Web apps which book for the common stuff? (security, scaliability,etc not basics like PHP/MySql)

Question

I guess that the title says it all.

I know PHP and am just beginning with MySql (but plan to use ODBC). I don't need any books explaining that.

I am probably qualified to develop a simple web site, but aim at taking on quite ambitious apps. I imagine that almost all web apps have some commonality like security, scalability, etc (I have absolutely no idea how to distribute a data base or an app over server servers, for instance).

I am sure that there are a whole bunch more; is there a good book to explain these, maybe even with coding examples, but at least explain the concepts, if not?

Answer 1

Just getting my teeth into Expert PHP & Mysql. Not too far in but it covers scalability, caching etc so it might suit your needs. Link to Amazon

Answer 2

I was in exactly you position five years ago and Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture by Martin Fowler really helped with structuring apps. The examples are in C# and Java but the concepts are applicable to OO PHP just the same. To go to the next level of distributing apps across servers look at Enterprise Integration Patterns (I haven't read this yet but it's been recommended by good people).

Check out Portland Pattern Repository and High Scalability for some theoretical and practical examples.

Have a look at Zend Framework too which already implements a lot of the common requirements.