Free! - mini-review&competition of PHP for Dreamweaver 8

From the back cover

Want to add the power of a database to your websites? Build online forms that send feedback straight to your inbox? Incorporate live news feeds and XML data into your web pages? This book shows you how to do all that and more.
Dreamweaver 8 takes a lot of the hard work out of integrating a database into your websites, but it can’t do everything. So instead of just giving you a series of instructions to click this and click that, this book helps you understand what’s going on in the background. As a result, you’re more likely to remember and to get it right.

Most books on PHP concentrate on code and throw all design considerations out the window. This one is different. It makes use of Dreamweaver 8’s vastly improved CSS rendering, and shows you how to build a site that’s smart in both senses of the word. It looks good and is intelligent too. You’ll learn how to change the entire look of the site, using PHP to serve up different stylesheets each month. You’ll also build a contact form protected against email injection attacks. All of Dreamweaver’s PHP server behaviors are put through their paces, and you’ll even make some custom server behaviors that will come in useful on any site you create.

Two chapters take you through the setup process with step-by-step instructions for both Windows and Mac OS X, helping you make the right choices: Apache or IIS? Remote or local testing? There are even instructions on how to set up virtual hosts on your own computer. And in the unlikely event that things go wrong, there’s plenty of troubleshooting advice too.

Overview

What you will learn from this book

In this book, you’ll learn how to:

Install, configure, and troubleshoot a testing environment with PHP/MySQL and Apache or IIS
Learn the fundamentals of PHP and good database design
Use Dreamweaver 8 server behaviors to create robust dynamic applications that validate user input for greater security and reliability
Incorporate live XML feeds into your web pages with PHP and Dreamweaver 8’s new XSL Transformation server behavior
Download and apply a suite of custom-built PHP functions designed exclusively for this book

Who this book is for

This book is useful for people that have at least basic knowledge of HTML and preferably CSS. Knowledge of PHP, SQL and databases is not required as the author will show you how to use these technologies.

Conclusion

This book begins with an explanation on how dynamic sites work. Then it shows you how to set up your work environment of your web server (APACHE or IIS) and database (MYSQL). After that it starts with some useful "real-world" projects in combination with PHP and the latest features of Dreamweaver 8. The book is Windows and Mac friendly as it explains the differences associated with each OS. All in all the book is very complete and the layout is basic but well presented. The book allows you to easily zoom in on certain topics as you wish instead of reading the whole book. If you are a beginner however, it is useful to read the complete book as it gives a lot of valuable information that help you understand the process of creating applications and websites. The author explains how things work before getting into the code, which in this case, is a good thing.

All in all this book offers a treasure of valuable information and is a must have if you are new to, or want to learn more about, Dreamweaver 8 and PHP.

Competition

The friendly people of Friends of ED are giving away 5 books. All you need to do, to enter the competition is; download the extract (press read more and then download sample PDF on your right), which is all about PHP for Dreamweaver 8 and answer the following question:

In which cases is it useful to store images in your database? Please use the exact description from the sample chapter.

Send your answer to this e-mail address, before Thursday the 2nd of February 2006. Don't forget to include your post address and phone number (required for international shipping) in the e-mail.

Good Luck!

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