PHP Programming with PEAR

PEAR is the PHP Extension and Application Repository, and is a framework and distribution system for reusable, high-quality PHP components, available in the form of "packages".

In this book, you will learn how to use a number of the most powerful PEAR packages available to boost your PHP development productivity. By focusing on these packages for key development activities, this book is an in-depth guide to getting the most from these powerful coding resources.

You will become a master of various PEAR packages that help you with the essential tasks of PHP development such as:

•    Accessing databases with MDB2
•    Displaying data in a range of formats (HTML, Excel spreadsheet, PDF)
•    Creating and parsing XML documents
•    Serializing PHP objects into XML, and unserializing XML documents to PHP objects
•    Consuming and offering web services
•    Accessing Web APIs including Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and Technorati

This book explains many powerful PEAR packages  for maximizing your PHP development productivity for accessing and displaying data, handling dates, working with XML and Web Services, and accessing Web APIs.

Chapter 1 shows you how to access databases with the MDB2 package. You will learn:

•    Connecting to the database, and instantiate objects
•    Executing queries and fetching data
•    MDB2 SQL abstraction; sequences, replace queries, sub-select support, prepared statements
•    Using MDB2 modules
•    Extending MDB2 to provide custom fetch and result classes, iterators, and modules

Chapter 2 explains how to use PEAR packages to display data . It teaches you:

•    Creating powerful tables of data easily with the HTML_Table package
•    Advanced table formatting with HTML_Table_Matrix
•    Creating Excel spreadsheets dynamically with Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer
•    Adding formatting to these spreadsheets including colors, patterns, formulae and number formatting
•    Creating flexible, sortable grids of data with Structures_DataGrid
•    Adding columns to the grid, control paging, select data sources, and renderers
•    Using File_PDF to create PDF documents on the fly

Chapter 3 covers the usage of PEAR packages to work with XML and stresses on:
 
•    Creating XML documents with XML_Util, XML_Fastcreate
•    Transforming PHP objects to XML format with XML_Serializer
•    Creating Mozilla applications with XML_XUL
•    Parsing XML with XML_Parser
•    Processing XML documents to PHP objects with XML_Unserializer
•    Parsing RSS with XML_RSS

Chapter 4 is an extensive tutorial on working with web services and Web API's using PEAR packages. We cover the following topics:

•    Consuming web services
•    Consuming XML-RPC-based web services
•    Accessing the Google API
•    Searching blog entries with Services_Technorati
•    Accessing the Amazon web service
•    Accessing the Yahoo API
•    Offering XML-RPC-based web services
•    Offering SOAP-based web services
•    Offering REST-based services using XML_Serializer

Chapter 5 covers PEAR's date and time functions using the PEAR::Calendar and PEAR::Date packages such as:

•    Creating, manipulating, and comparing Date objects
•    Data_Span arithmetic
•    Handling timezones with Date_Timezone
•    Keeping track of public holidays with Date_Holiday
•    Using the Calendar class to display an HTML calendar

Packed with code examples, every topic is explained in a clear, practical way.

This book is for PHP developers who want to maximize their productivity through the use of proven, high-quality, reusable PEAR components. Some experience of working with PEAR classes will prove helpful, and developers who've used PEAR before can find something new to delight them.<!--[if !supportAnnotations]-->