1 Server side basics

CS380
 URLs and web servers
2

http://server/path/file

Usually when you type a URL in your browser:

Your computer looks up the server's IP address
using DNS

Your browser connects to that IP address and
requests the given file

The web server software (e.g. Apache) grabs that
file from the server's local file system

The server sends back its contents to you

CS380
 URLs and web servers (cont.)
3

Apache,
Websphere
SW(Java Servlets,
XML Files)

Web/Application Server Database

 URLs and web servers (cont.)
4

http://www.facebook.com/home.ph
p

Some URLs actually specify programs that the

web server should run, and then send their

output back to you as the result:

The above URL tells the server facebook.com to
run the program home.php and send back its
output

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 Server-Side web programming
5

Server-side pages are programs written using

one of many web programming
languages/frameworks

examples: PHP, Java/JSP, Ruby on Rails,
ASP.NET, Python, Perl

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 Server-Side web programming
6
(cont.)

Also called server side scripting:

Dynamically edit, change or add any content to a
Web page

Respond to user queries or data submitted from
HTML forms

Access any data or databases and return the
results to a browser

Customize a Web page to make it more useful for
individual users

Provide security since your server code cannot be
viewed from a browser
 Server-Side web programming
7
(cont.)

Web server:

contains software that allows it to run server side
programs

sends back their output as responses to web
requests

Each language/framework has its pros and
cons

we use PHP

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 What is PHP?
8

PHP stands for "PHP Hypertext Preprocessor"

Server-side scripting language

Used to make web pages dynamic:

provide different content depending on context

interface with other services: database, e-mail,
etc.

authenticate users

process form information

PHP code can be embedded

in XHTML code
CS380
 Lifecycle of a PHP web request
9

Hello.php
Hello world!

User’s computer Server computer

 Why PHP?
10

Free and open source

Compatible

as of November 2006, there were more than 19
million websites (domain names) using PHP.

Simple

CS380
 Hello World!
11

<?php
print "Hello, world!";
?>
PHP
Hello world!
output

CS380
 Viewing PHP output
12

Hello world!
13 PHP Basic Syntax

CS380
 PHP syntax template
14

HTML content
<?php
PHP code
?>
HTML content
<?php
PHP code
?>
HTML content ... PHP

Contents of a .php file between <?php and ?> are

executed as PHP code

All other contents are output as pure HTML

We can switch back and forth between HTML and PHP
"modes"
 Console output: print
15

print "text";

PHP
print "Hello, World!\n";
print "Escape \"chars\" are the SAME as in Java!\n";
print "You can have
line breaks in a string.";
print 'A string can use "single-quotes". It\'s cool!';

PHP
Hello world! Escape "chars" are the SAME as in Java! You can have line
breaks in a string. A string can use "single-quotes". It's cool!
output

CS380
 Variables
16

$name = expression;
PHP
$user_name = “mundruid78";
$age = 16;
$drinking_age = $age + 5;
$this_class_rocks = TRUE;
PHP

names are case sensitive

names always begin with $, on both
declaration and usage

always implicitly declared by assignment (type
is not written)

a loosely typed language (like JavaScript or
Python)
 Variables
17

basic types: int, float, boolean, string, array,

object, NULL

test type of variable with is_type functions, e.g.
is_string

gettype function returns a variable's type as a
string

PHP converts between types automatically in
many cases:

string → int auto-conversion on +

int → float auto-conversion on /

type-cast with (type):

 Arithmetic operators
18

+ - * / % . ++ --

= += -= *= /= %= .=

many operators auto-convert types: 5 + "7" is
12

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 Comments
19

# single-line comment
// single-line comment
/*
multi-line comment
*/
PHP

like Java, but # is also allowed

a lot of PHP code uses # comments instead of //

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 String Type
20

$favorite_food = "Ethiopian";
print $favorite_food[2];
$favorite_food = $favorite_food . " cuisine";
print $favorite_food;

PHP

zero-based indexing using bracket notation

there is no char type; each letter is itself a String

string concatenation operator is . (period), not +

5 + "2 turtle doves" === 7

5 . "2 turtle doves" === "52 turtle doves"

can be specified with "" or ''
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 String Functions
21

# index 0123456789012345
$name = "Stefanie Hatcher";
$length = strlen($name);
$cmp = strcmp($name, "Brian Le");
$index = strpos($name, "e");
$first = substr($name, 9, 5);
$name = strtoupper($name);

PHP

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 String Functions (cont.)
22

CS380
 Interpreted Strings
23

$age = 16;
print "You are " . $age . " years old.\n";
print "You are $age years old.\n"; # You are 16 years old.
PHP

strings inside " " are interpreted

variables that appear inside them will have their
values inserted into the string

strings inside ' ' are not interpreted:
print ' You are $age years old.\n '; # You are $age years
old. \n PHP

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 Interpreted Strings (cont.)
24

print "Today is your $ageth birthday.\n"; # $ageth not

found
print "Today is your {$age}th birthday.\n";

PHP

if necessary to avoid ambiguity, can enclose
variable in {}

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 Interpreted Strings (cont.)
25

$name = “Xenia";
$name = NULL;
if (isset($name)) {
print "This line isn't going to be reached.\n";
} PHP

a variable is NULL if

it has not been set to any value (undefined
variables)

it has been assigned the constant NULL

it has been deleted using the unset function

can test if a variable is NULL using the isset

function
CS380

NULL prints as an empty string (no output)
 for loop (same as Java)
26

for (initialization; condition; update) {

statements;
}
PHP

for ($i = 0; $i < 10; $i++) {

print "$i squared is " . $i * $i . ".\n";
}
PHP

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 bool (Boolean) type
27

$feels_like_summer = FALSE;
$php_is_great = TRUE;
$student_count = 7;
$nonzero = (bool) $student_count; # TRUE

PHP

the following values are considered to be
FALSE (all others are TRUE):

0 and 0.0 (but NOT 0.00 or 0.000)

"", "0", and NULL (includes unset variables)

arrays with 0 elements

FALSE prints as an empty string (no output);

TRUE prints as a 1
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 if/else statement
28

if (condition) {
statements;
} elseif (condition) {
statements;
} else {
statements;
}
PHP

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 while loop (same as Java)
29

while (condition) {
statements;
} PHP

do {
statements;
} while (condition);

PHP

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 Math operations
30

$a = 3;
$b = 4;
$c = sqrt(pow($a, 2) + pow($b, 2));
PHP

math functions

math constants

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 Int and Float Types
31

$a = 7 / 2; # float: 3.5
$b = (int) $a; # int: 3
$c = round($a); # float: 4.0
$d = "123"; # string: "123"
$e = (int) $d; # int: 123 PHP

int for integers and float for reals

division between two int values can produce a float

CS380
 PHP exercise 1
32

For your first PHP exercise, echo the following

statement to the browser:
“Twinkle, Twinkle little star.”

Next, create two variables, one for the word

“Twinkle” and one for the word “star”. Echo the

statement to the browser, this time substituting
the variables for the relevant words. Change
the value of each variable to whatever you like,
and echo the statement a third time.
Remember to include code to show your
statements on different lines.
CS380
 PHP exercise 2
33

PHP includes all the standard arithmetic operators. For this PHP
exercise, you will use them along with variables to print equations to
the browser. In your script, create the following variables:
$x=10;
$y=7;

Write code to print out the following:
10 + 7 = 17
10 - 7 = 3
10 * 7 = 70
10 / 7 = 1.4285714285714
10 % 7 = 3

Use numbers only in the above variable assignments, not in the
echo statements.

CS380
 PHP exercise 3
34

Arithmetic-assignment operators perform an arithmetic operation on

the variable at the same time as assigning a new value. For this
PHP exercise, write a script to reproduce the output below.
Manipulate only one variable using no simple arithmetic operators
to produce the values given in the statements.

Hint: In the script each statement ends with "Value is now
$variable."
Value is now 8.
Add 2. Value is now 10.
Subtract 4. Value is now 6.
Multiply by 5. Value is now 30.
Divide by 3. Value is now 10.
Increment value by one. Value is now 11.
Decrement value by one. Value is now 10.
CS380
 PHP exercise 4
35

When you are writing scripts, you will often need

to see exactly what is inside your variables. For
this PHP exercise, think of the ways you can do
that, then write a script that outputs the
following, using the echo statement only for line
breaks.
string(5) "Harry"
Harry
int(28)
NULL
CS380
 PHP exercise 5
36

For this PHP exercise, write a script using the

following variable:
$around="around";

Single quotes and double quotes don't work the
same way in PHP. Using single quotes (' ') and
the concatenation operator, echo the following
to the browser, using the variable you created:
What goes around, comes around.

CS380
 PHP exercise 5
37

In this PHP exercise, you will use a conditional

statement to determine what gets printed to the
browser. Write a script that gets the current
month and prints one of the following
responses, depending on whether it's August or
not:
It's August, so it's really hot.
Not August, so at least not in the peak of the
heat.

Hint: the function to get the current month
is 'date('F', time())' for the month's full name.
CS380
 PHP exercise 6
38

Loops are very useful in creating lists and

tables. In this PHP exercise, you will use a loop
to create a list of equations for squares.

Using a for loop, write a script that will send to
the browser a list of squares for the numbers 1-
12.
Use the format, "1 * 1 = 1", and be sure to
include code to print each formula on a different
line.

CS380
 PHP exercise 7
39

HTML tables involve a lot of repetitive coding - a perfect

place to use for loops. You can do even more if you nest
the for loops.

In this PHP exercise, use two for loops, one nested
inside another. Create the following multiplication table:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
2 4 6 8 10 12 14
3 6 9 12 15 18 21
4 8 12 16 20 24 28
5 10 15 20 25 30 35
6 12 18 24 30 36 42
7 14 21 28 35 42 49
CS380