Product Description
XML, Data, Dates, Web Services, and Web APIs

• Maximize your productivity through the use of proven, powerful, reusable PHP components
• In-depth coverage of a range of important PEAR packages
• Many code examples provide a clear and practical guidance

In Detail

PEAR is the PHP Extension and Application Repository, and is a framework and distribution system for reusable, high-quality PHP components, available in the form of “packages”.

In this book, you will learn how to use a number of the most powerful PEAR packages available to boost your PHP development productivity. By focusing on these packages for key development activities, this book is an in-depth guide to getting the most from these powerful coding resources.

You will become a master of various PEAR packages that help you with the essential tasks of PHP development such as:

* Accessing databases with MDB2
* Displaying data in a range of formats (HTML, Excel spreadsheet, PDF)
* Creating and parsing XML documents
* Serializing PHP objects into XML, and unserializing XML documents to PHP objects
* Consuming and offering web services
* Accessing Web APIs including Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and Technorati

What you will learn from this book? Chapter 1 shows you how to access databases with the MDB2 package. You will learn:

* Connecting to the database, and instantiate objects
* Executing queries and fetching data
* MDB2 SQL abstraction; sequences, replace queries, sub-select support, prepared statements
* Using MDB2 modules
* Extending MDB2 to provide custom fetch and result classes, iterators, and modules

Chapter 2 explains how to use PEAR packages to display data . It teaches you:

* Creating powerful tables of data easily with the HTML_Table package
* Advanced table formatting with HTML_Table_Matrix
* Creating Excel spreadsheets dynamically with Spreadsheet_Excel_Writer
* Adding formatting to these spreadsheets including colors, patterns, formulae and number formatting
* Creating flexible, sortable grids of data with Structures_DataGrid
* Adding columns to the grid, control paging, select data sources, and renderers
* Using File_PDF to create PDF documents on the fly

Chapter 3 covers the usage of PEAR packages to work with XML and stresses on:

* Creating XML documents with XML_Util, XML_Fastcreate
* Transforming PHP objects to XML format with XML_Serializer
* Creating Mozilla applications with XML_XUL
* Parsing XML with XML_Parser
* Processing XML documents to PHP objects with XML_Unserializer
* Parsing RSS with XML_RSS

Chapter 4 is an extensive tutorial on working with web services and Web API’s using PEAR packages. We cover the following topics:

* Consuming web services
* Consuming XML-RPC-based web services
* Accessing the Google API
* Searching blog entries with Services_Technorati
* Accessing the Amazon web service
* Accessing the Yahoo API
* Offering XML-RPC-based web services
* Offering SOAP-based web services
* Offering REST-based services using XML_Serializer

Chapter 5 covers PEAR’s date and time functions using the PEAR::Calendar and PEAR::Date packages such as:

* Creating, manipulating, and comparing Date objects
* Data_Span arithmetic
* Handling timezones with Date_Timezone
* Keeping track of public holidays with Date_Holiday
* Using the Calendar class to display an HTML calendar

Approach

Packed with code examples, every topic is explained in a clear, practical way.

Who this book is written for?

This book is for PHP developers who want to maximize their productivity through the use of proven, high-quality, reusable PEAR components. Some experience of working with PEAR classes will prove helpful, and developers who’ve used PEAR before can find something new to delight them.

PHP Programming with PEAR: XML, Data, Dates, Web Services, and Web APIs