world examples, and jargon-free explanations, you’ll soon discover the power of server-side programming.

The important stuff you need to know:

• Get a running start. Write PHP scripts and create a web form right away.
• Learn the language. Get up to speed on PHP and SQL syntax quickly.
• Build a database. Use MySQL to store user information and other data.
• Make it dynamic. Create pages that change with each new viewing.
• Be ready for mistakes. Plan error messages to help direct users.
• Manage your content. Use the file system to access user data, including images and other binary files.
• Control operations. Create an administrative interface to oversee your site.

In just a short time, you can learn how to use PHP, MySQL, and Apache together to create dynamic, interactive websites and applications using the three leading open-source web development technologies.

Using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, each lesson in this book builds on the previous ones, enabling you to learn the essentials of PHP scripting, MySQL databases, and the Apache web server from the ground up.

Regardless of whether you run Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X, the enclosed CD includes a complete starter kit that lets you install all the software you need to set up a stable environment for learning, testing, and production.

Learn how to…

• Install, configure, and set up the PHP scripting language, the MySQL database system, and the Apache Web server
• Get these technologies to work together to create a dynamic, database-backed website
• Interact with MySQL using PHP
• Work with forms and files
• Create a web-based discussion forum or mailing list
• Add a storefront and shopping cart to your site
• Optimize your MySQL databases
• Fine-tune the Apache server’s performance
• Restrict access to your applications
• Set up a secure web server

CD-ROM Includes

• A complete PHP, MySQL, and Apache starter kit for Windows®, Linux®, or Mac® OS X.

PHP has gained a following among non-technical web designers who need to add interactive aspects to their sites. Offering a gentle learning curve, PHP is an accessible yet powerful language for creating dynamic web pages. As its popularity has grown, PHP's basic feature set has become increasingly more sophisticated. Now PHP 5 boasts advanced features--such as new object-oriented capabilities and support for XML and Web Services--that will please even the most experienced web professionals while still remaining user-friendly enough for those with a lower tolerance for technical jargon.

If you've wanted to try your hand at PHP but haven't known where to start, then Learning PHP 5 is the book you need. If you've wanted to try your hand at PHP but haven't known where to start, then Learning PHP 5 is the book you need. With attention to both PHP 4 and the new PHP version 5, it provides everything from a explanation of how PHP works with your web server and web browser to the ins and outs of working with databases and HTML forms. Written by the co-author of the popular PHP Cookbook, this book is for intelligent (but not necessarily highly-technical) readers. Learning PHP 5 guides you through every aspect of the language you'll need to master for professional web programming results. This book provides a hands-on learning experience complete with exercises to make sure the lessons stick.

Learning PHP 5 covers the following topics, and more:

• How PHP works with your web browser and web server
• PHP language basics, including data, variables, logic and looping
• Working with arrays and functions
• Making web forms
• Working with databases like MySQL
• Remembering users with sessions
• Parsing and generating XML
• Debugging

Written by David Sklar, coauthor of the PHP Cookbook and an instructor in PHP, this book offers the ideal classroom learning experience whether you're in a classroom or on your own. From learning how to install PHP to designing database-backed web applications, Learning PHP 5 will guide you through every aspect of the language you'll need to master to achieve professional web programming results.

Being highly flexible in building dynamic, database-driven web applications makes the PHP programming language one of the most popular web development tools in use today. It also works beautifully with other open source tools, such as the MySQL database and the Apache web server. However, as more web sites are developed in PHP, they become targets for malicious attackers, and developers need to prepare for the attacks.

Security is an issue that demands attention, given the growing frequency of attacks on web sites. Essential PHP Security explains the most common types of attacks and how to write code that isn't susceptible to them. By examining specific attacks and the techniques used to protect against them, you will have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the safeguards you are about to learn in this book.

In the much-needed (and highly-requested) Essential PHP Security, each chapter covers an aspect of a web application (such as form processing, database programming, session management, and authentication). Chapters describe potential attacks with examples and then explain techniques to help you prevent those attacks.

Topics covered include:

• Preventing cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities
• Protecting against SQL injection attacks
• Complicating session hijacking attempts

You are in good hands with author Chris Shiflett, an internationally-recognized expert in the field of PHP security. Shiflett is also the founder and President of Brain Bulb, a PHP consultancy that offers a variety of services to clients around the world.

If you are a web programmer, you need to know modern PHP. This book presents with many new areas in which PHP plays a large role. If you want to write a mobile application using geo-location data, Pro PHP Programming will show you how. Additionally, if you need to make sure that you can write a multilingual indexing application using Sphinx, this book will help you avoid the pitfalls.
Of course, Pro PHP Programming gives a thorough survey of PHP post-5.3. You'll begin by working through an informative survey and clear guide to object-oriented PHP. Then, you'll be set for the core of the book on modern PHP applications. Now, you'll be able to start with the chapter on PHP for mobile programming and move on to sampling social media applications. You'll also be guided through new PHP programming language features like closures and namespaces.
Pro PHP Programming deals with filtering data from users and databases next, so you'll be well prepared for relational and NoSQL databases. Of course, you can also learn about data retrieval from other sources, like OCR libraries or websites. Then the question of how to format and present data arises, and in Pro PHP Programming, you'll find solutions via JSON, AJAX and XML.

What you’ll learn

• PHP 5.3 object-oriented programming and new PHP features
• Writing programs talking to SQL-based and NoSQL-based databases alike
• Using modern PHP programmer's tools
• Writing social media applications
• Investigating NoSQL datastores
• Writing PHP programs for a cloud ecology

Who this book is for

This book is for intermediate and advanced PHP programmers, as well as programmers coming from other languages such as Python, Perl, C/C++. It can also be utilized by programmers with knowledge of a previous PHP version who want to return to PHP.

Table of Contents

1. Object Orientation
2. Exceptions and References
3. Mobile PHP
4. Social Media
5. Cutting Edge
6. Form Design and Management
7. Database Interaction I
8. Database Interaction II
9. Database Interaction III
10. Libraries
11. Security
12. Agile Development with Zend Studio for Eclipse, Bugzilla, Mylyn, and Subversion
13. Refactoring, Unit Testing, and Continuous Intergration
14. XML
15. JSON and AJAX
16. Conclusions
17. Regular Expressions

60 simple but incredibly effective recipes for Ajaxification of web 2.0 sites.

• Learn how to develop and deploy iPhone web and native apps.
• Optimize the performance of Ajax applications.
• Build dynamic websites with faster response from the server using the asynchronous call feature of PHP Ajax.
• Using Ajax allows quick and efficient access of data from the server, thus precluding a total web page refresh.
• Leverage the power of PHP Ajax using practical recipes with example codes.

In Detail

Ajax is the necessary paradigm in Web 2.0 sites. Most of the Web 2.0 sites are built with PHP and Ajax. Extending AJAX is about delivering front-end service for accessing back-end services in PHP in a quick and easy manner. With this book in hand, you will learn how to use the necessary tools for Ajaxification of websites and iPhones.

PHP AJAX cookbook will teach you how to use the combination of PHP AJAX as a powerful platform for websites or web applications. Using AJAX for Communication with Server leads to faster response with PHP at the back-end services. The combination of AJAX PHP has many features such as speeding up the user experience, giving your web client much quicker response time and letting the client browser retrieve data from the server without having to refresh the whole page. You will learn the nuances of optimization and debugging Ajax applications. Further, you will learn how to program Ajax on iPhone devices.

This book will teach you popular selector-based JavaScript followed by important concepts on debugging, optimization and best practices. There is a collection of recipes focused on creating basic utilities such as validating form using Ajax and creating a five star rating system. As jQuery is quite popular, useful tools and jQuery plugins like Ajax tooltips, tab navigation, autocomplete, shopping cart, and Ajax chat are covered subsequently. By the end of chapter 7 you will learn to visually speed up website responsiveness to building SEO-friendly Ajax websites. Also get to know about all popular Ajax webservices and APIs like Twitter, Facebook and Google Maps which are covered in Ajax Mashups. Finally, step-by-step recipes are presented to build iPhone apps using basic libraries and everyday useful Ajax tools.

Build rich interactive web 2.0 sites with rich standards and Mashups around PHP Ajax.

What you will learn from this book

• Understand Basic form validation and form handling tools
• Learn Debugging and troubleshooting techniques to make your site perform even quicker
• Integrate Web 2.0 APIs for Flickr, Picasa, Facebook and Twitter
• Build chat application using Comet technology
• Write optimized code using Ajax asynchronous calls to improve website responsiveness
• Implement best practices to build SEO-friendly websites
• Become a skilled iPhone app developer using Ajax

Approach

This book contains a collection of recipes with step-by-step directions to build SEO-friendly websites using standard Ajax tools. Each recipe contains behind-the-scene explanations to PHP Ajax questions.

Who this book is written for

This book is an ideal resource for people who like to add Ajax features to websites and who prefer standards and best practices for building SEO-friendly websites. As the book covers advanced topics, readers need to be aware of basic PHP, JavaScript and XML features.

Build Your own Database Driven Web Site Using PHP & MySQL is a practical hands-on guide to learning all the tools, principles and techniques needed to build a fully functional database-driven web site using PHP & MySQL.

This book covers everything from installing PHP & MySQL under Windows, Linux, and Mac through to building a live web-based content management system.

While this is essentially a beginners book, it also covers more advanced topics such as the storage of binary data in MySQL, and cookies and sessions in PHP. It comes complete with a set of handy reference guides for PHP & MySQL that include:

MySQL syntax MySQL functions MysQL column types PHP functions for working with MySQL

PHP Master is tailor-made for the PHP developer who's serious about taking their server-side applications to the next level and who wants to really keep ahead of the game by adhering to best practice, employing the most effective object-oriented programming techniques, wrapping projects in layers of security and ensuring their code is doing its job perfectly.

• Create professional, dynamic applications according to an object-oriented programming blueprint
• Learn advanced performance evaluation techniques for maximum site efficiency
• Brush up on the best testing methods to refine your code and keep your applications watertight
• Protect your site against attacks and vulnerabilities with the latest security systems
• Plug in to some serious functionality with PHP's APIs and libraries

A collection of over 250 PHP functions with clear explanations in language anyone can understand, followed with as many examples as it takes to understand what the function does and how it works. This book includes numerous additional tips, the basics of PHP, MySQL query examples, regular expressions syntax, and two indexes to help you find information faster: a common language index and a function index. When the internet is not around or you want a simpler explanation along with all the technical details, this book has all of that and more.