This is a comprehensive, practical guide for programmers who want to develop production-quality, database-enabled web applications with PHP and MySQL. Long-time developer Marc Wandschneider systematically addresses the entire process: not only coding, but also upfront application, user interface and database design, PLUS security, testing, and more.

You ll walk through building three applications from start to finish: a calendaring system, a weblog engine, and an e-commerce store. Along the way, you ll master essential strategies for creating robust web database applications and learn how to avoid the common pitfalls that trip up many developers moving to PHP and MySQL.

• Starts with a complete primer on PHP for developers including coverage of code organization, reuse, and object-oriented PHP
• Contains detailed treatments of data access, including transactions, foreign keys, and indexes
• Presents powerful data validation techniques utilizing PHP regular expressions
• Walks through planning web applications, including user interfaces and user management
• Offers systematic guidance on securing web applications from end to end
• Covers a wide range of implementation issues including internationalization, error handling, data validation, debugging, session management, and deployment
• Includes detailed chapters on XML, XML-based web services, and the PEAR framework for reusable PHP components
• Shows how to work with the Oracle and PostgreSQL databases