PHP Advanced and Object-Oriented Programming - Ullman, Larry [2013][html format][syntax highlight]

Simply put, I’ve tried to make this book’s content accessible and useful for every PHP intermediate-level programmer out there. As I suggest in the introductory paragraphs, I believe that “advanced” PHP is mostly a matter of extended topics. You already possess all the basic knowledge—you retrieve database query results in your sleep—but want to go further. This may mean learning object-oriented programming (OOP), using PEAR (PHP Extension and Application Repository), invoking PHP on the command line, picking up eXtensible Markup Language (XML), or fine-tuning aspects of your existing skill set.

My definition of advanced PHP programming covers three loosely grouped areas:

Doing what you already do better, faster, and more securely
Learning OOP
Doing standard things using PHP and other technologies (like networking, unit testing, or XML)
This book can be loosely divided into three sections. The first three chapters cover advanced PHP knowledge in general: programming techniques, Web applications, and databases. Those chapters all cover information that the average PHP programmer may not be familiar with but should be able to comprehend. In the process, you’ll pick up lots of useful code, too.

The next six chapters focus on object-oriented programming. This section constitutes about half of the book. OOP is explained starting with the fundamentals, then going into lots of advanced topics, and ending with plenty of real-world examples.

The final five chapters are all “PHP and...” chapters:

Communicating with networked servers
Communicating with the host server
Using the command-line interface
XML
Debugging, testing, and performance
Most examples used in this book are intended to be applicable in the real world, omitting the frivolous code you might see in other books, tutorials, and manuals. I focus almost equally on the philosophies involved as on the coding itself so that, in the end, you will come away with not just how to do this or that but also how to apply the new skills and ideas to your own projects.

Unlike with most of my other books, I do not expect that you’ll necessarily read this book in sequential order, for the most part. Some chapters do assume that you’ve read others, like the object-oriented ones, which have a progression to them. Some later chapters also reference examples completed in earlier ones. If you read the later ones first, you’ll just need to skip back over to the earlier ones to generate whatever database or scripts the later chapter requires.

Finally, I’ll be using HTML5 in my scripts instead of HTML. I’ll also use some CSS, as warranted. I do not discuss either of these subjects in this book (and, to be frank, may not adhere to them perfectly). If you are not already familiar with the subjects, you should look at some online resources or good books (such as Elizabeth Castro’s excellent Visual QuickStart Guides) for more information.