Recommended books about Apache

Over the last few years, Linux has grown both as an operating system and a tool for personal and business use. Simultaneously becoming more user friendly and more powerful as a back-end system, Linux has achieved new plateaus: the newer filesystems have solidified, new commands and tools have appeared and become standard, and the desktop--including new desktop environments--have proved to be viable, stable, and readily accessible to even those who don't consider themselves computer gurus.

Whether you're using Linux for personal software projects, for a small office or home office (often termed the SOHO environment), to provide services to a small group of colleagues, or to administer a site responsible for millions of email and web connections each day, you need quick access to information on a wide range of tools. This book covers all aspects of administering and making effective use of Linux systems. Among its topics are booting, package management, and revision control. But foremost in "Linux in a Nutshell" are the utilities and commands that make Linux one of the most powerful and flexible systems available.

Now in its fifth edition, "Linux in a Nutshell" brings users up-to-date with the current state of Linux. Considered by many to be the most complete and authoritative command reference for Linux available, the book covers all substantial user, programming, administration, and networking commands for the most common Linux distributions.

Comprehensive but concise, the fifth edition has been updated to cover new features of major Linux distributions. Configuration information for the rapidly growing commercial network services and community update services isone of the subjects covered for the first time.

But that's just the beginning. The book covers editors, shells, and LILO and GRUB boot options. There's also coverage of Apache, Samba, Postfix, sendmail, CVS, Subversion, Emacs, vi, sed, gawk, and much more. Everything that system administrators, developers, and power users need to know about Linux is referenced here, and they will turn to this book again and again.

This book consists of one large section that is mostly distilled man pages, along with more specialized chapters later on. Emacs, vi, bash, sed and gawk are all covered in detail. This book is my main reference for bash, vi, sed and gawk, as I am an Emacs and Z Shell user. Despite the material in the "Commands" chapter being redundant with the online documentation of any GNU/Linux system, I like having a printed book to view. This is usually the first thing I go for when I'm using `find'.

I recommend getting a used copy or a previous edition, because the sections of real value in this book will still be valuable, even if they are three or four years old.

Getting a bit long in tooth, but Linux hasn't changed that much since this was published in 2005. Much of it is a reprint of what you'll find in the MAN pages, with better tyography and formatting. Not particularly helpful for the rank beginner, unless used as a secondary source.

As a handy reference to Linux - truly Linux in a nutshell - it still has no equal in terms of comprehensiveness and ease of use.

Jerry

This book is a constant companion on my physical desktop....if you deal with Linux in anyway at all this book is a necessity.

This book is as it promises, lots of information in a very (relatively) small space. The chapters are organized on topics that the newbie (read: me!) needs to know about and the explanations are thorough and well-written. While the old hand will understand the material covered easily and without much review, the newbie will have to read and re-read to get it all. Chapter 3 lists the most common LINUX commands and details arguments that go with them. The index and the fact that the commands lists are alphabetical make it very easy to look up a specific command or function and find out what you need to know to make it work on the spot. The chapters on Shells and on the VIM Editor are very informative and make two tough topics easy to understand. Reading through the VIM editor chapter as I did a lab practical made the process almost fun. For me, the best part was that I could understand the book, and my way experienced friend also finds it a useful reference for his more advanced work. So, I'll be able to use it while I grow into it as a LINUX user.

If you've been in the tech field for any length of time you own at least one Nutshell book. If you like them, you own several; if you don't, you probably stopped at one.

"Programming PHP," 2nd Edition, is the authoritative guide to PHP 5 and is filled with the unique knowledge of the creator of PHP (Rasmus Lerdorf) and other PHP experts. When it comes to creating websites, the PHP scripting language is truly a red-hot property. In fact, PHP is currently used on more than 19 million websites, surpassing Microsoft's ASP .NET technology in popularity. Programmers love its flexibility and speed; designers love its accessibility and convenience.

As the industry standard book on PHP, all of the essentials are covered in a clear and concise manner. Language syntax and programming techniques are coupled with numerous examples that illustrate both correct usage and common idioms. With style tips and practical programming advice, this book will help you become not just a PHP programmer, but a "good" PHP programmer. "Programming PHP, Second Edition" covers everything you need to know to create effective web applications with PHP. Contents include: Detailed information on the basics of the PHP language, including data types, variables, operators, and flow control statements Chapters outlining the basics of functions, strings, arrays, and objects Coverage of common PHP web application techniques, such as form processing and validation, session tracking, and cookies Material on interacting with relational databases, such as MySQL and Oracle, using the database-independent PEAR DB library and the new PDO Library Chapters that show you how to generate dynamic images, create PDF files, and parse XML files with PHP Advanced topics, such as creating secure scripts, error handling, performance tuning, and writing your own C language extensions to PHP A handy quickreference to all the core functions in PHP and all the standard extensions that ship with PHP

Praise for the first edition:

"If you are just getting into the dynamic Web development world or you are considering migrating from another dynamic web product to PHP, "Programming PHP" is the book of choice to get you up, running, and productive in a short time."

--Peter MacIntrye, eWeek

"I think this is a great book for programmers who want to start developing dynamic websites with PHP. It gives a detailed overview of PHP, lots of valuable tips, and a good sense of PHP's strengths."

--David Dooling, Slashdot.org

PHP is far more than a cult language or open-source icon. It's a remarkably capable language that's well integrated with lots of technologies--notably mSQL and MySQL database servers--and quite easy to learn. Programming PHP helps you up the PHP learning curve, very nearly guaranteeing that you'll find in its pages an example that illustrates every fundamental aspect of the language and its most important extension modules. Plus, there's some cool advanced stuff, like recipes for manipulating images, working with Extensible Markup Language (XML) content, and generating Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files. Rasmus Lerdorf invented PHP and quarterbacks its ongoing evolution, so there's little question of the content's authority.

The authors use a Talmudic style to explore PHP's capabilities and explain them to their readers, meaning that they like to present code and commentary in close formation, with each enhancing the other. Typically, they'll present a capability generically and show the relevant code. Then they'll dig into variations on the theme, calling attention to required code alterations as they go. This is a book about PHP itself, so practically no attention is paid to PHP Builder or other development tools. Regardless, this book will help you solve programming challenges with PHP, and enable you to write efficient, attractive code. --David Wall

Topics covered: The PHP programming language, for people who are coming to PHP with a bit of programming experience in other languages or who want to expand their existing PHP knowledge beyond the basics. Sections deal with the core language, as well as HTTP session management, database connectivity (to MySQL and Oracle, as well as with PHP Extension and Application Repository--PEAR), graphics file manipulation, XML parsing, and PDF creation. There are instructions for building a PHP extension library in C, as well as a function reference and guide to existing extensions.

Said the book was in great condition, and it is! I'm ecstatic to have been able to purchase this book, at this price!

Don't get me wrong, the book is okay. But I feel O'Reilly simply slung out a new version of the book for PHP 5, without really updating the content to reflect PHP 5's enhancements. Especially the chapter covering OOP development with PHP 5. The content in that chapter is pure PHP 4. Not cool.

I bought this book after learning some Javascript and ColdFusion, thiking it would have some of the same concepts as most other scripting languages. Well PHP has some other features like the direction arrows, etc. This book didnt explain all the features of PHP very well to which I couldnt really understand what was going on, and I can understand most Javascript applications. I had to buy another bookto explain all of the basics better, and then I went back to this book and it was a great book after that! But if you are just starting PHP or scripting, I reccommend getting another book before buying this book.

O'Reily books have the same pattern. They take content that should have been one book for maybe $100, and divide it out into 3 or more books adding up to a heftier profit. This book a nice quick reference, but doesn't cover the language in it's entirety (or close enough to from my experience with other books) or provide any actual examples, rather brief one line syntax examples. I've programed C++, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, and SQL while attending a state university for a degree in computer science. While examples can be redundant because concepts of programming are understood, a decent example is truly the best way to observe case implications of syntax. For example, when the book talks about constants and the define("name",value) function, it fails to mention when used in a string and output, the constant is not interpolated (the user sees COUNT, instead of say 3). In my experience I've run into a dozen of these situations I wish the book would have at least mentioned. This is important to know, and more important to know how to work around and do what you want. It's these details that make a solid programming manual, which this book claims to be. It is truly and introduction and quick reference. If you are not already an experienced PHP programmer, and you are going to deal with PHP at least somewhat in depth, you are better off looking elsewhere.

I read through this in a couple evenings. It highlighted some PHP functions which I should be using to streamline my code. It also overviews available PHP extensions such as database interfaces and PDF and graphics libraries. Nice to have a summary all in one place and right at hand.

There are many reasons for serving up dynamic content from a web site: to offer an online shopping site, create customized information pages for users, or just manage a large volume of content through a database. Anyone with a modest knowledge of HTML and web site management can learn to create dynamic content through the PHP programming language and the MySQL database. This book gives you the background and tools to do the job safely and reliably.

"Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL," Second Edition thoroughly reflects the needs of real-world applications. It goes into detail on such practical issues as validating input (do you know what a proper credit card number looks like?), logging in users, and using templates

to give your dynamic web pages a standard look.

But this book goes even further. It shows how JavaScript and PHP can be used in tandem to make a user's experience faster and more pleasant. It shows the correct way to handle errors in user input so that a site looks professional. It introduces the vast collection of powerful tools available in the PEAR repository and shows how to use some of the most popular tools.

Even while it serves as an introduction to new programmers, the book does not omit critical tasks that web sites require. For instance, every site that allows updates must handle the possibility of multiple users accessing data at the same time. This book explains how to solve the problem in detail with locking.

Through a sophisticated sample application--Hugh and Dave's Wine Store--all the important techniques of dynamic content are introduced. Good design is emphasized, such as dividing logic from presentation. The book introducesPHP 5 and MySQL 4.1 features, while providing techniques that can be used on older versions of the software that are still in widespread use.

This new edition has been redesigned around the rich offerings of PEAR. Several of these, including the Template package and the database-independent query API, are fully integrated into examples and thoroughly described in the text. Topics include:

Installation and configuration of Apache, MySQL, and PHP on Unix(R), Windows(R), and Mac OS(R) X systems

Introductions to PHP, SQL, and MySQL administration

Session management, including the use of a custom database for improved efficiency

User input validation, security, and authentication

The PEAR repository, plus details on the use of PEAR DB and Template classes

Production of PDF reports

PHP and MySQL go hand in hand; the former has been carefully adapted, through the efforts of the open-source community, to the latter. For situations that require dynamic content but don't merit the complexity and development time of Java or .NET enterprise applications, the PHP language and the MySQL database server fit the bill perfectly. That's the point Hugh Williams and David Lane make in Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, which combines language tutorials with application design advice to yield a comprehensive picture of its subjects at a reasonable price. Williams and Lane--both Australian academics who use an online wine store in many of their examples--deserve tremendous kudos for their way of presenting recommended coding strategies. Though the code listings themselves aren't remarkably well commented, the authors do a commendable job of explaining in prose what the code is up to.

Case in point: The ever-essential task of using PHP to open a connection to a MySQL database, submit a query to that database, receive a response, and format the returned rows, if any. The book addresses this problem with a straight code listing, followed by text that explains what's happening in five numbered steps. Similar care goes to the other popular applications of the PHP/MySQL duo: session management, shopping carts, and authentication of users. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to use the PHP server-side scripting language and the MySQL database engine to underlie dynamic Web sites (those that rely on database queries) and full-on Web applications, such as those that require session management and maintenance of user rosters. Tutorials in both subjects begin with the basics and proceed through moderately complicated stuff, though there's no absolutely comprehensive reference here.

New to PHP and haven't touched SQL in quite a few years. I was looking for a good beginning PHP book, not overly simplified as I have some programming experience. I needed to see how PHP and MySQL were to interact and how to set up everything on my machine (Mac). I've used MANY O'Reilly books and they're always topnotch, but this one is so disappointing to me as I find it is riddled with errors and typos. It is one thing to see typos in text and another thing altogether to have to figure out what a mistake in a code example is supposed to say. I expected more, especially since it's a 2nd edition. If it wasn't for all the forums on the web, I never even would have gotten Apache/PHP/MySQL up and running. This book isn't useless. Just not good.

This is a good book with a nice overview of the stated subjects.

However, I cannot evaluate the application presented because the appendix on installing Easy PHP on Microsoft Windows has SO MANY ERRORS that I simply cannot get this software running. In particular the PEAR installation instructions are just completely wrong.

I will try a Linux environment next, since I can debug better in that environment.

As usual in text books, there is a lot of useless information that is not necessary, but since writers are paid by the word, this is to be expected.

I wish there was a section on MySQL commands.

I really like this book--direct, no-nonsense, and intelligently written with a minimum of jokes.

One thing that seems strange, that I'm hoping someone can clarify:

In the section of chapter 8 dealing with transactions and concurrency, there is no mention of setting transaction isolation levels (SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL command in MySQL). Instead, concurrency is achieved solely by setting table locks.

I can sort of understand this in that the authors are using MyISAM tables. But why no mention of transaction isolation levels using INNODB tables, given that this is the more standard way of dealing with concurrency issues?

The book got me off the ground with my first client application, a rudimentary database maintenance system. Most valuable were the techniques and thorough understanding required to build a satisfactory security component.

However, it falls way short as a reference tool and could have included a more comprehensive list of mysql functions.

Device drivers literally drive everything you're interested in--disks, monitors, keyboards, modems--everything outside the computer chip and memory. And writing device drivers is one of the few areas of programming for the Linux operating system that calls for unique, Linux-specific knowledge. For years now, programmers have relied on the classic "Linux Device Drivers" from O'Reilly to master this critical subject. Now in its third edition, this bestselling guide provides all the information you'll need to write drivers for a wide range of devices.

Over the years the book has helped countless programmers learn:

how to support computer peripherals under the Linux operating system

how to develop and write software for new hardware under Linux

the basics of Linux operation even if they are not expecting to write a driver

The new edition of "Linux Device Drivers" is better than ever. The book covers all the significant changes to Version 2.6 of the Linux kernel, which simplifies many activities, and contains subtle new features that can make a driver both more efficient and more flexible. Readers will find new chapters on important types of drivers not covered previously, such as consoles, USB drivers, and more.

Best of all, you don't have to be a kernel hacker to understand and enjoy this book. All you need is an understanding of the C programming language and some background in Unix system calls. And for maximum ease-of-use, the book uses full-featured examples that you can compile and run without special hardware.

Today Linux holds fast as the most rapidly growing segment of the computer market and continues to win over enthusiastic adherents in many applicationareas. With this increasing support, Linux is now absolutely mainstream, and viewed as a solid platform for embedded systems. If you're writing device drivers, you'll want this book. In fact, you'll wonder how drivers are ever written without it.

Updated to cover version 2.4.x of the Linux kernel, the second edition of Linux Device Drivers remains the best general-purpose, paper-bound guide for programmers wishing to make hardware devices work under the world's most popular open-source operating system. The authors take care to show how to write drivers that are portable--that is, that compile and run under all popular Linux platforms. That, along with the fact that they're careful to explain and illustrate concepts, makes this book very well suited to any programmer familiar with C but not with the hardware-software interface. It's worth noting that the emphasis in the title is on "device drivers" as much as "Linux." This book will make sense to you if you've never written a driver for any platform before. It helps if you have some Linux or Unix background, but even that is secondary as a prerequisite to C skill.

For a programming text--and one concerned with low-level instructions and data structures, at that--this book is remarkably rich in prose. You'll typically want to read this book straight through, more or less skipping the code samples, before sketching out your plan for the driver you need to write. Then, go back and pay closer attention to the sections on specific details you need to implement, like custom task queues. For coding-time details about specific system calls and programming techniques, count on the index to point you to the right passages. --David Wall

Topics covered: Techniques for writing hardware device drivers that run under Linux kernels 2.0.x through 2.2.x. Sections show how to manage memory, time, interrupts, ports, and other details of the hardware-software interface.

This book covers in a excelent way all the process for creating device drivers. Its very good for who wants to start to programming and for who already knows how to programming.

This books must be the top priority for ever developer who wants to develop emebedded systems, based on Linux OS.

As a newbie it makes driver writing not so scary.
Technical masterpiece yet not over my head.

Used this to write my first linux driver on my own with no help. Great book, great layout, very well written. I have not read all of the 3rd Edition, since I am now working on Solaris, and did not work on the 2.6 kernel, but would assume thats good as well.

Un must per chi si avvicina alla programmazione di moduli del kernel, per chi e' esperto ma ha bisogno di un reference e per chi ne vuole sapere di piu'.

Il libro ha un'alta valenza didattica ed e' scritto in un linguaggio comprensibile e corretto. Gli esempi sono abbondanti e coprono bene gli argomenti trattati.

If you'd like to learn how to create web services (in particular, using Apache Axis2) and make some sense of various standards like SOAP, WSDL, MTOM, WS-Addressing, WS-Security, WS-Policy, XML Encryption and XML Signature, then this book is for you. Why? First, it has a tutorial style that walks you through in a step-by-step manner. Second, it is concise. There is no lengthy, abstract description. Third, Many diagrams are used to show the flow of processing and high level concepts so that you get a whole picture of what's happening. The first 46 pages are freely available on www.agileskills2.org and you can judge it yourself.

This book is a very useful "how-to" for creating web services. If you happen to be using Axis2 and, even better, Eclipse, then the many examples are even more valuable. And if your services need to be secure or asynchronous or have attachments, you get good step-by-step explanations, too.

This was my first major web services project and we needed to use a range of security features for it. This book helped me get up to speed much faster than I would have without it - there's a lot to learn to get your first production web service going: WSDL, object models, WS-Security, public key infrastructure, etc. This book walks you through all of in a way that gives you a reasonable change of getting your own service working. And there are techniques for helping you figure out what the problem is if you can't get it working.

I purchased the pre-publication PDF and there were some parts that could have used better editing.

More presentation on how Axis2 works behind the scenes would have been nice, but there is still lots of good practical material here.

Before buying this book, I read some other books on web services. It seems that I understood the concept but there was still a big gap to put it in practice. This book comes to save.

This book contains detail steps and instruction to help you to understand the concept easily, but also guide you how to implement it. It likes a live tutor.

Beside, there are some other useful techniques in eclipse that other authors may assume that a reader already know, but in fact if a ready does not know, he/she might get stuck or take time to find some where else.

In addition, the author, Mr. Kent Tong, is a very help person. He enthusiastically guided me when I had questions.

I strongly recommend having this book if someone wants to learn and develop Axis 2 quickly, especially for the beginner with web services or Apache Axis 2.

Thanks for your time.

Like this book because things have been explained very well without going around unnecessarily too much. I got this book onine in pdf format.

The book is composed of a lot of code-snippet and screen shot, each with detailed and succinct comment and explanation. That makes the readers quite easy to follow it step by step, which is useful especially for something needs lots of setting and configuration like web services.

It does fail to cover some important concepts of web services, but there are too many books you can find for that. I really recommend this book to those who like to have hands-on experience of web service as eagerly as I do. I enjoyed it very much!

Webservices explained in simple and best way.You may read other big books covering 1000 pages and end up with no written code sample or books discussing all pages on SOA showing no code implementation which will be useful only for Managers ..If you feel you like to try hands on example .Then buy this one.
Still I give 4 stars as book is too tiny and there are so many topics not touched.

There's plenty of documentation on installing and configuring the Apache web server, but where do you find help for the day-to-day stuff, like adding common modules or fine-tuning your activity logging? That's easy. The new edition of the Apache Cookbook offers you updated solutions to the problems you're likely to encounter with the new versions of Apache. Written by members of the Apache Software Foundation, and thoroughly revised for Apache versions 2.0 and 2.2, recipes in this book range from simple tasks, such installing the server on Red Hat Linux or Windows, to more complex tasks, such as setting up name-based virtual hosts or securing and managing your proxy server. Altogether, you get more than 200 timesaving recipes for solving a crisis or other deadline conundrums, with topics including: Security Aliases, Redirecting, and Rewriting CGI Scripts, the suexec Wrapper, and other dynamic content techniques Error Handling SSL Performance This book tackles everything from beginner problems to those faced by experienced users. For every problem addressed in the book, you will find a worked-out solution that includes short, focused pieces of code you can use immediately. You also get explanations of how and why the code works, so you can adapt the problem-solving techniques to similar situations. Instead of poking around mailing lists, online documentation, and other sources, rely on the Apache Cookbook for quick solutions when you need them. Then you can spend your time and energy where it matters most.

The Apache Cookbook is a must have for anyone considering running their own Apache web server. It covers every major feature of Apache and does so without giving too information to the new user while giving more experienced users the guidance to go off on their own and become Apache power users in their own right.

Some of the reviews for 'Apache Cookbook: Solutions and Examples for Apache Administrators' have stated that this book is a little too basic and simple for Apache administrators out in the world, but I would disagree. Apache is a solid technology that has proven it's mettle in the world for many many many years but there aren't a whole lot of books out on the market for it. It is of this reviewers opinion that even if some individuals feel this book is too simplistic that ANY book on the market that covers Apache would have to be pretty poor to get a negative mark. With over 200 tidbits of information that cover the gambit of Installation, Module creation, Logging, Security, Virtual Hosts, Aliases, SSL, Error Handling, Performance, etc. etc. etc. this is a solid text. Unlike other bloated books this one clocks in at under 300 pages and the tidbits are short and to the point. If you are an Apache admin there is definitely something that you can get from this cookbook so get out the bowl, eggs, flour and start cooking!!

***** RECOMMENDED

Apache Cookbook is a great resource on various best-practice tips and tricks on how to setup and run Apache HTTP server day to day.

The included HOW-TO recipes are:
* Extremely practical and relevant
* Easy to follow and implement
* Well-explained so that not only do you know what you are doing, but also why you are doing it
* Neatly categorized and indexed so that they are easy to find when needed

While this book can be very useful to Apache novices, people who would benefit the most from it are the ones who've had some previous exposure to Apache administration and are familiar with the basic concepts behind Apache (configuration files, included programs, modules, directives, sections, and such).

If you are an Apache administrator, this book ought to be on your bookshelf.

Beware that several of the cool sounding recipes you might see in the table of contents are tricks; once you actually turn to the correct page to see how the author has managed to implement something you might have formerly believed to be impossible, you will be greeted only by a placeholder paragraph stating that what you want to do IS in fact impossible. Why on Earth would you waste paper printing this?

The other, less cool, recipes are pretty standard faire, and if you have any experience with Apache whatsoever they will probably not be very useful to you. Complete newcomers however will probably find it somewhat handy, though I'm not sure it's worth the price even for them.

I read this book about a year ago and recently re-read it. Coar and Bowen provide an excellent pragmatic approach to taking care of common Apache administration tasks. The Apache "recipes" are well organized, and presented with sufficient depth to be understandable for intermedia users.

The tips in the "miscellaneous topics" section and the troubleshooting guidelines are excellent, and will save Apache administrators significant amounts of time and frustration.

The good:
* Broad coverage of all tasks that Apache administrators will commonly encounter.
* Excellent writing style - concise yet sufficiently descriptive.
* Good organization of topics and very useful book index.
* Very good coverage of virtual hosts (required in most web hosting environments).
* Very appropriate "see also" references associated with each recipe.

The bad:
* Almost 25% of the book is taken up by installation, loading modules, and logging. These are good topics, but they take up too much of the book in my perspective.
* No information on the use of mod_python. mod_snake (a dead sourceforge) project is referenced. Blech.
* No information on co-hosting two versions of PHP (PHP4 and PHP5 on the same server).

Overall, this is a great book. If it had slightly better coverage on mod_python and mod_PHP I would give it five stars for certain.

Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL�� and Apache All in One

�|

Fourth Edition

�|

Julie C. Meloni

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Starter Kit

CD-ROM includes a complete starter kit for Windows��, Linux��, and Mac�� OS X

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In just a short time, you can learn how to use PHP, MySQL, and Apache together to create dynamic, interactive websites and applications using the three leading open-source web development technologies.

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Using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, each lesson in this book builds on the previous ones, enabling you to learn the essentials of PHP scripting, MySQL databases, and the Apache web server from the ground up.

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Regardless of whether you run Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X, the enclosed CD includes a complete starter kit that lets you install all the software you need to set up a stable environment for learning, testing, and production.

�|

Learn how to�c

• Install, configure, and set up the PHP scripting language, the MySQL database system, and the Apache Web server
• Get these technologies to work together to create a dynamic, database-backed website
• Interact with MySQL using PHP
• Work with forms and files
• Create a web-based discussion forum or mailing list
• Add a storefront and shopping cart to your site
• Optimize your MySQL databases
• Fine-tune the Apache server�fs performance
• Restrict access to your applications
• Set up a secure web server

�|

Julie C. Meloni is the technical director for i2i Interactive, a multimedia company located in Los Altos, California. She has been developing web-based applications since the early days of the web, and is the author of several books and articles on web-based programming languages and database topics, including Sams Teach Yourself MySQL in 24 Hours.

�|

CD-ROM Includes

• A complete PHP, MySQL, and Apache starter kit for Windows��, Linux��, or Mac�� OS X.

�|

Category:�|Web Development

Covers:�|PHP 5.2, MySQL 5, Apache 2.2

User Level:�|Beginning

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I like this book overall but with one major caveat. The versions of PHP and Mysql included on the cd-rom do not work together. Specifically, the version of PHP included on the CD-ROM does not include support for the mysqli family of commands. The book gives short shrift to any problems the user might have in this area. If you can't get mysqli to work, you can't run any of the code in the second half of the book. I figured out how to create an ODBC to a mysql database in php using the ODBC commands instead, but I would like to be able to use mysqli.

Learn how to use PHP, MySQL and Apache together to create fine interactive web sites using a step-by-step lesson plan perfect for supplementing classroom studies, or for individual learning with Julie C. Meloni's SAMS Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache All in One. From installing the PHP scripting language and the MySQL database system to creating dynamic interactions between these programs, a cd for Mac, Linux or Windows offers up a starter kit perfect for learning, testing, and producing results.

this a good book for people with very little PHP, MySQL and Apache knowledge. some of the things about apache configuration file is not very clear. other than that it is excellent.

This is a solid book if your looking for information on the relationship between Apache, MySQL, and PHP. This is not a beginner's book, nor is it advanced. Rather its purpose is to explain how these three components work together, the combination of which is if not the most popular then close to the most popular basic framework used on the web. For example, all Wordpress blogs are based on the PHP, MySQL, and Apache setup. Plus, all three are free and can be easily setup on your own computer for development purposes.

If you're looking for a singular focus on one or two of the three, then you'll be disappointed. If you do not have any or very little experience with the web, then go buy a "for dummies" or an explicitly labeled "Beginners" book.

If you want to gain a solid knowledge on the Apache, MySQL, PHP framework, this book provides an excellent explanation with sufficient in-depth focus on each and how they relate to one another.

"PHP, MySQL and Apache All in One" is a good way to begin learning those technologies. It is simple enough and has lots of visual examples, code examples, tables, figures, etc to break down bigger concepts into manageable ones. Also, its an easy read. I normally don't rate anything perfectly, but I couldn't think of any reason why I wouldn't give it 5 stars. I must add though that I may be biased since I wasn't a beginner to PHP or MySQL and used this textbook for a grad course.

• Tomcat is the official reference implementation of Sun's servlet and JSP specifications, and Java developers must test all Web applications on Tomcat to ensure they work as designed
• Boasting more than 40 percent new and updated material, this book covers all the major new features affecting server administration and management
• Explores the additional built-in tools of Tomcat, which help Java developers program more efficiently, and looks at how Apache's other open source servlet/JSP technologies are designed to work with Tomcat
• Features full coverage of Release 6, which supports the latest JSP and servlet specifications: JSP 2.1 and Servlets 2.5
• Addresses solving real-world problems encountered during all phases of server administration, including managing class loaders and connectors, security, shared hosting and clustering, and system testing

I'm usually very skeptical of books with multiple authors as they rarely turn out to have either consistent quality or consistent pacing. So, I picked this up with very low expectations.

Needless to say I was very pleasantly surprised. It has the perfect combination of detail (which means that you're going to use it as a reference book for a long while), and clarity of explanations (which means that you're going to be the richer for it.)

At many times it does take the scenic route (e.g., it takes 2 chapters before you even install Tomcat), but for the most part, the information is well written and easy to read.

One example of the excellent detail of coverage - there's an entire section on verifying the integrity of the download using the MD5 checksum/PGP. What could be a better start for a chapter on Tomcat Security?

You may want to consider Tomcat the Definitive Guide as a companion volume. That book has more of a practitioner's feel to it, and rounds off areas that this one does not cover very well (such as running Tomcat on different operating systems, or using CATALINA_BASE to run multiple Tomcat instances off a single Tomcat distribution).

Damodar Chetty (swengsol.com)

I was really impressed with this book and felt like it had been written with my requirements in mind. The other Tomcat books I have read felt like they were paraphrasing the online help; additional material was provided, but little of it was new. While reading the first few chapters of this book, several of my ongoing queries had been answered, and there were a bunch of other gems as well - it sorted out my AJP and APR queries, gave options for running Tomcat on privileged ports without running as root, and dug further into the server.xml configuration than I

Professional Apache Tomcat 6 (WROX Professional Guides) is aimed at the serious Tomcat user. It will be useful to people that do serious tinkering at home, but it is a an absolute bible if you have Tomcat running production code or other critical uses.

Personally I found that the level of information did not always provide 100% coverage but, for example, the level of detail provided covering server.xml, web.xml and context.xml configuration will be of great use. The descriptions go into plenty of detail but rarely goes overboard. Examples of places to hook into or extend the existing functionality are pointed out, but the authors don't get distracted in providing sample implementations when the defaults are sufficient. The information is full of the sort professional advice and directions that I would expect from a book of this name, and that has been sadly missing from the other offerings I have seen.

As a short description, it covers topics like AJP connectors, Apache Portable Runtime libraries, configuring Tomcat behind IIS or Apache servers, clustering, shared hosting, oodles of configuration options, and also takes two chapters to look at testing the performance and then tuning applications running Tomcat.

If I had to provide negative comments, I would say that the book was written by three authors and at times it doesn't mesh well and it is clear that one section had a different author to another. There were also a couple of areas that didn't have the coverage I had hoped, but in most cases an explanation was given as to why this was done.

Realistically I find it difficult to fault this book and look forward to migrating our own servers to Tomcat 6 and tweaking the behaviour using the information provided. With this book in hand I feel completely confident that I have the know-how to set up the environment correctly.

There are dozens of Java frameworks out there, but most of them require you to learn special coding techniques and new, often rigid, patterns of development. Wicket is different. As a component-based Web application framework, Wicket lets you build maintainable enterprise-grade web applications using the power of plain old Java objects (POJOs), HTML, Ajax, Spring, Hibernate and Maven. Wicket automatically manages state at the component level, which means no more awkward HTTPSession objects. Its elegant programming model enables you to write rich web applications quickly.

Wicket in Action is an authoritative, comprehensive guide for Java developers building Wicket-based Web applications. This book starts with an introduction to Wicket's structure and components, and moves quickly into examples of Wicket at work. Written by two of the project's earliest and most authoritative experts, this book shows you both the "how-to" and the "why" of Wicket. As you move through the book, you'll learn to use and customize Wicket components, how to interact with other technologies like Spring and Hibernate, and how to build rich, Ajax-driven features into your applications.

There is already a lot of appreciation of the book, don't have much to say here

I have been developing with Wicket for a year or so. When I started working with Wicket I didn't have a good book as a reference. The community is very helpful in this case. In the mailing list you can sometimes see the two writers of this book. Their responses are very helpful. And so is the book.
The book covers a lot of theoretical Wicket stuff, which I think is very useful if one wants to understand it better.
The book is great for a newcomer as well. Just follow the examples and you'll understand Wicket.
I found the book very useful to me, an intermediate / expert Wicket developer.
Each time I read a few pages or a chapter, I learn something new.
I recommend this book to anyone that uses Wicket or plan to use it.

As the Manning publications book Wicket in Action is soon to hit the shelf of your local book store, I was granted the opportunity of a sneak preview. Now, I'm not a person with a lot of spare time on my hands these days but I felt an obligation to give this book a serious read because A) Wicket is an excellent framework for building web applications B) The people who wrote this book are extremely helpful on the mailing list and irc channel and I wanted to know if their talents translated well to book writing. I'm happy to report it has, in spades....
[...]

I already bought this book before it was released. I love wicket and this book sure makes it easier to work with Wicket. It gives you a great in depth view on how wicket works. Adding more and more complexity in all the different chapters.

A needed read for anyone who wants to get the most out of Wicket.

I don't normally review books on Amazon but this is one of the best technical books that I've read in a while. The authors do a great job of organizing and presenting the material. The book is easy to read and I was able to get through it in about two evenings. I'm now using it as a reference while I work on my first major Wicket application. It might help that Wicket itself is well structured which makes the concepts that much easier to understand.

That being said, there are a few short-comings:
1) The cheese and lasagna examples get really old really quickly. The authors could have used different concepts or something a little more relevant or interesting to most developers.

2) The book is somewhat short. While they covered the core topics well, I felt that a few things we missing. I was surprised to see that the publisher trimmed the book and put an extra chapter online but not in print.

3) Some fundamentals like what DTD to include in an HTML page or what the Wicket web.xml should look like would be nice. You can find these answers online with a quick search but this book should really cover it.

But these faults don't hurt the overall usefulness of the book. It would be nice if most/all of this documentation was available in the Wicket project itself, but no such luck which makes this book even more valuable. I don't know if it will be in all copies, but my copy had a coupon for a free version of the digital book (PDF I suppose)... nice touch.

I recommend buying this book and learning about a very reasonable alternative to JSF.

It takes a book as versatile as its subject to cover Apache Tomcat, the popular open source Servlet and JSP container and high performance web server. Tomcat: The Definitive Guide is a valuable reference for administrators and webmasters, a useful guide for programmers who want to use Tomcat as their web application server during development or in production, and an excellent introduction for anyone interested in Tomcat. Updated for the latest version of Tomcat, this new edition offers a complete guide to installing, configuring, maintaining and securing this servlet container. In fact, with such a wealth of new information, this is essentially a new book rather than a simple revision. You will find details for using Tomcat on all major platforms, including Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, and FreeBSD, along with specifics on Tomcat configuration files, and step-by-step advice for deploying and running web applications. This book offers complete information for: Installation and startup procedures Configuring Tomcat-including realms, roles, users, servlet sessions, and JNDI resources including JDBC DataSources Deploying web applications-individual servlets and JSP pages, and web application archive files Tuning Tomcat to measure and improve performance Integrating Tomcat with Apache Web Server Securing Tomcat to keep online thugs at bay Tomcat configuration files-server.xml and web.xml, and more Debugging and Troubleshooting-diagnosing problems with Tomcat or a web application Compiling your own Tomcat, rather than using the pre-built release Running two or more Tomcat servlet containers in parallel This book also offers an overview of the Tomcat open source project's community resources, including docs, mailing lists, and more. Community interest fueled a strong demand for a Tomcat guide from O'Reilly. The result clearly exceeds expectations.

As most O'Reilly books, this *was* an outstanding, readable, and indispensable guide for Tomcat development and administration. Unfortunately, it's sadly outdated: this book only covers version 4, while versions 5, 5.5, and 6 introduce many, many innovations and changes, and you don't want to waste time reading material that doesn't apply to the current versions. It is unfortunate that this book is still being for sale. This book has well deserved stars, but those starts are now obsolete. We all Tomcat lovers are looking forward for an updated edition.

'Tomcat: The Definitive Guide' is a great resource for all Tomcat programmers and administrators. Jam packed with 450 pages of material over 11 chapters, you will learn everything you need to know. Security, configuration, performance tuning, integration with Apache and building Tomcat from the source, this is a wonderful guide that should be on every Tomcat admin's desk.

**** RECOMMENDED

Jason Brittain and Ian F. Darwin's TOMCAT: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE, 2ND EDITION has been updated for the latest version of Tomcat and offers a complete guide to installing the servlet container, from basics of installation to using web applications, securing Tomcat from online intruders, troubleshooting and customizing the program. Any advanced computer collection strong in Java programming needs this.

All of these other reviews, including some of the popular spotlights, seem to be about the first edition with quite a few people saying they were disappointed. I never read the first edition, so I can't remark on its content. However, this second edition seems to have all the details you need to get up and running, and Tomcat is not an area of my expertise.

In many cases Tomcat is a good choice for a web server, and it is well suited as a high performance production web server. It is also a free and open source servlet and JSP engine. You can use it by itself or with other web servers such as Apache httpd. The book is a user's guide for Tomcat, not a tutorial on how to write web applications. That misunderstanding might have had some readers disappointed. Thus, you don't need to be a programmer to understand the book - it is targeted more at system administrators. The following is a run down of the table of contents:

Chapter 1. Getting Started with Tomcat - explains how to install Tomcat, get it running, and test it to make sure that it's functioning properly.
Section 1.1. Installing Tomcat
Section 1.2. Starting, Stopping, and Restarting Tomcat
Section 1.3. Automatic Startup
Section 1.4. Testing Your Tomcat Installation
Section 1.5. Where Did Tomcat Come From?

Chapter 2. Configuring Tomcat - shows the various places to look for information about your server, how to find out why things aren't working, and gives you some examples of common mistakes in setting up and configuring Tomcat.
Section 2.1. A Word About Using the Apache Web Server
Section 2.2. Relocating the Web Applications Directory
Section 2.3. Changing the Port Number from 8080
Section 2.4. Java VM Configuration
Section 2.5. Changing the JSP Compiler
Section 2.6. Managing Realms, Roles, and Users
Section 2.7. Controlling Sessions
Section 2.8. Accessing JNDI and JDBC Resources
Section 2.9. Servlet Auto-Reloading
Section 2.10. Customized User Directories
Section 2.11. Tomcat Example Applications
Section 2.12. Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
Section 2.13. The Tomcat Admin Webapp

Chapter 3. Deploying Servlet and JSP Web Applications in Tomcat - shows web applications composed of servlets, JSPs, and other files, and several approaches for deploying them. It ends with a discussion of the Manager web application, which can handle some deployment operations for you.
Section 3.1. Hosts
Section 3.2. Layout of a Web Application
Section 3.3. Deploying an Unpacked Webapp Directory
Section 3.4. Deploying a WAR File
Section 3.5. Hot Deployment
Section 3.6. Working with WAR Files
Section 3.7. The Manager Webapp
Section 3.8. Automation with Apache Ant
Section 3.9. Symbolic Links

Chapter 4. Tomcat Performance Tuning - some ideas on performance tuning the underlying Java runtime and the Tomcat server itself so that you service requests more efficiently.
Section 4.1. Measuring Web Server Performance
Section 4.2. External Tuning
Section 4.3. Internal Tuning
Section 4.4. Capacity Planning
Section 4.5. Additional Resources

Chapter 5. Integration with the Apache Web Server - covers the use of Tomcat with Apache httpd and talks about the several ways of making Tomcat thrive in front of or behind an Apache httpd installation.
Section 5.1. The Pros and Cons of Integration
Section 5.2. Installing Apache httpd
Section 5.3. Apache Integration with Tomcat
Section 5.4. Tomcat Serving HTTP over the APR Connector

Chapter 6. Tomcat Security - details about what security is and how to improve it in your Tomcat installation.
Section 6.1. Securing the System
Section 6.2. Multiple Server Security Models
Section 6.3. Using the SecurityManager
Section 6.4. Granting File Permissions
Section 6.5. Setting Up a Tomcat chroot Jail
Section 6.6. Filtering Bad User Input
Section 6.7. Securing Tomcat with SSL

Chapter 7. Configuration - Using realms this chapter shows how to set up an example JDBC domain to talk to a relational database. Realms are lists of users authorized to implement specific sections of your web site. Many of the other configuration changes you can make are discussed too.
Section 7.1. server.xml
Section 7.2. web.xml
Section 7.3. tomcat-users.xml
Section 7.4. catalina.policy
Section 7.5. catalina.properties
Section 7.6. context.xml

Chapter 8. Debugging and Troubleshooting - Ways to look for information that helps discover why things aren't working and gives examples of mistakes that are commonly made but may not be obvious. Also discusses why Tomcat may not shut down gracefully and what to do about this common problem, as well as ways of preventing abnormal shutdowns from recurring.
Section 8.1. Reading Logfiles
Section 8.2. Hunting for Errors
Section 8.3. URLs and the HTTP Conversation
Section 8.4. Debugging with RequestDumperValve
Section 8.5. When Tomcat Won't Shut Down

Chapter 9. Building Tomcat from Source - How to compile your own Tomcat in case you don't want to run a prebuilt binary release of it. Gives step-by-step instructions on how to install the Apache Ant build tool, download all necessary support libraries, and build your Tomcat.
Section 9.1. Installing Apache Ant
Section 9.2. Obtaining the Source
Section 9.3. Downloading Support Libraries
Section 9.4. Building Tomcat

Chapter 10. Tomcat Clustering - Some options for running multiple Tomcat servlet containers in parallel for both fault tolerance and higher scalability, while discussing the pros and cons of various clustering approaches.
Section 10.1. Clustering Terms
Section 10.2. The Communication Sequence of an HTTP Request
Section 10.3. Distributed Java Servlet Containers
Section 10.4. Tomcat 6 Clustering Implementation
Section 10.5. JDBC Request Distribution and Failover
Section 10.6. Additional Resources

Chapter 11. Final Words - Overview of the Tomcat open source project's community resources, including docs, mailing lists, and other web sites.
Section 11.1. Supplemental Resources
Section 11.2. Community

Appendix A. Installing Java
Section A.1. Choosing a Java JDK
Section A.2. Working Around Older GCJ and Kaffe JVMs
Section A.3. Sun Microsystems Java SE JDK
Section A.4. IBM J9 JDK
Section A.5. BEA JRockit JDK
Section A.6. Apple Java SE JDK
Section A.7. Excelsior JET
Section A.8. Apache Harmony JDK

Appendix B. jbchroot.c
Appendix C. BadInputValve.java
Appendix D. BadInputFilter.java
Appendix E. RPM Package Files

This book is hopelessly incomplete. I'm always having to augment it's contents with on-line information. I just attempted to determine the difference between "path" and "docBase" in the "Context" tag in the server.xml file but again it struck out. All page 175 says is that "context" configures the web application directory within a host. End of story. I strongly suggest that you look to another source for Tomcat.