B Web Resources
THIS APPENDIX LISTS SOME OF THE MANY resources available on the Web that you can use to find tutorials, articles, news, and sample PHP code. These resources are just some of the many out there. Obviously, there are far more than we could possibly list in one appendix, and many more are popping up daily as the usage of and familiarity with PHP and MySQL continue to increase among web developers.
Some of these resources are in different languages such as German or French or something other than your native language. We suggest using a translator like http://www.systransoft.com to browse the web resource in your native language.
PHP Resources
PHP.Net—http://www.php.net—The original site for PHP. Go to this site to download binary and source versions of PHP and the manual, to browse the mailing list archives, and to keep up to date with PHP news.
Zend.Com—http://www.zend.com—The source for the Zend engine that powers PHP. This portal site contains forums, articles, tutorials, and a database of sample classes and code that you can use.
PEAR—http://pear.php.net—The PHP Extension and Application Repository. This is the official PHP extension site.
PECL—http://pecl.php.net—The sister-site to PEAR. PEAR carries classes written in PHP; PECL (pronounced “pickle”) carries extensions written in C. PECL classes are sometimes more difficult to install but perform a wider range of functionality and are almost always more powerful than their PHP-based counterparts.
PHPCommunity—http://www.phpcommunity.org/—A new community-based site.
php|architect—http://www.phparch.com—A PHP magazine. This website provides free articles, or you can subscribe to receive the magazine in either PDF or printed format.
PHP Magazine—http://www.phpmag.net/—Another PHP magazine, also available in electronic or printed format.
PHPWizard.net—http://www.phpwizard.net—The source of many cool PHP applications such as phpChat and phpIRC.
PHPMyAdmin.Net—http://www.phpmyadmin.net/—The home of the popular PHP-based web front end for MySQL.
PHPBuilder.com—http://www.phpbuilder.com—A portal for PHP tutorials. At this site, you can find tutorials on just about anything you can think of. The site also has a forum for people to post questions.
DevShed.com—http://www.devshed.com—Portal-type site that offers excellent tutorials on PHP, MySQL, Perl, and other development languages.
PX-PHP Code Exchange—http://px.sklar.com—A great place to start. Here, you can find many sample scripts and useful functions.
The PHP Resource—http://www.php-resource.de—A very nice source for tutorials, articles, and scripts. The only “problem” is that the site is in German. We recommend using a translator service site to view it. You can still read the sample code either way.
WeberDev.com—http://www.WeberDev.com—Formerly known as Berber’s PHP sample page, this site grew and is now a place for tutorials and sample code. It targets PHP and MySQL users and covers security and general databases.
HotScripts.com—http://www.hotscripts.com—A great categorized selection of scripts. This site offers scripts in various languages such as PHP, ASP.NET, and Perl. It has an excellent collection of PHP scripts and is updated frequently. This site is a must-see if you are looking for scripts.
PHP Base Library—http://phplib.sourceforge.net—A site used by developers for large-scale PHP projects. It offers a library with numerous tools for an alternative session management approach, as well as templating and database abstraction.
PHP Center—http://www.php-center.de—Another German portal site used for tutorials, scripts, tips, tricks, advertising, and more.
PHP Homepage—http://www.php-homepage.de—Another German site about PHP with scripts, articles, news, and much more. It also has a quick reference section.
PHPIndex.com—http://www.phpindex.com—A nice French PHP portal with tons of PHP-related content. This site contains news, FAQs, articles, job listings, and much more.
WebMonkey.com—http://www.webmonkey.com—A portal with lots of web resources, real-world tutorials, sample code, and so on. The site covers design, programming, back end, multimedia stuff, and much more.
The PHP Club—http://www.phpclub.net—A site that offers many resources for PHP beginners. It has news, book reviews, sample code, forums, FAQs, and many tutorials for beginners.
PHP Classes Repository—http://phpclasses.org—A site that targets the distribution of freely available classes written in PHP. A must-see if you are developing code or your project will be composed of classes. It provides a nice search functionality, so you can find stuff easily.
The PHP Resource Index—http://php.resourceindex.com—Portal site for scripts, classes, and documentation. The cool thing about this site is that everything is nicely categorized, which can save you some time.
PHP Developer—http://www.phpdeveloper.org—Yet another PHP portal that provides PHP news, articles, and tutorials.
Evil Walrus—http://www.evilwalrus.com—A cool-looking portal for PHP scripts.
SourceForge—http://sourceforge.net—Extensive open source resources. SourceForge not only helps you find code that can be useful, but it also provides access to CVS, mailing lists, and machines for open source developers.
Codewalkers—http://codewalkers.com/—A site that contains articles, book reviews, tutorials, and the amazing PHP Contest through which you can win stuff with your new skills. The site offers a new code contest every two weeks.
PHP Developer’s Network Unified Forums—http://forums.devnetwork.net/index.php—Discussion of all things PHP related.
PHP Kitchen—http://www.phpkitchen.com/—Articles, news, and PHP advocacy.
Postnuke—http://www.postnuke.com/—A frequently used PHP content-management system.
PHP Application Tools—http://www.php-tools.de/—A set of useful PHP classes.
Codango—http://www.codango.com/php/—A valuable resource for PHP web applications, libraries, scripts, hosting, tutorials, and much more.
MySQL and SQL Specific Resources
The MySQL site—http://www.mysql.com—The official MySQL website. It provides excellent documentation, support, and information. This site is a must-see if you are using MySQL, especially for the developer zone and mailing list archives.
The SQL Course—http://sqlcourse.com—A site that provides an introductory SQL tutorial with easy-to-understand instructions. It allows you to practice what you learn on an online SQL interpreter. An advanced version is provided at http://www.sqlcourse2.com.
SearchDatabase.com—http://searchdatabase.techtarget.com/—Nice portal with lots of useful information on DBs. It provides excellent tutorials, tips, white papers, FAQs, reviews, and so on. A must-see!
Apache Resources
Apache Software—http://www.apache.org—The place to start if you need to download the source or binaries for the Apache web server. The site provides online documentation.
Apache Week—http://www.apacheweek.com—Online weekly magazine that provides essential information for anyone running an Apache Server or anyone running Apache services.
Apache Today—http://www.apachetoday.com—A daily source of news and information about Apache. Users must subscribe to post questions.
Web Development
Philip and Alex’s Guide to Web Publishing—http://philip.greenspun.com/panda/—A witty, irreverent guide to software engineering as it applies to the Web. One of the few books on the topic coauthored by a Samoyed.