WhyYouShouldReadThisBook Thisbookwillteachyouhowtocreateinteractivewebsitesfromthesimplestorderformthroughtocomplex,securee-commercesitesorinteractiveWeb2.0sites.What’smore,you’lllearnhowtodoitusingopensourcetechnologies. ThisbookisaimedatreaderswhoalreadyknowatleastthebasicsofHTMLandhavedonesomeprogramminginamodernprogramminglanguagebeforebuthavenotnecessarilyprogrammedfortheInternetorusedarelationaldatabase.Ifyouareabeginningprogrammer,youshouldstillfindthisbookuseful,butdigestingitmighttakealittlelonger.We’vetriednottoleaveoutanybasicconcepts,butwedocoverthematspeed.ThetypicalreadersofthisbookwanttomasterPHPandMySQLforthepurposeofbuildingalargeorcommercialwebsite.Youmightalreadybeworkinginanotherwebdevelopmentlanguage;ifso,thisbookshouldgetyouuptospeedquickly. WewrotethefirsteditionofthisbookbecauseweweretiredoffindingPHPbooksthatwerebasicallyfunctionreferences.Thesebooksareuseful,buttheydon’thelpwhenyourbossorclienthassaid,“Gobuildmeashoppingcart.”Inthisbook,wehavedoneourbesttomakeeveryexampleuseful.Youcanusemanyofthecodesamplesdirectlyinyourwebsite,andyoucanusemanyotherswithonlyminormodifications.WhatYouWillLearnfromThisBook Readingthisbookwillenableyoutobuildreal-world,dynamicwebsites.Ifyou’vebuiltwebsitesusingplainHTML,yourealizethelimitationsofthisapproach.StaticcontentfromapureHTMLwebsiteisjustthat—static.Itstaysthesameunlessyouphysicallyupdateit.Youruserscan’tinteractwiththesiteinanymeaningfulfashion. UsingalanguagesuchasPHPandadatabasesuchasMySQLallowsyoutomakeyoursitesdynamic:tohavethembecustomizableandcontainreal-timeinformation. Wehavedeliberatelyfocusedthisbookonreal-worldapplications,evenintheintroductorychapters.Webeg
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