Beginner needs suggestions on books.

Question

I am thinking of buying some of Dave Power's books on php and
Dreamweaver. I can cut and paste code and use Dreamweaver, but I
don't really understand what I am doing. I know a lot of code
snippets, but I don't really have a view of the big picture. Here
is how I have been learning: I use Dreamweaver. I look for the item
I want to change, and if I find it I make the changes then see if
it works or if I have broken the site. I have just about reached
the limit on what I can learn using this hit or miss method. Other
than book suggestions, I guess my main question would be "How can I
understand the overall organization and structure of a web site
composed of html files or php files or a combination of the two"?
How are these files related to each other and why are they in
separate files to begin with? Why isn't a web site one giant file?
I give two examples here:
Example1: I know an html web site is made of pages and I have
no trouble making one. I just have to have an index.html page which
links to other pages which I can call whatever I want such as
products.html or whatever. To me all such html pages (at least the
files I make) are clones of each other except for content changes.
In php this simple file to file or page to page relationship is not
evident. I see things like configure.php and folder named includes
(whatever that means). I need to understand the entire web site
package if I am to make any sense of how each of these individual
files work together. And why have a folder named "incudes" anyway?
Why aren't all the files in the same folder? How can I know that
changing one enigmatically named php file will affect other files
not even in the same directory?
Example 2: Where on the server do these files go and why? I
just found out about .htaccess in order to password protect a
directory on a web site but I don't what that is exactly and how it
works, where it is placed, or how to create it. I asked my host
admin person to create it for me and he did. I see some .htaccess
files but I don't know why they are there in such and such a
folder. When I open it, the contents mean nothing to me.
So what books can unveil the mystery of html, php, and where
on the server these files go and why? I can already upload a web
site I created via ftp to a server, but I don't understand why I am
putting it where I am told to put it. Although I can usually figure
out and use the server path names or directory naming schemes, I
don't really understand them or how they work. I would prefer to
buy e-Books if possible so I can view them immediately.

Answer 1

A.Translator wrote:
> I did not know it was available as an e-book too. Is
this recent?
I'm not quite sure when it was released as an e-book, but it
was some
time in the second half of last year. "Foundation PHP for
Dreamweaver 8"
came out when Apress was experimenting with e-book versions,
and it
somehow got left behind. I think that all new friends of ED
books are
now released simultaneously in paper and e-book versions.
> I might buy it although I have the hard cover, just so
that I can have
> the book on one monitor and work on the other. I am at
the stage where
> using real books means a constant change of glasses and
a literal pain
> in the neck ;-)
Varifocal lenses are the answer. :-)
Seriously, though, it seems as though many people like having
both paper
and electronic versions of a book. I don't know if you have
"PHP
Solutions", but the final page gives details of how to get a
discount on
the e-book version. Apparently, you need a copy of "PHP
Solutions" with
you when ordering the e-book version, because you get 60
seconds to
answer a question related to the book to qualify for the
discount.
The e-book versions are available only from the Apress
website. You
can't get them from Amazon.
David Powers, Adobe Community Expert
Author, "Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8" (friends of ED)
Author, "PHP Solutions" (friends of ED)
http://foundationphp.com/