Synopses & Reviews
This book is an essential guide to some of the best free add-ons to PHP. These add-ons, or tools, provide invaluable functionality for improving your PHP web applications, including accessing databases, generating robust Web forms, using page templating systems, creating and parsing XML documents, authenticating users, and much more.
In response to the existing shortage of documentation about the tools, author David Sklar packs this book with details about installing, configuring, and using each tool?along with plenty of examples tailored to PHP 4 and 5.
Sklar also lays out the details of Auth and HTML_QuickFormtwo hard working PEAR modules, so you don't have to code your own authentication system or Web form construction set Also included are chapters on debugging programs, and increasing Web server speed. In short, you will learn to eliminate inefficiencies in PHP, and enhance performance without any code modification. Table of Contents Accessing Databases with DB Accessing Databases with ADODB Using HTML_QuickForm for Form Processing Templating with Smarty Performing Event-Based XML Parsing with XML_Parser Developing Lightweight Web Services with XML_RPC Developing Heavyweight Web Services with SOAP Performing Easier XML Parsing with SimpleXML Sending Mail Working with Authentication, Users, and Passwords Understanding PHP Internals Profiling and Debugging with Xdebug Accelerating with Code Caches
Synopsis
THis INTRODUCTION lays out who the book is written for, provides an overview of what is covered, and gives some background details on a package management utility you'll use to install many of the add-ons covered in the book. Who This Book Is For Although PHP has a lot of built-in functionality, many common Web program ming tasks are simpler with add-on modules and packages. This book is for you if you are looking for an easier way to do these kinds of tasks with PHP: Access a database. Generate robust Web forms. Use a page templating system. Create or parse XML documents. Request or serve XML-RPC or SOAP methods. Send HTML or multipart e-mail messages. Authenticate users. Inspect your scripts with a debugger. Boost server performance without rewriting any code. This book assumes you have a basic knowledge of PHP programming: You know how to perform tasks such as include files, write functions, create objects, and look in $_REQUEST, $_GET, or $_POST to find submitted form data."
Synopsis
PHP Toolbox explains how to use popular PEAR modules and PHP add-ons to simplify your XML processing, database access, templating, and other common tasks. It also explains how to use a PHP code cache or optimizer, which speeds up your code without requiring any rewriting or code changes.