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PHP 5 Recipes
jsuda writes "
With all the books being published recently about PHP a new one will need to find
and fill a niche to distinguish itself. PHP 5 Recipes: A Problem-Solution
Approach, published by Apress, has done so, in my view. This is an intermediate-level
volume exploring PHP 5 using a recipe approach where the basics of
PHP 5's functionality are expressed systematically but in a small-topic
by small-topic manner. Cook-book style, each topic is relatively autonomous
and can be individually selected, as necessary, for information or review, similarly
to how many refer to the Joy of Cooking for help on a cooking project.
It's a source for instant solutions to common PHP-related problems. There are
over 200 such recipes presented." Read the rest of jsuda's review.
Php 5 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach
author
Lee Babin, Nathan Good, Frank M. Kronman, Jon Stephens
pages
646
publisher
Apress
rating
8
reviewer
John Suda
ISBN
1-59059-509-2
summary
A problem solving approach to Php 5
Each of these recipes refers to a small element or aspect of PHP 5 and the presentations contain a brief overview of the topic, an explanation of how the code elements work, and where the code is applicable in projects. Overall, the book covers the whole range of PHP 5 functionality where each major element of PHP 5 is addressed in a recipe explaining and illuminating relevant code elements. You can easily get information about a specific PHP 5 element by going directly to the section of the book where it appears. Even better, the code snippets are designed to allow one to copy and paste them into your own applications or development easily and then to configure them as necessary. All of the code snippets are freely available for downloading at the publisher's website at www.apress.com.
There are 16 chapters and an index covering a total of 646 pages. The chapters are organized similarly to other PHP primers, covering the basic elements of PHP - data types, operations, arrays, strings, variables, files and directories, dates and times, functions, and regular expressions. The coverage for much of these concepts is relatively mundane and unoriginal. The discussion of dynamic imaging, however, is an exception. The writing throughout, however, is solid and clear. The book emphasizes the most important elements of new PHP 5. The object-oriented programming elements especially are covered - classes, objects, protected class variables, exception handling, interfaces, and the new mysqli database extension. The authors' discussions focus on PHP 5.0.4, MySQL 4.1, and cover Linux and Windows environments.
The book is directed at PHP programmers looking to learn the elements introduced by PHP 5, and for those looking to find fast solutions to coding problems. It assumes a basic knowledge of PHP. Many of the recipes discuss object-oriented programming and these are some of the more advanced sections of the book. I can say that Chapter 2, which introduces the object-oriented concepts is one of the better explanations of the topic that I've read. The chapter covers constructors, destructors, methods and properties, class diagrams and examples of these concepts at work in code snippets. There are a number of interesting segments containing custom coding of classes as reusable templates from which to create objects.
The book is well-designed and written. The discussion is clear and logical. The code snippets are well-explained. The authors are experienced programmers and developers, and Good and Stephens have authored or co-authored a number of technical books.
A large handful of the recipes contain projects, usually appearing at the end of the overview and presentation of code snippets covering the basics of the topics. The projects usually deal with the creation of higher-end classes and objects as solutions to common coding problems. The idea here is to show PHP 5 functionality at work providing useful code sections to be dropped into your custom applications. Chapter Five concludes with a sophisticated class dealing with dates and times issues. Other chapters contain constructions of string, file, graphics, and regular expression classes.
The last five chapters deal with using the PHP code in web applications and services. This material covers cookies (including construction of a cookie class), using HTTP headers, sessions, and using query strings. Much of this material has been covered elsewhere in the many primers on PHP already published. There is a chapter on using forms and an interesting chapter on working with markup. The better chapters are on using DOM to generate markup, parsing XML, using RSS feeds, SOAP, and simple XML. The chapter on mysql is basic, except for the section on creating a wrapper class. The last chapter deals with communicating with Internet services, like POP, iMap, and FTP. Another project presented here is one creating object-oriented code dealing with a mail class.
This is a useful book to have in a programmer's library."
You can purchase Php 5 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Each of these recipes refers to a small element or aspect of PHP 5 and the presentations contain a brief overview of the topic, an explanation of how the code elements work, and where the code is applicable in projects. Overall, the book covers the whole range of PHP 5 functionality where each major element of PHP 5 is addressed in a recipe explaining and illuminating relevant code elements. You can easily get information about a specific PHP 5 element by going directly to the section of the book where it appears. Even better, the code snippets are designed to allow one to copy and paste them into your own applications or development easily and then to configure them as necessary. All of the code snippets are freely available for downloading at the publisher's website at www.apress.com.
There are 16 chapters and an index covering a total of 646 pages. The chapters are organized similarly to other PHP primers, covering the basic elements of PHP - data types, operations, arrays, strings, variables, files and directories, dates and times, functions, and regular expressions. The coverage for much of these concepts is relatively mundane and unoriginal. The discussion of dynamic imaging, however, is an exception. The writing throughout, however, is solid and clear. The book emphasizes the most important elements of new PHP 5. The object-oriented programming elements especially are covered - classes, objects, protected class variables, exception handling, interfaces, and the new mysqli database extension. The authors' discussions focus on PHP 5.0.4, MySQL 4.1, and cover Linux and Windows environments.
The book is directed at PHP programmers looking to learn the elements introduced by PHP 5, and for those looking to find fast solutions to coding problems. It assumes a basic knowledge of PHP. Many of the recipes discuss object-oriented programming and these are some of the more advanced sections of the book. I can say that Chapter 2, which introduces the object-oriented concepts is one of the better explanations of the topic that I've read. The chapter covers constructors, destructors, methods and properties, class diagrams and examples of these concepts at work in code snippets. There are a number of interesting segments containing custom coding of classes as reusable templates from which to create objects.
The book is well-designed and written. The discussion is clear and logical. The code snippets are well-explained. The authors are experienced programmers and developers, and Good and Stephens have authored or co-authored a number of technical books.
A large handful of the recipes contain projects, usually appearing at the end of the overview and presentation of code snippets covering the basics of the topics. The projects usually deal with the creation of higher-end classes and objects as solutions to common coding problems. The idea here is to show PHP 5 functionality at work providing useful code sections to be dropped into your custom applications. Chapter Five concludes with a sophisticated class dealing with dates and times issues. Other chapters contain constructions of string, file, graphics, and regular expression classes.
The last five chapters deal with using the PHP code in web applications and services. This material covers cookies (including construction of a cookie class), using HTTP headers, sessions, and using query strings. Much of this material has been covered elsewhere in the many primers on PHP already published. There is a chapter on using forms and an interesting chapter on working with markup. The better chapters are on using DOM to generate markup, parsing XML, using RSS feeds, SOAP, and simple XML. The chapter on mysql is basic, except for the section on creating a wrapper class. The last chapter deals with communicating with Internet services, like POP, iMap, and FTP. Another project presented here is one creating object-oriented code dealing with a mail class.
This is a useful book to have in a programmer's library."
You can purchase Php 5 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Do the examples show how to write solid, secure code?
Indeed, inexperienced programmers writing insecure code has plagued PHP for years now. Far too many PHP books that I have flipped through show very poor style. They don't verify the inputted data, for instance, before making a SQL query.
So while a professional, or even somebody with some level of experience, would see such an obvious problem, a beginner may not. And then the result is often a compromised server, a destroyed database, or some other shenanigans. Often times a problem with a user's PHP script ends up making other, completely innocent and unrelated projects (such as Apache or Linux) look to be at fault. That's not good for the image of the community.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Am I finally going to learn how to display "Hello World!"?
do.what.promptcmds
Many PHP books I've seen often include an SQL tutorial. Due to space constrains, it is often quite lacking and only focuses on using SQL, rather than designing efficient and well-planned databases. Such half-assed tutorials may often be very misleading to new PHP users.
I recall working with one web developer who learned PHP from such a book. We told him that we wanted to use PostgreSQL as the backend for our site, but he insisted on using MySQL, since that was the only system mentioned in the book he had bought. We no longer required his services after that show of incompetence.
Does this book try to cover topics such as SQL and database design, which should be covered in their own, separate book(s)? Does it specifically refer readers interested in such subjects to consult other sources of information?
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
I learned PHP using Kevin Yanks tutorials and articles 4 years ago. His books and tutorials are very easy to understand and use. His tutorials and articles can be read on http://sitepoint.com/
OMG why cant evryone juSt use teh Rubby on Raylls lol its teh fastest and generall bestest web-framewrok avaleabal. u can even use teh AJXA with it!!!!!1!
PHP is popular because it's easy to jump into and fairly easy to learn, not because it's an efficient stable development platform. PHP also has a history of security problems almost as long as Microsoft.
Indeed. A truer statement has rarely been stated.
From an engineering standpoint, PHP is abysmal. Many people will suggest otherwise, but they are often those who lack a formal education and background in designing secure, scalable, high-reliability software systems.
The Hardened-PHP project is a perfect example of what is wrong with PHP. It's not that the Hardened-PHP project itself is bad (it's a very good thing!). The problem is that the core PHP developers have not taken such basic security concerns into consideration. The fact that they have to rely on a third party to provide such integral and necessary functionality is a very bad sign.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Maybe /. can do a review of 'CLOSED TAGS FOR DUMMIES' next.
The term "Engineer" is, in most contexts, a priviledged term. Not just anybody can be labelled an "Engineer" until they've gone through some rigor.
Why not apply this idea to software? If there was a coalition or Union of workers, with a commonly agreed-upon set of requirements and certifications, with annual fees and a good reason to require a decent demonstration of competence? Something with real teeth, and ongoing certification requirements. Think, the Bar, only for software engineers instead of Attorneys. As with Real Estate, being a "Realtor" is a priviledged term.
If done right, it would be AWESOME to mention on a resume, and would likely become something like the Underwriter's Laboratories - a private entity, but one that's almost required by law simply because it's a reasonable assurance of safety.
There are a number of VENDOR certifications (EG: CCNE, RHCE, and the laughable MCSE, etc) but is there any platform-neutral, "This guy knows how to validate input and write qualifiable code" organization?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
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That has to be the worst argument I've ever seen. PHP doesn't pose many security problems, and those that it did does pose get fixed rapidly. The 'security risks' you see are due to 1) improper system administration and 2) badly written user code - neither of which can be blamed on PHP.
Your argument is goes something like this: "Because someone stabbed somoene else with a fork, we should rally together and make sure forks are banned from all households". You may as well form an anti-C coalition while you're at it, because there are a lot of insecure C applications out there. Perhaps we can get GCC removed from distrobutions as well.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
As opposed to say, perl, right?
/., while ignoring the fact most other languages really aren't any better.
While perl security has gotten better, it is still a problem. perl is still widely exploited, formmail.pl is one of the more infamous ones. lusers just download whatever script they find off the web and install it, and get quickly compromised.
Are the majority of perl users well versed in perl security? I doubt it.
What, you going to recommend people use C instead of PHP then? python? Even java has issues.
It's very fashionable, hip and trendy to bash PHP on
At the risk of getting off-topic, I've found Apress to be a reliable publisher, in terms of the quality of books they put out. The topics have been interesting, the knowledge useful, and the text easy to read. It's the only publisher whose books I'd buy just on name recognition.
Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. - John 14:6 NLT
Ridiculous anti-PHP bullshit. There are numerous articles on achieving security with PHP and other similar server-side scripting platforms.
.NET.
What's really going on here is that due to PHP's clear popularity, not only with newbies, but with many serious programmers, is a backlash from programmers trying to defend their current bloated 'kings', such as Java or
I've had enough of reading this crap.
All programs are as good as their programmers, no matter what platform they are utilizing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
In what way? Failing to check inputs before passing them on to a database or other module is an application, not a language, problem. You claim that there are "numerous security issues found in PHP" - please, describe them. I haven't found it to be any more insecure by nature than C, C++, Perl, etcetera...indeed I'd say it's easier to write reasonably secure code in PHP than in C or C++.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood