PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice Paperback – November 30, 2013

This is not a book you want to get if you are just new to programming, specifically OOP.If you are beginning your journey into the PHP language this would be a skip as well.You need to really have a solid understanding of PHP and moderate level OOP before thinking about this bookWhen you are looking to learn more indepth OOP, about Objects and how Patterns come into play in your software design this is when you want to get this book to aide you in your learning.This is a tough read, it is not leisurely at all. I got this book to help me understand more advanced level OOP programming and to get more deeper into the PHP language itself while teaching the principles of how OOP works within PHP.I use PHP quite a bit and instead of buying a similar book in some other language to teach the subject matter. I chose this book because I would be learning practical examples that I would not need to really adapt to some other language. This is a hard book to get into and makes some assertions that you already understand certain things.If you need or want to learn Object Oriented Programming indepth and already have a working understanding of the basics of OOP and PHP then this would be a really good book to help you go to the next level. Many of the heavier subjects like Patterns are designed I think more to an enterprise level environment it is still interesting. For me it helps me understand and solidify the previous topics better.This is not a book you can just jump into and read from anywhere you need to read and understand the prior material before moving on through the book. Don't expect to get through this in a weekend or even a few weeks if you are new to the topic.I don't think that if you are serious about learning the subject matter this will be the only book you purchase or study. It is a good addition to what you already have or will be getting in the future.For a PHP book that is not really for me the reason to get it. This is more a programmers instructional using the PHP language instead of say Java or C, Python or some other language to teach advanced OOP and Design Patterns. It does go into the language more indepth but the gold here is the Object Oriented lessons which is more the focus.

I’ve understood OOP syntactically for a while, but couldn’t apply it to real world projects. “PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice” really helped me get to that next level. The meat of the book focuses on design patterns (many of which you’d see in Gang of Four book – he makes great references to that and other helpful books on design patterns), but what really set it apart for me was his holistic approach. It started by emphasizing the importance of good design (with examples), went through several patterns, and then rounded out the material with an introduction on several other important topics for a well-versed developer to understand. Things like testing, automation, and continuous integration. The book itself doesn’t expound at great length on those latter topics, but certainly gives you enough to learn more about them and more importantly understand how they should fit into your development ecosystem. I finished this book with a much better grasp of object oriented design, as well as what else I needed to have in my toolkit to be a great developer.

Matt Zandstra gives a good coverage of multiple OOP patterns applied to PHP programming, with good tips about where and how to use them. He also gives a small intro de PHP and write a lot about other topics (the "Practice" part of the book: using PEAR, testing, version control, continuos integration, etc.) all applied to PHP programming. Lot of people think this book is only for advanced programming but I think even novices would benefit from it. If you already have a previous edition this edition is a good upgrade (Matt rewrote some chapters, specially the ones on Practice). Even the printing is far better than the 3rd edition (the previous edition used terrible font and spacing making it hard to read) and it's more compact. I recommend this book to any PHP developer (novices or experts alike).

I often hesitate quite a bit when I don't like a product, preferring not to rate it rather than give it a low, possibly unfair, rating. It's been months since I bought this book and frankly, I regret it. To be fair, the fault may be mine. I've been programming since the good ole days of DOS and VB, but am relatively new to web programming - five years or so. I love php and js/jquery and have created my own business sites from scratch, using Zurb Foundation. Feeling the power of php, I want to get deeper into it, hence this book. But so far, I've struggled to get the hang of it. It doesn't help that the diagrams (I have the Kindle version) are impossible to read.If pressed for details, I stutter. It's like I really don't understand much of what the author is saying and why. So I'm prepared to accept that the fault may be mine. Perhaps it's way out of my league at the moment. It may be an excellent choice for someone much farther along the way. I intend to finish it and if I change my mind - if the light flicks on - I will come back with an edit of my review. What I would definitely say is that if you're relatively new to php or even moderately advanced and want to know more, you might just find this a waste of time.

The best book on objects and design patterns I have read to date. I'm also a Java programmer on a PHP project where I want to incorporate design patterns often used in Java projects. Matt Zandstra has a talent for presenting and explaining a very difficult subject which is object-oriented design principles and patterns. I'm buying this book for the junior developers on my project. I have no doubt this book will help put my junior developers in the mental place I need them to be.

I have several years of Java experience and I needed to learn PHP for work. Because of my Java experience, I didn't need to learn programming in PHP from scratch - just take what I know in Java and learn how to do it in PHP. (I uset this book in combination with other online exercises.) This book helped me do that, and as an added bonus provided a refresher on object oriented design and design patterns.

Great book lots of good review and some neat little features I didn't know existed in php.

Durante la mia carriera da System Administrator e sviluppatore ci sono dei libri che sono dei must o che mi hanno insegnato molto. Penso che per un PHP Coder questo sia un libro da avere, è molto diretto, ed è riservato ad un lettore che ha dei notevoli skill. Se pensate di far parte di questa schiera, ve lo consiglio caldamente.

Este es uno de esos libros "must read" que todo desarrollador PHP debe leer, contiene infinidad de ejemplos que ilustran perfectamente POO en PHP ademas de la aplicacion practica de muchos de los patrones de diseño!

There will always be the issue of a technology book becoming out of date quickly and this is no exception. Although the book covers the essentials of PHP OO and some design patterns, large sections of the book look at PEAR and using it as the PHP package manager. Composer didn't feature at all which made me realise my purchase was already dated.I did also spot quite a few errors in examples/diagrams which when trying to learn something can be extremely frustrating.It's not an exhaustive list of patterns either, you will find more here: https://github.com/domnikl/DesignPatternsPHP/blob/master/README.md

Nach 15 Jahren mit (fast) nur prozeduralem PHP habe ich mich letztes Jahr mit "PHP Object-Oriented Solutions" endlich mit der Objekt-Orientierung beschäftigt. Nun wollte ich mehr. Und "PHP Objects, Patterns, and Practice" ist da genau das richtige. Ich habe es aufgrund der guten Kritiken gewählt und bin nicht enttäuscht (habe jetzt ca. 1/5 gelesen). Ich kann es jedem Empfehlen, der sich mit PHP und Patterns beschäftigen will oder muss.