Book excerpt: This guide helps PHP developers take advantage of the stability and features of design patterns Design patterns are the cornerstones of building solid, stable, flexible, and feature-rich Web applications. This guide enables PHP developers to take advantage of everything they offer. If you are unfamiliar with design patterns, this book explains what you need to know. Both novice and veteran PHP developers will benefit from the alphabetical list of design patterns and code examples showing how to implement each pattern in PHP. Step-by-step instructions for a sample contact management system will help you understand real-world applications for the information. Gets PHP developers who have not used design patterns up to speed on the technology Shows programmers who are familiar with design patterns in other languages how to apply the techniques to PHP Includes examples of ordinary code used in everyday development and how to modify it for one of the design patterns discussed Provides an alphabetical list of common design patterns, with code examples showing how each can be implemented in PHP Uses a case study of a contact management system to analyze and demonstrate the step-by-step process of applying design patterns With its single focus on applying design patterns to PHP development, PHP Design Patterns helps both new and veteran PHP programmers improve their applications and their career prospects.