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Beginning PHP 5. 3
The book explains how to install and configure PHP 5.3, how to get started with simple programs, and the basic building blocks of PHP such as variables, operators, expressions, arrays, and objects. It also looks at how PHP programs interact with Web servers and other technologies such as HTML, explores more in-depth PHP topics, and shows how to build robust Web applications. Each topic is illustrated with many working source code examples.The book is structured to provide a gentle, logical intro for beginners; correcting errors; and reworking many of the examples to explain concepts more clearly. About The Author: Matt Doyle has been playing with computers since 1979, and earning a living from them since 1992. His varied career to date has included system administration, computer training, software development, graphic design and building websites. Having worked with Perl, ColdFusion and ASP, these days he favors PHP as his Web language of choice. Matt often write articles for EZ Goal Developers on topics including PHP scripts. He lives with his wife on the sunny Northern Beaches of Sydney,Australia. Table Of Contents: Introduction. Part I: Getting Up and Running with PHP. ?Chapter 1: Introducing PHP. ?Chapter 2: Your First PHP Script. Part II: Learning the Language. ?Chapter 3: PHP Language Basics. ?Chapter 4: Decisions and Loops. ?Chapter 5: Strings. ?Chapter 6: Arrays. ?Chapter 7: Functions. ?Chapter 8: Objects. Part III: Using PHP in Practice. ?Chapter 9: Handling HTML Forms with PHP. ?Chapter 10: Preserving State with Query Strings, Cookies, and Sessions. ?Chapter 11: Working with Files and Directories. ?Chapter 12: Introducing Databases and SQL. ?Chapter 13: Retrieving Data from MySQL with PHP. ?Chapter 14: Manipulating MySQL Data with PHP. ?Chapter 15: Making Your Job Easier with PEAR. ?Chapter 16: PHP and the Outside World. ?Chapter 17: Generating Images with PHP. ?Chapter 18: String Matching with Regular Expressions. ?Chapter 19: Working with XML. ?Chapter
- GenresProgrammingWebNonfiction
840 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
15 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 11, 2018
Already Obsolete
10 November 2018
When I walked into my lecturer’s room to go over one of my assignments I noticed that a computer monitor was supported by a number of books, one of them being PHP 3. This is a problem with these bricks – after a certain point the only use they have is as a door stopper and a means to raise a computer monitor. Sure, one might be able to throw them into the recycling bin, but the amount of money you actually have to fork out for these books sort of means that you are not going to be all that keen on doing so. There is another problem, and that is while this book may actually help in putting you on the right track, you will eventually get to a point where using this book as a reference is no longer an option and it ends up being better to simply go onto the internet and use that as a resource, such as the webpage that just happens to be the PHP manual, or if that doesn’t work then Stack Overflow (though the guy behind the idea indicated that this is more a website for professionals as opposed to beginners).
So, what did I make of this book? Well, I managed to read it from cover to cover, which in part is surprising, but considering that there is a lot of code and sample programs in the book, which I have to admit I simply glossed over, then you could easily cut down on the amount of actual readable materials. The thing with sample code is that it is useful, and if you know what you are looking at you can quickly work out what they are trying to do, but after studying computer science for a year now, I seem to prefer to be given a problem and then having to work out how to solve that problem as opposed to simply copying code straight out of a book. Mind you, he does actually include some practice problems at the end of each chapter, though not to the extent of some of the books that I have seen.
I’m sure we’ve all heard of PHP. It is what is known as a server side language, and originally stood for ‘Personal Home Page’. From that title the idea was to develop a language that people can use to develop their own webpages. That is all well and good, except that you really need to know what you are doing to be able to use PHP – it really isn’t a language for beginners – and there is the added problem of having to develop your site using a server. Sure, there are servers that you can download onto your computer, but the fact that they create open ports that hackers can exploit sort of puts me off using that method. Actually, I guess it was fortunate that I could use the university server to build my assignment, and also that Ubuntu allows me to mount the server on my computer so that I don’t have to fiddle around with downloading and uploading it excessively. Oh, I should also point out that there are a number of websites that you can use to test out your code.
It sounds as if I haven’t said much about the book though, other than to indicate that I have basically read it from cover to cover. Gee, I’m not entirely sure if that is something that I should really be admitting. The thing is that I can’t necessarily say that it was all that useful. Sure, the lecturers do try to encourage us to buy the textbooks, but the thing is that with the internet being all pervasive these days, I sort of wonder what the use of the text books actually are. Okay, there are probably subjects, like Law, where text books are imperative, and a part of me still feels that I maybe need to at least purchase them because I don’t really want to be caught in the situation where I need them but don’t have them. However, the fact that they become obsolete so quickly, and that new editions appear almost annually, with minor changes mind you, is also incredibly painful. Oh, and second hand bookshops (if they still exist) simply will not touch them with a 10 foot barge pole. Is there a text book scam out there? Yeah, there probably is, and in many cases it is just another burdern that students have to shoulder in their attempt to obtain marketable skills for the future.
10 November 2018
When I walked into my lecturer’s room to go over one of my assignments I noticed that a computer monitor was supported by a number of books, one of them being PHP 3. This is a problem with these bricks – after a certain point the only use they have is as a door stopper and a means to raise a computer monitor. Sure, one might be able to throw them into the recycling bin, but the amount of money you actually have to fork out for these books sort of means that you are not going to be all that keen on doing so. There is another problem, and that is while this book may actually help in putting you on the right track, you will eventually get to a point where using this book as a reference is no longer an option and it ends up being better to simply go onto the internet and use that as a resource, such as the webpage that just happens to be the PHP manual, or if that doesn’t work then Stack Overflow (though the guy behind the idea indicated that this is more a website for professionals as opposed to beginners).
So, what did I make of this book? Well, I managed to read it from cover to cover, which in part is surprising, but considering that there is a lot of code and sample programs in the book, which I have to admit I simply glossed over, then you could easily cut down on the amount of actual readable materials. The thing with sample code is that it is useful, and if you know what you are looking at you can quickly work out what they are trying to do, but after studying computer science for a year now, I seem to prefer to be given a problem and then having to work out how to solve that problem as opposed to simply copying code straight out of a book. Mind you, he does actually include some practice problems at the end of each chapter, though not to the extent of some of the books that I have seen.
I’m sure we’ve all heard of PHP. It is what is known as a server side language, and originally stood for ‘Personal Home Page’. From that title the idea was to develop a language that people can use to develop their own webpages. That is all well and good, except that you really need to know what you are doing to be able to use PHP – it really isn’t a language for beginners – and there is the added problem of having to develop your site using a server. Sure, there are servers that you can download onto your computer, but the fact that they create open ports that hackers can exploit sort of puts me off using that method. Actually, I guess it was fortunate that I could use the university server to build my assignment, and also that Ubuntu allows me to mount the server on my computer so that I don’t have to fiddle around with downloading and uploading it excessively. Oh, I should also point out that there are a number of websites that you can use to test out your code.
It sounds as if I haven’t said much about the book though, other than to indicate that I have basically read it from cover to cover. Gee, I’m not entirely sure if that is something that I should really be admitting. The thing is that I can’t necessarily say that it was all that useful. Sure, the lecturers do try to encourage us to buy the textbooks, but the thing is that with the internet being all pervasive these days, I sort of wonder what the use of the text books actually are. Okay, there are probably subjects, like Law, where text books are imperative, and a part of me still feels that I maybe need to at least purchase them because I don’t really want to be caught in the situation where I need them but don’t have them. However, the fact that they become obsolete so quickly, and that new editions appear almost annually, with minor changes mind you, is also incredibly painful. Oh, and second hand bookshops (if they still exist) simply will not touch them with a 10 foot barge pole. Is there a text book scam out there? Yeah, there probably is, and in many cases it is just another burdern that students have to shoulder in their attempt to obtain marketable skills for the future.
September 11, 2010
(For some odd reason goodreads has this book as "Beginning PHP 6" when it actually is about 5.3)
I borrowed this book to rapidly get up to speed on PHP for a small project. PHP is a very easy language to learn when coming from other languages like C#.
I was glad to see the book cover some decent practices such as how to do Model-View-Controller (MVC) type patterns in PHP as well as unit testing via PHPUnit.
I borrowed this book to rapidly get up to speed on PHP for a small project. PHP is a very easy language to learn when coming from other languages like C#.
I was glad to see the book cover some decent practices such as how to do Model-View-Controller (MVC) type patterns in PHP as well as unit testing via PHPUnit.
March 18, 2014
PHP is an ugly language, although the author tried his best.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews