730 PHP Tutorials. Page 7

In the final article in our series about using PHP and JavaScript to store data on the client side, we will be building on what we learned about server and client interaction to create a JavaScript-based paginating system.

In the first article in this series, we developed a simple PHP function that dynamically generates a JavaScript array and populates it with external incoming data. In this article, we will develop a real world application using this method, in the form of a news ticker.

There s something patently unfair going on here. For some reason, almost every PHP tutorial on the planet makes the implicit assumption that if you re using PHP with a database, that database is going to be MySQL.

The Extensible Markup Language is definitely something that most developers will want to add to their toolbox. XML is a W3C standard that is open, language neutral, API-neutral, streamable, textual, human-readable and is a way of bringing structured data to the web. XML is a subset of SGML and is not a markup language in itself but allows the author to define their own markup language where it is best suited for representing hierachical data. No...

Settling for the quick and dirty solution often costs far more time than it saves. This is as true of PHP coding practices as anything else. In this first article in the series, you will learn practices that will save you time and headaches in the long run, and help you write better PHP code.

Building on what we learned in part one, this article discusses data storage, system configuration, error handling and logging. Read on to find out how practicing the proper use of these concepts can simplify application maintenance and testing, and accelerate system debugging.

As a developer, one of the most important things to consider when developing a Web application is portability. Given the rapid pace of change in the Web world, it doesn t do to bind your code too tightly to a specific operating system, RDBMS or programming language; if you do, you ll find yourself reinventing the wheel every time things change on you (and they will - take my word for it).

In the first part of this article, I introduced you to the ADODB database abstraction library, and showed you a little of how it works. I demonstrated how using it in your PHP application development could substantially reduce the time spent on code rewrites if your RDBMS decided to change shape, and also gave you a crash course in the basic functions built into the library.

Once upon a time there was a reasonably popular web-based chat room called Star Trekker chat. I happened into this chat thanks to a friend and even though Star Trek fans were hardly my favourite group of people I found that for the most part people in there were friendly and fun. But when Star Trekker shut down, thanks to its Perl backend eating server resources for lunch, these happy and kindly people were left with nowhere to go. It was fortun...

Larry Wall, the creator of Perl, has stated that the three virtues of a programmer are laziness, impudence, and hubris. I think he s right. Most programming seems to consist of writing a small amount of interesting logic to implement business rules or a user interface, and then a lot of glue to hold it all together. // ); //]] Calling SQL in a PHP function is a pretty simple operation, requiring several steps. Example 1, a generic PHP function: ...

Generally, programming is considered as something that happens behind the scenes; something that has more to do with function than form. Programmers frequently leave the appearance of the application up to a designer, so the idea of style having anything to do with coding can seem a little laughable at first. After all, as long as the logic and syntax of a PHP script is correct, the computer knows what we mean, and our script works. The computer ...

In a previous article, I gave an overview of what the php.ini file is and how you might use it. Now let s get into detail on some of the more useful directives and learn how to use them. output_buffering One of the newest (and greatest) features of PHP is the ability to send header lines anywhere within a script. This directive turns on output buffering for all files. You should probably leave this set to off because calling one of the output b...

Have you ever stopped to give directions to a lost driver from two states away? For the sake of providing an example, imagine your conversation went something like this: Hi, can you tell me how to get to route 50? Sure, just follow this road, turn left onto the expressway, keep driving, and eventually you ll see the exit for route 50. The directions above were linear and sequential: drive on this road, turn here, and then drive until you see...

Many websites use databases for storing data for use by web applications. There are situations in which this is not the best solution, however. For light, moderate, or temporary storage requirements, you might prefer to use flat files, session variables, and cookies. This article will describe how to create a class that handle all of these. It is the first of two parts.

In the first part of this two-part article, you started to learn about using alternatives to databases for storing data; specifically, we started to work on creating a class that can handle flat files, session variables, and cookies. This second part picks up right where we left off last time.

In this four-part series of articles we are going to build an email client with PHP. I will try to implement a full email client with all the functionality that you would expect from an email client, which includes a trash folder, sent items folder and a draft folder. But that s not all.

CSS Stylesheets are a major improvement in the World Wide Web, allowing HTML to come back to its roots: a language to structure and publish content on the web, not to apply a visual formatting to that content. Unfortunately HTML and CSS have the same limitations: both are static languages! From Perl scripts to PHP, a lot of technologies are today available to move HTML to the dynamic age but why not, going even further and do the same with CSS? T...

If you ve ever done any perl programming, or if you ve spent any time talking to perl programmers, you have probably heard of CPAN - the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network. CPAN provides a central repository of perl modules, most of which are made available under the same licenses as perl itself (the GPL and The Artistic License). In many ways, CPAN has been the killer app that has made perl one of the most popular languages around. By using...

First, what is the difference between presentation and logic. Its the difference between dealing with the appearance of an apple and dealing with its genetic code. With web applications, presentation includes HTML tags, basic Javascript such as rollover effects, FLASH and anything else in that vein. Logic includes all of the software written in Python, Perl, PHP, or the p-p-p-particular language of choice which best solves the problem at hand.

This tutorial is aimed to introduce the reader to PHP filters from OWASP. OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project ) released a top ten list for web application security vulnerabilities in 2003 and 2004; you can find the latest information about their Top Ten Project here. Most of the top ten vulnerabilities including (A1) Unvalidated Input, (A2) Broken Access Control, (A4) Cross Site Scripting (XSS) Flaws, and (A6) Injection Flaws, can be av...

If your PHP program is a dynamic web page (and it probably is) and your PHP program is dealing with user input (and it probably is), then you need to work with HTML forms. Here are some tips for simplifying, securing, and organizing your form-handling PHP code. 1. Use $_SERVER[ PHP_SELF ] as a form action. The $_SERVER auto-global array holds various useful server- and request-specific info. The PHP_SELF element of $_SERVER holds the filename of ...

All web developers will at some point need to program their own form. Whether it is for database submission, emailing, or for some other purpose, forms represent the primary means of enabling a user to send data to an application. As a result, it is important to have control over the data collected by your forms, which will aid in the creation of streamlined, error-free applications. Assumptions This article assumes the reader has some prior kno...

PHP tied to PDFLib is perhaps the best platform for Web Publishing. A couple of typical uses: brochure on demand e-nvoice: invoice for e-commerce With this Tutorial you ll learn how to use the PDF extension in PHP4 to create PDF documents. We also put focus on creating PDF documents with data from MySQL. Summary of Contents Installing PDFLib 3.0.1 and PHP4.0.1pl2 with PDF support Distilling PDF document I am going to assume a *little* experience...

If you re looking for a way to save time when you program, look no further. Creating functions lets you reuse code that you ve used before without having to rewrite the whole thing. Keep reading to learn how.

This being the first of the New Guy s PHP Helper, I would like to discuss some topics that are frequently requested around the PHPBuilder.com discussion forum. I will also be explaining some common errors on a very basic level. With each article posted you will see that the list of common problems and errors keeps growing, and we ll attempt to help you solve these potential problems as we go along. If you don t know me, allow me to i...

By Wee Lep From preface of the PHP manual, the following states the definition of PHP scripting: PHP is an HTML-embedded scripting language. ... The goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly. The phrase HTML-embedded scripting language reminds me of my days in dot-coms (dot-gones for now). I was involved in the development of corporate portal sites...

PHP arrays are generally a very powerful object container. But still, we can easily add a little more fuel to them. Imagine an iterator object as a kind of wrapper around our arrays. What we will try to accomplish here is to create unique interface for traversing arrays and to add a little more control over how our objects are created and finally, to support lazy loading. Interface Iterator has a very simple and many times seen interface. ?p...

There were a couple of discussions on the PHP3 mailing list about whether PHP is a scripting language or just for embedding in HTML only. From the web application developer s point of view, I would use PHP as an alternative to Perl/Java. In this article, I will show you how to write PHP classes and how to use class.layout (download) to program your web applications. Main: PHP3 has the power for serious web applications programming. If you want t...

You have a web site with pages accessing a database. You want to use PHPLIB, but do not want to change your existing database to suit. Here is the answer to your dreams. PHPLIB and multiple databases. This set up requires an extension to PHPLIB and explains how to create the extension. You may find this article helps you extend PHPLIB in other ways. Read this article to the end and then think about situations where PHPLIB performs 98% of what yo...

Hopefully, you ve read Mr David Orr s introduction to working with PHPLIB templates. If you haven t, I recommend that you do so.

I thought I d take some time to acquaint you with yet another facet of my favorite language: the network-related functions. In this article I touch upon several cool applications, including how to use PHP to send e-mail, verify e-mail addresses, call operating system functions from within a script, and finally conclude the article with an explanation of how to query a WHOIS database for domain information. // ); //]] The mail() function Perhaps ...

Although design patterns simply describe solutions to problems, they tend to emphasize solutions that promote reusability and flexibility. To achieve this, they manifest some key object-oriented design principles. This article will cover Composition: How to use object aggregation to achieve greater flexibility than you could with inheritance alone Decoupling: How to reduce dependency between elements in a system The power of the interface: Patte...

Welcome back. In my last article, I wrapped up my discussion of using objects in PHP. This week I ll be changing gears a little bit and discussing one of the more elusive aspects of PHP -- references. For those of you with a C programming background (although they are fundamentally different), references serve the same purpose as a C-style pointer. For those of you without programming experience in C, don t worry! I ll be covering everything you ...

Editor s note: Sphinx added to review on 03 April 2007. // ); //]] It s a universal frustration. You just know that the piece of information you re looking for is somewhere on a site. You click one link, then another, and another. You go back to the home page and try a different branch of the site. After dozens of clicks, you still can t find the information you need. Then it s back to Google and on to another site. At last you find one with an ...

In my last two columns (Common Style Mistakes, part one and Common Style Mistakes, part two), I discussed some common bad practices to avoid when writing PHP scripts which can make them more difficult to read and more prone to bugs. In today s column I ll change gears and discuss the meat of this series: the importance of security when working with PHP. // ); //]] p style=margin: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; m...

Welcome back to PHP Foundations. In my previous article, I continued my mini-series on best practices in PHP by introducing you to some of the ways that security can be compromised in your PHP scripts. This article continues that discussion with more examples of potential security holes and the tools and methods you can use to help plug them. Today I ll start by talking about one of the more critical potential security holes in PHP development ...

Welcome to another installment of PHP Foundations. Last time, I discussed the potential security breaches that can occur when using system calls from PHP scripts (and some methods of protecting yourself from them). As the last part of my series focusing on the pitfalls and techniques involved when writing secure PHP applications, this article will not introduce any new potential security breaches. Rather, today I will finish my discussion of secu...

The purpose of this document is to inform PHP programmers of common security mistakes that can be overlooked in PHP scripts. While many of the following concepts may appear to be common sense, they are unfortunately not always common practice. After applying the following practices to your coding, you will be able to eliminate the vast majority of security holes that plague many scripts. Many of these security holes have been found in widely-used...

2db76afcc5c0176b2770fc2360cc1cd4! What?!? I said, 648a19754f7803769c66f871b9cd171a! // ); //]] Of course, I don t expect you to be able to understand the above two phrases. In fact, I m counting on it, because I ve encrypted the data to hide the true meaning of the messages. This notion of data encryption plays an increasingly important part of our lives, particularly considering the mammoth amount of transactions and activities that take pl...

To finally grasp the whole idea of this parsing concept let s go straight on the script. I ve coded the scripts under a class. With this you only have to import this class then use its function to parse your HTML files. To get a detailed explanation of what is this all about read the article of Wee Lep PHP-HTML Templates: A New Working Relationship, which can be accessed here.. The concept of this parsing was taken from his article. The only r...

In this introductory article, we will look into the use of many different aspects of PHP in order to create a fully functional web application. This article will cover the 5 most common functions that a PHP-to-MySQL relationship will generate. The web application we will cover is what is commonly known as a Web Blog. The first step is to get the MySQL database ready to receive and store the data. I won t cover the different ways this can be do...

In Part 2 of our PHP Web Blog tutorial, we will create the administration page that will allow us to add, edit or delete the contents of our blog. If you haven t worked through part 1, you ll want to start by reading the first part of this article. Security for the administration page will not be addressed directly here, but it is recommended that some form of access restriction is used. If the page is being displayed via an Apache web server, t...

In this final article in our web blog series, we will discuss the code that is required to edit and delete entries from the database. Features that will be covered here will include techniques to create sticky forms and the use of the mySQL update and delete commands. These pages use the hidden id field that we included in our previous sections to process the correct field. If you haven t read Part 1 and Part 2, you should do so now before c...

In an earlier article, I outlined the basics of Web services and how you can use PHP and SOAP to talk to Amazon.com. But SOAP isn t the only way a developer can query Amazon s database. The other method is known as REST, which stands for Representational State Transfer. // ); //]] REST, unlike SOAP, doesn t require you to install a separate tool kit to send and receive data. Instead, the idea is that everything you need to use Web services is al...

This month it s time to look at another of those PHP applications I find useful on a daily basis. I like to use wikis for documentation for many of the projects I work on. Most of you are probably familiar with the term wiki, coming from the Hawaiian word for quick (wikiwiki). There are quite a few PHP-based wiki tools out there, including mediawiki (which Wikipedia uses), PmWiki and DokuWiki. In this article we will look at PhpWiki, and we ll ...

In the last exciting episode of the PHP Phanatics, we explored the inner workings of PHP s unique $GLOBALS array. Several sharp-eyed readers pointed out a bug in the script dumping the contents of the $GLOBALS array. If an array element was itself an array, the display listed that fact rather than the contents of the component array. The displayed line looked like: // ); //]] $GLOBALS[HTTP_GET_VARS]=Array In my defense I plead confusion. There w...

Transactions -- a database management system (DBMS) feature that enables data recovery on internal errors -- raise significant controversy among developers. Some view transactions as a crutch, while others view them as a necessity. // ); //]] Using transactions can save time and money, because transactions enable databases to restore themselves. But inappropriate use of transactions means wasted overhead and impeded performance. And transactions...

Imagine a site that carried the latest news from the hottest portals on the Web. Stock prices, weather information, news stories, threaded discussions, software releases...all updated dynamically, on an hourly basis, without any manual intervention. Imagine the traffic such a site would get. Imagine the advertising dollars that would pour in, and the adulation that the webmaster would receive.

Last week, we continued our discussion of the object-oriented features of PHP 5 by taking a first look at design patterns. This week, we will continue looking at design patterns, and examine polymorphism. This article, the third of four parts, is excerpted from chapter two of the book

Anyone who has an email address can tell you that spam is one of the great banes of the online world. But it s not only distant servers owned by the spammers that are to blame. It may even be your very own server. Insecure PHP scripts have provided great opportunities for spammers to abuse other s resources to send out their spam. In particular, it s the mail() function that can be abused. I myself was the target a few months ago when I noticed s...

PHPBuilder.com, the best resource for PHP tutorials, templates, PHP manuals, content management systems, scripts, classes and more. !-- body { background: url(/images/grad_bg.gif) repeat-y;font-family: Tahoma;font-size: 12px; } ol, ul, li { font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; } h1 { font-size: 115%; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: 1em; text-align: justify; } h2 { font-size: ...

Putting all of your content for a particular file on one page can be very user unfriendly to website visitors. Nobody likes to be confronted by a tiny vertical scroll bar! In this article, the first in a series, you will learn a simple way to paginate records from a text file using PHP.

In the fourth and final article in our series about paginating records with PHP, we will look at the source code for the pager PHP class we developed in part three, and show several examples to demonstrate possible uses in production environments.

In the first article in this series, we learned how to do simple pagination of records taken from a text file. In this article, we will look at pagination for a larger group of records, using an Objected Oriented rather than a procedural approach to creating the application.

In part three of our series about paginating records with PHP, we will learn how to make our application work with a relational database system such as MySQL. We will develop a tight, compact PHP class, capable of performing the most common paging tasks efficiently.

You run a website that is simple enough it doesn t require a database. But your site features certain pages to which you d like to limit access. Most of the time, that implies using a database to store passwords and usernames. There is an easier way, however. It s less secure, but it involves a lot less coding.

If you re looking for a friendly guide on how to implement the template design pattern with PHP 5, then this group of articles might be what you need. Welcome to the final installment of the series that began with Working with template classes in PHP 5. As the title indicates, this series steps you through creating template classes in PHP-controlled development environments, and also shows you how to use this rather uncommon pattern i...

Authors: Devon H O Dell, Andy Chase, Jan Rosa, Sanjay Abraham, Allan Kent, Iman S.H. Suyoto, Kapil Apshankar See it on Amazon.com. One of the many bonuses of using PHP is that it s open source. There are plenty of developers who have found new and creative ways to extend PHP past its previous limitations. With the latest version of PHP and its extensions, we are able to manipulate images, create PDFs, and even create Flash files. Prof...

This manuscript is an abridged version of Chapter 20 on

Over the last ten years, eBay has emerged as a platform where people can buy and sell practically anything. With more than 135 million users worldwide, eBay is a thriving online marketplace. Best of all, eBay isn t constrained by HTML. By using eBay s web services APIs, members of the eBay Developers Program can hook into the eBay platform using XML to integrate eBay into their own applications. // ); //]] Like many web services, the eBay API co...

This article is based on information provided by Tiobe Software. There are a number of methods for determining which programming languages are the most popular. If you ask ten developers for the most popular language, the odds are that the languages they use will influence their answer. If you look at the number of lines of code, you may find that some of the older languages seem to be more popular. You can check the number of classes or th...

This article is based on information provided by Tiobe Software ( www.tiobe.com ). Here on Developer.com, we have decided to post the TIOBE Programming Community (TPC) Index. This is just one possible means of indicating the popularity of a langauge. In the month of September, some changes have occurred on the index that may raise a few questions. Most notably C had bumped Java out of the top spot. Less of a surprise, yet still interesting ...

Have you ever thought of writing a PHP application for client side execution without having a web server present? Learn the basics of creating a front end for PHP using PHP-GTK.

Chapter 12 is reprinted with permission by Apress PHP is an extremely powerful yet easy-to-learn scripting language, affording even relatively inexperienced programmers the opportunity to create complex, dynamic websites. It is, however, notoriously difficult to ensure privacy and security of internet services. In this book, we will provide you with the security background every web developer needs, along with PHP-specific knowledge and code that...

Chapter 12 is reprinted with permission by Apress Kinds of Injection Attacks There may not be quite as many different kinds of attacks as there are motives for attacks, but once again, there is more variety than might appear at first glance. This is especially true if the malicious user has found a way to carry out multiple query execution, a subject to which we will return in a moment. If your script is executing a SELECT instruction, the attack...

Chapter 12 is reprinted with permission by Apress Abstract to Improve Security We do not suggest that you try to apply the techniques listed earlier manually to each instance of user input. Instead, you should create an abstraction layer. A simple abstraction would incorporate your validation solutions into a function, and would call that function for each item of user input. A more complex one could step back even further, and embody the entire ...

by kenlin SSH Tunnel What Is SSH? SSH stands for Secure SHell and is typically used as an encrypted version of telnet. In a telnet session, all communications are transmitted in plain-text, allowing anyone to listen-in on your session and steal passwords and other information. Such sessions are also susceptible to session hijacking, where a malicious user takes over your session once you have authenticated. OpenSSH, the tool included with most Li...

Reading and writing to files can be useful if you do not require the storing of important data, such as a web counter. I must warn you though, that this method of storage should not be used to store passwords and other critical information, as it is not safe. Here we will discuss how to handle files and directories in PHP, specifically, how to create, read and write them.

I m sure everyone who calls themselves a PHP coder has heard of RSS. I have to include the disclaimer, as I m always surprised how little penetration concepts I take for granted have in the rest of the world. Recently, a colleague in the music industry started a blog. I saw there were no RSS feeds available, and asked him when they d be ready. He had no clue what I was talking about. I shouldn t really have been surprised. Nevertheless, RSS feed...

I m sure everyone who calls themselves a PHP coder has heard of RSS. I have to include the disclaimer, as I m always surprised how little penetration concepts I take for granted have in the rest of the world. Recently, a colleague in the music industry started a blog. I saw there were no RSS feeds available, and asked him when they d be ready. He had no clue what I was talking about. I shouldn t really have been surprised. Nevertheless, RSS feed...

This week s article continues on where we left off last time. Please read part one first if you haven t yet done so, as the code examples in this tutorial build upon what we created there. To begin with, let s create two new rss feeds to read. We re going to combine them into one feed, and display them combined on one page, in the correct date order. These two sample feeds are loosely based on some of the feeds supplied by Independent Online. Not...

This month s article continues on where we left off last time. Please read part one first if you haven t yet done so, as the code examples in this tutorial build upon what we created there. To begin with, let s create two new rss feeds to read. We re going to combine them into one feed, and display them combined on one page, in the correct date order. These two sample feeds are loosely based on some of the feeds supplied by Independent Online. No...

Php helps you to quickly build big applications and many times, its easy to neglect the security matter. Its easy to believe that security breaches could not happen to your software. But what if it does happen? For this reason, security in your applications should be kept in consideration from the beginning.

As a general rule, web applications should be tested thoroughly. Unfortunately, in practice, testing is spotty and often overlooked. As an alternative to manual testing I often find myself creating small PHP scripts to parse my pages. I run them regularly to decide if my last changes did more harm then good. That s what regression testing is all about, checking to make sure your application hasn t taken steps backward. But it always seemed like ...