Module 1
Introduction to PHP
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PHP References
 General:

Download, documentation
http://www.php.net/
 Documentation:
manual
http://www.php.net/manual/en/
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/index.php

 PHP.net

tutorial
http://php.net/manual/en/tutorial.php
 W3schools
tutorial
http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp
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PHP functions
 Documented

PHP functions
http://us2.php.net/quickref.php
 You
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can create your own functions too
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Objectives
 What
is PHP?
 How does a PHP script work with a
Web Browser and a Web Server?
 What software and components you
need to get started with PHP?
 To
create and run a simple PHP script
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What Is PHP?
 PHP,

PHP Hypertext Preprocessor
Server-side scripting languages for creating
dynamic web pages
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PHP advantages
Advantages of Using PHP to enhance Web
pages:

Easy to use

Simpler than Perl


Open source
Multiple platform.
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How PHP Pages are Accessed
and Interpreted
Client: Web browser
Web server
1.Form submitted with a submit button
2.-----
Action sends a request to the php file in server
3. Receive the request, find the file,
and read it
4. Execute the PHP commands
5. Send the results back
6. ---- results returned as HTML file
7. Web browser renders the HTML file, displaying the results
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Getting Started with PHP
To develop and publish PHP scripts you need:

A client machine with a basic text editor and
Internet connection
• Prepare a text file with .php extension

FTP or Telnet software
• Upload the file.php to the server

A Web server with PHP built into it
• Process the file.php
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WHH Note
 This
means that a browser e.g. IE or
Firefox on the client computer will not
recognize or render a file with extension
.php
 How do you check your PHP script before
submission to server?
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Getting Started with PHP
Set up development computer as a server

Laptop contains a server and a browser environment

Laptop is also set up as a Web server - WAMPserver
• Windows Apache, MySQL, PHP

Client machine: PC, XP, editors, browsers

Internet connection not needed

Use copy and paste to transfer the scripts
 For

class demos:
localhost or 127.0.0.1 or cs346 server
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Exploring the Basic PHP
Development Process
The basic steps you can use to develop and
publish PHP pages are:
1. Create a PHP script file and save it to a local disk
• Test on localhost until satisfied
2. Use FTP to copy the file to the server
3. Access your file via URL on server using a
browser
• IE, Netscape, Opera, etc.
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Check PHP installation
 Create
a simple PHP script, called
phpinfo.php


The PHP script starts with a <?php tag and
ends with ?>
Between these tags is a single PHP
statement: phpinfo();
 Copy

the file to a directory of local server
For WAMP: wamp/www
 Access
the file with a browser
 http://localhost/checkphp.php
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Checking the server set up
 Upload




the phpinfo.php to cs346 server
E.g. to huen/m00
Click on the link
http://cs346.cs.uwosh.edu/huen/m00/phpinfo.php
Check the various environments:




Apache
MySQL
PHP functions
variables
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Creating a PHP Script File
 Create


PHP script welcome.php
Starts with a <?php tag and ends with ?>
Between these tags is a single PHP print
statement
 Copy
the file to C:\wamp\www
 Access the file with
http://127.0.0.1/welcome.php
 Demo on localhost
 Demo on cs346 server
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Similarly for other PHP scripts
 Upload
welcome.php to huen/m00
 Click on

http://cs346.cs.uwosh.edu/huen/m00/welcome.php
<?PHP
/* welcome.php */
print ("<h1 style=\"color: blue;\">Welcome to PHP, CS346 class!</h1>");
/* Note the combination of html tags and css */
?>
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Note the effect of CSS
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Alternative PHP Delimiters
 You
can alternatively start your PHP scripts
with the <script> tag as follows:
<script language="PHP">
print ("A simple initial script");
</script>
 If short_open_tag
enabled in its configuration
file (php.ini), you can use <? and ?>.
 If asp_tags is enabled in the PHP
configuration file, you can use <% and %>
as delimiters.
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Proper Syntax
 If
you have a syntax error then you have
written one or more PHP statements that are
grammatically incorrect in the PHP language.
 The print statement syntax:
Enclose message
in quotation
marks
End in a
semi-colon
print ( "Your message to print" );
Message to Output
Parenthesis are
optional
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If syntax is wrong
<?php
print ( "Welcome to PHP, CS346 class!);
?>
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A Little About PHP's Syntax
 Some

PHP Syntax Issues:
Be careful to use quotation marks, parentheses, and
brackets in pairs.

Most PHP commands end with a semicolon (;).
Be careful of case.

PHP ignores blank spaces.

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Embedding PHP Statements Within
HTML Documents
 One
way to use PHP is to embed PHP scripts
within HTML tags in an HTML document.
 Save the file first with extension html
 Validate the html file
 Change the extension to php
 Access the script by URL on server
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<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>HTML With PHP Embedded </title>
</head>
<body>
<p style = "font-family:sans-serif; font-size:36;
color:yellow; background-color:green">
Welcome To My Page!
<?PHP
print ("<br /> Using PHP is not hard!");
?>
<br /> and you can learn it quickly!</p>
</body>
</html>
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When embedded1.php is accessed
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Using Backslash (\) to Generate
HTML Tags with print()
 Sometimes
you want to output an HTML tag
that also requires double quotation marks.
Use the backslash (“\”) character to signal that the
double quotation marks themselves should be
output:
print ("<font color=\"blue\">");
 The above statement would output:
<font color="blue">

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Using Comments with
PHP Scripts
 Comments
enable you to include
descriptive text along with the PHP
script.


Comment lines are ignored when the script
runs; they do not slow down the run-time.
Comments have two common uses.
• Describe the overall script purpose.
• Describe particularly tricky script lines.
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Using Comments with PHP Scripts
 Comment Syntax - Use //
standalone
<?php
// This is a comment
?>
 Can
be placed on Same line as a
statement:
<?php
print ("A simple initial script");
//Output a line
?>
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Example Script with Comments
1. <html> <head>
2. <title> Generating HTML From PHP</title> </head>
3. <body> <h1> Generating HTML From PHP</h1>
4. <?php
5. //
6. // Example script to output HTML tags
7. //
8. print ("Using PHP has <i>some advantages:</i>");
9. print ("<ul><li>Speed</li><li>Ease of use</li>
<li>Functionality</li></ul>"); //Output bullet list
10. print ("</body></html>");
11. ?>
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Alternative Comment Syntax
PHP allows a couple of additional ways to
create comments.
<?php
phpinfo(); # This is a built-in function
?>
 Multiple
line comments.
<?php
/*
A script that gets information about the
PHP version being used.
*/
<? phpinfo(); ?>
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Summary
 HTML
pages are static and cannot interact with
users
 PHP is a free, open source technology that
enables documents to generate dynamic content
 PHP script has the extension of .php
 PHP script may be standalone or
 Can be embedded in an HTML document
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Summary
 Resources



needed for development:
Web server with built-in PHP
a client machine with a basic text editor,
browser, and internet connections
FTP or Telnet software to send the script to
the server
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Summary
 PHP



script process:
write the PHP script file
copy the script file to the Web server
access the file with a Web browser
 Comments



can be proceeded with
two forward slashes (//)
or #
or enclosed in /* and */
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