PHP and MySQL® Web Development, Fourth Edition

25 Using PHP and MySQL for Large Projects

IN THE EARLIER PARTS OF THIS BOOK, WE DISCUSSED various components of and uses for PHP and MySQL. Although we tried to make all the examples interesting and relevant, they were reasonably simple, consisting of one or two scripts of up to 100 or so lines of code.

When you are building real-world web applications, writing code is rarely this simple. A few years ago, an “interactive” website had form mail and that was it. However, these days, websites have become web applications—that is, regular pieces of software delivered over the Web. This change in focus means a change in scale. Websites grow from a handful of scripts to thousands and thousands of lines of code. Projects of this size require planning ...