Robin Nixon's PHP Crash Course

by Robin Nixon

If you know HTML and/or CSS and want to take your skills to the next level, or even if you are a complete web novice, you really need to learn PHP. Not only is it available free either pre-installed or ready-to-install on almost all web servers, it's also extremely fast and flexible too.Long gone are the days when you had to compile unwieldy C programs in order to add dynamic functionality to websites, because PHP provides everything you need with simple commands you embed in your web pages (in much the same way you do with JavaScript). What's more, PHP is easy.If you've ever tried to learn it and been put off by a plethora of jargon and technical mumbo-jumbo then you're in for a real treat, because Robin Nixon's Crash Courses have helped tens of thousands of people learn the new skills they need. From the top-selling author of Learning PHP, MySQL & JavaScript, and starting from the ground up with no assumption of prior knowledge, every aspect of PHP is explained in this book, in logical order with plenty of simple examples, clear explanations, informative figures, and advice on how best to use the new things you learn.If you want to learn PHP up to a solid intermediate level, this book will teach you all you need to know, without recourse to other books and materials. Plus all the examples are free to download from the companion website, so you won't have to type them in to follow along and try them out for yourself. This course features the following Introduction to PHP Incorporating PHP Code Into a Web Page PHP Language Syntax PHP Operators PHP Arrays Multi-dimensional Arrays The PHP Array Functions Controlling Program Flow Looping Sections of Code PHP Functions PHP Objects Errors and Expressions Web Forms and Security Advanced PHP Reasons why you will learn all you need from this assumption is made of previous knowledge. Every new concept is explained in logical order. Fully-tested examples are provided throughout. Each lecture features several notes offering extra, handy advice. The examples can all be downloaded free from the companion website.

Genres: Technology

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 18, 2012

About the author

Robin has over 30 years experience of writing software, and developing websites and apps. He also has an extensive history of writing about computers and technology, with a portfolio of over 500 published magazine articles and almost 30 books, many of which have been translated into other languages. He is also a prolific Internet video course instructor.

As well as IT, his interests include motivational psychology (which he also writes about), artificial intelligence research, many types of music (both playing and listening to), playing and creating board games, and enjoying good food and drink .

Robin lives on the south-east coast of England (where he writes full time), along with his five children and wife, Julie (a trained nurse and university lecturer). Between them they also foster three disabled children.

Reviews

[Stephen Clynes · Rating 3 out of 5]

PHP is a computer programming scripting language that is embedded within the HTML which makes up web pages. Robin's book is quite like a cook book in it's style and is a gentle guide into PHP. It is very easy to follow as Robin is a technical author, not a novelist. He does lecture a bit but this book does the job just like a manual although it does not sparkle and is not highly entertaining. It does not have the passion that is always found in a good novel.

This crash course develops well and the reading pleasure you get is from gaining knowledge, not from escaping into another world. You learn how forms on webpages work and how user input is processed. You discover how your internet browser works behind the scenes, how cookies work and what those extra bits of code are in your browser address bar. This book nicely progresses to the end when you deal with the differences between get and post Ajax requests.

Robin Nixon's PHP Crash Course is a 2088 KB eBook and was written in 2012. PHP is well explained to novices and it is great to understand it's magic. This book is okay and I give it a score of 3 stars.

[Craig Williams]

Just what was needed

This a real crash course in POP. As a professional developer this book was exactly what I needed to get up to speed with the syntax of the language. Beginners may want another book in addition to this one with more examples, but definitely get this book as a reference as language syntax and constructs are clearly explained. Excellent book.

[Benjamin X. Wretlind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good.