Wicked Cool PHP: Real-World Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems

Instead of starting at "Hello World," Wicked Cool PHP assumes that you're familiar with the language and jumps right into the good stuff. After you learn the FAQs of life-the most commonly wished for PHP scripts-you'll work your way through smart configuration options and the art of forms, all the way through to complex database-backed scripts.

Wicked Cool PHP contains a wide variety of scripts to process credit cards, check the validity of email addresses, template HTML, and serve dynamic images and text. The 76 easily implemented scripts will also teach you how to:

Send and receive email notifications Track your visitors' behavior with cookies and sessions Override PHP's default settings Manipulate dates, images, and text on the fly Harness SOAP and other web services Create an online poll, ecard delivery system, and blog

But it's not all fun and games: Security is a big concern when programming any web application. So you'll learn how to encrypt your confidential data, safeguard your passwords, and prevent common cross-site-scripting attacks. And you'll learn how to customize all of the scripts to fit your own needs.

Dynamic Web content doesn't have to be difficult. Learn the secrets of the craft from two experienced PHP developers with Wicked Cool PHP.

Rather than explain the basics of PHP, this guide provides scripts that can be implemented immediately to make programmers lives easier. Included are scripts for processing credit cards, getting live shipping quotes, and accepting PayPal payments online.

William Steinmetz is the author of LAN Party: Hosting the Ultimate Frag Fest (Wiley) and co-author of Paint Shop Pro for Dummies (IDG). He is the webmaster and editor of StarCityGames.com, where traffic has quadrupled as a result of the changes he designed and implemented, all using PHP.

Brian Ward, associate professor of history at the University of Florida, is the editor of "Media, Culture, and the Modern African American Freedom Struggle" (UPF, 2001) and the author of "Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race Relations," which won the 1999 James A. Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians.