PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy, 3rd Edition

This is the third edition of David Powers‘ highly-respected PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy. This new edition has been updated by David to incorporate changes to PHP since the second edition and to offer the latest techniques—a classic guide modernized for 21st century PHP techniques, innovations, and best practices.

You want to make your websites more dynamic by adding a feedback form, creating a private area where members can upload images that are automatically resized, or perhaps storing all your content in a database. The problem is, you’re not a programmer and the thought of writing code sends a chill up your spine. Or maybe you’ve dabbled a bit in PHP and MySQL, but you can’t get past baby steps. If this describes you, then you’ve just found the right book. PHP and the MySQL database are deservedly the most popular combination for creating dynamic websites. They’re free, easy to use, and provided by many web hosting companies in their standard packages.

Unfortunately, most PHP books either expect you to be an expert already or force you to go through endless exercises of little practical value. In contrast, this book gives you real value right away through a series of practical examples that you can incorporate directly into your sites, optimizing performance and adding functionality such as file uploading, email feedback forms, image galleries, content management systems, and much more. Each solution is created with not only functionality in mind, but also visual design.

But this book doesn’t just provide a collection of ready-made scripts: each PHP Solution builds on what’s gone before, teaching you the basics of PHP and database design quickly and painlessly. By the end of the book, you’ll have the confidence to start writing your own scripts or—if you prefer to leave that task to others—to adapt existing scripts to your own requirements. Right from the start, you’re shown how easy it is to protect your sites by adopting secure coding practices.

What you’ll learn

• Updates to the second edition with the latest PHP techniques for modern, dynamic web design
• Create dynamic websites with design and usability in mind, as well as functionality
• Understand how PHP scripts work, giving you confidence to adapt them to your own needs
• Bring online forms to life, check required fields, and ensure user input is safe to process
• Upload files and automatically create thumbnails from larger images
• Manage website content with a searchable database

Who this book is for

This is a “must have” reference book for any Web developer using PHP scripting language. If you are new to dynamic web design with PHP, then David will introduce you to the core techniques and methods for dynamic PHP web sites, ready for the 21st century! If you have read either of the earlier editions, then this update will bring you the latest PHP techniques and best practices.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. What Is PHP—And Why Should I Care?
Chapter 2. Getting Ready to Work with PHP
Chapter 3. How to Write PHP Scripts
Chapter 4. Lightening Your Workload with Includes
Chapter 5. Bringing Forms to Life
Chapter 6. Uploading Files
Chapter 7. Using PHP to Manage Files
Chapter 8. Generating Thumbnail Images
Chapter 9. Pages That Remember: Simple Login and Multipage Forms
Chapter 10. Getting Started with a Database
Chapter 11. Connecting to to a Database with PHP and SQL
Chapter 12. Creating a Dynamic Photo Gallery
Chapter 13. Managing Content
Chapter 14. Formatting Text and Dates
Chapter 15. Pulling Data from Multiple Tables
Chapter 16. Managing Multiple Database Tables
Chapter 17. Authenticating Users with a Database