The Joy of PHP: A Beginner's Guide to Programming Interactive Web Applications with PHP and mySQL

Table of Contents....2 Introduction....8 Introduction....8 What is PHP?....10 Introducing PHP....11 Example....11 A little history....13 Installing and Configuring PHP....14 Introduction....14 Windows Users....14 Using Wampserver....14 Mac Users....15 How Do I Know it is Working?....15 Oracle VM Virtual Box....17 Installing for a Web Site....17 Exercise....17 Introduction to HTML....18 Introduction....18 Basic HTML....18 Basic Elements of HTML....19 Tags....19 Nested Tags....19 Required tags....20 DocType....20 Head....20 Optional Tags....20 Meta Tags....20 Useful Tags....21 Headers....21 DIV....21 Images/Picture....21 Links....21 Lists....22 Exercise....22 HTML Tables....22 HTML Table Headers....23 HTML Forms....24 The Input tag....25 HTML Form Actions & Methods....26 Introduction - Basic PHP Syntax....28 Your first PHP-enabled page – Hello World!....28 Some Fun Right Away....30 A Countdown Counter....30 Exercise....32 Editors and Staying Organized....33 Editors....33 Microsoft Expression Web....33 PhpDesigner....33 EditRocket....34 Free Editors....34 Includes....34 Basic example....35 HTML example....35 Code example....36 Best Practices....36 Variables, Numbers, Dates, and Strings....38 Variables....38 Variable Naming Conventions and Best Practices....40 Numbers....40 Basic Arithmetic....40 Common Arithmetic Shortcuts....41 Useful Numeric Functions....41 Strings....41 Useful String Functions....41 Sources of Documentation....42 Exercise....42 How to Interpret PHP.NET documentation....42 Return Value....43 Function Name....43 Parameters....43 Dates....44 Example: Calculating Age in Years....46 Variable Scope....46 Control Structures....47 Introduction....47 if....47 if... else....48 Exercise: Open Hours....48 PHP Switch....49 PHP Looping....49 PHP while....49 PHP for....50 How to use a database, such as mySQL....52 Introduction....52 What are Databases?....52 Getting Started with phpMyAdmin....53 What is phpMyAdmin?....54 Using phpMyAdmin to create a database....54 Introduction to SQL....55 Using phpMyAdmin to create a Table in a database....55 Defining our first table....56 What defines an automobile?....57 Datatypes....57 Numbers....57 Characters....58 Dates....58 Exercise: Create a Table....60 Working with SQL Statements....61 INSERT Statements....61 SELECT Statements....63 WHERE Statements....64 Comparison Operators....65 ORDER BY....66 UPDATE Statements....67 DELETE Statements....67 Using mySQL and PHP Together....69 Introduction....69 Code!....69 Code Listing: createdb.php....69 Code Explained: createdb.php....72 Hey, where's the HTML?....76 Creating forms to Display, Add, Edit, and Delete data....77 Introduction....77 Forms that Add Data to a Database....77 A Basic Form....77 HTML Code....77 Form Action....78 PHP Code....78 A Brief Time Out...include files and SQL Injection....84 Include Files....84 SQL Injection....85 Forms that Display Summary Data....86 Code....87 Code Explained....89 Exercise: Tweaking the SELECT....91 Improving the look of the table with CSS....92 CSS Explained....93 Modifying the form to link to the detail page....94 Forms that Display Detail Data....95 Code....96 Code Explained....97 Forms that Edit Data....99 Forms that Delete Data....99 Code to delete data....99 Code Explained....100 Exercise....101 Session Variables....102 Introduction....102 Sessions....102 Starting a PHP Session....103 Using Session Variables....103 Store a variable....103 Retrieve a variable....104 Checking for a variable....104 Destroying a Session....104 Working with Images....106 Introduction....106 Exercise: Viewing Images....108 Pulling an unknown number of images from a database....108 Exercise: Create a Database Table to store images....109 Exercise: Modify the viewcar.php page to show multiple images....109 Code explained....110 PHP File Uploads....111 Introduction....111 Create an Upload File form....111 Create a Script to Process the Uploaded File....112 Code: ViewCarsAddImage.php....112 Code Explained....115 PHP Quirks and Tips....119 Introduction....119 Single Quotes vs Double Quotes....119 The Equal Sign....119 Comparison Operators....121 Security Considerations....123 Introduction....123 Balancing Security and Usability....123 SQL Injection....124 Additional Resources....125 Appendix A: Installing PHP on a Website....126 How to install on a Windows Server....126 How to install on a Linux Server....126 Author's Note....127 A Note from one of my Kickstarter Backers........128 - Pasha Kagan, soon-to-be PHP Developer....128