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Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP

By Quentin Zervaas

Want to assert yourself as a cutting–edge PHP web developer? Take a practical approach...

Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8

By David Powers

Media: Book (Paperback, 530 pages)
ISBN: 1590595696
Publisher: friends of ED
Release Date: Dec 19, 2005

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Product Description

In this book, youll learn how to:

Install, configure, and troubleshoot a testing environment with PHP/MySQL and Apache or IIS
Learn the fundamentals of PHP and good database design
Use Dreamweaver 8 server behaviors to create robust dynamic applications that validate user input for greater security and reliability
Incorporate live XML feeds into your web pages with PHP and Dreamweaver 8s new XSL Transformation server behavior
Download and apply a suite of custom-built PHP functions designed exclusively for this book

Want to add the power of a database to your websites? Build online forms that send feedback straight to your inbox? Incorporate live news feeds and XML data into your web pages? This book shows you how to do all that and more. Dreamweaver 8 takes a lot of the hard work out of integrating a database into your websites, but it cant do everything. So instead of just giving you a series of instructions to click this and click that, this book helps you understand whats going on in the background. As a result, youre more likely to remember and to get it right. Most books on PHP concentrate on code and throw all design considerations out the window. This one is different. It makes use of Dreamweaver 8s vastly improved CSS rendering, and shows you how to build a site thats smart in both senses of the word. It looks good and is intelligent too. Youll learn how to change the entire look of the site, using PHP to serve up different stylesheets each month. Youll also build a contact form protected against email injection attacks. All of Dreamweavers PHP server behaviors are put through their paces, and youll even make some custom server behaviors that will come in useful on any site you create. Two chapters take you through the setup process with step-by-step instructions for both Windows and Mac OS X, helping you make the right choices: Apache or IIS? Remote or local testing? There are even instructions on how to set up virtual hosts on your own computer. And in the unlikely event that things go wrong, theres plenty of troubleshooting advice too. In this book we look specifically at using Dreamweaver's built-in server behaviors to build dynamic web sites using PHP and MySQL, the worlds most popular open source server-side language and database server combination, which are both reliable, powerful, and open source (and therefore free to use!) This latest version of Dreamweaver includes more powerful support for PHP and MySQL than ever before, and we'll show you how to make this work for you. No previous experience of PHP or MySQL is necessary to use this book. Examples built throughout the book include a content management system, and an online image gallery. All examples are designed to meet modern usability requirements and be web standards compliant. Summary of Contents:

Introduction
Chapter 1: So, You Want to Build Dynamic Sites?
Chapter 2: Dreamweaver and PHPA Productive Partnership
Chapter 3: Getting the Work Environment Ready
Chapter 4: Getting Ready for the Case Study
Chapter 5: Integrating PHP into Your Site
Chapter 6: Getting Feedback from an Online Form
Chapter 7: Putting the Power of a Database
Chapter 8: Building a Random Quotation Generator
Chapter 9: Working with Multiple Tables
Chapter 10: Using Sessions to Track
Chapter 11: Displaying a Blog and Photo Gallery
Chapter 12: Using XSLT to Display Live News Feeds and XML
Appendix A: Using Languages Other Than English in MySQL
Appendix B: Essential MySQL Maintenance
Index

David Powers is the man!

This book is written very clearly and is really easy to follow. I've learned a lot of other really useful stuff than just the PHP content, things that I now realise I should have been taught by the official Dreamweaver 8 book, but weren't. The PHP content for which I bought this book is fantastic - much better than another generic PHP/MySQL I have read, as this is tailored to the Dreamweaver 8 environment which takes a lot of the guessing out of the equation. This book is written by and for people who use Dreamweaver 8 in a practical situation. I'm still less than half way through my book and already feel like I've learned much more than I expected. Highly recommended. I'll be checking out Mr Powers' other books when I finish this one. Thanks David Powers, you're a genius!

Submitted 12 Dec 2007

Excellent book to set up dynamic pages in Dreamweaver using php

I am a frontpage user that has set up static pages in a web site. I needed to move from static pages to dynamic pages using a database. I couldn't use PHP with FrontPage so I switched to Dreamweaver and needed a book that covered both dynamic pages and Dreamwaver. This book walked me through setting up the environment to have Dreamweaver work with Apache, PHP, MySQL and phpMyAdmin. I am completely non-technical so these areas were beyond my comfort zone but the book walked me through it very successfully. It then took me through CSS styles, setting up an online feedback form, setting up my first database and tying it into Dreamweaver. It also showed how to insert, delete and maintain records in order to keep the database up to date. This was an excellent book for a non-techie as it didn't take any knowledge for granted.

Submitted 31 Oct 2007

If 4.5 stars were an option, I'd go with that

This is a very good book for learning PHP, and surprisingly, most of the examples work right out of the book as he's written them, which seems rare for a programming book these days. The projects that he has you complete are highly relevant to what you'd actually be doing with PHP, and that makes it even better.

The only trouble I had with this book was that he sure packed a lot of information into each chapter, and he didn't use the sidebars as much as I would have hoped. It's easy enough to follow along with the examples the first time, but if you want to go back again and figure out how he programmed a small detail, you'll never find it unless you reread the whole chapter again. All it would have taken was a few little bullets here and there in the margins to point out some of the off-topic stuff that was going on in the examples, and the book would be much more functional as a reference. As it stands, I probably will have to get a whole new book for that purpose.

Also, the support on this book is phenomenal. I missed a small detail in Chapter 6 that caused my script to fail, and when I posted on the book's message board, I had a reply from the author in less than a day. That's a really cool added bonus.

Submitted 13 Oct 2007

Disappointed and which I could return it

This man makes a promise of a written format that can be followed. The writtng is NOT CLEAR and leaves much to the readers imagination of to what exactly the format should be. There is no CD so that you can see how the step by step process works. He names his files but does not show the real differences between how he is set up and how you can set up to fit your needs. I waisted my money. He claims in the book there is support which at best is terrible.

The worst book I have ever bought on coding. If I were you try another writter.

Submitted 26 Sep 2007

Informative though somewhat disorganized

This is a good book. It teaches many useful techniques and how lots of "how to" ideas. However, the faux site that is created isn't goal oriented which left me feeling like the book was just a collection of random things to do. It seemed disorganized at times when you would or wouldn't create another page from scratch vs. revamping one you had already made. It was not always clear why you would be better to take one approach vs. the other. Setting up the localhost environment was somewhat confusing, though not too bad.

I will definitely use it frequently. Good information, good book, good deal.

Submitted 19 Sep 2007