Lorna Jane Mitchell

I use a lot of web services in my work – both accessing others’ data and sharing my own. Upon embarking on these projects, I never had a formal introduction to APIs. In typical developer fashion, I just dove into the deep end and only then learned to swim. However, some of us don’t learn that way and require a written tutorial. Even those of us who do dive in without reading the print first end up needing to solidify concepts later – something best facilitated by comprehensive treatments. For web services (i.e., APIs or Application Programmer Interfaces) in the PHP programming language, Mitchell’s work fills that need by providing a short but comprehensive treatment. It’s power-packed with concepts, code examples, and places to explore more for details.

Topics include everything you can think of around the API space: HTTP fundamentals, headers, cookies, data formats, access points, tools, documentation, project management, and maintenance. Mitchell covers it all. As such, it’s helpful to fill in gaps of knowledge that experience alone as a developer did not expose me to. At 180 pages, it’s a very quick and available read. I plan to refer back to the content while this book sits on my shelf.

The appropriate audiences for this book include intermediate and advanced PHP programmers along with engineering-savvy project managers. Those still mastering the fundamentals of PHP will probably find this book too advanced. Those interested in the engineering concepts and not just the code will find this book accessible to their needs as readers can skip over the code if desired. Those overachievers who seek ultimate mastery can visit URLs referencing the Internet for more details.

I’m glad that O’Reilly chose to come out with a second edition of this book in 2016. The state of the art hasn’t changed much six years after that date (at the time of my writing), but the state of the art certainly did change between 2013 and 2016. Those who seek to master API technology in PHP (still the most dominant programming language of the web) will do well to consult, borrow from, and bounce forward off of Mitchell’s learning contained in this book.… (plus d'informations)