100 Best PHP Books of All Time
We've researched and ranked the best php books in the world, based on recommendations from world experts, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. Learn more
Build interactive, data-driven websites with the potent combination of open source technologies and web standards, even if you have only basic HTML knowledge. In this update to this popular hands-on guide, you’ll tackle dynamic web programming with the latest versions of today’s core technologies: PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, CSS, HTML5, and key jQuery libraries.
Web designers will learn how to use these technologies together and pick up valuable web programming practices along the way—including how to optimize websites for mobile devices. At the end of the book, you’ll put...
The 5th edition of this popular book has been fully updated for PHP 7, including replacing the PEAR package manager with Composer, and new material on Vagrant and PHP standards. It provides a solid grounding in PHP's support for objects, it builds on this foundation to instill core principles of software design and then covers the tools and practices needed to develop, test and deploy robust code.
PHP Objects,... more
PHP and MySQL are popular open-source technologies that are ideal for quickly developing database-driven Web applications. PHP is a powerful scripting language designed to enable developers to create highly featured Web applications quickly, and MySQL is a fast, reliable database that integrates well with PHP and is suited for dynamic Internet-based applications.
PHP and MySQL Web Development shows how to use these tools... more
Scott JohnsonI spent a ton of years doing mostly product management as opposed to software engineering (what I do now). Although I had written code and managed engineers, I wasn't really a hands on software engineer. In the wake of the dot com crisis, when everyone was unemployed, when an unexpected software engineering gig landed on me, the book PHP and MySQL Web Development by Luke Welling and Laura... (Source)
Author Josh Lockhart--creator of PHP The Right Way, a popular initiative to encourage PHP best practices--reveals these new language features in action. You'll learn best practices for application architecture and planning, databases, security, testing, debugging, and deployment. If... more
Matt Stauffer, a leading teacher and developer in the Laravel community, delivers a high-level overview and concrete examples to help experienced PHP web developers get started with this... more
If you have a working knowledge of HTML, the authors’ many style tips and practical programming advice will help you become a top-notch PHP programmer.
Get an overview of what’s possible with PHP programs
Learn language fundamentals, including data... more
Head First PHP & MySQL offers the same visually rich format... more
Security is an issue that demands attention, given the growing frequency of attacks on web sites. Essential PHP Security explains the most common types of... more
Don't have time to read the top PHP books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
HTML & CSS covers structure, text, links, images, tables, forms, useful options, adding style with CSS, fonts, colors, thinking in boxes, styling lists and tables, layouts, grids, and even SEO, Google... more
This full-color book adopts a visual approach to teaching JavaScript & jQuery, showing you how to make web pages more interactive and interfaces more intuitive through the use of inspiring code examples, infographics, and photography. The content assumes no previous programming experience, other than knowing how to create a basic web page in HTML & CSS. You'll learn how to achieve techniques seen on many popular websites (such as adding animation, tabbed panels, content sliders, form validation, interactive galleries, and sorting... more
- Concise steps and explanations let you get up and running in no time.
- Essential reference guide keeps you coming back again and again.
- Whether you're new to programming or an experienced veteran just needing to get up to speed on PHP and MySQL, this book will teach you all you need to know, including the latest changes in the... more
Create professional, dynamic applications according to an object-oriented programming blueprint Learn advanced performance evaluation techniques for maximum site efficiency Brush up on the best testing methods to refine... more
The book begins with a broad overview of PHP 5's object-oriented features, introducing key topics like class declaration, object instantiation, inheritance, and method and property encapsulation. You'll also learn about advanced topics including static methods and properties, abstract classes,... more
Don't have time to read the top PHP books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
It takes a powerful suite of technologies to drive the most-visited websites in the world. PHP, mySQL, JavaScript, and other web-building languages serve as the foundation for application development and programming projects at all levels of the web.
Dig into this all-in-one book to get a grasp on these in-demand skills, and figure out how to apply them to become a professional web builder. You'll get valuable information from seven handy books covering the pieces of web programming, HTML5 & CSS3, JavaScript, PHP,... more
Serving as a complete introduction to PHP 5.3, this book walks you through all the major concepts of PHP in a way that’s easy to follow, with plenty of code snippets illustrating each concept to aid learning. You’ll discover how to install and configure PHP 5.3, how to get started with simple programs, and the basic building blocks of PHP such as variables, operators, expressions, arrays, and objects. Coverage working with files, XML, and MySQL; building Web applications with PHP; exploring the PEAR library; handling e-mail; and creating Web graphics.
lessI've seen it way too many times. As your application grows, so does your sloppy, untested codebase. Before long, you begin to drown, as your ability to manually test the application becomes unrealistic, or even impossible! It's at these specific times, when you begin to realize the down-right necessity for testing. Sure, you might have read a TDD book in the past, but, like many things in life, we require real-life experience, before we suddenly - in a wonderful, blissful "aha moment" - get it.
The only problem is... more
As you apply these incremental refactorings in order, each one building on the last, you will steadily transform your legacy PHP application from a spaghetti mess to an organized, modern, testable application, free of globals and mixed concerns. less
JavaScript knowledge is essential for working with today’s Web, whether you’re building applications for the client, the server, or for mobile use—and your PHP experience gives you a head start. This book will help... more
Don't have time to read the top PHP books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL, Second Edition thoroughly reflects the needs of real-world applications. It goes... more
Learn how these reusable patterns help you solve complex problems, organize object-oriented code, and revise a big project by only changing small parts. With Learning PHP Design Patterns, you’ll learn how to adopt a more sophisticated programming style and... more
Wicked Cool PHP contains a wide variety of scripts to process credit cards, check the validity of email addresses, template HTML, and serve dynamic images and text. The 76 easily implemented scripts will also teach you how... more
This edition adds three new chapters and over 80 pages of new content, and covers new features added in PHP 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, and 5.6, including namespaces, traits, variadics, generators,... more
Essentially three books in one, readers will not only profit from extensive introductions to the core features of each technology,... more
Everything you need to know to create a dynamic PHP and MySQL Web site!
Been thinking of creating a high-quality interactive Web site? This book is just what you need to get started! Here's the fun and easy way(r) to develop a Web application in PHP 4, 5, or 6 and MySQL 5, test your software, enable your Web pages to display, change, and move database information, and much more.
Discover how to
* Plan and implement a Web database application
* Design and build a MySQL 5 database
* Build... more
Don't have time to read the top PHP books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Tasked with building an API for your company but don't have a clue where to start? Taken over an existing API and hate it? Built your own API and still hate it? This book is for you. less
Your One-Stop Guide to Web Development with PHP--Covers PHP 5.2
Build dynamic, cross-browser Web applications with PHP--the server-side programming language that's taken the Internet by storm. Through detailed explanations and downloadable code examples, this comprehensive guide shows you, step-by-step, how to configure... more
WordPress as a Content Management System Hosting Options Installing WordPress Files Database Configuration Dashboard Widgets Customizing the Dashboard Creating and Managing Content... more
PHP 7 in easy steps has an easy-to-follow style that will appeal to anyone who... more
Pro PHP Security, Second Edition will serve as your complete guide for taking defensive and proactive security measures within your PHP... more
With more high-paying web development jobs opening every day, people with coding and web/app building skills are having no problems finding employment. If you're a would-be developer looking to gain the know-how to build the interfaces, databases, and other features that run modern websites, web apps, and mobile apps, look no further. Web Coding & Development All-in-One For Dummies is your go-to interpreter for speaking the languages that handle those tasks.
Get started with a refresher on the rules of coding... more
Written by the co-author of the popular "PHP Cookbook," this book is for intelligent (but not necessarily... more
Don't have time to read the top PHP books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
The previous edition sold over 17,000 copies exclusively through Sitepoint.com alone. With the release of PHP 5, SitePoint have updated... more
PHP is ideally suited for both consuming and creating web services. You’ll learn how to use this language with JSON, XML, and other web service technologies.
more
PHP in... more
PHP in Action shows you how to apply PHP techniques and principles to all themost common challenges of web programming, including:
Web presentation and templates
User interaction including the Model-View-Contoller... more
Although there are many books that address security issues, most do not explain how to... more
Learn how to write webbots and spiders that do all this and more:
Programmatically download entire websites Effectively parse data from web pages Manage cookies Decode encrypted files Automate form submissions... more
MySQL is an extremely popular open source relational database management system that that powers many of the applications on the Web. Discover why MySQL's speed, ease of use, and flexibility make it the database of choice for so many developers.
In just one weekend with this hands-on tutorial, you'll learn how to:
Get started with MySQL
Store, modify, and retrieve data
Work with multiple tables
Connect to your database through code
Program the database
Back up your data less
Don't have time to read the top PHP books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Ruby lies at the foundation of Rails, and we'll teach you the Ruby language from the beginning by building on your existing foundation of PHP. We'll explore Ruby through parallel code examples that illustrate... more
Written by three of PHP and MySQL experts and veteran authors, this resource focuses on best practices and expert techniques that can be... more
Author and noted PHP expert Kevin McArthur also examines emerging practices and trends such as the MVC architecture as applied to PHP, with special... more
WordPress is a popular, powerful, and open Content Management System. Learning how to extend its capabilities allows you to unleash its full potential, whether you're an administrator trying to find the right extension, a developer with a great idea to enhance the platform for the community, or a website...
moremore
Don't have time to read the top PHP books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
The guide is aimed at helping intermediate level programmers build applications that should be easier to test and hopefully to maintain. If you're a beginning PHP programmer (or beginning programmer for that matter) this guide might be hard to follow. Remember, by buying a Leanpub book you will automatically get notified of any updates if I should happen to add new... more
For PHP coders, the Zend Framework offers that same promise without... more
PHP is an extremely popular open-source general purpose scripting language that’s particularly suited to server-side web development. As of 2007, PHP was used on some 20 million domains worldwide. It’s a very popular choice with the SitePoint community.
The easiest, simplest and most fun way to get into server-side coding. All of the software used is free, so no additional outlay is required.
• An easy-to-follow tutorial, with all code available to download
• Install PHP & MySQL on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux
• Gain a thorough... more
Don't have time to read the top PHP books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
I've written A Year With Symfony for you, a developer who will work with Symfony2 for more than a month (and probably more than a year). You may have started reading your way through the official documentation ("The Book"), the cookbook, some blogs, or an online tutorial. You know now how to create a Symfony2 application, with routing, controllers, entities or documents, Twig templates and maybe some unit tests. But after these basic steps, some concerns will... more
a reduction in the effort required to frequently test code fewer overall defects added confidence in your code improved relations with your open source teammates The only problem with this popular testing tool... more
PHP experts Kai Chan and John Omokore guide you through a variety of practical CakePHP applications. You will work on projects such as a video gallery, unit testing application, an e-commerce app, a blog site, and much more. Practical CakePHP Projects covers the key architectural concepts as well as including mini projects that you can use to enhance your... more
WordPress Complete is a practical guide for everyone who wants to start their journey as an online publisher, website owner, or even a website developer. It takes you step-by-step through the process of planning out and...
moreDon't have time to read the top PHP books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Developers of real-world applications face numerous problems that seem trivial on the surface, but really do take some skill to get right. Error handling is about more than just the mechanics in the PHP syntax, but also about handling MySQL errors, logging those errors, and about hiding information about application internals that error... more
The problem is, you're not a programmer and the thought of writing code... more
Programmers love its flexibility and speed; designers love its accessibility and convenience. When it comes to creating web sites, the PHP scripting language is truly a red-hot property. In fact, PHP is currently used on more than 19 million web sites, surpassing Microsoft's ASP .NET technology in popularity. Not surprisingly, this surge in usage has resulted in a number of PHP books hitting the market. Only one, though, takes the language beyond traditional Web programming and into mapping, graphing, multimedia, and beyond: PHP Hacks.
In PHP Hacks, author...
Work more effectively as a team by breaking up complex PHP projects into manageable sub-parts
Develop code that is much easier to maintain with source control, agile principles, and project tracking
Apply techniques related to process models, collaboration among team members, and continuous long-term improvement
A precise guide with examples to illustrate practical benefits
In Detail
Given the nature of the business environment today,... more
Essential Skills--Made Easy!PHP and MySQL Web Development: A Beginner's Guide takes you from building static web pages to creating comprehensive database-driven web applications. The book reviews HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and then explores PHP--its structure, control statements, arrays, functions, use with forms, and file handling capabilities. Next, the book examines MySQL, including SQL, the... more
Deciding which MVC framework best suits the project you are about to begin is one of the biggest challenges you'll face as a developer. If you are part of a team, this decision has probably already been... more
Don't have time to read the top PHP books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.