A hot-off-the-press, free, 290 page, updated version of the Underground PHP & Oracle Manual is available for download from http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/php/pdf/underground-php-oracle-manual.pdf. [...] The previous edition was released way back in May 2007. Since then, Oracle Database 11g and the OCI8 1.3 extension have been released, there have been various changes in PHP community, and I've simply just gathered more notes, examples and have more information to share.

The manual has doubled in size and includes tons of new content reflecting the updates since the previous release. Chris thanks those who helped in creating the content, helped get it out to the community and his co-author Alison Holloway.

Mark your calendars from 21-23 May 2007! The Call for Papers is here.

This year's conference will be happening in May of 2007 and will be three days long. Some of the topics their wanting for this year's conference include Ajax, security, databases, best practices, and many more. More details on the content of the conference can be found on their site and you can submit your proposals on this site.

Michael McLaughlin calls his new book PHP Web Programming an enabling book. I'd go further and call it a desert island book. It is the only thing you'd need to carry. It has much reference material strategically placed in the text, well thought out examples, and teaches how to build applications.

Christopher mentions some of the contents of the book - HTTP authentication, the POSIX file function,strings/objects, error handling, etc - it has it all. It especially has detailed information about using PHP with Oracle - PL/SQL, LOBs, REF CURSORS, and much more. It comes with a CD of code and applications, everything you'd need to get a PHP/Oracle installation up and running including the Oracle Database 10g Express Edition, Zend Core for Oracle's PHP stack, and the Apache web server.

The 'cookbook' series from O'Reilly press target a reader who understands (at least) the basics of a subject, these are not good books for beginners. This is the 2nd edition and covers PHP 5.

Stefan comments on the content of the book, noting that it covers "chunks" of functionality by task rather than teaching the language details behind it. He notes that this is just the book for someone needing to perform some kind of task, and just looking for the bit of code to get it done. The book also shares some helpful hints along the way, like "What is the difference between ereg and preg?"

Overall, he recommends the book, but only for those that already have a gasp on PHP and need those little code bits to make things work.

The new edition of PHP Cookbook is on the way! I got one copy yesterday, so it should be making its way into bookstores and online-bookstore-warehouses any day now.

Updates included in this edition are:

• revamped XML and OOP sections
• new PDO information
• information on testing code
• performance tuning
• regular expressions

The book is described as:

Mastering Regular Expressions quickly covers the basics of regular-expression syntax, then delves into the mechanics of expression-processing, common pitfalls, performance issues, and implementation-specific differences. Written in an engaging style and sprinkled with solutions to complex real-world problems, Mastering Regular Expressions offers a wealth information that you can put to immediate use.

This new edition is the third release for the book.

They comment that this update of a "classic" (at least in the PHP world) does a good job of both introducing the reader to the language and providing infomation on some more advanced topics, including working with graphics, XML, and PDF creation.

It's definitely a welcome update in a book that several use as a "gateway" into the world of PHP (that's not a low-level "here's how to program" book). You can get more information from O'Reilly's page for the book.