PHP 5 Power Programming

by Derick Rethans, Stig Saether Bakken, Andi Gutmans

Back Cover The definitive introduction for today's most powerful PHP 5 techniques In this book, PHP 5's co-creator and two leading PHP developers show you how to make the most of PHP 5's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 013147149X
• ISBN13: 9780131471498
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Length: 689 Pages
• Weight: 2.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 7.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

great intermediate php5 book

This is not a beginner's book - it assumes some knowledge of PHP and jumps straight into more advanced topics such as Object-Oriented PHP, design patterns, and error checking for large-scale applications. Clearly written. Very useful for intermediate programmers seeking to take their skills to a more serious level. Recommended.

Highly Recommended

PHP 5 Power Programming is the ideal introduction to PHP 5 for those who are already familiar with the PHP language. This book, written by some of the best known in the world of PHP, brings together all of the new and powerful features that PHP 5 has to offer, from polymorphism and interfaces to SQLite and SOAP. Anyone who knows PHP 4 and are wanting to make the change to PHP 5 would benefit from the "Making the Move" chapter. Watch out beginners, while the book does offer a "Basic Language" chapter, it isn't designed to introduce new programmers to the language. Those who are familiar with similar programming languages may be able to learn PHP from this short chapter, however don't expect the rest of the book to stop and wait for you. PHP 5 Power Programming succeeds in showing the new features of PHP. The principle addition to PHP is the improvement of OOP. This book dedicated two chapters to introduce PHP 5's Object Orientated language and makes a fine job of simplifying something which appears complicated even to an experienced programmer. If you ever wanted someone to make sense of what PHP 5's OOP can accomplish, this book delivers it without fail. One of my personal favourites about this book is Chapter 5. Unlike the myriads of other PHP books, Chapter 5 actually deals with real life situations, such as file uploads and basic (but important!) file architecture. This chapter deals with the problems faced with cookies and sessions, and provides an excellent way around them. By the time you reach Chapter 6, you could be wondering what's left to be learned. The answer? Lots. So sit back and enjoy the journey through PHP 5, your in the hands of very experienced authors. Not only does this book provide you with the "definitive introduction to PHP 5's advanced features" it also includes an extended 90-day trial of Zend Studio - the ideal Development Environment for PHP. This may make it a tempting purchase for programmers who are new to PHP. Even if the back cover encourages new developers to buy this book, I would strongly recommend against doing so. Chapter 2 does help set down the basics, but be prepared to take the plunge as Chapter 3 goes straight into OOP. If you're new to PHP and sure about choosing this book, I would suggest skipping both Chapters 3 and 4, head into Chapter 5 and see how the language should be used to the best of its ability. PHP 5 Power Programming by Andi Gutmans (co-creator, PHP 5), Stig Saether Bakken (PHP core team member, creator of PEAR) and Derick Rethans (PHP contributor and the PHP QA team leader) is the perfect purchase for PHP developers wishing to bring their skills and programs into a new level. This book wastes no time in getting stuck into the advanced new features of PHP 5 and soon you'll be putting a big of reflection into all of your code. While not ideal for beginners, anyone who has experience with languages such as C, Perl or Java will find themselves understanding PHP in no time.

Great Upgrade Book

If you're already writing PHP and want to hone your skills, this is the book for which you've been searching. Bring a highlighter because you will want to go back for quick references since the book is packed with so much good information. If you don't write code and think OOP is a sound you make when you drop something, you will never have to buy another book as it will take you a lifetime to finish this one.

Assumes You Know PHP and are Moving Up.

If you're going to start off learning to build database driven web sites today, you probably want to use LAMP. LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. Each of these technologies is complex enough that a dedicated book, and this book is THE BOOK for PHP. Having said that, I need to add that this is not a book intended for the beginner. It is intended for people already working in PHP 4 to upgrade their skills up to PHP 5. It is written by the people largely responsible for bringing PHP to the state it is today. They know whereof they speak. To be sure there are chapters at the beginning of the book that provide a basic introduction, but they are a bit terse when compared to the typical beginners level book. So what are the new features that this book is particularly designed to cover: The basic underlying structure of the language has been changed for more object orientation. This fits into the concepts of more recently designed languages. Yes, Martha, PHP is definitely a language. The next most important part of the upgrade is greatly improved support for producing and parsing XML code. While there are many more changes, these are the major. One of the authors of the book, Stig Bakken, is the creator of PEAR (PHP Extension and Application Repository). There are three chapters discussing PEAR. PEAR is itself a fairly complex language, so this serves as an introduction to give you enough information to know if this is for you. Summary: An excellent book for the intermediate level PHP programmer who wants to move up. A bit imposing for a beginner.