Useful resources and books for anyone who wants to learn PHP and mySQL

[freakysid]

OK - I culled a lot of stuff from this thread, including some of the nice warm and fuzzy statements thanking those that have contributed to date, as well as the stuff that was just way OT

Feel free to continue to post informative links or full references of books or other resources. However, if you want to discuss an issue, it may be better off in a new (non-sticky) thread.

[johnn]

PHP and Windoze
A site http://php4win.com/ - resources for php running on Windows. I think they may have php interacts with .net tutorial comming soon..

There is a book "PHP Programming for Windows" at amazon.com

[ckchin]

Are you too lazy to come up with regular expressions?
Check this one

http://regexlib.com/Default.aspx

[ckchin]

PHP and OOP

This site has a whole section for oop
www.phpbuilder.com

http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/...lass/page1.html
http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/...lass/page1.html
http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/...lass/page1.html
http://www.webmasterbase.com/article/662
http://www.zend.com/zend/tut/tutorial-johnson.php
http://www.zend.com/zend/tut/class-intro.php

by: Maelstrom

[TheDude]

Funny this wasn't mentioned:
"programming in php"
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/progphp/
Read the sample chapter on arrays!


useful installation instructions WAMP (Windows / Apache / MYSQL / PHP)

http://www.phpug.ch/pdf/anleitungen/wamp/phpugwamp.pdf
(only in german!!!)

[been]

English is not my native tongue, nor pen, so 'sowwy in advance' for any mistakes...

I've just finished the Wrox 'Professional PHP programming' and I must say that, although I've learned some things from it, the title is kind of misleading...

There are some errors in the writing, but what bothered me the most, was that it didn't seem that 'professional' to me, this critique, of course is not towards the writers (I suppose they are quite professional), but to the book itself.

For example, I've read nothing about time-functions (mktime(), etc...) which I think is rather important (for browsing an online agenda for example).

I thought the case studies would be great, just to follow the construction of a whole application from the bottom up, but with the first case study, I already noticed, this wasn't going to be what I expected, I quote from case study 1, shopping cart application, p.554:

The transactions of the user should be secure. That is, some basic authentication mechanism will be built into the application, so as to prevent unauthorized persons from making transactions on a iser's behalf. In real life applications SSL or some other encryption mechanism is used to prevent the viewing of sensitive information (like credit card numbers etc.), that is sent by the browser to the web server. But to keep this application somple, we will not be covering these issues!

I mean, development-case-studies of professional, real life applications was what I expected...

In the shopping cart application itself, they do the login by sending a plain cookie containing username and password!

So for me 'Intermediate PHP scribbling with the intention to become a professional php programmer' would have been a better, albeit not that catchy, title...

[cyngon]

Two great resources for those wishing to use PHP for shell scripts.

"Using PHP as a Shell Scripting Language":

http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/darrell20000319.php3

And "Running PHP Scripts as cron Jobs":

http://www.planet-source-code.com/vb...d=388&lngWId=8

[necrominator]

nice post

[ckchin]

There are many PHP script freeli available on the Internet, but which one is the best? Here is a personal website that collect several best php scripts: http://php.rij73.com/

[php-resource.de]

for all german speeking PHP-Developer => www.php-resource.de
It's one of the leading PHP Portal in Europe!

[ZuulJin]

PHP Advanced a visual quickpro guide by Larry Ullman.

First, the quickpro series in general is a great setup for programming books. Each important line of code is explained in it's own step. All changes to previous code are highlighted in red, making it easier to spot the code changes as you advance through the book.

Next, the content of this book is amazing. It has great chapters on templating, application development, e-commerce, image creation, pdf creation, etc...

The thing about this book, it's easy to follow and learn from. Something that cannot be said of other books. The subjects are advanced, yet easy enough that the matter doesn't overwhelm you. Finishing a chapter in this book leaves you feeling like you accomplished something. That's a great feeling.

This is my most used book at the moment, I highly recommend this book. I give it 5 stars.

[Z]

[DoobyWho]

www.scriptschool.com/php/ :-)

[aka]

Your first PHP-editor is Winsyntax which allows you to receive the context-sensitive help on any PHP-keyword when you click [F1]. This editor has many features for comfortable coding on PHP/SQL/HTML/JavaScript. See screen shot. Address: www.winsyntax.com For Windows, free download.

[datune]

Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL

Wow!
This is a really nice book for both the beginner and the advanced.
It covers a lot of topics and illustrates everything using an winestore example, build from scratch.

This book is like one huge tutorial and you end up having written an online store that is not to be underestimated.

Maybe worth noting is that this book is in no way a replacement for a dedicated MySQL book or PHP Book, it is more or less like doing a course (sort of).

But very interesting to read and a real joy.

I give it 10 out of 10!

[cctrax]

Where was this thread a year ago? LOL

[amix]

i am not a programmer in any language but am someone who learned html (and every other piece software i know how to use) on my own, kinda trial and error, let's see what this does type of playing around to learn by doing rather than reading a manual.

so how long will it take to learn to use php/mysql? i've been looking at a few scripts for a new project which has led to having to put together my wish list for customizations to the scripts i found to see how much it will cost to have all the features/changes i want added...

i'm wondering if it would be easier to learn and write my own. and if it's feasible to think i could learn it quickly enough. from this thread i'm thinking kevin yank's book is where i'd start. so....any thoughts from the pros here?