XML and PHP

The highlight of the book is its coverage of each technology in a separate chapter, which makes it both a quick reference and a detailed guide. It starts with an introductory chapter on XML and PHP, which is not suited for beginners. 

The other chapters talk about PHP functions available for XML parsing, XSLT (eXtensible Style Language Transformation), WDDX (Web Distributed Data eXchange), XML-RPC (XML Remote Procedure Calls) and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol). 

SAX (Simple API for XML) and DOM (Document Object Model) APIs for XML parsing are explained in detail in separate chapters. There’s a chapter on converting data in relation databases (using MySQL as the database) into XML and vise versa. 

There is a peculiar and interesting chapter on free alternatives available to core PHP-XML functions. The book sums up with a chapter on developing two real-world applications: a database independent API for database schemas and a template engine for transforming XML data into HTML. There is a useful appendix on compiling and installing the required software with pointers to download sites. The appendix focuses more on setup on Linux with only a short note for Windows users. 

The book does not include a full listing of the PHP-XML functions in one place. Though a detailed function listing is always available with the PHP manuals, an appendix for it would’ve been handy. There is no CD, but the book does have a companion website. 

Overall, a crisp book meant for PHP developers who want to script XML technologies.