PHP 7 in easy steps

270 Pages·2016·11.36 MB·English

by  Mike McGrath

Mike McGrath
PHP 7
In easy steps is an imprint of In Easy Steps Limited
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Contents
1 Getting started
Introducing PHP
Installing the Abyss server
Installing the PHP engine
Integrating Abyss and PHP
Embedding PHP script code
Scripting by the rules
Summary
2 Storing values
Creating variables
Quoting strings
Producing arrays
Sorting arrays
Describing dimensions
Checking types
Defining constants
Exploring superglobals
Summary
3 Performing operations
Doing arithmetic
Making comparisons
Examining conditions
Assessing logic
Comparing bits
Changing values
Grasping precedence
Summary
4 Testing conditions
Seeking truth
Providing alternatives
Switching branches
Performing loops
Looping while true
Breaking from loops
Summary
5 Employing functions
Defining functions
Passing arguments
Varying parameters
Recognizing scope
Returning values
Calling back
Summary
6 Manipulating strings
Comparing characters
Searching text
Extracting substrings
Changing case
Formatting strings
Making dates
Encoding entities
Summary
7 Building classes
Encapsulating data
Creating an object
Initializing members
Using constructors
Inheriting properties
Embracing polymorphism
Summary
8 Handling files
Reading files
Reading lines
Reading characters
Writing a file
Appending text
Handling errors
Catching exceptions
Summary
9 Producing forms
Performing actions
Checking set values
Validating form data
Filtering data
Sending hidden data
Handling submissions
Making sticky forms
Uploading files
Surrounding forms
Appending link data
Summary
10 Preserving data
Submitting cookie data
Setting cookies
Getting cookies
Viewing cookie data
Submitting session data
Setting sessions
Getting sessions
Viewing session data
Summary
11 Connecting databases
Making a connection
Creating a forum
Providing the page
Supplying a form
Processing messages
Confirming success
Summary
12 Adding Web Services
Loading data
Getting nodes
Getting attributes
Including feeds
Setting parameters
Selecting components
Summary
1
Getting started
Welcome to the exciting world of the interactive web with PHP. This chapter demonstrates how to create
a dynamic development environment with a web server and the PHP engine.
Introducing PHP
Installing the Abyss server
Installing the PHP engine
Integrating Abyss and PHP
Embedding PHP script code
Scripting by the rules
Summary
Introducing PHP
The most appealing modern websites provide a customized user experience by
dynamically responding to some current condition – user name, time of day,
latest blog, shopping cart contents, etc. Many of these dynamic websites are
created using PHP.
What is PHP?
PHP is a widely-used general purpose scripting language that is especially suited
for web development and can be embedded into HTML. It was created by
programmer Rasmus Lerdorf, as a set of scripts to maintain his website that he
released as “Personal Home Page Tools (PHP Tools) version 1.0” on June 8,
1995.
This is the official logo of the PHP project – the official online home of
PHP can be found at php.net
The tools were extended in the version 2 release of 1997, and the name changed
to become a recursive acronym “PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor” in version 3 the
following year. Performance, reliability and extensibility was improved in 2000
with the release of PHP4, which was powered by the Zend engine virtual
machine.
Subsequently, PHP5 was released in 2004 powered by the new Zend II engine
and produced as free software by the PHP group. A planned experimental
version PHP6, that intended to introduce native Unicode support throughout
PHP was abandoned. The current version PHP7 was released in 2015, and is
powered by the latest Zend 3 engine that offers improved performance. Today
PHP is installed on over 20 million websites and 1 million web servers.
This is the “elePHPant” – the mascot of the PHP project, designed by
Vincent Pontier.
Why is PHP popular?
• PHP is extremely simple for a newcomer, but offers many advanced
features for a professional programmer.
• PHP code is enclosed in special start and end processing tags that allow
you to jump into and out of “PHP mode”, to implement instructions within an
HTML document.
• PHP code is executed on the server (“server-side”), unlike JavaScript
code that is executed in the browser (“client-side”). The client receives the
results of running the script without knowing what the underlying code was.
Recently, server-side has become to be known as “The Cloud”.