PHP and MySQL Web Development

By Laura Thomson and Luke Welling

Book Overview

PHP and MySQL Web Development, Fifth Edition The definitive guide to building database-driven Web applications with PHP and MySQL
PHP and MySQL are popular open-source technologies that are ideal for quickly developing database-driven Web applications. PHP is a powerful scripting language designed to enable developers to create highly featured Web applications quickly, and MySQL is a fast, reliable database that integrates well with PHP and is suited for dynamic Internet-based applications.
PHP and MySQL Web Development shows how to use these tools together to produce effective, interactive Web applications. It clearly describes the basics of the PHP language, explains how to set up and work with a MySQL database, and then shows how to use PHP to interact with the database and the server.
This practical, hands-on book consistently focuses on real-world applications, even in the introductory chapters. The authors cover important aspects of security and authentication as they relate to building a real-world website and show you how to implement these aspects in PHP and MySQL. They also introduce you to the integration of front-end and back-end technologies by using JavaScript in your application development.
The final part of this book describes how to approach real-world projects and takes the reader through the design, planning, and building of several projects, including: User authentication and personalization Web-based email Social media integration Shopping cart The fifth edition of PHP and MySQL Web Development has been thoroughly updated, revised, and expanded to cover developments in PHP through versions 5.6 and 7, as well as features introduced in recent stable releases of MySQL.
Free Access to Web Edition
Purchase of this book in any format, electronic or print, includes free access to the corresponding Web Edition. The Web Edition can be viewed on all types of computers and mobile devices with any modern web browser that supports HTML5. Contents at a Glance
Part I: Using PHP 1 PHP Crash Course 2 Storing and Retrieving Data 3 Using Arrays 4 String Manipulation and Regular Expressions 5 Reusing Code and Writing Functions 6 Object-Oriented PHP 7 Error and Exception Handling
Part II: Using MySQL 8 Designing Your Web Database 9 Creating Your Web Database 10 Working with Your MySQL Database 11 Accessing Your MySQL Database from the Web with PHP 12 Advanced MySQL Administration 13 Advanced MySQL Programming
Part III: Web Application Security 14 Web Application Security Risks 15 Building a Secure Web Application 16 Implementing Authentication Methods with PHP
Part IV: Advanced PHP Techniques 17 Interacting with the File System and the Server 18 Using Network and Protocol Functions 19 Managing the Date and Time 20 Internationalization and Localization 21 Generating Images 22 Using Session Control in PHP 23 Integrating JavaScript and PHP 24 Other Useful Features
Part V: Building Practical PHP and MySQL Projects 25 Using PHP and MySQL for Large Projects 26 Debugging and Logging 27 Building User Authentication and Personalization 28 (PDF with Product Registration) Building a Web-Based Email Client with Laravel Part I 29 (PDF with Product Registration) Building a Web-Based Email Client with Laravel Part II 30 (PDF with Product Registration) Social Media Integration Sharing and Authentication 31 (PDF with Product Registration) Building a Shopping Cart
Part VI: Appendix A Installing Apache, PHP, and MySQL

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321833899
• ISBN13: 9780321833891
• Release Date: September 2016
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Length: 688 Pages
• Weight: 2.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 7.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

One book to start our company

I am an above-average computer user, who has been mostly living in the Windows world. Recently, my friends and I have decided to create a business -- an e-commerce business. We knew nothing about how to do that. We are all electrical engineers, and are good at programming -- but have never really been concerned with how a website operates from the developer's standpoint. I purchased this book out of the blue -- based on the ratings it had and the sheer number of pages (I know that's lame but I'm being honest). This book has single-handedly enabled us to start our e-commerce website. I have since configured my backup machine into a linux server, and have PHP, MySQL, and Apache running on it flawlessly. I haven't even got to chapter 12 yet, and I already have the database and the online applications up and running. The real value of this book to me is the knowledge that other books take for granted. For example, in the appendix there is a complete how-to that describes where to get the PHP, MySQL, and Apache downloads, what versions to get, and how to install (and configure them) them both in linux and Windows. This information was critical. I needed the "enter this command to do this task" kind of guidance, as opposed to the "do this task" alternative I find in other books. In the sections regarding the PHP syntax, it makes a clear distinction between the new features of PHP5 versus PHP4, and how to use the older versions if need be. As someone who is just learning the PHP language -- this also was very valuable information. In a little more than a week, I went from a Windows XP user, to a linux server administrator writing (and debugging) PHP/MySQL applications who is able to answer server/database/PHP questions asked by my business partners. I highly recommend this book.

I like this book

I am a self-taught web developer. I've got quite a collection of books. So I'm picky about writing style and good teaching techniques. (i.e.: hate `friend's of ed') I learned the basics of Php from Wrox beginning Php and professional Php, but didn't get to finish the later because of having to use Php on a project that lasted over a year. I use the Php manual all of the time, but I am also using this book to find some of the details I may have missed and more elegant techniques I want to learn. So far I really like it. I can skim the stuff I know about and take note of some things I need to get better at. I do think that if you were a complete rookie, a beginner book before this one would be helpful. This book reads well and is very clear with good teaching techniques.

Sams vs. O'Reilly PHP & MySQL books: Which one to buy?

I have just started learning some PHP & MySQL development using "PHP & MySQL Web Development" published by Sams and "Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL" from O'Reilly. Prospective readers might be wondering the difference between the two in deciding which one to buy, so I hope to shed some light on the issue.Sams: The Welling and Thomson book is more "hands-on" in that it takes the reader step-by-step in developing an e-commerce website. The chapters are organized in a goal-oriented manner: PHP, MySQL, the basics of e-commerce, security, and design of the site.O'Reilly: The Williams and Lane book is structured in a similar way by showing readers PHP and then MySQL. Examples to reinforce concepts are also provided. While the O'Reilly book also tries to take the reader in developing an e-commerce site, it is a bit more theoretical. Also, there are some differences in focus: the O'Reilly book has a section on using JavaScript while the Sams book has a final chapter on creating PDF files using PHP.If I had to choose just one book, I would go with the Sams book due to its more gentle learning curve. However, I believe that the O'Reilly book is no slouch, and I will probably come to appreciate it more once I gain more experience in PHP and MySQL development.One last word about my programming background: I knew a bit of Perl, Java, HTML, and JavaScript before tackling PHP and MySQL. I consider myself to be an "advanced beginner" (an oxymoron, of course). To get the most out of these two books, you should know HTML well enough to read it (you should at least recognize some tags) and it would definitely be helpful if you have some programming experience. You could very well make PHP your first programming language, but I would advise against it. Start with something like Perl (whose syntax is very similar to PHP's).I highly recommend both books to prospective PHP and MySQL developers who are willing to spend some time and effort.

sleek and purple

Although it has a purple spine, this book contains everything a person would hope to know about php and mysql. From the basics of php 4.0 to mysql privleges, Welling and Thomson provide quick easy and painless reading.It provides it's message to the windows crowd, which in itself is a beautiful concept; usually books about php and mysql are directed at unix users (rightfully so, I admit). I am a user of windows, and the php installation instructions for either the windows build of Apache or MS IIS were definately adequate.The php crash course chapter is an especially good reference. For example, other books I've purchased on php ignored some of the useful variations of the if-then control structure. The chapter on php session control was beautifully simple, although at first it came as a surprise, since other php books didn't cover it (session control was first implemented in php 4.0).I did have some difficulty installing and using the gd image library, since most of the sites listed in the book didn't exist. Windows users, just remember that the php.ini file needs to be edited (remove the semicolon before the gd dll) and the gd dll needs to be moved into the php working directory. Of course, maybe that's intuitive and I'm just a moron.In conclusion, it's a good book.

Complete resource for practical PHP/MySQL Web applications

This is such a good book that I wanted to take the time to write a review and give it 5 stars, which it richly deserves. The other glowing reviews helped me to choose this book over others, and they were right on the money.I'm an experienced C/C++ programmer on Windows, but I knew nothing about PHP and MySQL -- and very little about Apache and Unix -- prior to opening this book. I've now read about 80% of it and, in the process, I've built a commercial-grade Website with user registration and shopping cart facilities, which was my objective. Reading this book was a very efficient use of my time -- it gave me exactly what I needed to build a practical Web application system with PHP and MySQL, and very little extraneous stuff.The main prerequisite for this book is a working knowledge of HTML, and just a little background in procedural programming. Some of the earliest examples use HTML tags for tables and forms, with PHP use thoroughly explained, but without many notes on the HTML. A beginning programmer can learn effectively from this book, but as an experienced programmer I felt that it also worked well to bring me up to speed quickly on a new language.Another value of this book not mentioned in other reviews are the many good recommendations for organizing your PHP code (applying basic software engineering principles) as your Web application gets larger and more complex. Many, many Websites have been built haphazardly and are now difficult to maintain because they haven't followed the excellent advice in this book.I did notice the typos mentioned by other reviewers, but after reading 80% of this (867-page) book I feel they are very minor and really do not detract from the book significantly at all.All in all, this is one of those rare books that is probably worth ten times the amount that you pay for it, and much more if you use it effectively.