As Chris Jones has posted on his Oracle blog, there's been a recent update to the Underground PHP and Oracle Manual with a complete refresh of content from more recent versions of the powerful database.

The Underground PHP and Oracle Manual is designed to bridge the gap between the many PHP scripting language and the many Oracle Database books available. It contains unique material about PHP's OCI8 extension for Oracle Database, and about other components in the PHP-Oracle ecosystem. It shows PHP developers how to use PHP and Oracle together, efficiently and easily.

Updates include new content related to the Oracle XE 11g release and the latest updates to their OCI8 extension for PHP. Other updates include information about using PHP with Oracle TimesTen, NetBeans and Oracle Tuxedo as well as getting PHP installed on the Oracle Solaris operating system.

As Chris Jones mentions on his blog today, the "Underground PHP & Oracle Manual" has gotten a bit of a facelift:

Thanks to the Oracle Technology Network design team our very popular, free Underground PHP & Oracle Manual has had a makeover and gained a snazzy new front cover. Farewell to the photo of the underground car park door that used to greet me each night on the way out of the office.

The book not only has a new cover but it also has a new page where you can download the latest copy. (The contents of the book haven't changed since the end of last year, though.)

Chris Jones has announced the release of the latest version of the Undergroupnd PHP & Oracle Manual.

A hot-off-the-press, free, 290 page, updated version of the Underground PHP & Oracle Manual is available for download from http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/php/pdf/underground-php-oracle-manual.pdf. [...] The previous edition was released way back in May 2007. Since then, Oracle Database 11g and the OCI8 1.3 extension have been released, there have been various changes in PHP community, and I've simply just gathered more notes, examples and have more information to share.

The manual has doubled in size and includes tons of new content reflecting the updates since the previous release. Chris thanks those who helped in creating the content, helped get it out to the community and his co-author Alison Holloway.

In her blog today, Alison Holloway offers a quick tip for developers out there trying to install PHP 5.2.2 on their Windows machine and running into trouble. Maybe it's the same issue?

I've just been setting up PHP 5.2.2 on Windows XP Pro, with Apache 2.0.59. I couldn't get Apache to find the correct php.ini file. It was looking in C:Windows, instead of where I installed PHP. The httpd.conf file told Apache to look in C:Program FilesPHP, but it wasn't. So none of the extensions were loading.

The problem? She wasn't putting in the right kind of slashes into her configuration file. It couldn't find the right path because of it. The issue isn't mentioned in the latest version of the Underground PHP and Oracle Manual (but will be in the future).

In her blog today, Alison Holloway offers a quick tip for developers out there trying to install PHP 5.2.2 on their Windows machine and running into trouble. Maybe it's the same issue?

I've just been setting up PHP 5.2.2 on Windows XP Pro, with Apache 2.0.59. I couldn't get Apache to find the correct php.ini file. It was looking in C:Windows, instead of where I installed PHP. The httpd.conf file told Apache to look in C:Program FilesPHP, but it wasn't. So none of the extensions were loading.

The problem? She wasn't putting in the right kind of slashes into her configuration file. It couldn't find the right path because of it. The issue isn't mentioned in the latest version of the Underground PHP and Oracle Manual (but will be in the future).

Christopher Jones and those fine folks at Oracle have released the latest version of their "Underground PHP and Oracle Manual".

The book is designed to bridge the gap between the many PHP and the many Oracle texts available. We re-worked a lot of content for this version, improving the layout and flow enormously. We also increased its size by one third, adding over fifty pages of new material.

New things in this new version include updates to the software installation steps, an updated SQL Developer section, and some new additions like a section on testing, a chapter on mapping functions and a chapter on mapping the Oracle functions.

Christopher Jones and those fine folks at Oracle have released the latest version of their "Underground PHP and Oracle Manual".

The book is designed to bridge the gap between the many PHP and the many Oracle texts available. We re-worked a lot of content for this version, improving the layout and flow enormously. We also increased its size by one third, adding over fifty pages of new material.

New things in this new version include updates to the software installation steps, an updated SQL Developer section, and some new additions like a section on testing, a chapter on mapping functions and a chapter on mapping the Oracle functions.

For all of the readers of Oracle's Alison Holloway mentions just such an update in her latest blog post.

Chris Jones and I have just released an updated version of the Underground PHP and Oracle Manual on OTN. We've numbered it as 1.2.1, and it has some bug fixes, and some extra information on Oracle SQL Developer.

If you have comments or corrections you'd like to submit on this new updated version, you can post a comment here.

For all of the readers of Oracle's Alison Holloway mentions just such an update in her latest blog post.

Chris Jones and I have just released an updated version of the Underground PHP and Oracle Manual on OTN. We've numbered it as 1.2.1, and it has some bug fixes, and some extra information on Oracle SQL Developer.

If you have comments or corrections you'd like to submit on this new updated version, you can post a comment here.

The Zend Developer Zone has a new book review today - a look at the Oracle Technology Network offering "The Underground PHP and Oracle Manual" .

Released last month by Oracle and trumpeted from Chris Jones' blog, The Underground PHP and Oracle Manual is an excellent guide for anyone looking to work with these two technologies.

I'm not a fanboy for Oracle but this review will read like one. It's hard to find anything to criticize in this book. It's an easy read and it's not burdened with unnecessary technical jargon. This is a book I will recommend to my friends who know Oracle and want to know more about PHP or visa-versa.

In his long version, Cal talks about the climate for PHP books these days, noting how much the author's skill has to do with its success. Thankfully, this book is doing just fine. He talks about the contents of the different chapters, brief summaries of what to expect.

His only complaint? That he'd like it in a book (dead tree) editon too...