6.

470  Web  Programming  Competition  

IAP  2013  
PHP  Workshop  
 
Prior  to  the  workshop  
 
In  general,  you  should  try  to  become  as  fluent  as  possible  in  reading  and  writing  
basic  PHP  code  before  the  workshop.  Try  to  also  understand  how  PHP  fits  into  the  
big  picture  via  the  explanations  below,  the  lectures  posted  on  the  6.470  website,  and  
tutorials  recommended  in  the  Materials  section.    
 
Don’t  worry  if  it  does  not  become  immediately  clear!  The  exercises  are  designed  to  
help  you  understand.  Bring  your  questions  to  the  workshop  or  office  hours;  I’ll  also  
be  doing  a  demo  at  the  beginning  of  the  workshop  to  hopefully  explain  some  things  
better.  
 
If  you  have  little  to  no  programming  experience…  
• Look  through  the  PHP  videos  and  accompanying  slides  on  the  6.470  website,  
or  follow  an  equivalent  tutorial  such  as  the  one  on  w3schools.    
• You’ll  want  to  master  the  basics  of  PHP  syntax  and  be  comfortable  with  the  
basic  features  of  the  language  such  as  loops,  arrays,  and  strings.  
• Time  permitting,  spend  some  time  on  the  web-­‐programming  specifics  of  PHP  
($_GET,  $_POST,  etc.)  (even  just  lecture  8  will  go  a  long  way)  
 
If  you  have  programming  experience  but  have  never  written  PHP  for  a  web  
application…  
• Look  through  the  slides  on  the  6.470  website  or  follow  an  equivalent  tutorial  
such  as  the  one  on  w3schools,  just  to  get  a  grasp  for  PHP’s  syntax  and  some  
of  its  quirks.  
• Arrays  in  PHP  can  be  confusing  at  first;  if  you’ve  never  encountered  them,  
lectures  6-­‐7  provide  a  fairly  in-­‐depth  treatment  of  PHP  arrays.  
• Focus  on  the  applications  of  PHP  to  server-­‐side  scripting  by  spending  most  of  
your  time  on  lectures  8-­‐10,  focusing  specifically  on  GET,  POST,  and  how  
forms  interact  with  PHP  scripts.  
 
If  you  have  experience  writing  PHP  for  a  web  application…  
• Try  your  hand  at  the  exercises!  If  you  have  trouble,  look  over  the  relevant  
lectures  or  head  to  Google  for  specific  problems.  
• Feel  free  to  bring  specific  questions  to  the  workshop,  even  if  they  are  not  
covered  in  lectures  or  exercises.  
 
 
   
A  (brief)  introduction  to  server-­‐side  scripting  
 
Recall  that  when  you  visit  a  website,  your  browser  sends  an  HTTP  request  to  the  
server  that  you  are  trying  to  visit.  The  HTTP  response  sent  from  this  server  is  what  
is  shown  in  your  browser.  Up  until  now,  your  websites  have  probably  been  
relatively  static;  every  visit  to  a  page  generated  the  same  result.  The  code  (HTML,  
CSS,  and  Javascript  that  controls  the  styling  and  behavior  of  a  page)  that  was  sent  to  
your  browser  by  the  server  was  the  same.  The  HTTP  request/response  looked  
something  like  this:  
 

 
 
Now,  we  will  look  at  server-­‐side  technologies.  The  biggest  difference  is  that,  with  
server-­‐side  technologies  such  as  PHP,  the  client-­‐side  code  (HTML,  Javascript,  etc.)  that  
your  browser  receives  is  different,  depending  on  the  situation.  This  dynamic  behavior  
is  due  to  logic  and  processing  on  the  server.    For  example:  
• A  restaurant  can  display  an  online  order  form  for  delivery  when  the  
restaurant  is  open,  and  a  “come  back  later”  message  when  closed.  
• A  social  network  can  display  different  information  about  a  user  depending  on  
whether  the  viewer  is  a  friend  or  not.  
• An  online  shopping  site  can  direct  users  that  are  not  logged  in  to  the  login  
page  before  checkout.  
 
Server-­‐side  processing  often  requires  input  data,  key-­‐value  pairs  sent  from  client  to  
server  in  GET  or  POST  requests.  In  addition,  the  server  may  access  stored  user  data  
in  the  form  of  cookies  or  session  variables.  (Don’t  worry  if  this  doesn’t  make  sense  
now;  it’ll  all  be  clear  after  you  go  through  the  Materials  and  references  section!)    
 
Furthermore,  server-­‐side  scripts  allow  us  to  access  databases,  which  are  
convenient  ways  to  store  data  used  by  websites.  The  server-­‐side  code  may  create,  
modify,  or  delete  data  in  these  databases.  Finally,  the  server  sends  back  client-­‐side  
code  (HTML/CSS/JS),  which  is  displayed  in  the  user’s  browser.    
 
 
With  server-­‐side  scripts  and  databases,  we  can  do  things  like:  
• Register  a  user’s  name,  password,  and  email.  When  the  user  logs  in,  check  
what  was  typed  against  the  username  and  password  in  the  database.  
• Someone  logs  into  their  online  shopping  account  to  buy  things  at  work.  Their  
cart  is  saved  as  part  of  their  account,  and  they  checkout  later  in  the  day  at  
home,  on  a  different  computer.  
• Keep  track  of  your  friends’  interests  and  activity  on  a  site.  Recommend  you  
visit  links  based  on  you  and  your  friends’  activity.  
 

 
 
 
What  you’ll  learn  
 
• PHP  syntax  –  variables,  loops,  functions,  arrays,  all  that  boring  stuff  
• How  to  dynamically  generate  a  response  to  an  HTTP  request  
• How  to  extract  data  from  a  submitted  form  
• How  to  use  cookies  and  session  variables  to  store  user  state  
• How  to  read  from  and  write  to  a  MySQL  database  
 
 
Materials  and  references  
 
6.470  video  lectures  and  accompanying  slides!  These  are  lectures  recorded  for  IAP  
2012  that  present  all  of  the  basics  of  PHP  and  guide  you  through  making  a  basic  
backend,  culminating  in  a  (very  simple)  login  system.  
• http://6.470.scripts.mit.edu/2013/course/php  
 
If  you’d  rather  read  something  with  more  guidance  than  the  slides,  the  w3schools  
PHP  tutorial  covers  much  of  the  same  material.  It  covers  in  greater  detail  how  to  use  
PHP  with  AJAX  and  also  has  some  other  function  references.  
• http://w3schools.com/php/  
 
The  PHP  manual  is  a  go-­‐to  resource  for  looking  up  a  specific  function.  It  contains  a  
lot  of  specifics  and  examples,  but  probably  isn’t  the  best  place  to  start  learning  the  
“big  picture”.  
• http://php.net/manual/en/funcref.php  
• Array  functions:  http://php.net/manual/en/ref.array.php  
• Sessions:  http://php.net/manual/en/book.session.php  
• String  functions:  http://php.net/manual/en/ref.strings.php  
• Math  functions:  http://php.net/manual/en/ref.math.php  
• JSON  functions:  http://php.net/manual/en/ref.json.php  
• URL  functions:  http://php.net/manual/en/ref.url.php  
 
net.tuts+  has  a  number  of  “tutorials”  (more  like  articles),  each  tackling  a  specific  
problem.  These  are  more  geared  towards  more  advanced  coders  who  want  to  add  a  
specific  feature,  but  some  are  also  a  good  read  to  get  a  general  idea  of  some  of  the  
more  advanced  concepts.  
• http://net.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/php/  
• In  particular:  http://net.tutsplus.com/articles/web-­‐roundups/40-­‐
invaluable-­‐php-­‐tutorials-­‐and-­‐resources/  contains  a  number  of  resources  on  
both  OOP  in  PHP  and  basics  of  back-­‐end  security    
 
 
Exercises  
 
After  becoming  familiar  with  the  syntax  and  basic  functions  of  PHP,  the  most  
important  thing  is  to  know  how  all  of  the  pieces  fit  together.  The  interactions  
between  forms  (an  HTML  element),  its  contents  ($GET  or  $POST  elements),  the  
database,  and  the  response  can  be  confusing  at  first.  
 
The  PHP  exercises  posted  on  the  6.470  website  start  off  with  a  few  quick  functions,  
designed  to  get  you  familiarized  with  the  syntax  of  PHP  and  a  few  string  functions.  
The  last  two  problems  are  much  longer,  and  involve  the  creation  of  a  basic  
login/registration/password  recovery  system,  thus  tying  together  all  of  the  
fundamentals  that  were  presented  in  the  slides  and  tutorials.