Learning PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, and CSS: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites

Learn how to build interactive, data-driven websites—even if you don’t have any previous programming experience. If you know how to build static sites with HTML, this popular guide will help you tackle dynamic web programming. You’ll get a thorough grounding in today’s core open source technologies: PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, and CSS.

Explore each technology separately, learn how to combine them, and pick up valuable web programming concepts along the way, including objects, XHTML, cookies, and session management. This book provides review questions in each chapter to help you apply what you’ve learned.

• Learn PHP essentials and the basics of object-oriented programming
• Master MySQL, from database structure to complex queries
• Create web pages with PHP and MySQL by integrating forms and other HTML features
• Learn JavaScript fundamentals, from functions and event handling to accessing the Document Object Model
• Pick up CSS basics for formatting and styling your web pages
• Turn your website into a highly dynamic environment with Ajax calls
• Upload and manipulate files and images, validate user input, and secure your applications
• Explore a working example that brings all of the ingredients together

Robin Nixon has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s (his first computer was a Tandy TRS 80 Model 1 with a massive 4KB of RAM!). One of the web sites he developed presented the world's first radio station licensed by the music copyright holders. In order to enable people to continue to surf while listening, Robin also developed the first known pop-up windows. He has also worked full time for one of Britain's main IT magazine publishers, where he held several roles including editorial, promotions, and cover disc editing.