PHP Programming

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PHP Programming Training Materials

IMPORTANT NOTE for trainers only: 
Please DO NOT change these materials, especially the EXERCISES, without direct permission from: LUKASZ SOKOLOWSKI.

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Intro

PHP

• general-purpose scripting language
• especially suited to web development
• fast, flexible and pragmatic
• powers everything from simple blog to the corporate organisations

Intro con't

PHP - recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor

• widely-used open source language
• can be embedded into HTML
• code is executed on the server, generating HTML which is then sent to the client
• extremely simple, yet offers many advanced features

PHP can

• collect form data
• generate dynamic page content
• send and receive cookies
• so in general - server-side scripting
  • whats needed? - the PHP parser (CGI or server module), a web server, and a web browser
• be used on all major operating systems
• support most of the web servers (Apache, IIS, lighttpd, nginx, etc)
• support talking to other services - LDAP, IMAP, SNMP, NNTP, POP3, HTTP, COM (on Windows)
• work as either a module, or as a CGI processor
• do procedural programming or object-oriented programming (OOP), or a mixture of them both

PHP can con't

• also do command line scripting
  • run without any server or browser - only the PHP parser is needed
  • ideal for scripts regularly executed using cron (on Unix or macOS) or Task Scheduler (on Windows)
• so ie. do simple/stronger text processing tasks - Perl regexps (PCRE), etc
• output HTML, images, PDF, encrypted data, emails, JSON, XML (libxml2, SimpleXML, XMLReader, XMLWriter; XDebug)
  • auto generate these files, and save them in the file system, instead of printing it out, forming a server-side cache for dynamic content
• support a wide range of databases
  • via db specific ext, or abstraction layers (like PDO), or ODBC, cURL, sockets (CouchDB)
• support the WDDX complex data exchange
• instantiate Java objects and use them transparently as own objects

Data Structures (refresher only)

• Associative arrays
• Session variables, global variables, cookies
• Date
• File and File Upload
• Cookies and Sessions
• E-mail
• Error Handling
• Exceptions Handling
• PHP Filter
• Helpers
  • https://phpcheatsheets.com/
  • https://phptherightway.com/pages/The-Basics.html

Examples and exercises

• localhost/phpWay

PHP XML

• SimpleXML
• Expat Parser - event-based
  • https://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.xml.php
• XML DOM
• XML Reader
  • https://www.php.net/XMLReader
  • iterators helper - https://github.com/hakre/XMLReaderIterator

Examples and exercises

• localhost/ws_

Using Databases

• Methods of data storing
• PDO extension
• Connecting to a database using PDO
• Operations on data
• Error Handling PDO
• Transactions
• Primary keys
• Joins
• Aggregate functions and grouping
• connect to the database
• storing passwords
• executing queries
• processing data
• modifying and removing data
• binding form to records in the database
• Helpers
  • https://phptherightway.com/#databases

Examples and exercises

• localhost/phpWay
• localhost/ws_
• localhost/wordpress

Programming interfaces

• Architecture services
• Adding to the system API
• The data format JSON and XML
• RESTful Services
• Designing Web Service

Examples and exercises

• WebServices
• localhost/ws_

Object-Oriented Programming

• Terminology Object
• Declaring classes and constructors
• Creating and Using Objects
• Properties and methods
• Inheritance
• Access modifiers
• Magic methods
• Declaring and using interfaces
• exception Handling
• Helpers
  • https://phptherightway.com/#programming_paradigms

Examples and exercises

• localhost/ws_
• localhost/wordpress

Dealing with Images

• GD Library and alternatives
  • GD - https://www.php.net/manual/en/book.image.php
  • ImageMagick - https://www.php.net/manual/en/book.imagick.php
  • Gmagic - https://www.php.net/manual/en/book.gmagick.php
• Exif - image meta data only
  • https://www.php.net/manual/en/book.exif.php

Examples and Exercises

• localhost/mw - enable GD and check how mw uses Image thumbnailing

Design Patterns, PSRs

• What are design patterns
• Singleton Pattern
• Factory Pattern
• MVC model-view-controller
• Helpers
  • https://www.php-fig.org/psr/
  • https://phptherightway.com/#design_patterns

Examples and exercises

• localhost/ws_
• localhost/wordpress

Efficiency

• Research applications performance
• Code cache
  • built-in opcache (since ver 5)
  • APCu, Memcached, Redis, WinCache
• Helpers
  • https://phptherightway.com/#opcode_cache

Examples and exercises

• localhost/wm - install wm and enable APCu

Safety

• Filtering input
• Session fixation
• Session hijacking
• SQL injection
• Storing passwords
• SSL

Security

• authorization and authentication
• using cookies and sessions
• OAUTH - https://oauth.net/2/
  • openid - https://openid.net/developers/how-connect-works/
• JWT - https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7519
  • Demo - https://jwt.io/
  • Popular lib - https://github.com/firebase/php-jwt

Stacks and Frameworks - lamp, wamp, etc

• wordpress
  • https://developer.wordpress.org/advanced-administration/before-install/development/
• drupal
  • https://www.drupal.org/docs/official_docs/local-development-guide
• symfony
  • https://symfony.com/doc/current/setup.html
• Laravel: A PHP framework known for its clean architecture and robust features, including database agnostic migrations, ORM, routing, and authentication tools.
  • https://laravel.com/docs/12.x#installing-php
• Zend Framework: An open-source framework for developing web applications and services using PHP.
  • https://docs.laminas.dev/laminas-mvc/

wp

• wp-env
  • https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-env/
• ddev
  • https://ddev.readthedocs.io/en/stable/users/quickstart/#wordpress
• vvv
  • https://varyingvagrantvagrants.org/
• xampp
  • http://apachefriends.org/
• mamp
  • https://documentation.mamp.info/en/MAMP-Windows/index.html
• local
  • https://localwp.com/

wp con't

wp API refs

• https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/

mw

• Docs
  • Main https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Contents
  • Code https://doc.wikimedia.org/mediawiki-core/master/php/
• Stacks https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Software_bundles