Essential PHP Tools

THis INTRODUCTION lays out who the book is written for, provides an overview of what is covered, and gives some background details on a package management utility you'll use to install many of the add-ons covered in the book. Who This Book Is For Although PHP has a lot of built-in functionality, many common Web program- ming tasks are simpler with add-on modules and packages. This book is for you if you are looking for an easier way to do these kinds of tasks with PHP: * Access a database. * Generate robust Web forms. * Use a page templating system. * Create or parse XML documents. * Request or serve XML-RPC or SOAP methods. * Send HTML or multipart e-mail messages. * Authenticate users. * Inspect your scripts with a debugger. * Boost server performance without rewriting any code. This book assumes you have a basic knowledge of PHP programming: You know how to perform tasks such as include files, write functions, create objects, and look in $_REQUEST, $_GET, or $_POST to find submitted form data.