Web Application Development with PHP 4.0 [With Companion]

by Till Gerken and Tobias Ratschiller

As Web sites and intranets become larger and more complex, static HTML files hit their limits. Divided into two parts, this book explains PHP's syntax like classes, recursive functions and variables,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0735709971
• ISBN13: 9780735709973
• Release Date: July 2000
• Publisher: Sams
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

One of only two PHP books you really need

I've found this book to be one of only two really useful PHP books, and I've read most of them during my three-year long career as PHP programmer. The other one is The PHP Cookbook by Hughes/Zmievski. Together they form a very important part of my technical bookshelf. The publishers should get together and release them as a bundle!The Cookbook gives you the examples for your everyday tasks. The Web Application Development books gives you the bigger picture, the concepts behind the language and web development in general. It is only with the Web Application Development book that I've really understood all the intricancies of session handling, PHPLib, templates, and extending PHP.If you have a basic understanding of PHP, get those two books now. It will save you a lot of time and hassle!

A Fantastic Reference

No, this book is not for beginners. Maybe it's not for absolute gurus, either. But for those of us in the middle-to-advanced stage, it's a godsend.This is the first PHP book I found that explained the entire process and didn't just regurgitate the PHP function reference with a few extra snippets of code. The authors, by the way, have written some great PHP tools. If I hadn't seen PHPMyAdmin, I probably would not be using PHP or MySQL. They have had a huge impact on the PHP community and are extremely skilled at writing both code and books like this.Evaluate your needs. If you don't know anything about programming or PHP, start with Julie Meloni's book or the Wrox books. If you've been programming for 20 years, know how to create a complex application, know all about CVS and PHPLib, go get a function reference and dig in. If you have some PHP under your belt and are looking for a reference to help you understand application development, GET THIS BOOK.

Such a great language - such a great book!

I've been a professional programmer for 10 years now (client/server applications), but I haven't made the move to WEB programming yet. Some colleagues pointed me to PHP for web development and I immediately fell in love with it (coming from C/C++). Still, many basic concepts of web development were completely hidden for me and while I had no problems to learn PHP's syntax quickly, I didn't quite understand all the meanings of sessions, XML, web security, and so on. Then I found this book and I was ENLIGHTED.Do I hate all those fluffy computers books with no meaningful content but lots of source and function references! In contrast, the authors of this book write in a very straight-forward way, precisely, and still entertaining. And they cover many concepts behind web development, focusing on the implementation with PHP. It may be a lucky coincidence, but the authors wrote exactly about the things that interest me as I'm starting professional web development with PHP. The only chapter I didn't really need was the one about coding conventions because experience has already taught me to comment and format my code. Everything else I can put into practice immediately. I've found particularly helpful the tips & tricks the authors provided; they're clearly taken from their own real life experience and have saved me hours of finding my own solutions to strange problems.Therefore, this book was great for me and I'd warmly recommend it to others. This one is going to stay on my desk for a while! :-)

A must-have classical for advanced PHP development

Most definitely, this book is not for beginners - but if you're an intermediate to advanced programmers, either with experience in PHP or another programming language, you'll want this book. The best aspect of this book, and the reason I think it has the potential to become a true classical for the PHP language, is that it covers the concepts behind web application development. After all, you have the online reference if you need to quickly check the syntax of a function! But where's the manual that teaches you about coding style, project layout and management, security, usability, session management, user authentication and advanced XML topics?The authors write about development concepts, PHP's advanced syntax, application design, web application concepts and strategies, the Phplib, XML applications, and extending PHP with C. While presenting a lot of extremely valuable information in a condensed format (for example, most longer code examples are not printed in the book but can be found only on the CDROM), the authors still write in an easy and friendly manner. You always see that they really know the PHP language, and that they love working with PHP - indeed, both are well respected in the community. The quotes from the Dao De Jing (or Tao Te Ching) really add atmosphere to the book and bring up the level of Perl's Camel book. A definitive thumbs-up for this excellent title!

A definte addition to your PHP technical library

This was an excellent book. There is a wealth of information here for anyone who is trying to develop enterprise level web applications. The book definitely is geared towards PHP4 and the Zend engine, but there is information on how some of the techniques and code can be applied to PHP3. The writing style was easy. The technical discussions were thorough and the topics were covered in a logical order.This book is definitely for the advanced or serious developer. There is a lot information on software development practices, designing applications and advanced PHP coding techniques. If you do any serious development with PHP and especially if you're looking to utilize version 4.0, this is definitely a book for your technical library.