Professional Web APIs with PHP: eBay, Google, Paypal, Amazon, FedEx plus Web Feeds
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Stars:
- Publisher: Wrox
- Since: 2006-07-31
- Media: Paperback
- ISBN-10: 0764589547
Users who read this book
1 books read
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akky 11 months ago |
Professional Web APIs with PHP @ivread API info on English web mashup |
1 books read
Reviews on Amazon
(10people)- I really said it all in the title to my review. This is an enormously useful book that opens the expansive (and still rapidly expanding) world of APIs to PHP programmers like myself. His writing is meticulously clear, the examples work (or at least get you nine-tenths of the way there), and the chapters on actual APIs (PayPal, eBay, FedEx, Google, etc.) are useful. Of course, I'd have loved even more chapters on still other APIs (there are so many), but you'll probably learn enough about Web APIs from these examples to tackle any not covered. Easy download access to the source code is also appreciated.
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>I was personally less interested in the section on Web Feeds, but this is also well presented -- interestingly in context as a counterpart of Web APIs. <
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>One final word: To get the most out of this book, you need to be an intermediate level PHP programmer. (If you're not, I recommend "PHP and MySQL Web Development" by Welling and Thomson as a good way to get there -- particularly if you're interested in tapping the power of MySQL along with PHP.) But back to the book in hand: 5 stars with thanks to Mr Reinheimer. - If you are looking for quick reference and example of each listed topic, then this book is a good start.
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>It is not a terrible book, just not such a great resource. You can find the same information if not more in couple of hours online, and chances are you won't use it much. <
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>The book covers how to connect to each of the services and retrieves the data. I purchased it mainly for the Amazon API, and I can say it was lacking at best. <
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>It pretty much explained REST and SOUP calls, what the parameters to pass with few examples. Something you can find anywhere online and there are definitely better books out there. <
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>If you want quick reference to different type of services and how to make REST or SOUP calls in one book, then get a used copy of it, but honestly I would not buy it again, and I am a book junkie who collects books for reference. - Web APIs will become more and more interesting as they provide quick and easy access to data and functions from widely known web service providers auch as Google, eBay and others. However, this book can only provide an overview - "making the first API call". It is therefore useable for beginner s.
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>The book is easy to read, helpful for the first steps and conatins enough scripts and examples to understand the features and see the possibilities for extension. <
>All together, useful but not detailed. - This book does what I like in a book. Deliver great information on a specific topic without trying to be the do-all-end-all book. It focus's on API's with PHP and does a great job at doing so. Different chapters cover different API's with a catch all chapter at the end to cover additional popular API (like National Weather Service and Flickr).
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>This is the kind of book where its just fun to play around with and see what you can come up with. - I approached this book expecting a reasonably good tech cookbook with some code examples I could put to use. This book is that, plus more. The book gives a very good background of web APIs, plus thoughtful discussion about -why- certain items are done a certain way. For example, discussion about non-trivial security matters, and various reasons why you wouldn't want to produce a web feed (followed, of course, by how you would produce a web feed, in various flavors).
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>For me, this book very successfully balanced the dual goals "give me the nuts and bolts" and "tell me the background behind it all". <
>This book will not teach you PHP, so if you are a beginner, start with a more general PHP tutorial. Beyond that, I recommend this book. <
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