[...]... with PHP Chapter 1: Introducing PHP What Is PHP? Why Use PHP? The Evolution of PHP What’s New in PHP 5.3 Namespaces The goto Operator Nowdoc Syntax Shorthand Form of the Ternary Operator Advanced Changes Summary Chapter 2: Your First PHP Script Installing PHP Installing on Ubuntu Linux Installing on Windows Installing on Mac OS X Testing Your Installation Setting Your Time Zone Other Ways to Run PHP. .. introduces you to PHP You see how PHP compares to other Web programming languages, look at how PHP has evolved over the years, and briefly explore the new features in PHP version 5.3 xxviii Introduction Chapter 2 walks you through installing a copy of the PHP engine on Ubuntu Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X; looks at other ways you can install or use PHP; and shows you how to write a simple PHP script Chapter... Logic Automated Code Testing with PHPUnit Summary Exercises 619 620 621 622 623 625 625 630 631 632 633 641 642 643 644 644 646 647 647 648 651 652 660 666 671 672 Appendix A: Solutions to Exercises 673 Appendix B: Configuring PHP 719 Appendix C: Alternatives to MySQL 757 Appendix D: Using PHP from the Command Line 765 Index 775 xxvi Introduction Welcome to Beginning PHP 5.3! This book teaches you how... Running with PHP, ” introduces PHP in more detail, and walks you through installing PHP and writing a simple PHP script Part II, “Learning the Language,” teaches you the fundamentals of the PHP language — essential reading for building PHP scripts Finally, Part III, “Using PHP in Practice,” shows you how to create real-world PHP applications, covering a wide range of concepts and including lots of useful... Run PHP Running PHP with other Web Servers Compiling PHP Yourself Running PHP Remotely Creating Your First Script Embedding PHP within HTML Enhancing the Script Further Using Comments to Make Code More Readable Summary Exercise 3 3 5 7 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 11 12 12 15 17 19 21 22 23 23 24 24 25 28 29 30 30 Contents Part II: Learning the Language Chapter 3: PHP Language Basics Using Variables in PHP Naming Variables... graphics with PHP ❑ The ins and outs of regular expressions ❑ How to read, write, and create XML documents with PHP ❑ Good programming practices, including coding standards, documentation, security issues, error handling, code separation, and code testing ❑ How to write PHP scripts that can run from the command line Also, as you'd imagine, this book covers the new features added to PHP in version 5.3 However,... Functions Creating a Member Record Viewer Creating the config .php File Creating the common.inc .php File Creating the DataObject Class File Building the Member Class Building the LogEntry Class Creating the view_members .php Script Creating the view_member .php Script Testing the Application Summary Exercises Chapter 14: Manipulating MySQL Data with PHP Inserting Records Updating Records Deleting Records Building... 191 192 196 198 199 200 204 209 209 210 212 213 215 217 218 Part III: Using PHP in Practice Chapter 9: Handling HTML Forms with PHP 221 How HTML Forms Work Capturing Form Data with PHP 222 230 Dealing Securely with Form Data Handling Empty Form Fields 234 234 Dealing with Multi-Value Fields Generating Web Forms with PHP Storing PHP Variables in Forms Creating File Upload Forms 236 242 249 257 xix Contents... scripts Although this book covers PHP 5.3, the production version available at the time of writing was 5.2 Therefore some sections of the book — particularly Chapter 2 — contain references to version 5.2 However, as long as you install a version of PHP greater than 5.1 — whether that’s 5.2, 5.3, or later — you’ll be fine You’ll need a text editor to create and edit your PHP scripts, and many decent free... Chapter 9 shows you how to use PHP to create interactive Web forms You learn how to create HTML forms, how to capture form data in PHP, and how to use PHP to generate dynamic forms You also explore file upload forms and page redirection Chapter 10 looks at how to preserve an application’s state between page views You explore three different strategies: query strings, cookies, and PHP sessions The chapter . Language Chapter 3: PHP Language Basics 33 Using Variables in PHP 33 Naming Variables 34 Creating Variables 34 Understanding Data Types 35 About Loose Typing 36 Testing. Getting Up and Running with PHP Chapter 1: Introducing PHP 3 What Is PHP? 3 Why Use PHP? 5 The Evolution of PHP 7 What’s New in PHP 5. 3 7 Namespaces 7 The goto