I am an experienced sequential PHP programmer and wanted to make the jump to Object Oriented PHP.

I have already learned OO concepts and programming through various classes. This book has a lot of good information that was exactly what I needed.

The reading can be a bit awkward at times, and requires reading ahead to understand back(?). In other words things are used before their explained, and sometimes their used to explain other things, so you must eventually double back.

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER - 2 thumbs up.

All in all if you are a PHP programmer wanting to upgrade, its worth the price.

I'll agree with others and say that Mike Zandstra's book covers this topic better. The author goes through one example throughout the book (using classes to manipulate a file directory) without fulling explaining how some of the topics work. For example, the author gives a code example, say in english what it's doing to the files, but doesn't explain how.

On the flip side, it is a good book for explaining what OOP is and why it's such and advance for PHP. I just wouldn't use this book to learn it.

Peter Lavin provides us with sound, easy to understand concepts, techniques, and examples in Object-Oriented PHP. This book woke me up to the universe of OOPhp where many other PHP5 books had put me to sleep or utterly confused. If you want to get a grasp on how to implement Object-Oriented programming in your PHP code, I can highly recommend this book. It will get you moving along.

I have used php since v.3 first came out. PHP's initial poor implementation of OOP completely turned me off. I found that I just did not want to do any OOP in PHP, not if that is what OOP is in PHP. Although PHP5 introduced good OOP capabilities I was so entrenched in procedural coding, and have a fairly large library of functions for a framework that I developed for my client websites that I pretty much ignored the OOP capabilities of PHP5 except in some minor cases. And all the books I got on PHP5 just left me scratching my head as to why would I want to go through all the hassle of converting the code to OOP.

With an Amazon gift certificate, I picked up this book, my curiosity peeked again regarding OOP in PHP due to taking a Java class on-line. I read it cover to cover and put it down saying, good book, OOP in PHP might be worth it. Without even thinking about it, I suddenly found myself converting my framework to OOP code and loving it. Peter Lavin flipped the ol' light bulb switch to on and I got it.

Object-Oriented PHP by Peter Lavin did three things, no make that four to get me to want to switch to OOPhp.

1. It explained PHP's OOP concepts simply and clearly. I didn't put the book down thinking it is still all a mystery to me. For example, it didn't throw Design Patterns at me early like most of the other books so by the time I got to his brief explanation of Patterns I was ready for them. Ironically, he only discusses the Singleton Pattern and then very briefly.

2. It provided useful examples of the concepts he presents. I wanted to understand the concepts of PHP and his examples helped me do that. I do wish that he would have provided more extensive code examples (or less truncated) but his explanations of the code examples were sufficient that maybe he really didn't need more.

3. This book is not long. Some may actually feel robbed by its brevity but I found the concise explanation of the concepts with good examples refreshing and understandable. It kept me moving along and not bogged down so that I could finish the book. Again, I sort of wished for more complete code examples but that may have ruined the pacing of the book - maybe a follow-up "Recipe book" from the author to round it out?

4. Finally, and I suppose this will sound silly, but the author gave me permission to use procedural code. This was so unlike many OOP advocates that it really stuck out although it was only one line in this fine book. More importantly, after giving me permission to use procedural code, he showed me why I would rather use OOP techniques instead. And bam! Here I am, converting thousands of lines of procedural code over to OOP.

Thanks Peter Lavin

Thanks to this book now I understand the php code written on OOP style.
After reading this book I was able to develop a very large open source project written entirely in OOP style with php5 and it was not very difficult either.

From the perspective of a an experienced procedural PHP programmer learning OO, having read both this book and "PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice" by Matt Zandstra, I would definately recommend the latter to this book.

Just because Zandstra's book doesn't have a cartoon on the front, doesn't make it less accessible. In fact I found it both more advanced and easier to understand at the same time. I imagine Lavin writing this book one chapter at a time, writing each successive chapter based on what he forgot in the previous. Zandstra's order of explanation on the other hand I found invaluable and thoughtful. When you're trying to make sense of a system by reading about it in a linear (book) explanation, the order in which the information is introduced and its context is very important.

Zandstra's book is also more thorough, and seems to approach implementation from an enterprise (read proper) perspective.

Lavin spends a lot of time on an example of using OO to build a system to display images in a directory. In hindsight, it turns out the design of his code is flawed in some places. Introduction material is no place to be teaching bad habits of any kind.

This book is $10 cheaper than Objects, Patterns, and Practice, but I think if you're serious about learning OO in PHP the extra $10 is worth it for a higher quality book.

'Object-Oriented PHP: Concepts, Techniques, and Code' is a typical No Starch book and that is a very good thing. At <200 pages this may seem short but it's the perfect length for getting a nice flavor of how to write good OO PHP code and then some. With 15 chapters of content, you'll learn why you will want to incorporate object oriented design into your web pages and what they can do for you. A great tool for all PHP developers and with the typical easy to read and fun to enjoy No Starch layout, this is a great book to add to your PHP library!

***** RECOMMENDED

As other reviewers have stated, this is defiantly not a book that will teach you object oriented programming, nor, have I found a book that teaches all the concepts of OOP and how to program php in conjunction with one another.

I would recommend that if you want to learn OOP, then read the book "Head First Java" -- you will know OOP inside and out. From there, if you have a little procedural PHP under your belt, the syntax of Java and PHP are nearly identical.

If you already know OOP, but need to learn how to define classes etc, in PHP, this is an excellent resource and a good read.

I consider myself an advanced PHP user, I have read a few other PHP books, but I'm always looking to learn something new in the field. This book definitely is for beginners. Up to chapter 9 and so far we've learned not much except how to resize an image and handle multi-page navigation. Chapter 10 (out of 16) deals for the first time with static variables and connecting to a database. There is a brief section on patterns which covers 1 (yes one) pattern, the singleton. Anyways, this book is not bad, it's well written just don't expect to learn much new if you are a seasoned PHP programmer.

I would recommend "PHP 5 Objects, Patterns And Practice", Zandstra, if you are looking for advanced coding techniques.

This book is great whether you are an experienced coder or a beginner. I've been using php for a few years now, and i picked this book up, just to have under my belt, and wow. i learned a few things off of it. It really gets into PHP5 where the world of web should be headed. Like he said, PHP is a victim of its own success.

This book is clear, easy to follow, and straight to the point. It presents a wealth of useful information on OOP in a style unmatched by nearly any PHP book I've seen.

With this book I have built most wanted PHP classes like DirectoryItems, ThumbnailImages, Pagination and more. The logic of classes is amazing. I have bought lots of books on PHP and after reading them I donate them to the library. But this is one of the few books that always sits on my desk.

There are lots of practical information in this book and I easily implemented them on my website.

So many computer books today are 800 pages of word bloat. The author not only keeps the writing lively but he gives a lot of information in succinct way.

However I don't recommend this book for beginners. You are expected to know basics of PHP programming.

The only small criticism I have about the book is that I dislike that the author don't include the whole code in the book for some classes and you have to download the code from the accompanying website. I like the whole code be present in the book.

I would like the author to write more books on PHP esp. PHP classes. It would be wonderful to write another book devoted to just common classes because I love the way the author writes PHP classes which make my life as a programmer much easier.

I'll get this out of the way up front; I approached this book with a completely inaccurate perception of what it was going to give me. I would consider myself an intermediate to advanced php developer, and I was hoping this book would teach me awesome ways to use PHP5's OOP power to make my applications better, faster, and more attractive to women. That wasn't what this book does. This book introduces OOP, explains why it's useful, and goes through to develop several sample applications to demonstrate OOPs power, and more importantly how to use it.

The books pretty thin weighing in at 216 pages, split up amongst 15 chapters. The first bit of the book concentrates on explaining what OOP is, why PHP needs it, and why you want it. It then moves on to explain why OOP sucked in PHP4, what works better in PHP5, and all the fancy new words you're going to need to memorize to use it (protected, private, etc.). It then moves on to develop a sample indexing application, adding in thumbnail generation as the book progresses. Later on more advanced topics like design patterns, interfaces and exceptions are introduced. Finally the book gives a brief introduction to SPL which was introduced in PHP5 and improved in PHP5.1.

Overall I would recommend this book to beginner PHP developers, or intermediate developers who have not yet gotten their feet wet with OO.

Object-Oriented PHP is really a technical brief that seems to fall short of its own ambitions. It covers PHP 5, most notably the radical switch from prior versions to a full OOP model. Lavin summarizes the reasons for the changes and reviews basic concepts of OOP. He then develops some classes for an application that draws images from a database and displays thumbnail images. In some places the PHP 4 equivalent code is provided for study. Notes on MySQL and PHP Data Objects (PDO) are also included.

It is a terse and sometimes bumpy ride. The book's conversational tone is appropriate for fellow geeks, but I found it more distracting than reassuring. There are some summary apologies, for example, that make the chapters seem like they were transcribed from tape. Rather than go back and match the introductory objectives to the text, a summary or two admits things didn't quite work out as planned. Ok, let's say there was no time to fix it. How does calling attention to it help?

Because the book is so short, the author glosses many concepts, frequently referring to web sites for technical details and tutorials. Once or twice he refers to a well-known author (e.g., Bruce Eckel) to support a complex point. Again while this is appropriate for a peer audience, it also needlessly puts the book out of reach for some readers.

It seems to me the book once had a too-ambitious outline. The back cover states you'll learn to "Incorporate AJAX into your OO PHP code." The coverage on this topic is trivial: an eight-line paragraph that names a website from which to retrieve example code, followed by indicators in subsequent to show where the AJAX reference is. The reader would be right to feel misled.

This book should be useful to the author's PHP peers, but those same readers should understand OOP well beforehand. I doubt a skeptical or demanding reader will like this book. Beginners will almost certainly get lost early and often.

The latest version of PHP is covered here in a title which teaches how to create your own code classes, customize and improve them, employ PHP to autogenerate code documentation and much more. Any with a working knowledge of PHP who want to move behind the basics to take full advantage of the latest version must have Object-Oriented PHP: Concepts, Techniques And Code: it encourages sequential learning through chapters which provide basic building blocks of experience and real-world applications. A top pick.

The latest version of PHP is covered here in a title which teaches how to create your own code classes, customize and improve them, employ PHP to autogenerate code documentation and much more. Any with a working knowledge of PHP who want to move behind the basics to take full advantage of the latest version must have Object-Oriented PHP: Concepts, Techniques And Code: it encourages sequential learning through chapters which provide basic building blocks of experience and real-world applications. A top pick.

Object-Oriented PHP by Peter Lavin is a good book for any traditional/procedural PHP programmer who would like to know what those object-oriented PHP programmers are so excited about. If you are considering adding object-oriented PHP to your toolbox and want a step-by-step, example based guide for the beginner, this is a good book to start with. This book is also for programmers who want to switch from PHP 4 to PHP 5.

Lavin starts with an overview of object-oriented PHP and discusses several of its advantages. He then discusses the basics of object-oriented programming such as classes and inheritance and the specifics for this type of programming in PHP. Next, he teaches you how to write your first class. One of the nice things about this book is that the author starts with this simple example and, as you progress through the book, shows how to build upon, extend and reuse that simple class to do more advanced programming.

The first step is to extend this class into a directory item class that will list all the files in a directory or list just certain files as needed. Next, you will write a thumbnail class that will create thumbnail images on-the-fly that are reduce in dimensions and quality thus reducing the download time. The third class you write is a page navigation class, similar to that used by Google, that will control the number of items listed on a page and also the number of page links in the navigation. Finally, he shows you how these three classes work together and with CSS.

Next, Lavin discusses the MySQL database class and how it works with the MySQL database. He also covers inheritance and how that can be applied to simplify error handling. He then moves on to abstract classes, magic methods and how dynamic websites can benefit from the SimpleXML extension to work with RSS feeds and the SOAP extension for a website search engine. We all hate to document our programs and Lavin shows you how to use the reflection class to self-document your code.

Peter Lavin has a web development firm and writes for several publications including PHP Hacks. There is a companion website that contains downloads of all the code and working examples.