Pro PHP GTK

Book Description

PHP is gaining positive reputation for its system administration and client-side application development capabilities. This administration and development is accomplished using the PHP-GTK extension. You can take advantage of client-side applications by implementing language bindings for the GTK (the GIMP Toolkit) library for creating cross-platform graphical user interfaces.

Pro PHP-GTK acts as both a definitive reference and a hands-on tutorial to the PHP-GTK extension. The book couples the extension's key topics with practical examples to guide you through a real-world project: developing a database-driven client-side inventory manager. You'll also learn how to integrate this feature with other emerging technologies like SOAP and RSS, and how to generate XML-based interfaces.

Reviews From AMAZON.COM

Couldn't even get started

It isn't really fair to rate this because I couldn't even get php-gtk2 installed on my windows XP machine.
I spent the better part of an hour googling error messages and installation tutorials, downloading extraneous dlls to get a "hello world" app up and running.
In the end I got some weird error about "Pango" and I was done.

If you're looking to get started with php-gtk on Windows, I warn you that this MIGHT be very frustrating for you, since there is almost no description of how to set up php-gtk in the book (It basically says, "it installs itself so you should have no problems").

I did read through some of the book (about a third of it) even though I couldn't play with php-gtk and the writing seems pretty clear and to the point. I have a feeling I would like the book quite a bit if I could use it. However I noticed that there weren't that many illustrations, which I think is weird for a GUI programming book?

I'd suggest that in a future edition the author pay more attention to this tiny detail (installation) and then who knows? Maybe PHP-GTK could be the next Ruby on Rails? ... (who doesn't want to gui program with php right?)
For now I'll stick with wxPython, which is a shame because PHP is my first language :(

Highly recommended for the intended audience

If you want to do more with PHP than just write web-based applications then the GTK extensions may be just what you are looking for. With PHP-GTK you can develop a desktop application that has nothing to do with a website. In this book the author walks the reader through installing PHP-GTK and then provides a complete tutorial on writing programs with it.

The PHP-GTK documentation takes a functional approach by describing each function and how it is used. This is fine as long as you can work through the functions when you need one and determine how to make it work with other functions to get the results you want. The author of this book takes a different path by using a problem resolution approach. He describes common problems or common tasks and then walks the reader through how to resolve that problem or complete the task. This is a preferred method of learning how to use a programming language since each function of a language does not exist in a vacuum but in a relationship with other functions in order to achieve the results you want.

Pro PHP-GTK is a highly recommended book for those who want to know about using PHP-GTK to create stand-alone applications and already understand the basics of object-oriented programming.