Essential PHP Tools: Modules, Extensions and AcceleratorsBy David Sklar
Published 2004 by Apress
I've never been a fan of the phrase "don't reinvent the wheel," but it turns out I am a big fan of David Sklar's book, Essential PHP Tools: Modules, Extensions and Accelerators. I knew the first time I held it that I was holding something exciting. Sklar has written an excellent book introducing the intermediate PHP programmer to some of the many PHP add-ons and classes that can help avoid wheel reinvention and make programming easier.
Published by Apress, the book consists of 13 chapters sectioned into 5 parts. The first part discusses PEAR::DB and ADODB, two abstraction layers which can be used to interface with various databases. The second part details HTML_QuickForm and Smarty, two packages aimed at assisting with HTML generation.
Part three explores parsing and using XML in PHP and covers the XML-RPC and SOAP modules and SimpleXML. Part Four focuses on such network tasks as sending email and authenticating users by covering Mail, Mail_mime, Auth and Auth_HTTP.
Finally, part five provides an overview of the internal workings of PHP and how it tokenizes and processes a script, and then reviews debugging, caching and optimizing your PHP code.
While not all the modules covered were part of the PHP Extensions and Applications Repository, many were and so Sklar also covered the installation and use of the PEAR Package Manager.
The book rightfully bills itself as an essential guide to some of the best free add-ons to PHP. It does a great service to the PHP community by documenting many useful modules that have only been lightly documented.
Sklar's writing is clear, concise and accurate. I enjoyed reading through the sections that covered extensions I'm already familiar with and learning about new ones I wasn't. I stayed up clear past my "bedtime" several nights while implementing the covered modules in my program, unable to pull myself away.
It's also nice that this book is written for both PHP 4 and 5; with a forward mindset, one doesn't have to worry about the content going stale in 6 months.
The book is a definite recommendation for intermediate to advanced programmers both as a text and as a reference. It certainly has earned itself a spot on my frequently-used bookshelf!
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
More PHP Book Reviews Articles
More By bluephoenix
developerWorks - FREE Tools! |
You probably have thousands of lines of COBOL code loaded with business intelligence and being used to run your business, along with an army of developers maintaining these applications. Learn how to prepare your applications and developers so you can keep that competitive edge and move to a service-oriented architecture with the IBM Rational Enterprise Modernization solutions. Replay is available for 9 months. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Download the IBM WebSphere Portal V6.1 beta code and learn more about the rich features and enhancements in IBM WebSphere Portal V6.1. WebSphere Portal provides a composite application or business mashup framework and the advanced tooling needed to build flexible, SOA-based solutions, and scalability to meet the needs of any size organization. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Visit IBM developerWorks to download a free trial of the Rational Host Access Transformation Services (HATS) Toolkit. The HATS toolkit provides a set of plug-ins for the IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform to help you easily extend your legacy applications. HATS makes your 3270 and 5250 applications available as HTML through the most popular Web browsers, while converting your host screens to a Web look and feel and it also enables you to develop new Web, portal, and rich-client applications. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
In this tutorial, you can learn how to install and configure the IBM Rational Asset Manager Eclipse client, explore the different views in the Asset Management perspective, learn various search techniques, work with existing assets, and submit a new asset. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Analysts, architects, and developers who have existing COBOL or PL/I skills and want to extend those skills to deploy new workloads on the mainframe can use the IBM Enterprise Modernization Sandbox for System z to find hands-on walkthroughs of common real world scenarios. The scenarios provide examples of how to rapidly design, create, assemble, test, and deploy high-quality Web, Web services, portal, and SOA applications for IBM CICS, IBM IMS, and IBM WebSphere Application Server. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Portfolio Management is about effectively managing portfolio value by aligning portfolio investments with business goals. This complimentary e-kit provides a collection of materials that can help you understand how IBM Rational enables and automates best practices for improved governance and clear visibility into portfolio and project performance across the entire IT project lifecycle. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Join this Rational Talks to You teleconference on November 29 at 1:00 pm ET to participate in an interactive discusssion with Grady Booch around architecture and reuse. Get your questions answered! FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Get a free trial download of the latest version of IBM Rational Method Composer V7.2 which helps you deliver customized yet consistent process guidance to your project teams and IT organization, and includes the latest version of IBM Rational Unified Process (RUP), which has provided process guidance to teams since 1996. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
As businesses grow increasingly dependent upon Web applications, these complex entities grow more difficult to secure. Most companies equip their Web sites with firewalls, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and network and host security, but the majority of attacks are on applications themselves – and these technologies cannot prevent them. This paper explains what you can do to help protect your organization, and it discusses an approach for improving your organization’s Web application security. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
IBM Lotus Notes 8 provides a wide range of developers the ability to provide customized, integrated user interfaces via composite applications and via custom sidebar and toolbar plug-ins. This webcast provides you with tips and techniques to use with out-of-the-box capabilities of Lotus Notes 8, and survey how you can share useful components within your own company and within a larger community. FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
All FREE IBM® developerWorks Tools! |