Programming PHP

PHP is a simple yet powerful open-source scripting language for creating dynamic web content. The millions of web sites powered by PHP are testament to its popularity and ease of use. PHP is used by both programmers, who appreciate its flexibility and speed, and web designers, who value its accessibility and convenience. Programming PHP is an authoritative guide to PHP 4 and is filled with the unique knowledge of the creator of PHP, Rasmus Lerdorf. This book explains PHP language syntax and programming techniques in a clear and concise manner, with numerous examples that illustrate both correct usage and common idioms. The book also includes style tips and practical programming advice that will help you become not just a PHP programmer, but a good PHP programmer. Programming PHP covers everything you need to know to create effective web applications with PHP. Contents include:

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• Detailed information on the basics of the PHP language, including data types, variables, operators, and flow control statements
• Separate chapters on the fundamental topics of functions, strings, arrays, and objects
• Coverage of common PHP web application techniques, such as form processing and validation, session tracking, and cookies
• Material on interacting with relational databases, such as MySQL and Oracle, using the database-independent PEAR DB library
• Chapters on generating dynamic images, creating PDF files, and parsing XML files with PHP
• Advanced topics, like creating secure script, error handling, performance tuning, and writing your own C language extensions to PHP
• A handy quick reference to all the core functions in PHP and all the standard extensions that ship with PHP

1. Introduction to PHP
1. What Does PHP Do?
2. A Brief History of PHP
3. Installing PHP
4. A Walk Through PHP
2. Language Basics
1. Lexical Structure
2. Data Types
3. Variables
4. Expressions and Operators
5. Flow-Control Statements
6. Including Code
7. Embedding PHP in Web Pages
3. Functions
1. Calling a Function
2. Defining a Function
3. Variable Scope
4. Function Parameters
5. Return Values
6. Variable Functions
7. Anonymous Functions
4. Strings
1. Quoting String Constants
2. Printing Strings
3. Accessing Individual Characters
4. Cleaning Strings
5. Encoding and Escaping
6. Comparing Strings
7. Manipulating and Searching Strings
8. Regular Expressions
9. POSIX-Style Regular Expressions
10. Perl-Compatible Regular Expressions
5. Arrays
1. Indexed Versus Associative Arrays
2. Identifying Elements of an Array
3. Storing Data in Arrays
4. Multidimensional Arrays
5. Extracting Multiple Values
6. Converting Between Arrays and Variables
7. Traversing Arrays
8. Sorting
9. Acting on Entire Arrays
10. Using Arrays
6. Objects
1. Terminology
2. Creating an Object
3. Accessing Properties and Methods
4. Declaring a Class
5. Introspection
6. Serialization
7. Web Techniques
1. HTTP Basics
2. Variables
3. Server Information
4. Processing Forms
5. Setting Response Headers
6. Maintaining State
7. SSL
8. Databases
1. Using PHP to Access a Database
2. Relational Databases and SQL
3. PEAR DB Basics
4. Advanced Database Techniques
5. Sample Application
9. Graphics
1. Embedding an Image in a Page
2. The GD Extension
3. Basic Graphics Concepts
4. Creating and Drawing Images
5. Images with Text
6. Dynamically Generated Buttons
7. Scaling Images
8. Color Handling
10. PDF
1. PDF Extensions
2. Documents and Pages
3. Text
4. Images and Graphics
5. Navigation
6. Other PDF Features
11. XML
1. Lightning Guide to XML
2. Generating XML
3. Parsing XML
4. Transforming XML with XSLT
5. Web Services
12. Security
1. Global Variables and Form Data
2. Filenames
3. File Uploads
4. File Permissions
5. Concealing PHP Libraries
6. PHP Code
7. Shell Commands
8. Security Redux
13. Application Techniques
1. Code Libraries
2. Templating Systems
3. Handling Output
4. Error Handling
5. Performance Tuning
14. Extending PHP
1. Architectural Overview
2. What You'll Need
3. Building Your First Extensions
4. The config.m4 File
5. Memory Management
6. The pval/zval Data Type
7. Parameter Handling
8. Returning Values
9. References
10. Global Variables
11. Creating Variables
12. Extension INI Entries
13. Resources
14. Where to Go from Here
15. PHP on Windows
1. Installing and Configuring PHP on Windows
2. Writing Portable Code for Windows and Unix
3. Interfacing with COM
4. Interacting with ODBC Data Sources

1. Function Reference
2. Extension Overview

The definitive guide to PHP. Well-structured and an easy read.