PHP Cookbook

This is my first O'Reilly book in the "Cookbook" series. At first I thought this book would probably contain the code and instructions for building a couple of web applications such as a shopping cart or a blog engine. This isn't that book. Rather it provides the reader with code snippets that can be used as building blocks for all kinds of applications. If I had to describe this book in one sentence I would say it is as if the author took down all the "Hmm..., I wonder how that is done?" questions and created an answer key. One thing I like about this book is that the authors don't waste the first few chapters trying to teach or give an overview of the language. Instead they hop right into the usage of the language that relates to real world stuff. So here is a brief overview. The book covers PHP 5 and goes over many of the new and improved features. The first six chapters provide recipes for more basic subjects (strings, numbers, dates & times, arrays, variables, and functions. Again, this isn't an intro to PHP, that is another book such as Programming PHP from O'Reilly. This is that book you reach for once you have moved from PHP basics and are ready to build some real world stuff. By chapter seven the authors are discussing classes and objects. I like using classes when coding in C++, so this is a good chapter for those who like OOP. The next nine chapters go over web stuff starting out with basic things like cookies, forms, and databases. Then the authors go into more advanced areas like session management, XML, automation and web services (REST, SOAP, Mail, FTP, LDAP, and DNS to name a few). The next chapter [17] is on the topic of graphics. This is a cool chapter if you like to create dynamic images. Things like creating a button image on the fly, or generating charts. Graphics are great to have a knowledge of because everyone likes graphical presentation of data and this chapter can help you get there. Chapter 18 is on security and encryption which I found rather helpful. No one wants there web application to be the link that allows data to be compromised, and this chapter deals with many of those problem areas. Chapter 19 covers localization, chapter 20 is on debugging and testing. The debugging section does a great job of getting a person setup with the tools they need to properly debug an application including creating your own exception class. This is an outstanding chapter that every programmer can appreciate since every application needs debugging. The remaining chapters cover performance tuning, regular expressions, files, directories, command line PHP, PERL and PECL. Being a Perl guy I found it interesting to see how the authors utilized regular expressions in PHP. And the chapter on command-line PHP was outstanding; I thought the recipe for creating a PHP command shell was pretty cool. CONCLUSION -- This book is like having the answer key to most of the random questions a person comes up with when writin

I have never written a review before, but I felt that I needed to put my 5-star vote in as my small token of thanks to the authors. So here it goes: I have dabbled in PHP for a few months now, but am developing a php/mysql app for the first time. I refer to this book every single day. It's my favorite Oracle. I ask, it answers: "How do I $MyDailyQuestion?" "See page $MyDailyAnswer." Sure puts a smile on my face! This book does not make me read through pages and pages of code and explanation. Just enough code snippets and the most insightful reminders to help me solve my daily how-do-I's. It also tells you where to look up further info for each function/feature on-line. I think you would love this book as much as I do if: - you are somewhere between PHP super-newbie and super-master - you have a pretty solid background in some other language - you are using PHP now and have problems to solve everyday - you learn well from small examples - your vision starts to blur when presented with long chapters My thanks to authors Sklar and Trachtenberg! Happy hunting.

This book has been a lifesaver for me. As is the case with all those in the Cookbook series, this book is filled with practical examples. This isn't a tutorial book, but honestly, this book combined with the online docs were all I needed to build my own web site based around PHP. I definitely encourage you to buy this book if you're hoping to learn PHP!

An excellent cookbook, following the old O'Reilly's tradition in the field. The recipes are clean, concise and elegant; the authors try to solve real world, common problems. Unlike other outdated books, the code is designed with PHP 4.2 or above in mind. A valuable asset for any developer, it assumes a decent understanding of PHP

There's really no other way to describe "The PHP Cookbook" than to point out that Trachtenberg and Sklar are obvious experts in their fields. Easy to read, concise and simple to understand, this coding cookbook provides a soup-to-nuts approach to PHP. With just an average understanding of computer code and the will to learn an exciting new approach, "The PHP Cookbook" is a choice guide for those interested.