MySQL/PHP Database Applications

622 Pages·2001·3.517 MB·English

by  Jay Greenspan, Brad Bulger

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MySQL/PHP Database
Applications
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MySQL/PHP Database
Applications
Jay Greenspan and Brad Bulger
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Credits
QUALITY CONTROL TECHNICIAN
ACQUISITIONS EDITOR Dina F Quan
Debra Williams Cauley
PERMISSIONS EDITOR
PROJECT EDITOR Laura Moss
Neil Romanosky
MEDIA DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST
TECHNICAL EDITORS Angela Denny
Richard Lynch
Michael Widenius MEDIA DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR
Marisa Pearman
COPY EDITOR
S. B. Kleinman BOOK DESIGNER
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PROJECT COORDINATORS
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Victor Pérez-Varela
About the Authors
Jay Greenspan made his living as a technical consultant and editor before finding
his way into Wired Digital’s Webmonkey. There he learned everything he knows
about Web technology and gained an appreciation for electronic music, the color
orange, and a “cute top.” He now makes his living as a writer and consultant. He
will neither confirm nor deny the rumors that he once worked for a prime-time
game show.
Brad Bulgercan remember when computers were as big as refrigerators and old-
timers would come into the machine room and call them “mini.” He learned more
than anyone really should about database systems by working for Relational
Technology nee Ingres nee CA for many years. After an interregnum, he got a job
with Wired. He would still like to know when the future is going to get here, but has
a sneaking suspicion he already knows.
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In memory of Dr. Jonathan B. Postel
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Preface
Welcome. If you are thumbing through these pages, you’re probably considering
writing Web-based applications with PHP and MySQL. If you decide to go with
these tools, you’ll be in excellent company. Thousands of developers—from total
newbies to programmers with years of experience—are turning to PHP and MySQL
for their Web-based projects; and for good reason.
Both PHP and MySQL are easy to use, fast, free, and powerful. If you want to get
a dynamic Web site up quickly, there are no better choices. The PHP scripting lan-
guage was built for the Web. All the tasks common to Web development can be
accomplished in PHP with an absolute minimum of effort. Similarly, MySQL excels at
tasks common to dynamic Web sites. Whether you’re creating a content-management
system or an e-commerce application, MySQL is a great choice for your data storage.
Is This Book for You?
There are quite a few books that deal with PHP and a few that cover MySQL. We’ve
read some of these and found a few to be quite helpful. If you’re looking for a book
that deals with gory details of either of these packages, you should probably look
elsewhere.
The focus of this book is applications development. We are concerned with what
it takes to get data-driven Web sites up and running in an organized and efficient
way. The book does not go into arcane detail of every aspect of either of these tools.
For example, in this book, you will not find a discussion of PHP’s LDAP functions
or MySQL’s C application program interface (API). Instead, we will focus on the
pieces of both packages that affect one another. We hope that by the time you’re
done with this book you’ll know what it takes to get an application up and running
using PHP and MySQL.
How This Book Is Organized
We have organized the book into four parts.
Part I: Using MySQL
Before you code any PHP scripts, you will need to know how to design a database,
create tables in your database, and get the information you want from the database.
Part I of this book will show you about all you need to know to work with MySQL.
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x Preface
Part II: Using PHP
As an applications developer, the bulk of your time will be spent writing scripts that
access the database and present HTML to a user’s browser. Part II will start by
showing you the basics of the PHP scripting language, covering how PHP works
with variables, conditions, and control structures. Part II will also cover many of
PHP’s functions and discuss techniques for writing clean, manageable code.
Part III: Simple Applications
In this part, we present two of the seven applications in this book: a guestbook and
a survey. Here you will see the lessons from Parts I and II put into practice as we
build working applications.
Part IV: Not So Simple Applications
Here the applications will be more complex, as we present applications commonly
used on the Web. You will see how you can design a content management system,
a discussion board, a shopping cart, and other useful applications. Along the way,
we will show some tips and techniques that should be helpful as you write your
applications.
Part V: Appendixes
The appendixes cover several topics of interest to the MySQL/PHP developer. In the
appendixes, you will find installation and configuration instructions, quick refer-
ence guides to PHP and MySQL functions, a regular expressions overview, and
guides to MySQL administration. In addition, there are a few helpful resources,
snippets of code, and instructions on using the CD-ROM.
Tell Us What You Think
Both the publisher and authors of this book hope you find it a valuable resource.
Please feel free to register this book at the IDG Books Web site (http://www.
idgbooks.com) and give us your feedback. Also check in at the site we’ve dedicated
to this book, http://www.mysqlphpapps.com/, where you will be able to contact
the authors and find updates to the applications created for this book.
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Acknowledgments
This book would never have happened if not for the efforts of Debra Williams
Cauley. I thank her for her patience and persistence. The efforts and talents of Neil
Romanosky, S. B. Kleinman, and many others at IDG Books have made this book
more lucid and attractive than we could have hoped. Richard Lynch’s exacting eye
and technical acumen kept our code clean, fast, and readable.
Any book on open-source software owes debt to those who have created these
great tools. So I thank everyone involved with PHP and MySQL, from the core
developers to those who contribute to the documentation. Special thanks to
Michael (Monty) Widenius, MySQL’s lead developer. He has not only created a ter-
rific relational database, but has offered his advice and expertise to the authors of
this book.
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