Object-Oriented PHP shows developers how to take advantage of the new object-oriented features of PHP. Working within the context of concrete examples, the book begins with code compatible with PHP 4 and 5, and then focuses on object-orientation in PHP 5. The author's practical approach uses numerous code examples, which will help developers get up to speed with object oriented PHP quickly, and show them how to apply what they learn to everyday situations. All code samples are available for download on the book's companion site.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 19 Ratings

Probably not the most time effective way to learn OO PHP - 2009-08-29
Reviewer Rating:
I have used PHP procedurally for several years, and had some inkling of OOP, but no formal introduction yet. I was happy with the three introductory chapters laying the groundwork for the body of the book. I was also able to implement the classes developed as examples in this book with some added/modified methods. The author is a highly talented programmer and gives the reader an insight into his use and development of meaningful classes. The back cover presents this effort as an introduction to Object Oriented Programming, and fair enough, the concepts are clear. The summary also presents this as an 'easy to follow' guide to OO PHP. Not. It is one thing to sit in your recliner and read text and say, "Uh huh. Got it" and quite another to actually understand how to build the examples and implement them so that your time is not wasted.

It is possible to use this book to learn OO PHP, but only with great willingness to search far and wide for supporting documentation to items mysteriously introduced without explanation. I seriously doubt any reviewer that rated this effort highly, stepped through the code line by line, chapter by chapter, entering their own programming notes into their code and understanding each step.

For me, the time required to research all of the items introduced in each chapter to the point of knowing the 'why' of each step was excessive. A specific example of an item being introduced without proper explanation is the introduction of the 'Iterator' interface in Chapter 10. There is no mention that interfaces are part of the Standard PHP Library (SPL), or that the Iterator functions are listed there. At least, in the context of the chapter, that is how it read to me. No explanation of how we know the behaviors or properties. I found myself digging into PHP's C/C++ source code to understand subjects glossed over in the text of the book. Further reading at the end of Ch. 11, almost two chapters later, then referenced the fact that Iterator was a built-in function and where to find the info. A little deeper digging reveals that in fact, reference was made in one of the introductory chapters, ch. 3, p.14. The 'we won't deal with the details here, but the download files have the proper code' or the information is somewhere else does not seem reader friendly. This is the default method in this book, making it frustrating to extract the knowledge in a meaningful, time effective way.

I guess I have become spoiled to the books written by author Larry Ullman and hold other instructional texts to that standard. If Ullman introduces a concept, he covers the details and has every line of code actually IN the text of the book. The process of actually including the code, not just highlight snippets, evidently causes a more thorough thought process on the part of the author and results in clear, easily understood explanations rather than opaque references to behaviors and definitions that the reader must seek out.

It is great accomplishment just to write a book, and I am grateful to all authors and this one in particular for sharing his knowledge. The style of reading required, i.e. reading pseudo 'back to front' in various sections was somewhat disconcerting. My view is that if you already know Object Oriented Programming and probably already know PHP OOP and have a thorough knowledge of the SPL, this is a great resource. I believe if this book were re-packaged so that expectations for the content were different, it would be a 5-star book. The knowledge gained from stepping through is useful and lasting, and expensive time-wise.

Thorough, informative, and confusing! - 2009-01-16
Reviewer Rating:
If your new to PHP, this isn't the book for you, learning procedurally to program PHP before you delve into OOP should definitely be a beginner's plan of attack, and the concepts in this book are almost entirely OOP.

That being said, if you do want to learn OOP, then I'm sure there's something to gain from this book. I despise the wordiness and am more of a visual learner. I find charts and plenty of examples are easier to learn from.

I think the biggest drawback of this book is the lengthy explanations and $2 words. If your up for the challenge, or sincerely want to grasp PHP OOP then you should probably add this book to your collection, but don't expect it to be an easy read.

Worthwhile for developers going to OOP - 2008-12-13
Reviewer Rating:
Unfortunately I am not a PHP procedural or OOP developer. My views, however, are from a longtime web developer. I think that if you are a PHP developer looking to move to PHP5, this book probably would deserve 5 stars. If you are not a PHP developer, you probably should learn some PHP syntax as this book seems to assume that you know some PHP.

RIA Developer - 2009-08-14
Reviewer Rating:
The most important things with online buying is a good price, fast delivery and the product received is the item and condition stated. I would recommend and buy from this user again.

Excellent Introduction to OOP in PHP - 2009-04-09
Reviewer Rating:
Object-Oriented PHP is an excellent tutorial of OOP. There are many books that cover OOP in general, but this one focuses entirely on PHP's implementation.

I particularly liked how Lavin focused on walkthroughs that are plausible examples of real world web development. I've programmed using and read about OOP before, and I've seen most of the pedestrian examples of objects--dogs, cats, cars, and people--but those are all things that can be tangibly observed. You can look at one or think of one and figure out how to create a class for it in OOP. However, programming never deals with anything like that. Your objects are going to be things that only exist in the realm of the computer, like a MySQL object, an object for constructing navigation, or resizing images. This practical approach makes OOP all that much more approachable: you will be able to observe the benefits of OOP immediately if you've programmed before.