Rewritten again in and released as version 2.0 in November of 1997
Estimated user base in 1997 is several thousand users and 50,000 web sites served
Rewritten again in late 1997 by Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski
More functionality added, database support, protocols and APIs
2. AAggeennddaa
– Introduction
– PHP Language Basics
– Built-in Functions
– PHP on Linux and Windows
– Tricks and Tips
– PHP 5
– Examples
– Questions?
3. IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn
• What is PHP?
– PHP stands for "PHP Hypertext
Preprocessor”
– An embedded scripting language for HTML
like ASP or JSP
– A language that combines elements of
Perl, C, and Java
4. IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn
• History of PHP
– Created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995 for
tracking access to his resume
– Originally a set of Perl scripts known as the
“Personal Home Page” tools
– Rewritten in C with database functionality
– Added a forms interpreter and released as
PHP/FI: includes Perl-like variables, and
HTML embedded syntax
5. IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn
• History of PHP (cont.)
– Rewritten again in and released as version
2.0 in November of 1997
– Estimated user base in 1997 is several
thousand users and 50,000 web sites
served
– Rewritten again in late 1997 by Andi
Gutmans and Zeev Suraski
– More functionality added, database
support, protocols and APIs
6. IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn
• History of PHP (cont.)
– User base in 1998 estimated 10,000 users
and 100,000 web sites installed
– Version 3.0 was released in June 1998 as
PHP
– Estimated user base in tens of thousands
and hundreds of thousands of web sites
served
7. IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn
• History of PHP (cont.)
– Rewritten again in 1997 by Andi Gutmans
and Zeev Suraski
– More functionality added (OOP features),
database support, protocols and APIs
– PHP 3.0 is released in June 1998 with
some OO capability
– The core is rewritten in 1998 for improved
performance of complex applications
8. IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn
• History of PHP (cont.)
– The core is rewritten in 1998 by Zeev and
Andi and dubbed the “Zend Engine”
– The engine is introduced in mid 1999 and
is released with version 4.0 in May of 2000
– The estimated user base is hundreds of
thousands of developers and several
million of web sites served
9. IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn
• History of PHP (cont.)
– Version 5.0 will include version 2.0 of the
Zend Engine
• New object model is more powerful and
intuitive
• Objects will no longer be passed by value; they
now will be passed by reference
• Increases performance and makes OOP more
attractive
11. IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn
• Performance*
– Zdnet Statistics
• PHP pumped out about 47 pages/second
• Microsoft ASP pumped out about 43
pages/second
• Allaire ColdFusion pumped out about 29
pages/second
• Sun Java JSP pumped out about 13
pages/second
12. PPHHPP LLaanngguuaaggee BBaassiiccss
• The Script Tags
– All PHP code is contained in one of several
script tags:
• <?
// Some code
?>
• <?php
// Some code here
?>
13. PPHHPP LLaanngguuaaggee BBaassiiccss
• The Script Tags (cont.)
• <script language=“PHP">
// Some code here
</script>
– ASP-style tags
• Introduced in 3.0; may be removed in the future
• <%
// Some code here
%>
15. PPHHPP LLaanngguuaaggee BBaassiiccss
• Hello World!: An Example
– Like Perl, there is more than one way to do
it
• <?php echo “Hello World!”; ?>
• <?php
$greeting = “Hello World!”
printf(“%s”, $greeting);
php?>
17. PPHHPP LLaanngguuaaggee BBaassiiccss
• Constants, Data Types and
Variables
– Constants define a string or numeric value
– Constants do not begin with a dollar sign
– Examples:
• define(“COMPANY”, “Acme Enterprises”);
• define(“YELLOW”, “#FFFF00”);
• define(“PI”, 3.14);
• define(“NL”, “<br>n”);
23. PPHHPP LLaanngguuaaggee BBaassiiccss
• Constants, Data Types and
Variables
– Objects
– Currently not much more advanced than than
associative arrays Using constants
– Before version 5.0, objects are passed by value
• Slow
• Functions can not easily change object variables
24. PPHHPP LLaanngguuaaggee BBaassiiccss
• Constants, Data Types and
Variables
– Operators
– Contains all of the operators like in C and Perl (even
the ternary)
– Statements
– if, if/elseif
– Switch/case
– for, while, and do/while loops
– Include and require statements for code reuse
25. BBuuiilltt--iinn FFuunnccttiioonnss
• What comes In the box?
– Array Manipulator Functions
• sort, merge, push, pop, slice, splice, keys,
count
– CCVS: Interface to Red Hat’s credit system
– COM functions: Interface to Windows COM
objects
– Date and Time Functions
• getdate, mkdate, date, gettimeofday, localtime,
strtotime, time
26. BBuuiilltt--iinn FFuunnccttiioonnss
• What comes In the box?
– Directory Functions
• Platform independent
– Error Handling Functions
• Recover from warnings and errors
– Filesystem Functions
• Access flat files
• Check directory, link, and file status information
• Copy, delete, and rename files
27. BBuuiilltt--iinn FFuunnccttiioonnss
• What comes In the box?
– IMAP Functions
• Manipulate mail boxes via the IMAP protocol
– LDAP Functions
• Works with most LDAP servers
– Mail Functions
• mail($recipient, $subject, $message)
28. BBuuiilltt--iinn FFuunnccttiioonnss
• What comes In the box?
– Database Functions
• dba: dbm-style abstraction layer
• dBase
• Frontbase
• Informix
• Ingres II
• Interbase
• mSQL
29. BBuuiilltt--iinn FFuunnccttiioonnss
• What comes In the box?
– Database Functions (cont.)
• MySQL
• Oracle
• PostgreSQL
• SQL Server
– MING
• Macromedia Flash
– PDF
• Create/manipulate PDF files dynamically
30. BBuuiilltt--iinn FFuunnccttiioonnss
• What comes In the box?
– POSIX Functions
• Manipulate process information
– Regular Expression Functions
• Uses POSIX regex
– Semaphore and Socket Functions
• Available only on Unix
– Session Management Functions
31. PPHHPP oonn LLiinnuuxx aanndd
WWiinnddoowwss
• Code Portability
– The obvious: don’t use Unix or Windows
specific functions
– Create a reusable module for file system
differences, for example:
– if( PHP_OS == "Linux" )
{
$ConfigPath = "/var/www/conf";
$DataPath = "/var/www/data";
}
33. TTrriicckkss aanndd TTiippss
• Coding
– Prototype your web pages first
• Separate the design of the site from the coding
– Turn repetitive code into functions
• Makes for more maintainable and reusable
code
– Turn grunt code into functions
• Database access, configuration file access
34. TTrriicckkss aanndd TTiippss
• Debugging
– Feature: PHP is not a strongly typed
language
• Variables can be created anywhere in your
code
– Undocumented Feature: PHP is not a
strongly typed language
• Typos in variable names will cause stuff to
happen
35. TTrriicckkss aanndd TTiippss
• Debugging
– Use scripts to dump form and session
variables
• Write scripts to dump data to discover bad or
missing data
36. TTrriicckkss aanndd TTiippss
• Development Tools
– Color coding editors
• vim, Emacs, Visual SlickEdit
– IDEs
• Windows
– Macromedia Dreamweaver
– Allaire Homesite
– Zend’s PHPEdit
• Linux
– ???
37. PPHHPP 55
• Release Date
– ???
• Features
– Complete objects
• Objects with constructors
• Abstract classes
• Private, protected and abstract functions
• Private, protected and constant variables
• Namespaces
• Exception handling with try/catch blocks