Page 29 - Beginning PHP 5.3

Introduction

Welcome to Beginning PHP 5.3 ! This book teaches you how to build interactive Web sites and
applications using PHP, one of the most popular Web programming languages in use today. Using PHP
you can create anything from a simple form - to - email script all the way up to a Web forum application, a
blogging platform, a content management system, or the next big Web 2.0 sensation. The sky is the limit!
As programming languages go, PHP is easy to learn. However, it ’ s also a very extensive language, with
hundreds of built - in functions and thousands more available through add - ons to the PHP engine. This
book doesn ’ t attempt to guide you through every nook and cranny of PHP ’ s capabilities. Instead, it aims
to give you a good grounding in the most useful aspects of the language — the stuff you ’ ll use 99 percent
of the time — and to teach you how to create solid, high - quality PHP applications.

Who This Book Is For

This book is intended for anyone starting out with PHP programming. If you ’ ve previously worked in
another programming language such as Java, C#, or Perl, you ’ ll probably pick up the concepts in the
earlier chapters quickly; however, the book assumes no prior experience of programming or of building
Web applications.
That said, because PHP is primarily a Web technology, it will help if you have at least some knowledge
of other Web technologies, particularly HTML and CSS. Fortunately, these two technologies are easy to
pick up. You can find many useful HTML and CSS tutorials at:

❑ http://www.elated.com/articles/cat/authoring/ — HTML, XHTML, and CSS tutorials
(many are written by the author of this book)
❑ http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_intro.asp — Walks you through the basics of

HTML, with lots of “ try it out ” examples along the way
❑ http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_intro.asp — Brings you up to speed with CSS

(Cascading Style Sheets)
Many Web applications make use of a database to store data, and this book contains three chapters on
working with MySQL databases. Once again, if you ’ re already familiar with databases in general — and
MySQL in particular — you ’ ll be able to fly through these chapters. However, even if you ’ ve never
touched a database before in your life, you should still be able to pick up a working knowledge by
reading through these chapters.

What This Book Covers
This book gives you a broad understanding of the PHP language and its associated technologies. You
explore a wide range of topics, including:

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