Hour 23. PEAR: Reusable Components to Extend the Power of PHP

What You'll Learn in This Hour:

• About the PEAR project and its structure

• How to install PEAR packages

• How to use the Auth package to password-protect pages

• How to automate documentation with the PhpDocumentor package

• How to manipulate configuration files with the Config package

PEAR stands for the PHP Extension and Application Repository. It is a large collection of interdependent packages, which add even more power to the PHP language. When you start work on a project, PEAR should be one of your first stops. You might find that much of your job is already done for you, and done well.

In this hour we will take an introductory look at PEAR. Through some of PEAR's packages, you will get a sense of the repository's power and usefulness. We will also consider some of the guiding design principles that underlie PEAR packages and could well be applied to your own work.