PHP

OVERVIEW

CONTENT
Introduction
History
Basics

of PHP

and development

of PHP programming

WHAT IS PHP ?

PHP = Hypertext preprocessor

Server side scripting language

Used for development of dynamical webpages

Part

of typical LAMP combination

Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP

Includes a command line scripting possibility

Can be used in graphical applications

HOW IT WORKS

PHP code is usually embedded into HTML

Processing the code :

1) The HTML code stands as it is

2)

The PHP scripts are executed to create final

HTML code

3)

Both parts are combined and back

4)

Resulting HTML is interpreted by a browser

ADVANTAGES OF PHP
Freely available
The PHP group provides complete source code
free of charge
Similar syntax to C, Pearl
Works with many operating systems
Can be deployed on many web servers
Interacts with lots of databases
It is supported by many providers of webhosting

HISTORY INITIAL DEVELOPMENT

Originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf

PHP

originally stood for Personal Home Page

Replaces small set of Pearl scripts
Used as a tool for observing traffic on webpage

PHP 2 (PHP/FI)
First

publicly released version (on June 8, 1995)

Combination of Lerdorfs Form Interpreter and
original binary from PHP
Was able to communicate with databases
Enabled the building of dynamical web application
included Perl-like variables, form handling, and the
ability to be embedded HTML

HISTORY RELEASED VERSIONS

PHP 3
The

scripting core was rewritten by Zeev Suraski and

Andi Gutmans
The name was changed to Hypertext preprocessor
It is able to work with MS Windows and Macintosh

PHP4

Added

Zend engine
Introduced 'superglobals' ($_GET)

None of these versions is under development now

CURRENT VERSION - PHP 5

The most recent extension (the 5.2.6) was
published on May 1, 2008
Uses enhanced Zend II engine

It includes :
support

for object-oriented programming,

the PHP Data Objects extension (simplifies accessing
databases)
numerous performance enhancements

WEBSITES USING PHP

More than 20 million Internet domains are

hosted on servers with PHP installed
Significant examles
User-facing

portion of Facebook
Wikipedia (MediaWiki)
Yahoo!
MyYearbook

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO WORK

WITH PHP?

If your server supports PHP

You

dont need anything

Just create some .php files in your web directory

If your server does not support PHP, you must

install PHP.
Download

PHP
Download database (MySQL)
Download server (Apache)

BASICS OF SYNTAX

Scripting block starts with <?php and ends with

?>

Each code line in PHP must end with a (;)

Comments
//

,# comment
/* comment */

Writing of the plain text

Echo

text
print text

VARIABLES IN PHP

Each variable starts with $ symbol

Variable name can contain only a-Z,0-9,_

It does not need to be declared before its setting.

<?php
$txt = "Hello World!";
$number = 16;
?>

VARIABLE TYPES

Numerical
Integer

positive as well as negative, including 0

Float real numbers, 14 digits accuracy

Logical

Boolean

- True x False, not case sensitive

Alphabetical
String

set of characters

WORKING WITH VARIABLES

Settype($var, integer)
allows

Gettype()

(.)

you to set variable according to your wish

write the type of variable

Connects 2 variables of string type

strlen()

finds the length of a string

PHP OPERATORS

Uses standard mathematical operators +,-,/,*

Special

symbol ++ (--) for increase (decrease) by 1

Comparison operators >,<, >=

Special

cases
== is equal
!= is different

Assignment operators

x+=y

x=x+y

LOGICAL OPERATORS
&& = and
|| = or

At

least one of condition is fulfilled

! = not
xor

Exactly

one statement is evaluated as true

CONDITIONAL STATEMENTS

If/ else
After

each statement stands (;)

If more than one command should be executed, use
curly braces { }

Switch / break
Used

for choosing one possibility from multiple cases

Switch ($var )
{
case :

x : echo good;
break;
default : echo wrong input ;
}

ARRAYS IN PHP

Numeric array

Each element of array has its ID number (first 0!!)

$names = array("Petr,"Joe");
$names[0] = "Petr";

Associative Arrays

Each element is assigned its value

$ages = array("Peter"=>32, "Joe"=>34);
$ages['Peter'] = "32";

MULTIDIMENSIONAL ARRAYS

element of array is also an array

$families = array
(
"Griffin"=>array
( "Peter", "Lois", "Megan" ),
"Soltis" =>array
(Johny", "Morgan" )
)

PHP LOOPING

while

loops repeat until final condition is reached

$i =1;
while ($i<=10)
{
echo $i;
$i++;
}

do...while

kind of reversed while function

Do { code to be executed;}
While(final condition);

PHP LOOPING

for

Repeats

choose

the specific part of code so many times we

for ($i=1; $i<=10; $i++)

Initial condition
decsription

final condition

running

HTML INSIDE PHP

If inside quotes, the Html tags are returned as a
text by PHP module
Treated as a HTML tag by

<?php
echo
"<TR> <TD>".$i."</TD><TD>".
$i*$i."</TD></TR>\n";
?>

PHP FUNCTIONS
All function starts with function($parameter)
Requirements for naming functions are same as
these for variables
The { mark opens the function code,
while }mark closes it
It can have either defined or no parameter

More than 700 built-in functions available

PHP FORMS AND USER INPUT

Used to gain information from users by means of
HTML
Information is worked up by PHP

<html>
<body>
<form action="welcome.php" method="post">
Name: <input type="text" name="name" />
Age: <input type="text" name="age" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
</body>
</html>

THE $_GET VARIABLE

Used to collect values from a form
Displays variable names and values are in the URL

http://www.w3schools.com/welcome.php?

name=jo&age=39

Can send limited amount of information (max. 100

characters)

<html>
<body>
Welcome <?php echo $_GET["name"]; ?> <br />
You are <?php echo $_GET["age"]; ?> years old
</body>
</html>

THE $_POST VARIABLE

Used to collect values from a form
Information from a form is invisible

http://www.w3schools.com/welcome.php

No limits on the amount of information to be send

<html>
<body>
Welcome <?php echo $_POST["name"]; ?><br />
You are <?php echo $_POST["age"]; ?> years old.
</body>
</html>

TH
AN
K
YO
YO
UR
UF
OR
AT
TE
NT
ION
!

SOURCES

http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP

http://cz.php.net/

http://www.linuxsoft.cz/