...if you have seen true object-oriented development, and have had trouble using these concepts in PHP; don't despair any longer. Matt (Zandstra) has done all the work for you--all you need is a weekend or two to do a little reading.
— Daniel Holmes, Slashdot Contributor
While being an easy read, Zandstra's introduction to the object-oriented features is, I believe, perfectly adequate to get started with object-oriented PHP programming.
— Lasse Koskela, JavaRanch Bartender
PHP 5's object-oriented enhancements are among the most significant improvements in the 10+ year history of the language. This book introduces you to those new features and the many opportunities they provide, as well as a number of tools that will help you maximize development efforts.
The book begins with a broad overview of PHP 5's object-oriented features, introducing key topics like class declaration, object instantiation, inheritance, and method and property encapsulation. You'll also learn about advanced topics including static methods and properties, abstract classes, interfaces, exception handling, object cloning, and more. You'll also benefit from an extensive discussion regarding object-oriented design best practices.
The next part of the book is devoted to a topic that is often a natural extension of any object-oriented introduction: design patterns. PHP 5 is particularly well-suited to the deployment of these solutions for commonly occurring programming problems. The author will introduce pattern concepts and show you how to implement several key patterns in your PHP applications.
The last segment introduces a number of great utilities that help you document, manage, test, and build your PHP applications, including Phing, PHPUnit2, phpDocumentor, PEAR, and CVS.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - gr8 book for php5 concepts
Its probably one of the best books for understanding php5 concepts. It describes each and every feature of php5 with appropriate examples and is quite easy to comprehend.
Rating: - Little about quickly using design patterns in practice
The book gives an excellent introduction in object oriented programming (OOP), even when you want to learn OOP without using PHP. They first describe a clear problem and then show why and how OOP can be used to create a better solution.
(Note that I already had OOP Java knowledge before reading the book.)
The second part of the book focuses on Design Patterns, which I sometimes found not clearly explained; problems unclear and definitions not explained. The OOP part was clearer. ... Read More
Rating: - Buy both of them!
This book does borrow heavily from the "Gang of Four" book as other reviewers have mentioned. But the latter is the definative book on Design Patterns.
I would recommend buying both books as they do complement each other quite well. The examples in "PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice" tended be be a bit obscure but were clear and practical.
I recommend this book.
Rating: - Almost Perfect
Zandstra has created a masterful overview of OO for PHP and provides the patterns to go with it. However, the code presented in a number of sections is far from self-documenting, particularly the Enterprise patterns section. A really great additional feature would have been to tie up, broadly, how the patterns interact with one another at various layers of enterprise design; as the book is written, it becomes hard to keep track of all of the objects Zandstra has created over the chapter, and many ... Read More
Rating: - PHP + mini version of Gang of Four
Overall a very nice book. Certainly not a replacement for either "Gang of Four", OO design and PHP books, but a nice compilation. Don't expect any ground breaking strategies or patters. Good book for a person who wants to know HOW to use patters specifically for PHP. Pretty vague on WHY.
- gr8 book for php5 concepts
- Little about quickly using design patterns in practice
- Buy both of them!
