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PHP Cookbook
The approach that the authors use in PHP Cookbook is great. Like most computer books, the authors usually include a summary (in sentence forms) to illustrate what the readers will expect in each chapter. Skalar and Trachtenberg take this even further by including some preliminary (code) examples to explain the general ideas behind each chapters. The examples in the book are self-contained. In most cases, I've found examples to exactly fit my needs -- this makes it one of the better reference books.
Each chapter in the book is divided into multiple sections of Problem / Solution / Discussion with a FAQ style. In each case, a simple description of a problem is followed by a PHP script as the solution. But the meat is actually in the discussions: in-depth details are included here, where the authors also include references, extended ideas, and scripts to inform the readers how much more they can do about the issue.
For example, I was going to add a simple script to my website to parse RSS/RDF files from certain news websites (CNN, Slashdot, ...), and use it as my Mozilla homepage. (Who wouldn't?) This script seems to be simple, but I may make a mistake here and there. As reference, I opened up the book to the section "Parsing XML with SAX." Then I realized the authors already had the script to parse RSS/RDF files in the discussion. Bravo!
For myself, the most useful chapters I found are: Web Basics, Forms, Database Access, and XML. There are also good examples in topics such as security, internationalization, and file processing/management. However, this book does not cover the basics of PHP. If you are a good programmer, you should be able to get away with this using the PHP Manual. A good book to learn PHP is Programming PHP, also by O'Reilly.
Although this book covers a wide range of topics, it does not cover topics like generating PDFs. I would also like to see the authors add one (maybe two) case studies in later editions. That would give the reader a more concrete example of how to combine tricks presented by this book. Other than that, at the price of $39.95 (or $61.95 CAD), this book is a great buy!
Topics
- Strings
- Numbers
- Dates and Times
- Arrays
- Variables
- Functions
- Classes and Objects
- Web Basics - available online as example chapter
- Forms
- Database Access
- Web Automation
- XML
- Regular Expressions
- Encryption and Security
- Graphics
- Internationalization and Localization
- Internet Services
- Files
- Directories
- Client-Side PHP
- PEAR
You can purchase the PHP Cookbook from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Not to be confused with "PHP Developer's Cookbook" (ISBN: 0672323257 - Publisher: Pearson Education) which is a very well regarded reference for PHP. Just wanted to avoid confusion and suggest the book at the same time. There seems to be a flood of PHP/MySQL books out there, or people are just getting around to reviewing them....not sure.
From the adobe website:
"An open file format specification, PDF is available to anyone who wants to develop tools to create, view, or manipulate PDF documents."
The actual document specification for PDF is open. Adobe just happened to not only create the format, but also make the most popular PDF reader and writer (the Acrobat series.) There are, however, free alternatives such as Ghostscript that generate great PDFs from a Postscript file (which you can generate from any program in Windows just by checking the "Print to File" box on a Postscript printer.)
If you're interested in generating PDFs from PHP, there are a myriad of options available by searching Google. Some web hosting companies also support generating PDFs from PHP, which makes generating PDFs a cinch.
HTH!
Simpli - Your source for San Jose dedicated servers and colocation!
... does anyone really know the original intent of perl? I guess that's like trying to find the oringal intent for ducK tape (and no, don't say to seal off ventilation ducts, coz that's what they'd have you believe.)?
;)
Duck tape was invented during WWII by Johnson+Johnson for the purpose keeping water out of ammunition cases -- it was relatively waterproof, hence the reason people in the military started calling it "duck tape."
You should try watching the History Channel more often.
My journal has hot
1) consistant database integration - Why not have a SetDBType() function, rather than hardcoding mysql_connect, mssql_connect, myodbc_connect, pgqsl_connect, etc?
.NET support?
I believe there is a PEAR package that abstracts an OO layer over the functions to various databases. Think DBI for PHP.
2) Native XML support - It's just not there? Why re-invent the wheel each time? Give us a good XML tree-walking engine DAMMIT!
Natvie XML support is there. A SAX parser is usually built in by default. I'm happily using a DOM XML interface that I compiled into my version.
3) sane and consistant functions. Single quotes, double quotes, some functions work with both, some work with one or the other, embedded html in an echo screws up if you don't double quote it, etc.
Quotes in PHP do work in a sane and consistent way, very similar to the way they work in PERL. The only thing I mourn is the lack of a qq[-like facility (and I wouldn't be surprised if someone snuck it in while I wasn't looking, and I just didn't know about it).
4)
Um.... why?
Tweet, tweet.
PHP actually is not a language. PHP is an engine for embedded scripting languages in markup documents. Zend is the scripting language that most people generalize as "PHP", but any other scripting language could also be developed and used with the PHP engine.
You have that ass-backwards. PHP is the language, Zend, the engine. Any other scripting language could be developed and used with the Zend engine.
Mike van Lammeren
It will challenge your head, your brain, and your mind.