PHP: Introduction

Course Description:

PHP applications are popular, easy to code and can run on any server or operating system. PHP can be integrated directly within your HTML code and allows information to be accessed from any data source. This two day intensive course will introduce you to the fundamentals of PHP and show you how to build complete applications that include the use of cookies and sessions, creating functions and arrays to use in PHP code, sending email and processing forms using PHP.

This is a comprehensive and practical introduction to PHP. Feel free to tailor the following course outline to your exact requirements if you wish.

This course includes the following modules:

Introduction

• PHP and how it works
• Your first PHP page
• Different functions: Print, Echo and Print F

Variables and identifiers

• Working with Identifiers
• Variables, String, Number
• The ?¢‚Äöá®Ä∫here doc function
• The Math operators
• Using constants
• Concatenation
• Shorthand operators
• Using Expressions
• Using variables and variable scope

Conditional statements

• Control statements
• Logic and relational operators
• Using ?¢‚Äöá®Ä∫If, ?¢‚Äöá®Ä∫Else if and ?¢‚Äöá®Ä∫Else
• Switch operator
• Comparison operators
• Conditional operators

Loops

• Using the While loop
• Break statements
• Continue statements
• Using ?¢‚Äöá®Ä∫do...while, ?¢‚Äöá®Ä∫for, ?¢‚Äöá®Ä∫foreach

Functions

• Creating your own functions
• Calling a function
• Using arguments
• Return statements and static statements
• Scope of variables
• Optional arguments
• Dynamic, built-in and data functions

Arrays

• Array assignments
• Array functions

Form validation

• Validating mandatory information
• User friendly validation techniques
• Using the setcookie function
• Data functions
• String functions

Advanced forms

• Working with drop down menus
• Checkboxes and radio buttons
• Comparison functions
• Using Strcmp()
• Using Strcasesmp()

HTTP

• HTTP basics
• Headers
• Environment variables

Cookies

• Setting cookies
• Reading cookies
• Deleting cookies
• When to use cookies

Session variables

• Setting sessions
• Storing session variables
• Reading sessions
• Deleting sessions

Email function

• Creating auto-responder
• Using email to accept simple on-line orders

Built in functions

• Include()
• Require()
• Include_once()
• Require_once()

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• Overview of MySQL
• Overview of PHP and XML

Questions and answers