Page 32 - Beginning PHP 5.3

Introduction
Chapter 15 introduces PEAR, the PHP Extension and Application Repository. It ’ s a large collection of
reusable code modules that can really help to speed up your application development. You look at
how to install and use PEAR packages, and explore three useful packages: Net_UserAgent_Detect ,
HTML_Table , and HTML_QuickForm .

Chapter 16 looks at various ways that your PHP applications can interact with the outside world. You
take a detailed look at date and time handling, including various useful built - in date functions, as well
as the DateTime and DateTimeZone classes. You also look at how to work closely with HTTP request
and response headers, how to retrieve Web server information, and how to send email from within
your scripts.

Chapter 17 shows how you can use PHP to generate graphics on the fly. You study some computer
graphics fundamentals, then look at how to create new images, as well as modify existing images. Along
the way you explore colors, drawing functions, image formats, transparency, opacity, and generating text
within images.

Chapter 18 looks at the power of regular expressions. These clever pattern - matching tools let you search
for very specific patterns of text within strings. The chapter introduces regular expression syntax, and
shows how to use PHP ’ s regular expression functions to search for and replace patterns of text. Lots of
examples are included to make the concepts clear.

Chapter 19 explores XML — eXtensible Markup Language — and shows you how to manipulate XML
from within your PHP scripts. You learn about XML and its uses, and look at various ways to read and
write XML with PHP, including XML Parser, the XML DOM extension, and SimpleXML. You also take a
brief look at XML stylesheets, including XSL and XSLT.

Chapter 20 wraps up the book with a discussion on good programming practices. You look at strategies
for writing modular code; how to design and implement coding standards for consistency; ways to
document your code; how to harden your applications against attack; how to handle errors gracefully;
why it ’ s important to separate application from presentation logic; and ways to test your application
code for robustness.

Appendix A contains answers to the exercises found throughout the book.

Appendix B looks at how to configure PHP, and lists all the configuration directives available.
Appendix C explores some alternative databases to MySQL that are supported by PHP.

Appendix D shows you how to use PHP to write command - line scripts, further enhancing the power
and flexibility of your applications.

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