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 ...