Webmaster Tips » Webmaster Books » PHP

Sort by:

PHP books

Professional Web APIs with PHP: eBay, Google, Paypal, Amazon, FedEx plus Web Feeds

Author: Paul Reinheimer
List price: $39.99
Amazon price: $15.95   Book details at Amazon.com
Average rating:  / 0 (0 reviews)
Publisher: Wrox (31 July 2006)
  • Offers hands-on tips and numerous code examples that show Web developers how to leverage content and feeds from today's top Web sites-including Google, eBay, PayPal, Amazon, Yahoo!, and FedEx
  • Introduces APIs (Application Program Interfaces) in general and uses real-world examples that show how to produce and document them
  • Explains how to use the popular scripting language PHP to create APIs that interact with unrelated applications over the Web
  • Examples take readers through each stage of the API process, from basic test implementations to integration with existing sites

Setting Up LAMP: Getting Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP Working Together

Author: Eric Filson
List price: $34.99
Amazon price: $3.64   Book details at Amazon.com
Average rating:  / 0 (0 reviews)
Publisher: Sybex (22 July 2004)

You could think of Setting Up LAMP as four books in one, but it's actually something much more valuable: a single volume that presents the open-source technologies known collectively as LAMP—Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP—as tightly dovetailed components of today's most affordable and effective platform for building dynamic web-based applications.

Each technology has uses outside of this context, of course, but within it they form something greater than the sum of their parts. This book shows you how to take full advantage of this power, walking you through all the steps required to lay your Linux foundation, install and configure your Apache web server, and then begin using PHP to access content stored in MySQL. Here are a few of the specific topics you'll find covered inside:

  • Installing and configuring qmail with support for IMAP, POP3, SMTP, virtual domains, spam filtering, and antivirus
  • Managing system users and groups
  • Configuring your network
  • Creating a custom firewall script using IP tables
  • Recognizing when a system is in distress
  • Handling MySQL database replication
  • Configuring virtual domains
  • Writing a basic PHP script that integrates with MySQL

If you're new to all of this, you'll quickly get to where you need to be to start developing and deploying the higher-level pieces of your web application. Even if you have experience with one or all of these technologies, this book—including its quick-start installation appendix—is a resource you'll want close by whenever you're setting up or fine-tuning your LAMP system.

PHP 5 in Practice

Author: Elliott White
List price: $44.99
Amazon price: $6.21   Book details at Amazon.com
Average rating:  / 0 (0 reviews)
Publisher: Sams (21 July 2006)

With the release of PHP 5 web developers need a guide to developing with PHP 5 to both learn its complex new features and more fully implement the long-standing features on which PHP's success is built. PHP 5 in Practice is a reference guide that provides developers with easy-to-use and easily extensible code to solve common PHP problems. It focuses on providing real code solutions to problems, allowing the reader to learn by seeing exactly what is happening behind the scenes to get your solution. Because a real-life situation will rarely match the book's example problems precisely, PHP 5 in Practice explains the solution well enough that you will understand it and can learn how to truly solve your own problem.

PHP Hacks: Tips & Tools For Creating Dynamic Websites

Author: Jack Herrington D.
List price: $29.95
Amazon price: $9.99   Book details at Amazon.com
Average rating:  / 0 (0 reviews)
Publisher: O'Reilly Media (19 December 2005)

Programmers love its flexibility and speed; designers love its accessibility and convenience. When it comes to creating web sites, the PHP scripting language is truly a red-hot property. In fact, PHP is currently used on more than 19 million web sites, surpassing Microsoft's ASP .NET technology in popularity. Not surprisingly, this surge in usage has resulted in a number of PHP books hitting the market. Only one, though, takes the language beyond traditional Web programming and into mapping, graphing, multimedia, and beyond: PHP Hacks.

In PHP Hacks, author Jack Herrington wrings out his 20 years of code generation experience to deliver hands-on tools ranging from basic PHP and PEAR installation and scripting to advanced multimedia and database optimizing tricks.

On the practical side of things, PHP Hacks helps you develop more robust PHP applications by explaining how to improve your database design, automate application testing, and employ design patterns in your PHP scripts and classes. In the category of "cool," Herrington explains how to upgrade your Web interface through the creation of tabs, stickies, popups, and calendars. He even examines how to leverage maps and graphics in PHP. There's also a bounty of image and application hacks, including those that show you how to:

  • Integrate web sites with Google maps and satellite imaging
  • Dynamically display iPhoto libraries online
  • Add IRC, SMS, and Instant Messaging capabilities to your Web applications
  • Drop the latest Wikipedia dictionary onto your Sony PSP
  • Render graphics and user interfaces with SVG, DHTML, and Ajax

Whether you're a newcomer or an expert, you'll find great value in PHP Hacks, the only PHP guide that offers something useful and fun for everyone.

Building PHP Applications with Symfony, CakePHP, and Zend Framework

Author: Bartosz Porebski
List price: $44.99
Amazon price: $17.09   Book details at Amazon.com
Average rating:  / 0 (0 reviews)
Publisher: Wrox ( 8 March 2011)

The first detailed, unbiased comparison of the three leading PHP frameworks

Web developers have been eager for an impartial comparison of leading PHP frameworks so they can make educated decisions about the most effective tool for their needs. This guide uses Symfony, CakePHP, and Zend Framework to solve key problems, providing source code examples and comparisons for each. It explains the approach and reviews the similarities and differences in the three frameworks, providing reliable information on which to base your decisions.

  • Symfony, CakePHP, and Zend Framework are considered the leading PHP frameworks; developers need an unbiased comparison to choose which one works best for their individual situations
  • This guide uses each framework to solve the same problems, illustrating the solutions with source code examples and working applications
  • Covers wide range of topics, from installation and configuration to most advanced features like AJAX, web services and automated testing.
  • Includes an appendix of new PHP frameworks, including CodeIgniter, Lithium, and Agavi
  • Bestselling PHP author Elizabeth Naramore serves as technical editor

Comparison of PHP Web Frameworks provides the impartial, side-by-side comparison that developers have been looking for.

PHP Programming with MySQL

Author: Don Gosselin
List price: $125.95
Amazon price: $15.00   Book details at Amazon.com
Average rating:  / 0 (0 reviews)
Publisher: Course Technology (26 December 2005)

PHP Programming with MySQL, by Don Gosselin is the first true academic textbook in the market to combine PHP with MySQL. This book covers one of the fastest growing technology combinations for developing interactive Web sites. With growth attributed to its open-source nature and usability amongst non-programmers, this text is accessible to users with little programming or database experience, and suits personal Web development projects, as well as small to medium business Web development needs.

Webbots, Spiders, and Screen Scrapers: A Guide to Developing Internet Agents with PHP/CURL

Author: Michael Schrenk
List price: $39.95
Amazon price: $67.97   Book details at Amazon.com
Average rating:  / 0 (0 reviews)
Publisher: No Starch Press (30 March 2007)

The Internet is bigger and better than what a mere browser allows. Webbots, Spiders, and Screen Scrapers is for programmers and businesspeople who want to take full advantage of the vast resources available on the Web. There's no reason to let browsers limit your online experience-especially when you can easily automate online tasks to suit your individual needs.

Learn how to write webbots and spiders that do all this and more:

Programmatically download entire websites Effectively parse data from web pages Manage cookies Decode encrypted files Automate form submissions Send and receive email Send SMS alerts to your cell phone Unlock password-protected websites Automatically bid in online auctions Exchange data with FTP and NNTP servers

Sample projects using standard code libraries reinforce these new skills. You'll learn how to create your own webbots and spiders that track online prices, aggregate different data sources into a single web page, and archive the online data you just can't live without. You'll learn inside information from an experienced webbot developer on how and when to write stealthy webbots that mimic human behavior, tips for developing fault-tolerant designs, and various methods for launching and scheduling webbots. You'll also get advice on how to write webbots and spiders that respect website owner property rights, plus techniques for shielding websites from unwanted robots.

As a bonus, visit the author's website to test your webbots on sample target pages, and to download the scripts and code libraries used in the book.

Some tasks are just too tedious-or too important!- to leave to humans. Once you've automated your online life, you'll never let a browser limit the way you use the Internet again.

No Nonsense XML Web Development with PHP

Author: Thomas Myer
List price: $39.95
Amazon price: $9.82   Book details at Amazon.com
Average rating:  / 0 (0 reviews)
Publisher: SitePoint ( 3 August 2005)

A practical and concise book that teaches XML from the ground up. This tutorial style presents various XML methodologies and techniques in an easy to understand way, building a basis for further exploration.

XML is essentially an enabling technology, dry and boring on its own. As a result, most books on the market are dry, and academic in nature teaching theory rather than practice. This book actually teaches practical, real-world applications of XML, using the very latest version of PHP (PHP 5) as the base language .

No Nonsense XML Web Development with PHP explains how XML can be put to use in real-world projects. The book also covers buzz topics such as RSS and Web Services.


From the Publisher

If ever there were a candidate for "Most Hyped Technology' it would be Extensible Markup Language (XML). 'No Nonsense XML Web Development With PHP' cuts through the hype and shows you how to get the most of this powerful, multifaceted technology.

No Nonsense XML Web Development With PHP dispenses with the theoretical possibilities of XML and presents real, practical uses of XML that you can apply to your existing Websites today. The book will teach you, step-by-step, exactly how to:
  • Create a full-blown Content Management System (CMS) based on XML.
  • Create a dynamic site map using XSLT.
  • Generate XML feeds (including RSS) for your Website.
  • Facilitate transfer of important information between disparate systems using XML-RPC
  • Use the Document Object Model (DOM) to manipulate documents.
  • Rapidly process XML using PHP 5.0's built-in SimpleXML functionality.
Unlike other dry, boring, theoretical writing on XML, this book doesn't cover the entire spectrum of XML technologies; it covers practical uses of XML that are useful to Web developers right now.
This book is designed to help you to get your feet (and perhaps your ankles, shins, and knees) wet with the topic of XML. You can instantly test out and apply the code examples provided in the book (and available for free download) to get a hands-on feel for the technology, and you'll gain the confidence to go out and build more.
The XML-powered content management system (CMS) that you'll build will be a complete, ready-to-use application. It draws on the author's experience of building XML-powered
Who Should Read This Book?

No-Nonsense XML Web Development With PHP is ideal for Web developers who want to discover what can be done using XML, whether they be experienced with PHP or relative newcomers. All that's needed to get started is a good understanding of HTML and some experience with PHP.

The book is written in the usual SitePoint style: it's clear and fun to read, with plenty of blocks of example code that you can apply immediately to your own Websites.

There's no need to re-type any of the code from the book. As always, all customers will receive instant download access to all the code and files used in the book so you can apply them immediately to your own projects.


What Slashdot.org Says...
"Kudos to the author for writing chapters on XML without sounding boring, redundant or too academic. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in developing PHP-driven Web sites that provide or consume Web services, work with XML data or generate XML for others to use."

Web Standards Programmer's Reference : HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and PHP

Author: Steven M. Schafer
List price: $41.95
Amazon price: $20.00   Book details at Amazon.com
Average rating:  / 0 (0 reviews)
Publisher: Wrox ( 5 August 2005)
  • This invaluable resource offers tutorials and real-world examples as well as thorough language references for Web markup languages (HTML/XHTML and CSS), and popular scripting languages (JavaScript, Perl, and PHP)
  • Examines the role of JavaScript, CGI (with examples in Perl and Python), and PHP on the Web and shows how to best use them all
  • Includes a valuable reference section on each technology that can be used for review and consultation

PHP & MySQL Everyday Apps For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers))

Author: Janet Valade
List price: $29.99
Amazon price: $9.99   Book details at Amazon.com
Average rating:  / 0 (0 reviews)
Publisher: For Dummies ( 8 July 2005)

PHP and MySQL Everyday Apps For Dummies is a one-stop reference providing all you need to build dynamic, real-world, ready-to-use apps with the popular PHP (a scripting language) and MySQL (a database system) software. The book is a hands-on, go-to-guide that

  • Walks you through installing the applications files from the CD-ROM and setting up your programming environment
  • Contains all the code needed to create seven applications:
  • User authentication with HTTP
  • User login
  • On-line catalog
  • Shopping cart
  • Content management system
  • Web forum
  • Building and managing a mailing list (on the CD-ROM)
  • Automates the programming process and walks you through building the application from start to finish
  • Explains how to write secure code
  • Features complete code—not just snippets, but neatly assembled packages with “instant” real-world functionality
  • Shows how to build the applications in two forms -- procedural and object-oriented programming -- providing programmers who want to switch to the object-oriented method of coding (which is new in PHP 5!) with the essential know-how
  • Includes a companion CD-ROM that contains every line of code in the applications from the book plus a bonus chapter that shows how to build a mailing list

Information on each application includes a discussion of issues, structure of the database, code listings, and an explanation of the code. You can use these applications as is, modify them for use on your Web site, or build your own application using techniques described. If you want real-world Web apps you can use right away, this is the book for you.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.