PHP for Programmers

Introduction to PHP

• History of PHP
• Comparison with dynamic content alternatives (Perl, CGI, ASP, JSP, Servlets , CGI, etc)
• PHP tools and set up (web browser/server, editor, libraries, etc)
• Create a basic PHP Script
• Taking user input (HTML forms)
• Self Referring Forms
• Selecting alternatives
• Use PHP to generate HTTP headers
• Pass PHP variables via the URL
• Debugging Tips
• Where to find PHP documentation

Taking User Input from Forms via PHP

• Creating forms with PHP
• Security Protection from Cross Site Scripting
• Using the form GET method
• Using the form POST method
• Obtaining data from forms through variables
• Using hidden fields
• Secure Web Forms (HTTPS and SSL)
• Calling pages from themselves using forms
• Quoting HTML entities in user input

Variables and Expressions in PHP

• Identifiers
• Data Types (integers, floats, strings and booleans)
• Type juggling
• Text constants, interpolation (strings, arrays, objects), here documents
• Creating Variables
• Variable assignment
• Variable Scope
• Namespaces
• User-defined Constants
• String constants, variable interpolation into strings
• HTTP environment variables
• Magic Constants
• Variable References

PHP Operators

• Arithmetic Operators
• Logical Operators
• Relational (Comparison) Operators
• The Identity Operator
• Bitwise Operators
• Error Suppression Operator
• Execution Operators
• Other Operators
• Assignment Operators
• Operator Precedence and Associativity

Conditional Tests and Events in PHP

• True and False If
• Comparing Strings and Numbers else and elseif
• The ? : Operator
• Comparing for equality or identity
• The switch / case statement
• Alternative Syntax for Control Structures

PHP Flow Control

• Loops while do ... while for break and continue goto exit

PHP Configuration

• The php.ini file
• Module Vs CGI Usage register_globals
• Control of error logging
• Control of resource limits
• Commonly set configurations
• File system security
• PHP4 compatibility in PHP5
• A glance at upcoming PHP6

PHP Functions

• Purpose of functions
• Built-in functions
• Declaring functions
• Functions Arguments
• Default Arguments
• Arguments - Call by Reference
• Return
• Returning References
• Variable Scope (global vs local)
• Static variables
• Recursion include and require
• Variable function calls

Storing Data in Arrays using PHP

• What are arrays?
• How and when to use arrays
• Indexing arrays, numeric and hashes
• Initialising arrays
• Using foreach
• Add/remove elements from arrays
• One-dimensional arrays
• Multi-dimensional arrays
• References to array elements
• Arrays in forms
• Array operators
• Array related functions

Handling Databases with PHP

• PHP's database APIs
• Error-handling strategies
• Connection/disconnection, log in/log out
• Escaping strings in SQL statements
• Including common access functions
• Doing simple SQL queries via PHP
• Building HTML tables using SQL Queries
• Avoiding SQL Injection attacks
• Access to: MySql, MySqli, Oracle & MS-SQL
• Using PEAR DB
• Using PHP Data Objects - PDO
• An Insight to Smart Programming

String Manipulation in PHP

• substring and [] operators
• Case conversion, trimming
• Formatting output data
• Regular expressions

Sessions and Cookies in PHP

• What is a session?
• Dependencies on the php.ini file
• Understanding PHP session variables
• Create a PHP session variable
• Register and modify PHP session variables
• Putting PHP session IDs in pages
• Good Practise with sessions and PHP
• Cookie properties
• Setting a cookie in PHP
• Retrieving PHP cookies
• Expiring/Deleting PHP cookies
• Drawbacks to cookies
• Using cookies well
• Cookie Security Issues

File and Directory Access Using PHP

• Opening files, local and remote
• Reading and writing files
• PHP portability on different Operating Systems
• Finding file metadata
• Handling file permissions
• Handling file ownership
• File locking
• Opening and reading directories
• File uploads from the browser/user

Other I/O Issues in PHP

• Getting IP addresses from visitors
• Getting referring URLs from visitors
• Environment variables
• Showing different content to different browsers (IE, Netscape, Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, etc)
• Handling HTTP and MIME headers

Object Orientation in PHP

• Object basics
• Classes in PHP
• PHP4 - constructors
• PHP5 - constructors and destructors
• Inheritance
• Accessing instance data and functions __sleep and __wakeup __autoload
• Class constants
• PHP5 OO Additions
• Objects: Assignments and References
• Try throw catch Exception handling

PEAR, PECL and Smarty

• PECL quick tour
• APC - Alternative PHP Cache
• Xdebug - debugging and profiling
• PEAR installation and quick tour
• PEAR Config
• PEAR Log
• PEAR Auth
• PEAR HTML_Quickform
• Smarty Templates
• Smarty and HTML_Quickform
• Smarty and Quickform help with security

Handling Email with PHP

• Sending email
• Sending multi part email - MIME
• Accessing mail boxes - IMAP & POP

Graphics in PHP

• Graphics basics, referencing a PHP scrip in an IMG tag
• Image MIME type
• Basic examples, line/box drawing
• Creation from an existing image
• Image copying and resizing
• Drawing text on images
• True Type fonts

References to interesting PHP resources on the web