Mastering PHP 4.1

Build Dynamic, Database-Driven Web Sites

PHP is a fully developed, server-side embedded scripting language, and its importance for web application development has grown with the rise of the Apache web server. Are you a novice programmer? This book starts with the basics and takes you wherever you want to go. A seasoned pro? You'll be amazed at how much you can capitalize on PHP's power and object-oriented support, and how it leverages your knowledge of other languages. Finally, if you're a PHP user in search of an authoritative reference, you need look no further. Mastering PHP 4.1 guides you through all levels of real-world web programming problems and provides expert advice on which solutions work best.

Coverage Includes:

• Reading and writing files
• Validating data with regular expressions
• Accessing MySQL and PostgreSQL databases
• Accessing LDAP servers
• Generating images and PDF documents on the fly
• Building authentication and access-control systems
• Sending e-mail and building web-to-e-mail interfaces
• Creating your own classes
• Closing common security holes in PHP scripts
• Parsing and generating XML documents
• Using sessions to store persistent data
• Debugging misbehaving scripts
• Encrypting and decrypting sensitive data

Contents

Introduction

Part 1 • The Basics of PHP
Chapter 1 • Beginning Your Exploration of PHP
Chapter 2 • Variables
Chapter 3 • Operators and Expressions
Chapter 4 • Flow Control and Functions
Chapter 5 • Strings and Arrays

Part 2 •Programming Principles and PHP
Chapter 6 • Object-Oriented Programming
Chapter 7 • Debugging and Errors

Part 3 •Letting the Data Flow
Chapter 8 • SQL and Database Interaction
Chapter 9 • Forms and User Interaction
Chapter 10 • Data Validation
Chapter 11 • Sessions
Chapter 12 • Security
Chapter 13 • Files and Networking

Part 4 •How PHP Is Connected
Chapter 14 • Web Application Development
Chapter 15 • XML and XHTML
Chapter 16 • LDAP

Part 5 •Using PHP in the Real World
Chapter 17 • PDF
Chapter 18 • Generating Graphics
Chapter 19 • E-Mail

Appendixes
Appendix A • A Crash Course on Installing PHP
Appendix B • PHP Configuration Options
Appendix C • XHTML Entities

Index