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PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites Book Review |
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Written by Don Lee
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Wednesday, 14 November 2007 |
When you’ve worked on as many sites as I have, you try to learn any
techniques to makes your web management job as easy as possible.
Nothing is more tedious and excruciatingly painful than working with
HTML code for layout and web design. Before your carpal tunnel syndrome
kicks in, you would probably benefit from taking a look at Peachpit
Press’ PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites.
This 692-page book contains absolutely everything possible about PHP and MySQL for the web. The 14 chapters are broken down
A Little PHP and MySQL in Your Web Design
There’s 14 large chapters in this book but thankfully the book begins with the most basic references in PHP. Even if you don’t know what “PHP” and “MySQL” stand for, you will soon learn. Here’s how the fourteen chapters break down.
Chapter one begins your introduction to PHP by demonstrating the basic syntax, how to send data to a web browser, variables, strings, numbers, constants and the difference between single and double. Chapter two will show you how all those programming elements make up a web page. You will learn how to create an HTML form, handling an HTML form, managing magic quotes, conditionals, operators, validating form data, arrays and loops. Chapter three shows how sticky forms, how to create and call your functions, variable scope, date and time functions and how to send email through your website.
Chapter four begins your introduction to MySQL. Here’s where you will learn the details of using this powerful language. Learn things such as choosing your column types and properties, using mySQL client, creating databases and tables, inserting records, selecting data, updating data and more.
Chapter five moves into the more complicated MySQL features such as database design, performing joins, grouping selected results, creating indexes, how to use different table types and how to optimize your database.
Chapter six is all about error handling and debugging. Learn about general error types, displaying errors, error reporting, creating error handlers, logging PHP errors, PHP debugging techniques and more. Chapter seven teaches you how to use PHP with MySQL. Learn to modify a template, executing simple queries, retrieve results, securing SQL, counting returned records and updating records using PHP.
Chapter eight covers web application development. Learn to send values to a script manually, edit existing records, figure out what HTTP headers are and learn how to adjust behavior for server settings. Chapter nine shows how to use cookies, how to use sessions and how to improve session security. Chapter ten covers web application security. Some of the topics covered include form validation, handling HTML, validating data, expressions, database security and encryption.
Chapter eleven covers some of the extra topics that didn’t fit anywhere else. Topics include file uploads, PHP and Javascript usage, output buffering, using PEAR. Chapter twelve is an example of how to create a content management system. Create the template, create basic pages and managing URLs and files.
Chapter thirteen shows how to create a user registration area for your website. Create templates, write configuration scripts, create a home page, registration, activate a account, password management and handling logging in and out. Chapter fourteen is an example of a e-commerce website. Learn to create the database, work the administrative side, create the public template, put a product catalog together, create a shopping cart and record orders.
The Final Word
Now I began with this book only understand a little about PHP and absolutely nothing about MySQL. After I got through this book, I definitely feel more confident about working with this technology in the future. Once you get through the first four chapters (covering the basic elements of PHP, MySQL and the intro to creating dynamic web sites), you will be ready for most of the obstacles that you’re going to find while doing your first project.
There’s a lot of content to read through but once you actually begin building the elements of your dynamic web site, you will really notice how this code functions and why people use it. You will probably find yourself at times screaming to get away from looking at PHP syntax but don’t break down. Take a deep breath, a nice walk outside then get right back into it. Don’t give up because if you can survive the first four chapters, then you should be fine for the remaining ten chapters.
Once you leave HTML web design behind and move to a more easily manageable way to run your website using PHP and MySQL, you will never go back to cleaning up all those orphaned HTML font and bold tags that I’m sure you spend time selecting and deleting from your hundreds of webpages. Just imagine yourself sitting in your office concentrating on generating content instead of the searching through individual HTML pages. With Peachpit Press’ PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites, that possibility will be a reality.
Click HERE to purchase PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites from Peachpit Press.
About PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites
With step-by-step instructions, complete scripts, and expert tips to guide readers, veteran author and database designer Larry Ullman gets right down to business: After grounding readers with separate discussions of first the scripting language (PHP) and then the database program (MySQL), he goes on to cover security, sessions and cookies, and using additional Web tools, with several sections devoted to creating sample applications. This guide is indispensable for Web designers who want to replace their static sites with something more dynamic. The companion Web site includes source code, support forums, and extra tutorials. In addition to being updated for the most recent releases of MySQL and PHP, this new edition offers 25% new material, including updated examples for improved clarity and comprehension and new installation instructions for PHP, MySQL, and other related technologies. You can learn about other Peachpit Press books at their website http://www.peachpit.com.
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