Topics Covered

(1) How PHP files are written.

(2) Comments in PHP.

(3) Running PHP from the command line.

(4) Running PHP in an interactive mode.

(5) HTML and PHP, HTML in PHP code, multiple PHP codes, <BR> vs. \n.

(6) Using the backslash to print characters in output statements.

(7) Single vs. double quotes (problem with whitespace characters when using single quotes).

(8) Echo vs. print (unlike echo, print can.t be used for multiple prints separated by commas) vs. print_r.

(9) Text blocks and the HERE docs (<<< operator).

(10) Variables and named constants in PHP.

(11) One-dimensional arrays, processing them (including accessing the keys), foreach, range, count, etc.

(12) Associative (string indices/keys) and indexed (integral indices) arrays.

(13) Sorting one-dimensional arrays, sort, assort, ksort, rsort, arsort, krsort.

(14) Multi-dimensional arrays and processing them (including accessing the keys).

(15) The _SERVER array.

(16) Math functions: trig functions, fmod, rand, mt_rand, getrandmax, lcg_value, pow, log, etc.

(17) Multiple files: include and require.

(18) Forms (action, get vs. post methods, etc) and processing them.

(19) The _REQUEST, _GET, and _POST arrays, magic quotes, validating forms, functions isset, empty, strlen, is_numeric, stipslashes, addslashes.

(20) Sticky forms.

(21) Functions: non-value returning functions, value-returning function, value parameters, reference parameters, reference returning functions, array arguments, value default arguments, reference default arguments, recursive functions, dynamic function calls, using list for functions returning arrays, global, local and static variables, global named constants, using global and _GLOBALS, etc.

(22) Sending e-mail and HTML email (file uploads, sending emails with attachments, building email lists, forwarding email, etc, will be covered later).

Monday, Sep 25, 06: Continue with sending email, begin files (reading).

Wednesday, Sep 27, 06: Continue with files (writing).

Friday, Sep 29, 06: Work on Assignment 2.

Monday, Oct 2, 06: Work on assignments 2 and 3.

Wednesday, Oct 4, 06: Work on assignments 3 and 4; uploading files; tips.

Mon, Oct 9, 06: Dir and file processing, operations and functions on files and directories.

Wed, Oct 11, 06: Continued.

Fri, Oct 13, 06: The date(), gmdate(),  and getdate() functions, string functions and operations.

Mon, Oct 16, 06: Continued, introduction to databases, work on Assignment 5.

Wed, Oct 18, 06: Database continued; SQL and MySQL; logging in, changing the password, databases: creating, deleting, showing all databases, showing tables in the database; tables: creating, describing, inserting/updating/deleting records (rows) or fields, adding new columns at chosen locations, renaming columns or changing their types, renaming tables, dropping a column, dropping a table, dealing with null (setting a field to null, deleting null fields, updating them, queries involving null or not null), queries (selection records, whole table, fields, etc), ordered queries, using like, using relational operators (<, <=, >, >=, =), using logical operators (not !, and &&, or ||).

Fri, Oct 20, 06: MySQL continued: queries joining two tables, copying tables, creating table from another (i.e. some/all of the columns of the new table are from an old one); PHP and MySQL: connecting to MySQL from PHP, selecting a database, performing queries, processing queries (e.g. printing them), determining the number of rows (records) and the number of fields (columns), determining the fields (e.g. names), closing the MySQL connection.

Mon, Oct 23, 06: Assignment 5 continued.

Wed, Oct 25, 06: Exam I.

Fri, Oct 27, 06: MySQL continued: using MySQL to perform calculations, data types; math, string, and date functions; other functions; work on Assignment 6.

Wed, Nov 1, 06: Topics from Fri continued; counter  example (# of users, # of distinct users, # visitors this hour, # visitors today), Assignment 6 continued.

Fri, Nov 3, 06: More MySQL, alumni example (new alumni, update alumni, change password, list alumni); Assignment 6 continued.

Mon, Nov 6, 06:  Alumni example continued; cookies.

Wed, Nov 8, 06:  Cookies continued (tracking visitors, using as counters, keeping track of visitors, etc).

Fri, Nov 10, 06:  Assignment 7.

Mon, Nov 13, 06:  Sessions.

Wed, Nov 15, 06:  Sessions continued.

Fri, Nov 17, 06:  htaccess, SSI commands, Web and Unix tips.

Mon, Nov 27, 06:  More about htaccess, SSI commands, using SSI commands or the browser or links (URLs) to send arguments/parameters to a PHP file, prompting the user to download (instead of sending it to the browser) a file (from public or nonpublic director).

Wed, Nov 29, 06:  Exam II.

Fri, Dec 1, 06:  Graphics: supported graphics types in PHP, difference between them, colors in PHP (as decimal and hexadecimal) and HTML, graphic functions, how to create a graph.

Mon, Dec 4, 06:  More about graphics: more about graphic functions, sending the graph to the browser, saving the graph to a file, using existing graphs, destroying the graph, other topics, Exam II solution.

Fri, Dec 8, 06:  Assignment 8.

Mon, Dec 11, 06:  Bar and Pie charts.

Wed, Dec 13, 06:  More about Charts; evaluations.

Fri, Dec 15, 06:  Quiz, Security.