Rating:  - The Next Step for the Serious PHP Programmer
I got this book thinking, "Hey, this might help me get a leg up on that new PHP 5 OOP stuff." That it did.
However, this book accomplishes much more than that. Zandstra sets himself a several goals and meets them all quite well. These include: providing an understanding of classes, objects, and interfaces in PHP 5; presenting a numbers of useful design patterns as expressed in PHP 5 terms; giving the reader information about and insight into advanced development tools and methodologies for large-scale PHP 5 projects.
A particularly valuable service provided by the author lies in the fact that there is a real dearth of material on design patterns for PHP developers, most of the literature on this subject being written with the assumption that the reader is highly proficient in Java or C++ (or possibly Smalltalk). This is all well and good if your background includes lots of work or study in one or more of these; however, for many Web developers, PHP is the primary and sometimes only programming language (and for many more, their only previous experience is with other scripting languages such as Perl, Python, JavaScript, VBScript, etc.). Zandstra goes to the effort of translating many of the classic "Gang of Four" design patterns into PHP 5 code and thereby makes accessible a realm that was heretofore unknown to many PHP developers.
If this were all that the book covered, it would be useful in and of itself for this alone. But the author also gives us a good, thorough grounding in both the mechanics of PHP 5's new object model and (especially important!) the rationale behind it. He also provides a nice tutorial on UML modeling along the way, and finishes up with a look at some current development tools like Phing and CVS. There are plenty of helpful and useful examples along the way.
I give this book 5 stars for having really helped me wrap my head round some advanced OO programming and design concepts. I've already got loads of use from it; my copy is about two months old, and it's already getting dog-eared. It's also a very enjoyable read, and a real cut above most of the "How To Program In ..." sorts of books. This is the perfect book for someone with some experience with writing PHP code who's looking to move up to the next level - creating real, scalable, enterprise-level PHP applications.
Rating:  - A great introduction to object-oriented PHP
I haven't read a book on PHP in ages. In fact, I haven't programmed in PHP since 2001. With this in mind, I can say that Matt Zandstra's "PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice" was a very approachable introduction to what the latest version of the PHP platform has to offer to an OO developer from the Java scene.
The book is split to three main sections: objects, patterns, practice. The first section runs through the new object-oriented features of PHP 5, the second sections introduces design patterns and includes a catalog of some of the more common patterns from the original Gang of Four patterns as well as from "Core J2EE Patterns". The third section is a set of tutorials on tools and assets that a modern day PHP developer really should know about and make use of: the PEAR installation tool, PhpDocumentor, and the Phing build tool. The author also squeezed in a bit about the PHPUnit2 library for unit testing PHP code which I especially appreciated.
The design patterns catalog is far from comprehensive, covering only a small subset of published design patterns in the Java/.NET camps, but serves its purpose alright. Every included pattern is illustrated with an example that the author has crafted for the PHP context - in other words, these are not just direct ports from their Java equivalents, for example.
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. Combined with the discussion about design patterns, the book feels like a valuable asset for getting up to speed after a break. A more up-to-date PHP developer might find the information a bit lacking but for someone new to PHP 5's object-oriented features, this is a good package to get started with.
Rating: - Everything you need in one book
Learning PHP is easy and rewarding, but as your software grows you will need to know how to manage your code, work as a team, and break your problems down into well defined abstractions. This book gathers together all the tools you need in around 400 pages. Not too long considering its scope. It's a practical guide with an easy style that gets straight to the point. It's a great introduction not just to PHP 5 but to object oriented methods in general. If you're just getting started, or if you're an old hand and want to see how large scale applications can be written in PHP, I recommend you read this book.
Rating: - Great book IF you already know some PHP
The author of this book assumes a basic understanding of the PHP language and focuses on how to take advantage of the new features of PHP5. The book includes best practices, tools, and principles on how best to write, document and implement a project.
The three primary divisions of the book follow along with the title and are sequenced as Objects, Patterns, and Practice. The Objects section covers the history of PHP and how it evolved to include a focus on object-oriented programming. This section contains some of the more basic information in the book including the principles behind objects, classes and inheritance. The section on Patterns examines problems of software design and ways to approach and resolve these problems. In this section the reader learns basic design principles that should be implemented on all projects to make them easier to troubleshoot or expand on later. The last section covers the practices and tools that can be used to correctly manage a project. The focus is on managing your code, managing your project, tracking bugs, collaboration between programmers, and making the project easy to install. It includes a section on Concurrent Versions System (CVS) which allows multiple programmers to work on the same code without overwriting each other's work.
Although it assumes some knowledge of PHP programming it does not assume any knowledge of object-oriented programming and that appears to be one of the primary purposes of the book - to take PHP4 programmers and teach them to take advantage of the abilities of PHP5. This is not to say that you can't get a lot of value from the book without prior knowledge of PHP. If you have programmed before and have a basic PHP syntax reference guide available then this book will still be a valuable read. PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice is highly recommended for PHP programmers making the move to PHP5 and PHP5 programmers that need a handle on best practices.
Rating: - 2 key ideas in programming
As languages which were not originally object oriented grow in popularity, there is sometimes a trend to upgrade them, by adding in this functionality. C++ can be regarded as an upgrade of C, in this respect. Or how Visual Basic now as VB.NET has quite impressive OO features. So Zandstra's book attests to this trend and to the popularity of PHP. It describes how the OO enhancements in PHP 4 were extended into version 5. You are shown how to use objects to the full extent allowed in PHP 5.
The book is also aimed at a reader who might never have formally learnt to use objects or design patterns. In the last 15 years, these have been two very important ideas in programming, independent of the languages used. Which gives us another merit of the book. You are not just learning PHP 5, though that may be good in itself. By understanding and using the book's ideas, you should be able to apply these in other languages. A valuable increase of your skill set and hence marketability.
You should also read carefully the section on bad practices. Sometimes, just being able to avoid these in your code may be enough to produce a successful program.
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