Recently I was contacted by Richard from Packt Publication to review their new book “Mastering phpMyAdmin 3.3.x for Effective MySQL Management“. Being a PHP-MySQL developer and an avid reader of technical books myself, I instantly agreed.

It took me a bit longer to read it then I had expected. At first, I had decided to just skim through the important chapters but it was interesting enough to change my decision. I then read all chapters one by one and realized that despite using phpMyAdmin on a daily basis, there is so much more to it that we developers are unaware of.

The author of this book is Marc Delisle, who is contributing to this project for more then 12 years. The book contains 19 chapters and 2 appendices. In my opinion the book can be divided broadly into 5 parts.

Chapter 1 to Chapter 3
I will say these warm up chapters as they cover installation, configuration and overview of phpMyAdmin interface in detail. Experienced users may skip these but beginners should go through each one of them.

Chapter 4 to Chapter 7
These 4 chapters explain through data management i.e. creating database and table structures and import/export of data.

Chapter 8 to Chapter 12
You will find all information on querying tables(including multiple table queries), table and database operations, creating relations and keys etc. I liked these chapters the most.

Chapter 13 to Chapter 15
These chapters cover data synchronization, bookmarking and generation of printable reports and schemas from phpMyAdmin. Very useful chapters indeed, in case you want to synchronize data between 2 servers or you want the schemas printed or available in pdf format.

Chapter 16 to Chapter 19
Chapters for advanced and experienced users, these explain data transformation, creating views, stored procedures, executing triggers etc. Chapter 18 is specifically for versioning and tracking database changes. Final chapter is all about administering the MySQL server with phpMyAdmin. All of these chapters are extremely useful.

Conclusion

Each chapter is explained in a detailed manner which sometimes seems too much, but thats my perspective, someone who has been using phpMyAdmin for more then 5-6 years now. Beginner and intermediate users will find those details useful and easy to understand.

Overall, I liked the book and learned about few things I did not know even existed. I will definitely recommend it. For new users of phpMyAdmin, it starts from beginner level and explains each task by breaking it down in steps. More advanced users may skip initial 5-6 chapters but later chapters will be definitely helpful for them.

You can see more details on this book at Packt’s website at this link and buy at either Packt website or amazon.

This post contains some of the useful and interesting tech links I found during last week. To keep up to date with the latest information, subscribe to the feed or follow me on twitter @v08i.

How to write a simple application on jQuery Mobile : http://goo.gl/5DpOO

50 Free Tools and Apps for Web Designers and Developers : http://goo.gl/6YjNL

10 Useful jQuery Plugins for Images : http://goo.gl/VTk1F

20 less known Open Source PHP CMS-es : http://goo.gl/cM6f3

11 More Things I Learned From the jQuery Source : http://goo.gl/2zBh7

CSSReset : All the most common CSS Reset scripts in one place : http://goo.gl/8OV9E

JavaScript Slider – TinySlider 2 : http://goo.gl/526cL

Here is a collection of 15 resources on HTML5 that I think will be useful to web developers as well as designers.

What is HTML5? (Infographic)

Dive Into HTML5

HTML 5 Demos and Examples

HTML5 Boilerplate :A rock-solid default for HTML5 awesome

HTML 5 Cheat Sheet (PDF)

28 HTML5 Features, Tips, and Techniques you Must Know

A Beginners Look Into HTML5

15 Easy Guides on Getting You Started with HTML5

35 Inspiring Examples of Websites Using HTML5

When to Use the HTML5 “section” Element

Don’t Forget About HTML5’s “Little Guys”

How to Build Cross-Browser HTML5 Forms

HTML5 Gallery – A showcase of sites using HTML5 markup

30+ Useful HTML5 Tutorials For Web Designers

HTML5 Doctor

This post contains some of the useful and interesting tech links I found during this week. To keep up to date with the latest information, subscribe to the feed or follow me on twitter @v08i

22 Brilliant and Advanced jQuery Effects to WOW Your Visitors – http://goo.gl/IUz3d

12 Cool Javascript – jQuery checkbox replacement you shouldn’t miss – http://goo.gl/4OxcT

70 Must See CSS3 Tips, Tricks And Tutorials – http://goo.gl/VarE4

The anatomy of a WordPress theme – http://goo.gl/CCdLH

Google URL Shortener API – http://goo.gl/Ia1fl

DOM Monster – http://goo.gl/nGySG

Why You Should Never Search For Free WordPress Themes in Google or Anywhere Else – http://goo.gl/QSzTE

45 Cheat-Sheet Desktop Wallpaper For Web Designers and Developers – http://goo.gl/u1VT9

What Makes a Good Website – http://goo.gl/Ua9ZW

Listamatic – various types of lists with ul and CSS – http://goo.gl/EzlcX

This post contains some of the useful and interesting tech links I found during this week. To keep up to date with the latest information, subscribe to the feed or follow me on twitter @v08i

32 Javascript Alternatives with Pure CSS – Updated – http://goo.gl/DNTvy

10 Google Chrome Extensions for a Faster Browser – http://goo.gl/slpTR

75+ Tools for Visualizing your Data, CSS, Flash, jQuery, PHP – http://goo.gl/K8771

Getting Started with HTML Emails – http://goo.gl/kej2h

15 Easy Guides on Getting You Started with HTML5 – http://goo.gl/ZDtfA

Web Developer’s Guide to Getting a Startup Up and Running – http://goo.gl/rJODj

Animated Form Switching with jQuery – http://goo.gl/rDxci

AJAX-ZOOM – 3D Spin & Zoom – http://goo.gl/uIxlG

10 Tips for Optimizing Web Form Submission Usability – http://goo.gl/qaRPa

Image Courtesy: Desizn Tech

2011 has begun and everyone on the web is either busy in making predictions for the web or taking resolutions for another year. This post reflects on plans that I have for this year. Personally, I don’t believe in resolutions that much. Adding to this fact that I am extremely lazy. So, absolutely no f****g guarentee for any of these to be complete. But it is always good to know where you are heading to. Here is what I plan to learn/achieve this year.

Write another book

Last year I got a chance to write a book on 2 of my favorite technologies : PHP and jQuery. The result was PHP jQuery Cookbook. Writing a book is an interesting and a great learning experience. You must know every word that you are writing because you cannot rollback once the words are out in print. Nevertheless, I would like to write one more book this year. Probably on Google APIs or various other APIs like facebook, twitter etc.

Read more blogs

I am an avid reader of web development blogs. Google reader and bookmarks toolbar are a great help. This year I will add more and more feeds so that I do not skip anything.

jQuery Mobile

Accept it. jQuery is a revolution. There are many great libraries like MooTools, PrototypeJS etc but jQuery is far ahead of them all. It has changed the way we write javascript. jQuery Mobile is another cross platform mobile framework for smartphones and tablets. With mobile apps increasing at a rapid rate, jQuery mobile is the coolest tool to learn.

Facebook Apps

I have tried several other APIs(twitter, Flickr, Reddit, Youtube etc) in the past but have never created a Facebook app. It has become hard to ignore facebook. So, you will see at least couple of cool facebook apps from me this year.

The Kohana Framework

Kohana is another PHP MVC framework and it looks really promising. I have worked in past with Symfony and CodeIgniter. This year I plan to give Kohana a try.

Miscellaneous

• HTML5
• CSS3
• CoffeeScript
• Probably YQL

This list is not complete and is just a dump of whatever came to my mind. I believe we will see many more interesting technologies in this year and some of them will leave a mark and will stay with us forever.

Thanks for reading and have a great year ahead.

This post contains some of the useful and interesting tech links I found during this week. To keep up to date with the latest information, subscribe to the feed or follow me on twitter  @v08i

How to Create a jQuery Confirm Dialog Replacement – http://goo.gl/IwXQt

35 Inspiring Examples of Websites Using HTML5 – http://goo.gl/pOjxY

Debugging JavaScript Behind the Scenes – http://goo.gl/mTd4h

Multiple virtual hosts in WAMP – http://goo.gl/hg59a

geoPlugin – http://goo.gl/iviYz

ControlJS – http://goo.gl/SpR5s

The Road to jQuery 1.5 – http://goo.gl/g0NbR

The Top 150 Web Development Highlights from 2010 – http://goo.gl/3Fs5n

290+ Social Media Resources From 2010 – http://goo.gl/xmf79

Yes that’s right and it is called PHP jQuery Cookbook.  As the name suggests, it’s about creating rich internet applications using 2 of my favorite technologies – PHP and jQuery.

I love coding web apps and helping others find solutions. Perhaps that is the reason I agreed to write when the wonderful people at Packt Publishing contacted me. (Also, a book on resume isn’t that bad either )

Another reason is I love Open source. It is a lovely philosophy and I am a strong believer in it. Having learnt so much from the Open source community since I started coding, I have always wanted to return something back. Nothing could have been better then this. And did I mention, Packt pays direct royalty to a project if they sell a book written on the same.

Long story short, the book is cookbook with around 65 recipes covering PHP, jQuery, MySql and some API’s (Flickr, Youtube).

Structure wise, it has 10 chapters in all.

• Handling Events
• Combining PHP and jQuery
• Working with XML documents
• Working with JSON
• Working with Forms
• Adding Visual effects to forms
• Creating cool Navigation Menus
• Data binding with PHP and jQuery
• Enhancing your site with PHP and jQuery
• Appendix – FireBug

The book is available now will be available by 14th December Christmas this year or January next year. You can have a look in detail about what it is all about on Packt Website. Order a copy in case you find it interesting

Valuable resources for scripts and components:

Jibbering.com

This is the FAQ for the famous javascript usenet group comp.lang.javascript. The FAQ answers most of the questions beginners face daily ranging from accessing form elements to AJAX

Quirksmode
For all your browser quirks.

Scripteka – Prototype extensions library.
Who doesn’t know Prototype JS. Prototype is a popular javascript/ajax framework which makes client side development . Scripteka is a collection of extensions for prototype. Currently there are more then 120 extensions available and growing continuously. Dont forget to check Lightview and Prototip 2.

Javascript Toolbox
Javascripttoolbox is a js code repository by Matt cruse. All the code here is written and maintained by Matt Kruse himself. According to the site: “The information on the site emphasizes standards-compliance for best results, and best practices which should be followed.”

Javascript at HotScripts

More then 10 years old, this site is one of the oldest and nice places to look for resources. Not even js but php,python,ajax,asp etc. 2973 resources are there in Javascript category alone. New scripts continously get added at hotscripts.

Ajax Rain

Ajaxrain is a collection of AJAX/DHTML scripts most of which are extensions to various popular javascript frameworks like prototype, jquery, mootools. Nice and reliable content spread over more than 1100 scripts and 100 categories.

Ajax Daddy
Similar to ajaxrain this site also presents a collection of javascript/Ajax scripts.

DHTMLGoodies
You will get scripts on an array of topics here. Mainly readymade widgets like menus,calendar,folder galleries, trees,js games.

Must read blogs/articles

Prototype Dissected
For those who love prototype. This guy has prepared cheat sheets of every single method of prototype. Thanks Jonathan

Max Kiesler – Round-up of 30 AJAX Tutorials and 60 More AJAX Tutorials
This is incredible.

Ajaxian
Great blog on ajax, web development and latest trends and technologies.

Smashing Magazine
is a blog on web development which covers web designing, css and javascript. From time to time you will get to see useful javascript tips, tricks and articles here. Among my favourites are Ajax solutions and 75 JS techniques