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CS8651 - Ip - Unit - Iv - 1 - Introduction To PHP

This document provides an introduction to PHP and XML. It discusses PHP variables, program control structures, built-in functions, form validation, regular expressions, file handling, cookies, and connecting to databases. It also covers basic XML concepts like document type definition, XML schema, DOM, presenting XML, XML parsers and validation, XSL and XSLT transformation, and news feeds.

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62 views8 pages

CS8651 - Ip - Unit - Iv - 1 - Introduction To PHP

This document provides an introduction to PHP and XML. It discusses PHP variables, program control structures, built-in functions, form validation, regular expressions, file handling, cookies, and connecting to databases. It also covers basic XML concepts like document type definition, XML schema, DOM, presenting XML, XML parsers and validation, XSL and XSLT transformation, and news feeds.

Uploaded by

Durai samy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CS8651_IP_UNIT IV PHP and XML

An introduction to PHP: PHP- Using PHP- Variables- Program control-


Built-in functions- Form Validation- Regular Expressions – File handling –
Cookies – Connecting to Database.

XML: Basic XML- Document Type Definition- XML Schema DOM and
Presenting XML, XML Parsers and Validation, XSL and XSLT
Transformation, News Feed (RSS and ATOM).

1. An introduction to PHP: PHP- Using PHP

PHP started out as a small open source project that evolved as more and more people found out
how useful it was. Rasmus Lerdorf unleashed the first version of PHP way back in 1994.

 PHP is a recursive acronym for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor".

 PHP is a server side scripting language that is embedded in HTML. It is used to manage
dynamic content, databases, session tracking, even build entire e-commerce sites.

 It is integrated with a number of popular databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL,


Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and Microsoft SQL Server.

 PHP is pleasingly zippy in its execution, especially when compiled as an Apache module
on the Unix side. The MySQL server, once started, executes even very complex queries
with huge result sets in record-setting time.

 PHP supports a large number of major protocols such as POP3, IMAP, and LDAP. PHP4
added support for Java and distributed object architectures (COM and CORBA), making
n-tier development a possibility for the first time.

 PHP is forgiving: PHP language tries to be as forgiving as possible.

 PHP Syntax is C-Like.


Common uses of PHP

 PHP performs system functions, i.e. from files on a system it can create, open, read,
write, and close them.

 PHP can handle forms, i.e. gather data from files, save data to a file, through email you
can send data, return data to the user.

 You add, delete, modify elements within your database through PHP.

 Access cookies variables and set cookies.

 Using PHP, you can restrict users to access some pages of your website.

 It can encrypt data.

Characteristics of PHP

Five important characteristics make PHP's practical nature possible −

 Simplicity

 Efficiency

 Security

 Flexibility

 Familiarity

"Hello World" Script in PHP

To get a feel for PHP, first start with simple PHP scripts. Since "Hello, World!" is an essential
example, first we will create a friendly little "Hello, World!" script.

As mentioned earlier, PHP is embedded in HTML. That means that in amongst your normal
HTML (or XHTML if you're cutting-edge) you'll have PHP statements like this −

<html>

<head>
<title>Hello World</title>
</head>

<body>
<?php echo "Hello, World!";?>
</body>

</html>

It will produce following result −

Hello, World!

If you examine the HTML output of the above example, you'll notice that the PHP code is not
present in the file sent from the server to your Web browser. All of the PHP present in the Web
page is processed and stripped from the page; the only thing returned to the client from the Web
server is pure HTML output.

All PHP code must be included inside one of the three special markup tags ATE are recognised
by the PHP Parser.

<?php PHP code goes here ?>

<? PHP code goes here ?>

<script language = "php"> PHP code goes here </script>

A most common tag is the <?php...?> and we will also use the same tag in our tutorial.

From the next chapter we will start with PHP Environment Setup on your machine and then we
will dig out almost all concepts related to PHP to make you comfortable with the PHP language.
PHP - Syntax Overview

Escaping to PHP

The PHP parsing engine needs a way to differentiate PHP code from other elements in the page.
The mechanism for doing so is known as 'escaping to PHP'. There are four ways to do this −

Canonical PHP tags

The most universally effective PHP tag style is −

<?php...?>

If you use this style, you can be positive that your tags will always be correctly interpreted.

Short-open (SGML-style) tags

Short or short-open tags look like this −

<?...?>

Short tags are, as one might expect, the shortest option You must do one of two things to enable
PHP to recognize the tags −

 Choose the --enable-short-tags configuration option when you're building PHP.

 Set the short_open_tag setting in your php.ini file to on. This option must be disabled to
parse XML with PHP because the same syntax is used for XML tags.

ASP-style tags

ASP-style tags mimic the tags used by Active Server Pages to delineate code blocks. ASP-style
tags look like this −

<%...%>

To use ASP-style tags, you will need to set the configuration option in your php.ini file.

HTML script tags


HTML script tags look like this −

<script language = "PHP">...</script>

Commenting PHP Code

A comment is the portion of a program that exists only for the human reader and stripped out
before displaying the programs result. There are two commenting formats in PHP −

Single-line comments − They are generally used for short explanations or notes relevant to the
local code. Here are the examples of single line comments.

<?
# This is a comment, and
# This is the second line of the comment

// This is a comment too. Each style comments only


print "An example with single line comments";
?>

Multi-lines printing − Here are the examples to print multiple lines in a single print statement
−

<?
# First Example
print <<<END
This uses the "here document" syntax to output
multiple lines with $variable interpolation. Note
that the here document terminator must appear on a
line with just a semicolon no extra whitespace!
END;

# Second Example
print "This spans
multiple lines. The newlines will be
output as well";
?>

Multi-lines comments − They are generally used to provide pseudocode algorithms and more
detailed explanations when necessary. The multiline style of commenting is the same as in C.
Here are the example of multi lines comments.

<?
/* This is a comment with multiline
Author : Mohammad Mohtashim
Purpose: Multiline Comments Demo
Subject: PHP
*/

print "An example with multi line comments";


?>

PHP is whitespace insensitive

Whitespace is the stuff you type that is typically invisible on the screen, including spaces, tabs,
and carriage returns (end-of-line characters).

PHP whitespace insensitive means that it almost never matters how many whitespace characters
you have in a row.one whitespace character is the same as many such characters.

For example, each of the following PHP statements that assigns the sum of 2 + 2 to the variable
$four is equivalent −

$four = 2 + 2; // single spaces


$four <tab>=<tab2<tab>+<tab>2 ; // spaces and tabs
$four =
2+
2; // multiple lines
PHP is case sensitive

Yeah it is true that PHP is a case sensitive language. Try out following example −

<html>
<body>

<?php
$capital = 67;
print("Variable capital is $capital<br>");
print("Variable CaPiTaL is $CaPiTaL<br>");
?>

</body>
</html>

This will produce the following result −

Variable capital is 67
Variable CaPiTaL is

Statements are expressions terminated by semicolons

A statement in PHP is any expression that is followed by a semicolon (;).Any sequence of valid
PHP statements that is enclosed by the PHP tags is a valid PHP program. Here is a typical
statement in PHP, which in this case assigns a string of characters to a variable called $greeting
−

$greeting = "Welcome to PHP!";

Expressions are combinations of tokens

The smallest building blocks of PHP are the indivisible tokens, such as numbers (3.14159),
strings (.two.), variables ($two), constants (TRUE), and the special words that make up the
syntax of PHP itself like if, else, while, for and so forth
Braces make blocks

Although statements cannot be combined like expressions, you can always put a sequence of
statements anywhere a statement can go by enclosing them in a set of curly braces.

Here both statements are equivalent −

if (3 == 2 + 1)
print("Good - I haven't totally lost my mind.<br>");

if (3 == 2 + 1) {
print("Good - I haven't totally");
print("lost my mind.<br>");
}

Running PHP Script from Command Prompt

Yes you can run your PHP script on your command prompt. Assuming you have following
content in test.php file

<?php
echo "Hello PHP!!!!!";
?>

Now run this script as command prompt as follows −

$ php test.php

It will produce the following result −

Hello PHP!!!!!

Hope now you have basic knowledge of PHP Syntax.

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