A Pain-Free Introduction to Building Interactive Web Sites

David Sklar is an independent consultant specializing in software development, strategic planning, and technical training. He was a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of Student.Com and TVGrid.Com. At both companies, David oversaw the architecture and development of varied systems to deliver personalized dynamic content to users around the world. After discovering PHP as a solution to his web programming needs in 1996, he created the PX (http://px.sklar.com/), which enables PHP users to exchange programs. Since then, he has continued to rely on PHP for personal and professional projects. He is the author of Essential PHP Tools (Apress) and the coauthor of PHP Cookbook (O'Reilly). When away from the computer, David eats mini-donuts, plays records, and likes to cook. He lives in New York City and has a degree in Computer Science from Yale University.

Preface 1. Orientation and First Steps PHP's Place in the Web World What's So Great About PHP? PHP in Action Basic Rules of PHP Programs Chapter Summary 2. Working with Text and Numbers Text Numbers Variables Chapter Summary Exercises 3. Making Decisions and Repeating Yourself Understanding true and false Making Decisions Building Complicated Decisions Repeating Yourself Chapter Summary Exercises 4. Working with Arrays Array Basics Looping Through Arrays Modifying Arrays Sorting Arrays Using Multidimensional Arrays Chapter Summary Exercises 5. Functions Declaring and Calling Functions Passing Arguments to Functions Returning Values from Functions Understanding Variable Scope Chapter Summary Exercises 6. Making Web Forms Accessing Form Parameters Form Processing with Functions Validating Data Displaying Default Values Putting It All Together Chapter Summary Exercises 7. Storing Information with Databases Organizing Data in a Database Connecting to a Database Program Creating a Table Putting Data into the Database Inserting Form Data Safely Generating Unique IDs A Complete Data Insertion Form Retrieving Data from the Database Changing the Format of Retrieved Rows Retrieving Form Data Safely A Complete Data Retrieval Form MySQL Without PEAR DB Chapter Summary Exercises 8. Remembering Users with Cookies and Sessions Working with Cookies Activating Sessions Storing and Retrieving Information Configuring Sessions Login and User Identification Why setcookie( ) and session_start( ) Want to Be at the Top of the Page Chapter Summary Exercises 9. Handling Dates and Times Displaying the Date or Time Parsing a Date or Time Dates and Times in Forms Displaying a Calendar Chapter Summary Exercises 10. Working with Files Understanding File Permissions Reading and Writing Entire Files Reading and Writing Parts of Files Working with CSV Files Inspecting File Permissions Checking for Errors Sanitizing Externally Supplied Filenames Chapter Summary Exercises 11. Parsing and Generating XML Parsing an XML Document Generating an XML Document Chapter Summary Exercises 12. Debugging Controlling Where Errors Appear Fixing Parse Errors Inspecting Program Data Fixing Database Errors Chapter Summary Exercises 13. What Else Can You Do with PHP? Graphics PDF Shockwave/Flash Browser-Specific Code Sending and Receiving Mail Uploading Files in Forms The HTML_QuickForm Form-Handling Framework Classes and Objects Advanced XML Processing SQLite Running Shell Commands Advanced Math Encryption Talking to Other Languages IMAP, POP3, and NNTP Command-Line PHP PHP-GTK Even More Things You Can Do with PHP A. Installing and Configuring the PHP Interpreter B. Regular Expression Basics C. Answers To Exercises Index