To keep programming productive and enjoyable, state-of-the-art practices and principles are essential. Object-oriented programming and design help manage complexity by keeping components cleanly separated. Unit testing helps prevent endless, exhausting debugging sessions. Refactoring keeps code supple and readable. PHP offers all this, and more. PHP in Action shows you how to apply PHP techniques and principles to all the most common challenges of web programming, including: Web presentation and templates User interaction including the Model-View-Contoller architecture Input validation and form handling Database connection and querying and abstraction Object persistence This book takes on the most important challenges of web programming in PHP 5 using state-of-the art programming and software design techniques including unit testing, refactoring and design patterns. It provides the essential skills you need for developing or maintaining complex to moderately complex PHP web applications.