I’m very pleased to say that the fourth edition of my first book, " PHP for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide," is now available. This book was written for the average computer user wanting to begin developing dynamic Web sites. No prior programming experience is assumed, although you should already be familiar with the basics of HTML. The focus of the book is the PHP language itself, but two chapters introduce MySQL and SQL, in order to start using a database backend.

With the fourth edition of the book, I started by fixing any minor problems and updating the code for the latest version of PHP. New in this edition is a “Review and Pursue” section at the end of each chapter. The review prompts revisit the chapter’s key points. The pursue prompts are specific recommendations for how to apply what you just learned on your own. As with any of the book’s material, you can turn to the book’s supporting forum for help or feedback on the “Review and Pursue” section.

In this edition…

• About This Newsletter
• What Were You Thinking? => “PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites” (4th Edition)
• On the Web => Five Critical E-Commerce Security Tips in Five Days
• On the Web =>More E-Commerce Articles Published Online
• On the Web => New Support Forum
• On the Blog => My JavaScript Book: Table of Contents
• Q&A => Why Shouldn’t I Use require_once()?
• What is Larry Thinking => Building a Career
• Book Giveaway => “PHP for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide (4th Edition)”
• Larry Ullman’s Book News => “PHP for the Web”, “PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites”, and More!

In a previous post, I previewed my forthcoming, self-published JavaScript book: why I’m writing it, when, and how. Here, then, is the current Table of Contents, with some explanatory text. To be fair, this is the first draft of the table of contents, and it’s probably more inclusive than the final book will be. As I write the text, the order and specifics will no doubt change, and I may need to cut some of the most advanced and esoteric content if the book gets to be too long or complex.

As always, any and all feedback you may have on the proposed book is most welcome.

Part 1: Getting Started

The first section of the book introduces JavaScript as it is today, in all its facets. The first chapter talks about what JavaScript specifically is and what it’s used for, what JavaScript isn’t, and what the current landscape looks like. The second chapter has the reader creating some real-world code—client-side and server-side form validation, using both hand-written JavaScript and the jQuery framework (even if he or she doesn’t know JavaScript yet, which is really how we all begin with JavaScript anyway). The third chapter discusses development tools that are useful as one is learning JavaScript. This includes things like JavaScript-aware IDEs and text editors, the JavaScript-specific features of different Web browsers, and debugging tools. The focus in this first part is on a grasp of JavaScript as a whole, also providing a context within which the reader can continue through Part 2 of the book, the most important part.

For years and years now I’ve thought about writing my own JavaScript book. The idea started because many readers requested that I write one, hoping to read a JavaScript book that teaches that language as directly, and in as simple terms, as can be found in my PHP books (apologies for how egotistical that probably sounds). Of course, by now, pretty much every publisher already has their own JavaScript book. This, I believe, is part of the problem.

Most JavaScript books (and probably all that attempt to teach the language entirely) were first written in the late 1990’s, when JavaScript was mostly used for annoying and tedious tricks, such as alert boxes, status bar scrolls, and so forth. A decade ago, image rollovers and basic form validation were about as good as JavaScript got. Because of JavaScript’s own poor usage, any book written about JavaScript at the time was limited as to how good and useful it could be. Readers who appreciated my PHP and other books would often ask if I had written a JavaScript book. After saying “No”, they then would ask what JavaScript book I could recommend. For the most part, I couldn’t recommend many (the “JavaScript: The Definitive Guide”, written by David Flanagan and published by O’Reilly is one of the better ones, but like most O’Reilly books, is much better as a reference guide than an instructional book for beginners).

Peachpit Press has just published online another article I wrote titled “ Ajax-ifying a Shopping Cart.” The article can be used to expand some of the content in my “Effortless E-Commerce with PHP and MySQL” book. This is the fourth and final article I wrote for Peachpit Press in support of this book (plus the five blog postings).

Peachpit Press has just published online another article I wrote titled “ Creating an Ajax-Enabled Rating System for Your Website.” The article can be used to expand some of the content in my “Effortless E-Commerce with PHP and MySQL” book.