Build Your Own Database Driven Web Site Using PHP & MySQL, 4th Edition

Build Your Own Database Driven Web Site Using PHP & MySQL, 4th Edition

Book Description
PHP and MySQL have changed. Back in 2001, when I wrote the first edition of this book, readers were astonished to discover that you could create a site full of web pages without having to write a separate HTML file for each page. PHP stood out from the crowd of programming languages, mainly because it was easy enough for almost anyone to learn and free to download and install. The MySQL database, likewise, provided a simple and free solution to a problem that, up until that point, had been solvable only by expert programmers with corporate budgets.
Back then, PHP and MySQL were special—heck, they were downright miraculous! But over the years, they have gained plenty of fast-moving competition. In an age when anyone with a free WordPress account can set up a full-featured blog in 30 seconds flat, it’s no longer enough for a programming language like PHP to be easy to learn; nor is it enough for a database like MySQL to be free.
Indeed, as you sit down to read this book, you probably have ambitions that extend beyond what you can throw together using the free point-and-click tools of the Web. You might even be thinking of building an exciting, new point-and-click tool of your own. WordPress, after all, is built using PHP and MySQL, so why limit your vision to anything less?
To keep up with the competition, and with the needs of more demanding projects, PHP and MySQL have had to evolve. PHP is now a far more intricate and powerful language than it was back in 2001, and MySQL is a vastly more complex and capable database. Learning PHP and MySQL today opens up a lot of doors that would have remained closed to the PHP and MySQL experts of 2001.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that, in the same way that a butter knife is easier to figure out than a Swiss Army knife (and less likely to cause self-injury!), all these dazzling new features and improvements have indisputably made PHP and MySQL more difficult for beginners to learn.

AJAX and PHP: Building Modern Web Applications, 2nd Edition

AJAX and PHP: Building Modern Web Applications, 2nd Edition

Book Description
AJAX enables interactive interfaces that can replace traditional user interfaces. Enhance the user experience of your PHP website using AJAX with this practical and friendly tutorial! This book is the most efficient resource you can get to enter the exciting world of AJAX with PHP. Based on numerous examples and detailed case studies, this AJAX with PHP tutorial will build your foundation knowledge for creating faster, better web applications.
Detailed description
The best AJAX tutorial for PHP developers has been completely rewritten to be your friendly guide to modern Web 2.0 development techniques! AJAX and PHP: Building Modern Web Applications, 2nd Edition covers every significant aspect of creating and maintaining AJAX and PHP applications.
This book will teach you how to use PHP, JavaScript, MySQL and jQuery to build modern, responsive web applications. After building a strong foundation, the book will walk you through numerous real-world case studies covering techniques you’ll be likely to need for your own applications:
* Learn how to write unobtrusive, degradable, portable, SEO-friendly AJAX code
* Understand the object-oriented model of JavaScript and JSON
* Learn how to use the jQuery JavaScript library by going through two complete case studies
* Debug your AJAX and PHP code using modern tools
* Assess the security implications of writing AJAX code and avoid security risks such as cross-site scripting
* Learn advanced AJAX and PHP patterns and techniques such as predictive fetching, progress indicator, graceful degradation, cross-domain calls, and more
* Understand the complete client-server mechanism by going through complete, step-by-step case studies, including AJAX Form Validation, and AJAX Online Chat and AJAX Editable DataGrid with jQuery
What you will learn from this book
* Create faster, lighter, better web applications by using the AJAX technologies to their full potential
* Learn to use PHP and MySQL on the server, and Javascript and jQuery on the client, to build real-world AJAX applications
* Combine client-side and server-side functionality to enhance the user experience of your site using AJAX
* Learn to simulate private, instance, and static class members in JavaScript
* Build an AJAX-enabled form validation page, which is safe to work even if the client doesn’t support JavaScript and AJAX

Talent Is Not Enough: Business Secrets For Designers, 2nd Edition

Talent Is Not Enough: Business Secrets For Designers, 2nd Edition

Book Description
The best business guide for design professionals just got better! This revised and expanded second edition includes everything designers need—besides talent—to turn their artistic success into business success. You’ll find information on key issues facing designers from freelancing to managing established design firms. A strong visual focus and to-the-point text take the fear factor out of learning about thorny business realities like staffing, marketing, bookkeeping, intellectual property, and more. These smart business practices are essential to success in graphic, Web, and industrial design. Here are just a few of the things you’ll learn:
• How to get on the right career path
• The best way to determine pricing
• How to avoid common legal pitfalls
• How to manage large projects
• The secrets of efficient design teams
• How to forecast your workload and finances
Talent Is Not Enough provides a big-picture context for these and other challenges and shares practical, real-world advice. Since its first publication, the book has become an essential resource for both students and working professionals in these areas and more:
• Design planning and strategy
• Corporate identity development
• Publication and editorial design
• Brand identity and packaging design
• Advertising and promotion design
• Marketing communications
• Environmental design
• Industrial design
• Motion graphics
• Interaction design
• Information design
“It is rare to find one individual with such a wide range of knowledge in the design-related fields. And, because of his experience as a designer, Shel brings a sensitivity and understanding to administrative issues while still respecting the artistic side of our industry.”
Frank Maddocks, President, Maddocks & Company
“Now that design skills have become a commodity, you need business skills to focus them. Shel has written a crackerjack book that will be on the shelf of every ambitious designer.”
Marty Neumeier, author of Zag and The Brand Gap