Who is this Book For?

This book covers some advanced techniques in PHP, so we assume that you have a solid grounding in the basics of PHP application development. You don't necessarily have to be familiar with PHP5 to get started, however. If you've been working in PHP4 until the recent launch of version 5, you'll be fine. Throughout the book, we've made sure that the differences between PHP5 and PHP4 are highlighted prominently.

To sum it up in two words, we assume that you have what might be called a working knowledge of PHP. If you have that and are eager to learn how you can take PHP to the next level in your Web projects, this book is for you.

You might be a professional Web developer for a big software company. Your company may have been working in PHP for years, but maybe it's eager to take the first steps away from ASP, Java, and other Web development platforms in an effort to discover the benefits of PHP.

You may be a lone (or almost lone) Web professional in an otherwise nontechnical company, assigned the task of implementing some huge project perhaps a staff intranet or new corporate Web presence who is looking for an appropriate development platform.

You may just be curious. Perhaps you're a student in university or college who's eager to supplement what you're learning in school with some professional code and project-management techniques plucked straight from the world of commercial Web development.

You might have a background in C++ or Java and have heard good things about PHP5 and how its new OOP support takes it one step closer to being a truly credible professional Web development environment. Perhaps you're skeptical and want to see whether what you've heard is true.

Whoever you are, as long as you know the basics of PHP and are eager to learn a whole lot more from people who not only know PHP inside and out but also love using it, then this book is for you.