PHP jQuery Cookbook  (English, Electronic book text, Joshi Vijay)

As web technology evolves, the gap between desktop applications and web applications continues to vanish. And what better way to bridge that gap, for your own website, than using the best two open source technologies in the market: PHP and jQuery. The power-combo of these two is leading the way in revolutionizing the RIA world. Although they are easy to integrate, finding or figuring out how to do what you want to do is rather arduous.

The PHP jQuery Cookbook will be your handy guide with walkthroughs of common integration tasks and problems that will help you master the possibilities available using the PHP and jQuery combo. You will learn quick solutions to necessary tasks to integrate the power of two of the best known and most widely used web technologies of today – PHP on the server side and jQuery on the client side. Glide through the basics and move to advanced topics to create dynamic and interactive web applications with this book in hand.

This book covers a wide array of technical aspects of creating an interactive website. Apart from basics of PHP and jQuery, you will go through advanced topics like creating plugins, validating controls, and useful utilities that you will be able to use as stand-alone tools. AJAX, the key technique of browser-server communication is covered in detail. You will also learn to use JSON, which is becoming preferred as a mode of data interchange over XML, both in web applications and web services.

The book also covers database interaction, which is an important part of any dynamic web application. You will also gain expertise in debugging JavaScript with the help of useful tools that will save you hours of tedious manual debugging.

Most importantly, by using jQuery and PHP together, you will be able to develop applications that are compatible with all major browsers, with no need to write code targeted at specific browsers!

A package of comprehensive solutions to problems that may occur while building web applications with PHP and jQuery
What you will learn from this book :

• Start from the basics and learn pro-level tricks by the end of the book
• Create interactive and dynamic hierarchical menus
• Apply eye-catching effects on form elements
• Integrate a database along with PHP and jQuery
• Use AJAX to enhance user experience and page interaction
• Learn how to work with JSON and XML for efficient data exchange
• Create tools and utilities for your web applications
• Master form validation on client side as well as server side

Approach
Written in Packt's cookbook style, this book presents numerous practical examples that you can use directly in your applications. The book covers most of the essential issues you will face while developing your web applications and gives solutions to them. Recipes in the book are written in a manner that will rapidly take you from a beginner to expert level.

Who this book is written for
If you want to use PHP and jQuery together to create web applications this book is for you. It provides a large number of examples in each chapter that will take you from a basic developer to a pro by giving step-by-step instructions for each task in developing web applications using PHP and jQUery. All you need are JavaScript basics and you are on your way to building power web applications, with this book in hand.

About the Author
Vijay Joshi is a programmer with over six years of experience on various platforms. He discovered his passion for open source four years back when he started playing with PHP on a hobby project. Vijay now is a professional web developer and prefers writing code ONLY in open source (but that does not always happen, unfortunately!). He switches hats as needed – he is full-time lead programmer at Philogy, independent consultant for few selected companies where he advises them on variety of internet-based initiatives and still remains an active blogger at http://vijayjoshi.org.

Outside of work, he enjoys reading, trekking, and sometimes gets obsessed with fitness. Currently Vijay lives in New Delhi with his brother and a close network of friends that he is proud of.

Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Handling Events with jQuery
Chapter 2: Combining PHP and jQuery
Chapter 3: Working with XML Documents
Chapter 4: Working with JSON
Chapter 5: Working with Forms
Chapter 6: Adding Visual Effects to Forms
Chapter 7: Creating Cool Navigation Menus
Chapter 8: Data Binding with PHP and jQuery
Chapter 9: Enhancing your Site with PHP and jQuery
Appendix: Firebug
Index