Programmers love its flexibility and speed; designers love its accessibility and convenience. When it comes to creating web sites, the PHP scripting language is truly a red-hot property. In fact, PHP is currently used on more than 19 million web sites, surpassing Microsoft's ASP .NET technology in popularity. Not surprisingly, this surge in usage has resulted in a number of PHP books hitting the market. Only one, though, takes the language beyond traditional Web programming and into mapping, graphing, multimedia, and beyond: PHP Hacks. In PHP Hacks, author Jack Herrington wrings out his 20 years of code generation experience to deliver hands-on tools ranging from basic PHP and PEAR installation and scripting to advanced multimedia and database optimizing tricks. On the practical side of things, PHP Hacks helps you develop more robust PHP applications by explaining how to improve your database design, automate application testing, and employ design patterns in your PHP scripts and classes. In the category of "cool," Herrington explains how to upgrade your Web interface through the creation of tabs, stickies, popups, and calendars. He even examines how to leverage maps and graphics in PHP. There's also a bounty of image and application hacks, including those that show you how to: * Integrate web sites with Google maps and satellite imaging * Dynamically display iPhoto libraries online * Add IRC, SMS, and Instant Messaging capabilities to your Web applications * Drop the latest Wikipedia dictionary onto your Sony PSP * Render graphics and user interfaces with SVG, DHTML, and Ajax Whether you're a newcomer or an expert, you'll find great value in PHP Hacks, the only PHP guide that offers something useful and fun for everyone.

Table of Contents:
Credits Preface Chapter 1. Installation and Basics 1. Install PHP 2. Install PEAR Modules Chapter 2. Web Design 3. Create a Skinnable Interface 4. Build a Breadcrumb Trail 5. Create HTML Boxes 6. Add Tabs to Your Web Interface 7. Give Your Customers Formatting Control with XSL 8. Build Lightweight HTML Graphs 9. Properly Size Image Tags 10. Send HTML Email Chapter 3. DHTML 11. Put an Interactive Spreadsheet on Your Page 12. Create Pop-Up Hints 13. Create Drag-and-Drop Lists 14. Build Dynamic HTML Graphs 15. Section Your Content with Spinners 16. Create Drop-Down Stickies 17. Create Dynamic Navigation Menus 18. Obscure JavaScript Dynamically 19. Build a DHTML Binary Clock 20. Tame Ajax with JSON 21. Make a DHTML Slideshow 22. Add Vector Graphics with PHP 23. Build a Color Selector 24. Create Link Graphs 25. Create an Interactive Calendar 26. Create the Google Maps Scrolling Effect Chapter 4. Graphics 27. Create Thumbnail Images 28. Create Beautiful Graphics with SVG 29. Simplify Your Graphics with Objects 30. Split One Image into Multiple Images 31. Create Graphs with PHP 32. Create Image Overlays 33. Access Your iPhoto Pictures with PHP Chapter 5. Databases and XML 34. Design Better SQL Schemas 35. Create Bulletproof Database Access 36. Create Dynamic Database Access Objects 37. Generate CRUD Database Code 38. Read XML on the Cheap with Regular Expressions 39. Export Database Schema as XML 40. Create a Simple XML Query Handler for Database Access 41. Generate Database SQL 42. Generate Database Select Code 43. Convert CSV to PHP 44. Scrape Web Pages for Data 45. Suck Data from Excel Uploads 46. Load Your Database from Excel 47. Search Microsoft Word Documents 48. Create RTF Documents Dynamically 49. Create Excel Spreadsheets Dynamically 50. Create a Message Queue Chapter 6. Application Design 51. Create Modular Interfaces 52. Support Wiki Text 53. Turn Any Object into an Array 54. Create XML the Right Way 55. Fix the Double Submit Problem 56. Create User-Customizable Reports 57. Create a Login System 58. Apply Security by Role 59. Migrate to MD5 Passwords 60. Make Usable URLs with mod_rewrite 61. Build an Ad Redirector 62. Add a Buy Now Button 63. Find Out Where Your Guests Are Coming From 64. Import Information from vCards 65. Create vCard Files from Your Application's Data 66. Create a Shopping Cart Chapter 7. Patterns 67. Observe Your Objects 68. Create Objects with Abstract Factories 69. Flexible Object Creation with Factory Methods 70. Abstract Construction Code with a Builder 71. Separate What from How with Strategies 72. Link Up Two Modules with an Adapter 73. Write Portable Code with Bridges 74. Build Extensible Processing with Chains 75. Break Up Big Classes with Composites 76. Simplify APIs Using a Facade 77. Create Constant Objects with Singletons 78. Ease Data Manipulation with Visitors Chapter 8. Testing 79. Test Your Code with Unit Tests 80. Generate Your Unit Tests 81. Check for Broken Links 82. Test Your Application with imulated Users 83. Test Your Application with Robots 84. Spider Your Site 85. Generate Documentation Automatically Chapter 9. Alternative UIs 86. Create Custom Maps with MapServer 87. Build GUI Interfaces with GTk 88. Send RSS Feeds to Your IM Application Using Jabber 89. IRC Your Web Application 90. Read RSS Feeds on Your PSP 91. Search Google by Link Graph 92. Create a New Interface for Amazon.com 93. Send SMS Messages from Your IM Client 94. Generate Flash Movies on the Fly Chapter 10. Fun Stuff 95. Create Custom Google Maps 96. Create Dynamic Playlists 97. Create a Media Upload/Download enter 98. Check Your Network Game with PHP 99. Put Wikipedia on Your PSP 100. Create a Weather Showdown Index