PHP books

Access and run Windows® web and database technologies with PHP

Take your PHP programming skills deep into Windows—and build PHP applications that run efficiently and effectively on an array of Windows technologies. Packed with hands-on exercises, this in-depth guide shows you how to use PHP to interact with Internet Information Services 7.5 (IIS), Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, and Active Directory®. You’ll quickly learn how to apply best practices for running PHP applications in a Windows environment.

Discover how to:

• Use Microsoft SQL Server as the backend database for PHP applications
• Set up full-text search on SQL Server to help users find data quickly
• Improve PHP application performance with IIS caching techniques
• Configure IIS to help secure your PHP applications against attacks
• Manage users and groups in Active Directory with a PHP application
• Create a PHP LDAP browser to search for and view Active Directory data
• Program Exchange Server with PHP, using Exchange Web Services (EWS)

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

To keep programming productive and enjoyable, state-of-the-art practices and principles are essential. Object-oriented programming and design help manage complexity by keeping components cleanly separated. Unit testing helps prevent endless, exhausting debugging sessions. Refactoring keeps code supple and readable. PHP offers all this-and more.

This book shows you how to apply PHP techniques and principles to all the most common challenges of web programming, including:

Web presentation and templates User interaction including the Model-View-Contoller architecture Input validation and form handling Database connection and querying and abstraction Object persistence

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.

Now installed on more than 20 million Internet domains around the world, PHP is an undisputed leader in web programming languages. Database connectivity, powerful extensions, and rich object-orientation are all reasons for its popularity, but nearly everyone would agree that, above all, PHP is one of the easiest languages to learn and use for developing dynamic web applications. The ease of development and simplicity of PHP, combined with a large community and expansive repository of open source PHP libraries, make it a favorite of web designers and developers worldwide.

PHP in a Nutshell is a complete reference to the core of the language as well as the most popular PHP extensions. This book doesn't try to compete with or replace the widely available online documentation. Instead, it is designed to provide depth and breadth that can't be found elsewhere. PHP in a Nutshell provides the maximum information density on PHP, without all the fluff and extras that get in the way. The topic grouping, tips, and examples in this book complement the online guide and make this an essential reference for every PHP programmer. This book focuses on the functions commonly used by a majority of developers, so you can look up the information you need quickly. Topics include:

• Object-oriented PHP
• Networking
• String manipulation
• Working with files
• Database interaction
• XML
• Multimedia creation
• Mathematics

Whether you're just getting started or have years of experience in PHP development, PHP in a Nutshell is a valuable addition to your desk library.

Beginning PHP and MySQL E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition is an update to the popular book showing readers how to create e-commerce websites using two of the world's most popular technologies: the PHP scripting language and MySQL database.

In addition to guiding readers through the creation of a complete, working website using sound enterprise development techniques, the authors take care to provide readers with a variety of alternative implementation solutions: for instance readers are shown how to accept payments from both PayPal and credit cards. The book has also been updated to reflect the latest development trends, showing readers how to upgrade their shopping cart using Ajax, integrate with Amazon's Web services, and encourage customer feedback through cutting-edge interactive features.

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.

Learn to create Web pages quickly and easily with PHP--no prior programming experience required! PHP 6 Fast & Easy Web Development provides a step-by-step, learn-by-example path to learning through easy-to-understand language and illustrations. Unlike the verbose text-only chapters found in most programming books, the Fast & Easy Web Development style appeals to users who are new to PHP, or to programming in general. The first three chapters are dedicated to getting Apache, MySQL, and PHP up and running on your Windows or Linux machine. You'll be surprised at how simple it is, and how quickly you'll be working. From there, you'll learn how to create multi-part scripts, display dynamic content, work with MySQL databases, restrict access to certain pages of your site using PHP, create contact management systems, and work with XML. After completing this book, you will have a strong foundation in the basics of Web-based technologies and application design, and will be prepared to learn more advanced topics and programming methods.

Think of all the things you could do in 24 hours. Go sightseeing. Read a book. Learn PHP. Sams Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours is a unique learning tool that is divided into 24 one-hour lessons over five sections. Starting with the basics, you will discover the fundamentals of PHP and how to apply that knowledge to create dynamic websites with forms, cookies and authentication functions. You will also find out how to access databases, as well as how to integrate system components, e-mail, LDAP, network sockets and more. A support website includes access to source code, PHP updates, errata and links to other relevant websites. Sams Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours is a quick and easy way to learn how to create interactive websites for your end user.

If you want to build dynamic Web sites that encourage users to interact with them, PHP and MySQL are among the best tools you’ll find. PHP is a scripting language designed specifically for use on the Web, while MySQL is a database management system that works with it perfectly. Best of all, they’re free. It’s hard to beat that combination!

PHP & MySQL Web Development All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies is kind of one-stop shopping for the information you need to get up and running with these tools and put them to good use. It’s divided into six handy minibooks that cover setting up your environment, PHP programming, using MySQL, security, PHP extensions, and PHP Web applications. They make it easy to create a Web site where visitors can sign on, use shopping carts, complete forms, and do business with your business.

It’s easy to find what you need in this handy guide. You’ll discover how to:

• Find and acquire all the tools you need and set up your development environment
• Build PHP scripts to make your Web site work
• Create a MySQL database that visitors can access
• Summarize and sort data results
• Design and implement user access control
• Build a shopping cart application
• Create extensions that make your site more useful

With PHP & MySQL Web Development All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies by your side, you’ll be a Web site guru before you know it!