PHP Guru

Build your own PHP style sheet switcher

2011-04-24T16:47:00.000+05:30

Want to have a style switcher that lets your site’s visitors choose a different style sheet? Want it to work even if there is no JavaScript support? The trick is to use a server-side language like PHP, which is what I use for my style switcher.
Using PHP to let the user switch to a different CSS file is nothing new. But it is one of the things that I am often asked about, so I thought it would be good to have a write-up to refer people to in the future.

As I mentioned this will work when JavaScript is disabled. It will not work when cookies are disabled, however. Nothing bad will happen, but it simply won’t work and the user will be returned to the same page they were on. Just to make you aware of that right from the start.

I use this style switcher to let visitors switch between two different layouts (“Zoom” and “Normal”) here on 456 Berea Street. If you want to let the user choose between more than two stylesheets you will need to come up with a different solution.

I wouldn’t call myself a PHP expert by any means, so if you think my code could be improved in any way, please let me know.

To switch styles, all you need to do is activate the link to the styleswitcher. As you may have noticed if you have tried that, the URL that invokes the styleswitcher is always the same: /styleswitch/. The link leads to a php file that looks like this:

<?php
$layout = (isset($_COOKIE['layout']) && ($_COOKIE['layout'] == "zoom")) ? "main" : "zoom";
setcookie("layout", $layout, time()+31536000, '/');
$ref = (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'])) ? $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] : "http://{$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']}/";
header("Location: $ref");
?>

Here’s what happens, line by line:

Line 2: If the layout cookie exists (the browser has been here before) and has the value “zoom” (the user has switched to Zoom layout), $layout is set to “main”. Otherwise $layout is set to “zoom” (the browser doesn’t accept cookies, the style switcher has not been used with this browser, or the user has switched to Normal layout). Note that “main” and “zoom” are the file names (except for the .css extension) used for the respective styles. Change these values to match your file names.
Line 3: The value of $layout is stored in a cookie.
Line 4: If a referer header exists, its value is stored in $ref. If it doesn’t exist, $ref is set to “http://{$_SERVER[‘SERVER_NAME’]}/” as a backup to redirect the browser to the home page.
Line 5: The browser is redirected to the URL stored in $ref.

On all pages a check is performed to decide which stylesheet to load:

<?php
$layout = (isset($_COOKIE['layout']) && ($_COOKIE['layout'] == "zoom")) ? "zoom" : "main";
?>

If a cookie exists and its value is “zoom”, $layout is set to “zoom”. Otherwise, $layout is set to “main”. At this point $layout contains the name of the CSS file that should be loaded.

Finally, when loading the main style sheet the value stored in $layout is inserted instead of the file name in the @import path:

<style type="text/css" media="screen,projection">
@import '/css/<?php echo $layout; ?>.css';
</style>

And that’s it. Use it, spread it, improve it.

Automated News Aggregator: PHP RSS Reader

2010-03-11T10:22:00.000+05:30

PHP RSS Reader is an application which can crawl an unlimited number of feeds & presents them with an easy-to-use interface.
For an organized navigation, It is possible to create categories & place feeds inside them.
A handy feature is "keyword-based" categories which can auto-move items with the keywords mentioned into the related categories which is great for anyone who follows multiple feeds but hunts for specific keywords.

PHP RSS Reader comes with a complete admin panel where every setting can be controlled.
The application creates SEO-friendly URLs for every category & article which is important for anyone who will use PHP RSS Reader for creating a feed-based website rather than using it as a personal feed-reader.
It is possible to change the look & feel of the interface by simply playing with the CSS files.
There is a web-based installer that help making the application online in a few minutes.
PHP RSS Reader comes with 2 versions:

free version (has some limitations like no keyword-categorization & unlimited sub-categories)
complete, paid version which includes all the features.

The application is a must-check for anyone looking for an advanced RSS reader, planning to create a feed-based website or integrate feeds into an application (where PHP RSS Reader can be used only as the backend engine).
P.S. This post is a sponsored review.

Requirements: PHP & MySQL
Website: http://www.phprssreader.com/
Demo: http://www.phprssreader.com/demo/
Download: http://www.phprssreader.com/free-version/

chive: A Promising MySQL Manager

2010-03-11T10:09:00.000+05:30

chive is an open source & web-based MySQL management application that is built with PHP.
It can achieve the most common tasks like creating, editing & executing:

databases
tables
indices, keys, triggers, views, routines
privileges management
import/export

The application has a built-in editor with syntax-highlighting which is nice when running complex queries & an easy-to-use interface that makes browsing fast.
chive has one major fallback (which may pr may not effect you): it only supports MySQL 5+.

Requirements: PHP 5.1+, MySQL 5+
Website: http://www.chive-project.com/
Download: http://www.chive-project.com/Download

Ajaxed PHP Calendar For Displaying Availability

2010-03-10T22:08:00.000+05:30

Ajax Availability Calendar is an open source PHP application for displaying the availability of an item (hotel room, appointment, etc.).
It comes with an Ajaxed administration panel (multiple admin users are supported) to manage the calendar.

The application is multilingual & unlimited number of items can be added under multiple languages.
Months displayed are changed with Ajax requests where no refreshes are required & it can be totally styled via CSS.

Requirements: PHP 4+ & MySQL
Website: http://www.ajaxavailabilitycalendar.com/
Demo: http://www.ajaxavailabilitycalendar.com/demo
Backend Demo: http://www.ajaxavailabilitycalendar.com/calendar/ac-...
Backend Demo - User-Pass: User:admin - Password:demo
Download: http://www.ajaxavailabilitycalendar.com/download

Instant CMS For Static Websites: Phpns

2010-03-10T21:46:00.000+05:30

Phpns is an open source news/content management system that will enable you to add dynamic content to any website with one line of code.

The application is not a complicated or a full-featured CMS. Rather, it is a simpler one which is very suitable for managing basic websites.

Phpns

It comes with variables like adding pagination, displaying summary or the full content, RSS generation & much more.

Phpns is multi-user, can create SEO-friendly URLs & optionally, helps you create/manage templates.

The application is built with PHP, uses MySQL for storing the data & comes with a web-based installer.

Requirements: PHP & MySQL
Website: http://phpns.alecwh.com/

Ajaxed MySQL Table Editor

2009-09-17T09:32:00.000+05:30

Mysql Ajax Table Editor is an open source web application for easily editing MySQL tables & creating admin pages almost instantly.
Besides the standard "add, edit, copy, delete, view" functionality, records can be paged, searched & exported to CSV.

It is possible to JOIN multiple tables to generate a custom view (+ apply any other functions on this view) with the help of a configuration file. Also, column names displayed can be customized for a better presentation.
MySQL Ajax Table Editor has permissions support which can be set on a per column or table basis for limiting functions.
Users can hide/show & re-order columns which is very useful when working with the data.
The application works with both PHP4 & PHP5 and comes with 5 ready-to-use languages where new ones can be created.

Requirements: PHP4 or PHP5
Compatibility: All Major Browsers
Website: http://www.mysqlajaxtableeditor.com/
Demo: http://www.mysqlajaxtableeditor.com/Example1.php

Useful & Standalone PHP Classes By Symfony

2009-09-17T09:18:00.000+05:30

Symfony, one of the most popular PHP frameworks around, is sharing several standalone PHP classes (under the Symfony Components website) which can ease the job of a PHP developer.
They don’t require Symfony to be used & can be used with any PHP code.

Currently, 3 classes are ready to be used:

YAML
It parses YAML strings and converts them to PHP arrays. It can also converts PHP arrays to YAML strings.
Event Dispatcher
It’s a good way to make your code more flexible. It’s also a great way to make your code easily extensible by others.
Symfony Event Dispatcher is a PHP library that provides a lightweight implementation of the Observer design pattern.
Dependency Injection
It provides a lightweight and robust Dependency Injection Container for classes that implements the Dependency Injection pattern.

And, 2 new classes are on the way:

Templating
Request Handler

All the code provided is very well-documented & totally free to use.

Requirements: PHP
Website: http://components.symfony-project.org/

Simple & Powerful PHP Image Gallery: Plogger

2009-09-08T00:13:00.000+05:30

Plogger is an open source image gallery application, built with PHP-MySQL, that offers a simple usage with powerful features.
The application comes with an attractive admin interface for managing the galleries & can be integrated into any website by adding three lines of PHP code.

Using Plogger, it is possible to create unlimited albums that can include unlimited images. And, uploading the images is a breeze as they can be sent one at a time or as a .zip file in bulk.
Thumbnails are created automatically & there is caching support for faster loading.

Some other features of Plogger:

commenting on images (optional)
RSS feed on every level (single album, gallery..)
an integrated JavaScript slideshow
template based theme system
valid XHTML output

Also, each gallery has a full XML generator built-in that enables anyone to create widgets in any language.

Requirements: PHP4+, MySQL v3.23+ & GD1.0
Compatibility: All Major Browsers
Website: http://www.plogger.org/
Demo: http://www.plogger.org/demo/

The Complete Joomla Tutorial Pack Free Download

2009-08-31T21:11:00.002+05:30

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This Complete Joomla Package will show you with Videos / Ebooks exactly how to install / build / expand and maintain a professional looking Joomla Website. And you don’t even have to worry about the layout because one of our 400 Templates which you CAN EDIT will fit your site the way you want it.

Joomla is the probably the most powerful open source content management systems on the planet today! With The Complete Joomla Tutorial Package its now easy to install, build and run your very own content management system.

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Free PHP Webmail Application: T-dah

2009-07-29T11:29:00.000+05:30

T-dah is a free PHP webmail application which is built from the well-known Uebimiau script & offers a slick interface.
It can be up & running in a few minutes on any PHP (4 or 5) enabled server as no database is required.
The application uses the POP3 protocol & can be configured to use SMTP, PHP mail, Sendmail or Qmail for sending e-mails.

T-dah comes with several modules like:

event calendar
group chat
addressbook
folder management

It uses TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor for creating new e-mails, has an integrated search & can be translated into any language with the "language files" support.

Requirements: PHP
Compatibility: All Major Browsers
Website: http://www.tdah.us/
Backend Demo: http://uebimiau.tdah.us/
Backend Demo - User-Pass: User: demo - Pass: demo
Download: http://sourceforge.net/projects/t-dahmail/

Free PHP Uptime Monitor Script: phpWatch

2009-05-06T21:26:00.000+05:30

As we all experience, every hosting account or server sometimes fails, no matter how good the hosting company is. And, this can be accepted as normal when it is within the limits.
For better reacting to the downtimes, analyzing the health of the web application & the environment it is hosted on, uptime monitoring is a working solution.

phpWatch is a free PHP uptime monitoring script that can watch unlimited number of websites and send notifications via e-mail or SMS (for US phones).
With an Ajaxed interface, new monitors & notifications can be easily configured. And, once the cron job / scheduled task -that pings the servers in desired time intervals- is set, the script is ready to go.
phpWatch also offers an API which lets other applications to query the monitored services, get the statistics and use the notification system for sending SMS and e-mail alerts.

Requirements: PHP, MySQL
Website: http://aaron-rosenfeld.com/2008/08/28/phpwatch-relea...
Demo: http://aaron-rosenfeld.com/phpWatch/demo

Analyzing PHP Performance: PHP Quick Profile

2009-04-26T00:17:00.000+05:30

Firebug is the most popular tool for analyzing HTML, CSS & JavaScript based webpages. Now, there is PHP Quick Profiler (PQP), which can be called as Firebug for PHP.
It is specially focused on analyzing the performance of PHP codes. With a beautiful interface, PQP can:

log memory usage
display the number & sizes of included files
show page execution times
log database queries

PHP Quick Profiler is not a plug & play solution as every project may have a totally different structure. But, by following the setup information & the example provided, it is easy to integrate.
To see how functional it is, you can check the demo.

Requirements: No Requirements
Website: http://particletree.com/features/php-quick-profiler/
Demo: http://particletree.com/examples/pqp/

40 signs you really are a lousy PHP programmer

2009-02-25T10:57:00.000+05:30

1. don't comment your code properly with something like phpDoc
2. don't see the need and/or benefits of a good programming IDE like Zend Studio or Eclipse PDT
3. have never used some form of version control like Subclipse
4. don't adopt some coding & naming standards and general conventions and stick to to them at least throughout the project
5. don't use a consistent methodology
6. don't escape and/or validate properly input or sql queries
7. don't plan your application thoroughly before starting to code
8. don't use test-driven development
9. don't program & test with error reporting on
10. don't see the benefits of a debugger
11. don't refactor your code
12. don't keep the different layers seperated using something like MVC
13. don't know what these stand for: KISS, DRY, MVC, OOP, REST
14. don't return content but echo or print it from your functions or classes
15. have never seen the advantage of unit tests or testing in general
16. return HTML, not data, strings, or objects.
17. hard code messages and configuration parameters
18. don't optimize your sql queries
19. don't use __autoload
20. don't allow intelligent error handling
21. use $_GET instead of $_POST for any destructive actions
22. don't know how to use regular expressions
23. you've never heard of sql injection or cross-site scripting
24. don't allow simple configuration, can be parameters passed to a class’s constructor, set/get methods called later, or constants defined at a runtime.
25. don't understand the benefits and limitations of Object Oriented Programming
26. misuse OOP / everything you write , no matter how small is OOP
27. you think reusable software equals/requires your code to be OOP
28. don't choose intelligent defaults
29. don't have one single configuration file
30. don't want the file contents to be seen, but give it a .inc extension instead of .php
31. don't use a database abstraction layer
32. don't keep it DRY, Don't repeat yourself. If you have to copy and paste or duplicate something your design may be off.
33. don't make a function/class/method do just one thing and don't make them interact.
34. don't try to take advantage of OOP specific features like abstract/interface classes, inheritage polymorphism & access modifiers.
35. don't optimize your application design with established design patterns
36. don't allow your user to define a base directory if you have multiple files and/or directories
37. pollute the global namespace, one option is to prefix the functions in your library with a common string
38. don't allow a table prefix when using database tables
39. use a separate template engine
40. don't take a look at established php frameworks for inspiration, most of them have advanced web dev concepts and good code

PHP File Manager: Simple Directory Listing

2009-01-26T12:46:00.000+05:30

Simple Directory Listing is a PHP script that works as an online file manager.
It is only one file, just upload & use, and requires PHP to run.

The script can work in read-only or full mode and can be limited to manage a folder.
Besides the functions of a standard file manager script, it also has a FTP layer that makes it possible to connect to remote hosts.
And, the script has RSS support.
Such scripts are very useful when you want to make "files of a project" reachable by customers where FTP usage may be limited or seem advanced from the eyes of the customer.

Free And Ajaxed IMAP Client: Xuheki

2009-01-01T19:37:00.000+05:30

Xuheki is an open source IMAP client with an Ajaxed interface.
It looks-feels like a desktop application & supports multiple IMAP servers/identities.

It uses the Net::IMAP::Client Perl module as the IMAP engine & built with DynarchLIB Ajax Toolkit.

Some features of Xuheki:

Supports multiple folders with drag’n drop
It can stay connected to an IMAP server
Interface allows you to do multiple things once
Multiple user support
Contact list & more..

It requires Perl & MySQL 5 to run.

Requirements: Perl 5.8+, Apache 2+,mod_perl 2+,MySQL 5+
Compatibility: IE can have problems (not well tested)
Website: http://www.xuheki.com/
Download: http://www.xuheki.com/download/

How To Detect Mobile Browsers With PHP?

2009-01-01T19:32:00.000+05:30

DetectMobileBrowsers.mobi is a website providing a function & information on how to detect mobile browsers.

It can detect:

iPhone
Opera Mini
Android
Blackberry

It has an online function generator that guides you to create a personalized function according to "how you want to treat every browser".
P.S. The code is free to be used on non-profit websites.

Requirements: No Requirements
Website: http://detectmobilebrowsers.mobi/
Download: http://detectmobilebrowsers.mobi/#download

Theme Layout 2132 For Wordpress Premium Theme

2009-01-01T18:23:00.000+05:30

Theme Layout 2132 For Wordpress Premium Theme
Wordpress Premium Theme
6 Mb | Rapidshare

Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/177909838/Wordpress_2132.rar

Joomla!1.5Essential*Training

2008-12-29T00:56:00.000+05:30

Lynda.com | Joomla!*1.5*Essential*Training
.MOV | 220 Mb | 3 RS links

In Joomla! 1.5 Essential Training, Joseph LeBlanc uses Joomla! to build a small-business website from scratch with no programming at all, from installation to launch. He demonstrates how to create and organize content; add menus, sidebars, and other features; change the look with templates; install plug-ins and extensions; and much more.

Download from RapidShare:
Part 1 [100 Mb]
Part 2 [100 Mb]
Part 3 [20 Mb]

Exercise files only:
http://rapidshare.com/files/124120291/Lynda.com.Joomla.1.5.Essen

Building Websites with Joomla! 1.5

2008-12-28T10:10:00.000+05:30

Building Websites with Joomla! 1.5
PDF | English | March 2008 | 14.8 Mb | RS

The best-selling Joomla! tutorial guide updated for the latest 1.5 release

Learn Joomla! 1.5 features
Install and customize Joomla! 1.5
Configure Joomla! administration
Create your own Joomla! templates
Extend Joomla! with new components, modules, and plug-ins

Download from Rapidshare

More ebooks:http://ebookesguru.blogspot.com/

Joomla! Cash Ebook

2008-12-27T10:10:00.000+05:30

Joomla! Cash Ebook
PDF | 180 pag. | Oct. 2007 | 9.5 Mb | RS

Chapter 1: Welcome Warriors!
Chapter 2: Creating a Marketing Plan
Chapter 3: Generating Traffic
Chapter 4: Traffic or Log Analysis
Chapter 5: Site Layout and Optimization
Chapter 6: Generating Revenue
Chapter 7: Disaster Recovery
Chapter 8: Small Change

Download from RapidShare

More ebooks: http://ebookesguru.blogspot.com/

Joomla! 1.5 Template Builder :: Dreamveawer Extension

2008-12-27T00:43:00.000+05:30

Are you dying to get your hands dirty creating templates for Joomla 1.5 and wanna speed things up? Then the new Dreamweaver extension for Joomla 1.5 is for you.It will allow you to rapidly build templates and we all know that time is money.This Dreamweaver extension doesn’t create miracles and you still need to know your basic HTML/CSS and how to create a complete template for Joomla 1.5 but it really makes is a lot faster.Please remember, it’s a tool for developers created by a developer. If you don’t know how to use it, then don’t.The Dreamweaver extension is developed and maintained by Daniel Duvald @ D-Form Webbureau

Download Page

Simple And Chic PHP Image Viewer: Visión

2008-12-02T23:07:00.001+05:30

Visión is a simple image viewer script built with PHP.
It dynamically scans for the images in a folder specified, preloads & displays them within a good looking interface.

Preloading feature helps it to display images faster, on the other hand this makes the script more suitable for displaying limited number of images.
The script is cross-bowser compatible & its look can be totally updated via CSS.
P.S. A tutorial on "how to setup Visión" can be found here.

Template Monster 21599 - Joomla 1.5 Template

2008-11-12T00:27:00.002+05:30

Download:

http://rapidshare.com/files/161826033/2_15.99_aioforum.com.rar

Open Source E-Commerce App.: OXID eSales

2008-11-09T10:06:00.001+05:30

OXID eSales is an open source e-commerce application built with PHP & uses MySQL for storing the data.
It has a modular and standards-based architecture which makes customization easy.

The application has all the features an e-commerce application needs & some more, like:

B2C, B2B and social commerce scenarios
Powerful marketing integration
Integrated content management system (CMS)
SEO friendly URLs & more..

Some of the e-shops created with OXID eSales can be viewed here. Also, check the demo.

simpleCart(js): Instant E-Commerce With PayPal Support

2008-11-08T13:30:00.001+05:30

simpleCart(js) is a lightweight (10.5 kb) & free shopping cart application for creating a simple yet good looking e-commerce environment in minutes.
It uses cookies to store the shopping basket data, no databases required, and payment is completed via PayPal.

The application is modular with the JavaScript functions included.

An "add to basket" example:

simpleCart.add('name=Shirt','price=6.00','image=images/myImage.png'
,’quantity=5′,’size=XL’,'color=Blue’);

The download package already includes the source of the demo.

Requirements: No Requirements
Compatibility: All Major Browsers
Website: http://www.thewojogroup.com/2008/10/simplecartjs-pay...
Demo: http://thewojogroup.com/simpleCart/

Concrete5 : Site Building Toolkit (A CMS)

2008-11-08T10:06:00.000+05:30

Concrete5 is a very powerful & open source content management application which has a different approach in how it works.
It enables users to manage websites while browsing it by simply switching to the edit mode (an overlayed screen). This makes anyone who can use a text editing application administer their websites.
The application uses PHP / MySQL & built with OOP.

With a very easy to use interface, new pages can added, updated or deleted.
A simple yet effective user permission/role feature helps creating admins, editors & other types of users.
There is a built-in versioning system which simply saves the old versions of a page & who created/updated it.
The application supports templates / plugins & there is a community getting more active everyday to get support.
To see the beauty of the application, check this demo.
P.S. Concrete5 is choosen the project of the month in October 2008 by Sourceforge.

MySQL Sidu: Free MySQL Front-End

2008-11-08T00:22:00.000+05:30

MySQL Sidu is a free web based MYSQL GUI similar to PHPMyAdmin.
It has most of the features other GUIs have & besides them MySQL Sidu can:

Group tables by first x chars of table names, and which you can control freely;
Sort results in 1 column or 2 columns, which you can switch to your favorable mode;
Sort & filter results.

There are 2 firewall security levels for the GUI for a safer data: user & global levels, that control who can access the application.
For anyone using another web-based MySQL GUI, it is very hard to switch to another tool & you may not need it. But this application has some nice UI features that make some jobs easier and you may want to check.
There is also a Firefox addon for MySQL Sidu that enables you to insert data from text fields & textareas in a webpage.

Requirements: PHP
Website: http://sidu.sourceforge.net/
Demo: http://sidu.sourceforge.net/mysql-sidu-demo.php
Download: http://sidu.sourceforge.net/download-mysql-client-fr...

Automated Reflected Images With PHP

2008-10-18T00:38:00.000+05:30

Easy Reflections, a PHP script that enables you to create reflections (Web 2.0 look) of any image.
Supported image types are GIF, JPG & PNG.

There is a built-in caching mechanism to prevent creating same images again & again.
And, fade levels used can be configured.
The script works with both PHP4 & PHP5 and requires GD extension 2.0.1+ installed.

Requirements: GD extension 2.0.1+
Compatibility: PHP4 & PHP5
Website: http://reflection.corephp.co.uk/

PHP Smart Image Resizer Script

2008-09-13T16:14:00.000+05:30

Smart image resizer is a PHP script which makes it very easy to resize & crop images. And, this is done without touching the original image.

The width & height of the image to be resized is mentioned in the tag like:
<img src="/image.php/coffee.jpg?width=200&height=200ℑ=//uploads/coffee.jpg" alt="Coffee" />
and image is resized via the GD library.
Newly created image is stored in a cache directory & won’t be re-created until new dimensions are mentioned to improve the system performance.
Cropping an image also warks the same way. Simply mention the crop ratio & that’s all.
Smart Image Resizer supports JPG, GIF & PNG images and requires PHP 5.1.0+ to run.

Requirements: PHP 5.1.0+, GD library
Compatibility: JPG, GIF, PNG
Website: http://shiftingpixel.com/2008/03/03/smart-image-resi...

Open Source Mixtape With An Embeddable Player

2008-09-13T10:03:00.001+05:30

Opentape, inspired from Muxtape, is an open source application that enables you to create & host your own mixtape.
You can upload songs, reorder-rename them & customize the look with an Ajaxed admin panel.

The application has a nice-looking embeddable Flash mp3 player (JW Player) that makes it possible to play your music on any website.

Requirements: PHP 5+, Curl enabled
Demo: http://opentape.fm/mixtape
Download: http://opentape.fm/download/

Zimplit: Easiest CMS For Simple Websites

2008-09-12T22:53:00.001+05:30

Zimplit is a ridiculously easy to use free CMS application which is ideal for simple websites.
There is no standard admin panel. A toolbox appears after logging in & you start editing the website.

You can add images, links, edit the HTML of a page and copy a page to use it as a template for a new page.
It requires PHP 4.3+ to run & no databases required.
The application needs CHMOD 777 on all files for editing them. Since they are HTML files (except zimplit.php), it does not sound very bad.

Requirements: PHP 4.3+
Website: http://zimplit.org/
Demo: http://demo.zimplit.org/zimplit.php
Download: http://zimplit.org/download.html

PHP Image Library: WideImage

2008-08-05T01:26:00.003+05:30

WideImage is an object-oriented PHP image library.

It is written in PHP 5 and requires only GD2 library for manipulating images.

The library is very suitable for new generation web applications (for easier mashups) as it supports loading images from any URL besides loading them from a file, string or a valid image source.

Some features of WideImage:

Transformations: crop, resize, rotate, flip, mirror
Conversions: graysclae, negative, truecolor, palette
Colors/channels: merge, mask, filter, get channels, correct gamma…

Requirements: PHP 5.2+, GD2 extension
Website: http://wideimage.sourceforge.net
Download: http://wideimage.sourceforge.net/wiki/AllReleases

8 Best Open Source Shopping Carts

2008-07-30T19:15:00.005+05:30

Hey Everyone, On Sunday I was contacted by a client and they said the needed a shopping cart up by Monday. Since they needed this cart up so fast I went to the easiest solution I knew, Open Source Shopping Carts. I browsed through tons of shopping carts and put together a list of only the best carts. The list is below.
Presta Shop: Presta Shop is robust, professional grade e-Commerce shopping cart that you can download, install, and use for free. In the back end, you will use a full featured back end to manage your inventory, orders, shipping, and customers in real time. Your customer’s payments are sent directly to your commercial bank account using the latest security technology. You can even add your own modules to the shopping cart.

Opencart: Opencart is an open source PHP based online shopping cart system. OpenCart is easy to use and is SEO optimized with a very nice interface. A great feature of OpenCart is that customers can write their own reviews of the products.

Magento: Magento is a professional open-source e-Commerce solution offering unprecedented flexibility and control. Magento is awesome, I would never believe it is an open-source project. It features clean urls and SEO from the start. Everything is designed in a clean and simple way. Magento also features: Unlimited flexibility, Completely Scalable Architecture, Professional and Community Support, and Smooth Integration with 3rd party apps.

Cubecart: Cubecart is very popular shopping cart. CubeCart V3 is free, with the exception that you leave their copyright notice in your footer. CubeCart has a large amount of payment gateways and shipping gateways. Their support forums are lively and many people contribute plugins to the cart. To use CubeCart V4 you must pay but it has many features that V3 doesn’t have.

Agora Cart: Agora Cart is another very popular online shopping cart, written in Perl/MySQL. It features a css manager so you can edit the look of your cart online. AgoraCart also features unlimited product options, up to 4 different tax zones at the same time, tons of shipping and payment gateways/options. The setup options range from a simple template based store to the integration of a complex visual design and support for program modification.

Zen Cart: Zen Cart is a free, user friendly, open source shopping cart. Zen Cart focuses on the merchants and shoppers instead of the developers. Zen Cart also supports multiple payment and shipping options, quantity discounts and coupons. Also Zen Cart is very easy to install.

Os Commerce: Os Commerce is an online shopping cart that offers a wide range of features that allows online stores to be setup fairly quickly. osCommerce is backed by a great and active community. It also supports multiple currencies, allows customers to print invoices from the order screen, and has an easy database backup system.

Store sprite: Store sprite is a powerful, free PHP/MySQL shopping cart system that is easy to install and customize. The Cart is free but it does have copyright notices that you can pay to get rid of. StoreSprite has many features including automatic tax calculation, automatic delivery cost calculations, customer ratings and reviews and featured products.

activeCollab Licenses Giveaway - Winners

2008-07-24T10:10:00.000+05:30

Last week, a post announced 3 activeCollab Project Management Corporate licenses giveaway.

activeCollab is a feature-rich project management & collaboration application which you can install it on your servers & customize it if you want.

It organizes the project flow both for you & your customers flawlessly with powerful features like document versioning, reminders, discussions & many more.

And, here are the winners:

Vince Verberckt (comment: 10532)
Rami Minar (comment: 10694)
Steve (comment: 10482)

Thanks to all WebResourcesDepot readers who joined the giveaway & congratulations to all the winners.

Website: http://www.activecollab.com

Open Source PHP Surveys

2008-07-23T23:12:00.002+05:30

LimeSurvey is an open source PHP survey application which has almost every feature you may need.

It enables you to create conditional (questions change depending on the previous answers), open/close group surveys with e-mail invitations, reminders & more.

This PHP survey application is completely multilingual and currently supports 46 languages. Any survey can be created to support more than 1 language.

Templates can be created and any survey can be choosen to work with that template to match the design of the websites.

Some features of LimeSurvey:

Unlimited number of surveys at the same time
Unlimited number of questions in a survey
Unlimited number of participants to a survey
Multi-Lingual Surveys
User-Management
20 different question types with more to come
WYSIWYG HTML Editor
Quotas Management
Integration of pictures and movies into a survey
Creation of a printable survey version
Option for participants to buffer answers to continue survey at a later time
Survey expiry dates for automation
Enhanced import and export functions to text, CSV, PDF, SPSS, queXML and MS Excel format
Basic statistical and graphical analysis with export facility
Screen Reader Accessiblity
W3C compliance

Requirements: PHP 5+, MySQL
Website: http://www.limesurvey.org
Demo: http://www.limesurvey.org/content/view/15/81/lang,en/
Download: http://www.limesurvey.org/content/view/22/82/lang,en/

Visual Database Design Tool

2008-07-22T10:10:00.000+05:30

MySQL Workbench: Visual Database Design Tool

MySQL Workbench is a cross-platform, visual database design tool developed by MySQL. It is the highly anticipated successor application of the DBDesigner4 project.

This tool helps you to see the relations, indexes, tables of your MySQL database as a clear snapshot. With its simple yet effective interface, you can easily get used to MySQL Workbench.

For any developer who uses MySQL, this tool saves so much time for concentrating on other tasks rather than data modeling. You can also print the diagrams and use that sheet for faster coding (that’s what I do).

It is definitely a must use.

Powerful PHP - MySQL CMS

2008-07-21T21:53:00.002+05:30

ImpressCMS is a powerful & free PHP - MySQL content management system which is, currently, based on famous XOOPS but developed in another direction.

It is a community developed application and has already 150+ addons including e-commerce, forum support & more.

Some features:

Fully modularized
User registration & personalization
User permissions management
Multilanguage
Theme-based skinnable interface
& more..

Requirements: PHP,MySQL
Website: http://www.impresscms.org
Download: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?&group_...

Manage Your Mailing Lists With poMMo

2008-07-18T11:10:00.000+05:30

poMMo is an open source maillist manager application for adding a mailing list to your website or to organize stand alone mailings.

poMMo requires PHP & MySQL, offers a very simple web-based setup and it can be ready to use within minutes.

With an Ajaxed interface, you can create custom subscription forms & subscriber groups. After that, it provides you the necessary embed code (or HTML output) for inserting the form.

poMMo is also a smart application as it gets the list of sent-unsent-failed e-mails during the delivery and has an automated "list cleaning" feature by checking the bounced e-mails.

Other nice features of this maillist manager:

Easy creation of subscriber groups
Quickly import and export your subscriber base
WYSIWYG HTML mailing creation
Flexible collection of subscriber data through user defined "fields"
Drag and drop field ordering
Themeable, brandable, multilanguage
Limit the sending of mails - throttle by hour, bytes, and domain limits
Revolutionary AJAX based subscriber Management
Personalize Mailings — e.g. Say "Dear Susan" vs. "Dear Subscriber"
View and Reload sent mailings from the Mailing History page
Mailings can be paused, resumed, and canceled "live"
Mailings take place in the background — you can turn your computer OFF during a sending
Subscribers can unsubscribe themselves or update their own information (including email address)

This mailing list manager application uses very low disk I/O and can be used for big mailing list groups.

P.S. Admin interface has a small compatibility problem in Firefox.

Requirements: PHP, MySQL
Website: http://www.pommo.org
Demo: http://www.pommo.org/Demo

Free Survey Application: AskPeople

2008-07-17T22:55:00.000+05:30

AskPeople is a free PHP survey application that is simple but functional.

It supports most of the entry options with checkboxes, radio buttons, textboxes, textareas & dropdowns. Using AskPeople, a complicated survey can be created in minutes.

AskPeople has a template system where a new design can be implemented for the surveys to match the look of your website.

Some features of this free PHP survey application:

Secure, multi-user admin interface.
Unlimited, completely flexible templates.
Built in file manager.
Multipage surveys using pagebreaks between groups of questions.
Make any question ‘required’ to ensure respondents complete it.
Optional cookie-based protection against repeated submission of forms.
Plain-text questionnaire export.
Raw data editor.
One-click project backup.

This is a handy application for creating & managing a job application form or making a market research & more.

Requirements: PHP 4+
Website: http://www.askpeople.co.uk/
Demo: http://www.askpeople.co.uk/demo
Download: http://www.askpeople.co.uk/download/index.php

PHP - Ajax Chat Application: Mia Chat

2008-07-12T19:51:00.001+05:30

Mia Chat is an Ajaxed PHP chat application which is very simple to use & install.

It functions similar to the messenger applications, you can add buddies, chat with several users at the same time, change your online status & more.

This PHP chat supports many databases for storing data like MySQL, MSSQL, Oracle 8+, MS SQL Server 2000+, SQLite 2+ and PostgreSQL 7+.

Requirements: PHP 5.0.5+, Apache Server 1.3+
Compatibility: All Major Browsers & Databases
Website: http://wiki.brilaps.com/wikka.php?wakka=MiaChat
Demo: http://mia.brilaps.com/

WooThemes Launches With New Themes

2008-07-12T19:38:00.003+05:30

WooThemes, which is the new face of "Premium News Themes" (premiumnewstheme.com), launched recently with some nice features.
They are a team of 4 well-known Wordpress theme designers; Adii, Magnus Jepson, Mark Forrester and Elliot Jay Stocks who are about to rise the bar in premium themes market.

Rather than the famous news theme "Premium News Theme" was offering, WooThemes currently offers 10 themes and officially promises to release at least 1 new theme every month.
A new feature; "WooThemes Club" can be a good address for users who like changing themes frequently as members of the club can download every theme (and the new themes released).
In my opinion, ProudFolio, a new Wordpress theme created by Elliot Jay Stocks is very unique as it is totally targeted to designers & other creative people who wants to present their portfolio and have a blog at the same time.
And Vibrant CMS is again a new theme which is business-targeted & very elegant (this is also the base theme of WooThemes).
If you’re looking for quality Wordpress themes with support, WooThemes is a powerful option for that.
P.S. This post is a review.
Website: http://www.woothemes.com

Cool And Free Launch Page With Ajax Newsletter

2008-07-12T19:34:00.002+05:30

Almost every web project needs a "launch page (under construction page)" or a page to show when the website is under maintenance.

Rather than creating a new one from scratch for every project, here is a free launch page with an Ajax newsletter.

Before reading further, here is the demo for it.

Don’t forget to bookmark this resource at del.icio.us.

E-mails are saved in a .txt file with ";" delimiters. So they can be used anytime with a simple copy-paste.

Important: Before using this free launch page, change the name of the text file to anything hard to guess and also update the name of this text file in newsletter.php file’s 1st line.

You can use this template as is or update it easily to fit your needs.

Features of this free launch page:

Ajaxed interface
Server-side e-mail validation (secure)
E-mails are saved in a text file with ";" delimiter. So, when your website is launched, you can simply copy and paste them to your favorite e-mail application and announce the launch.
Configurable error & success messages
Cross-browser (tested in all major browsers)

Requirements:

Uses jQuery and jQuery PNGFix plugin (both included with the download).
PHP support.

PSD files of bubbles are included in the download package.

This launch page is free to use (no links required) but can not be distributed from any other website or sold.

If you share it as a resource in your website, please link to this post. Thanks.

Ajax - PHP File Manager: eXtplorer

2008-07-07T00:00:00.001+05:30

eXtplorer is a free Ajax - PHP file manager built with Ext JS library.

It can function both as a file manager for local files and a web-based ftp application.

Editing files with syntax highlighting, extracting archives & user management with permission levels are great features of this application.

Some features of this Ajax file manager are:

Copy & move files and directories by drag&drop
Dynamic directory tree with on-demand loading of subdirectories
Rename, delete or create new files and directories
Upload or download files just as you like

eXplorer is also available as a component for Joomla! and Mambo.

Requirements: PHP 4.3+
Compatibility: Local files & remote files as FTP
Website: http://extplorer.sourceforge.net/

Flash Captcha Generator For ASP And PHP

2008-07-06T01:09:00.001+05:30

Internet Captcha is a Flash-based captcha script which can be generated online with a configuration interface.

It lets you define all the variables of the captcha including the distortion level, color, Flash effect & more.

The configuration wizard created the necessary JavaScript and ASP / PHP files and shows how to install this captcha script step by step.

One nice feature of Internet Captcha is, it shows you the security level of the captcha you designed.

Requirements: No Requirements
Website: http://www.icaptcha.com

Free Ajax Guestbook Application: JibberBook

2008-07-01T20:35:00.001+05:30

JibberBook is an open source Ajaxed guestbook application built with PHP5.

It stores the data in a XML file (optional MySQL support) and provides an easy to use interface.

For security, JibberBook uses:

HTML Purifier (see WRD post) for filtering inputs against XSS attacks.
Akismet for spam protection so users won’t need to enter captcha information.

This PHP guestbook application uses Mootools and it is unobtrusive (it will work even if the JavaScript is disabled).

Requirements: PHP5 Support
Compatibility: All Major Browsers
Website: http://jibberbook.com/
Demo: http://jibberbook.com/#tab_demo

Open Source PHP Chart Library: pChart

2008-06-28T01:52:00.003+05:30

pChart is an open source PHP chart library for creating aliased charts.

This chart classes run on any webserver that has PHP & GD library support.

Chart types currently support by this PHP charts solution are:

Line chart
Cubic curve chart
Plot chart
Bar chart
Filled line chart
Filled cubic curve chart
Pie chart
Radars chart
Limits chart

For faster display of charts, pChart has a caching class named pCache which serves a chart from cache if it was rendered before with the same data.

Requirements: PHP, GD Library Support
Website: http://pchart.sourceforge.net
Demo: http://pchart.sourceforge.net/demo.php
Download: http://pchart.sourceforge.net/download.php

Web-Based PHP FTP Application: phpWebFtp

2008-06-26T22:43:00.002+05:30

phpWebFtp is an open source web-based FTP application built with PHP.

It is not a simple file manager as it can be installed anywhere and connects to any FTP server.

You can configure the application from a config file. Some configuration options include: maxFileSize, resumeDownload & defaultServer.

Features of this PHP FTP Application:

Built-in free 22 language packs
Easy Binary/ASCII mode switching
WYSIWYG file editor for .html, .htm files
Built-in file or directory download mode
Special .zip files extraction to the server feature
CHMOD function for applying permissions to the files and folder
UNZIPing mode for extracting zipped files on the server

Requirements: PHP
Compatibility: All Major Browsers
Website: http://www.phpwebftp.com
Download: http://www.phpwebftp.com/download/

Learning Drupal 6 Module Development

2008-06-26T22:20:00.002+05:30

Matt Butcher “Learning Drupal 6 Module Development"

Packt Publishing | 2008-05-10 | ISBN: 1847194443 | 328 pages | PDF | 4 MB

Walk through the development of complete Drupal 6 modules with this primer for PHP programmers, written specifically for Drupal 6 to get you started coding your first module. With great power comes... tremendous flexibility. Drupal is an award-winning open-source Content Management System, and the feature-packed sixth release is right around the corner. It's a modular system, with an elegant hook-based architecture, and great code. These are a few of the perks that make Drupal a choice platform for developers who want the power of an established CMS, but the freedom to make it work for them. From social networking to AJAX to e-commerce, the hundreds of existing modules attest to Drupal's flexibility. When you create a new module for Drupal, it fits seamlessly into the look and feel of your overall site. If you can think it in PHP, you can code it as a Drupal module. Dive into Drupal module development as we create the Philosopher Biographies website, developing new modules and themes to meet practical goals. Create custom content types. Add AJAX functionality with the jQuery library. Use external XML APIs to add content to your site. Email newsletters to site members. Use themes. Empower administrators with extra features. And bundle it all up in a custom installation profile. You won't find a "hello world" here! If you're eager to start creating modules for Drupal 6, this is your book. Walk through the development of complete Drupal modules with this primer for PHP programmers. Specifically written for Drupal 6, this book will get you coding modules as quickly as possible, and help you add the features that will give your work that professional gloss! Just getting started with Drupal development? This book will give you a clear, concise and, of course, practical guidance to take you from the basics of creating your first module to developing the skills to make you a Drupal developer to be reckoned with. Are you a Drupal developer looking to update to version 6? This book covers the new and updated APIs to guide your transition to Drupal 6. The new menu system, the Forms and Schema APIs, and many core revisions are covered in this book.

Covering the basics

2008-06-23T17:27:00.001+05:30

Installation and The Basics

2008-06-23T17:21:00.003+05:30

PHP and MySQL Everyday Apps For Dummies

2008-06-17T23:33:00.002+05:30

book:PHP and MySQL Everyday Apps For Dummies
author:Janet Valade

Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP Web Development

2008-06-17T23:30:00.002+05:30

book:Professional LAMP : Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP Web Development
author: Jason Gerner ,Morgan Owens ,Elizabeth Naramore ,Matt Warden ,Jeremy Stolz

javascript php image manipulation phototype

2008-06-16T22:53:00.000+05:30

Phototype is a client/server-side image manipulation library, based on Prototype and supports all kinds of image manipulations.

How it works?

Clientside JavaScript codes sends the commands to the serverside PHP - GD library image renderer and displays the rendered image.

Using Phototype, you are able to rotate, resize, flip and do some other cool effects to images.

Requirements: Prototype
Website: http://ajaxorized.com/phototype-image-manipulation-w...

Wiki-Like Project Management Tool: Streber

2008-06-15T12:47:00.000+05:30

Streber is a free wiki driven project management tool written in php5.

Freelancers and small teams can easily setup projects and keep track of tasks, issues, bugs, efforts etc.

It is a very user-friendly application with hidden details like right mouse-button brings up context-menus or navigation can be done with keyboard.

Some features of this open source project management tool:

Tasks can have project-specific labels and categories
Tasks can be grouped hierarchically
Tasks can have required tasks
Tasks can be extended by issue-reports and linked to project-versions
Tasks can be grouped to mile-stones and groups
Multilangual and already comes with several languages
Project-user-rights can be adjusted (for ex: to provide clients a limited view of the current project state)
Version controlled upload of files
Advanced formatting with wiki syntax
Complete change history of anything
Notification mails on change
& more..

Streber requires a PHP5 enabled web server + MySQL as the database.

Requirements: PHP5+, MySQL 4.1+, GD extension
Website: http://www.streber-pm.org
Demo: http://www.streber-pm.org/3409
Download: http://www.streber-pm.org/3645

Introduction to Web Caching

2008-06-08T22:20:00.000+05:30

Browser Cache

Every browser has it’s own cache but the size and behavior of each varies. Fortunately we are not at the sole mercy of the browser to determine how to handle our data. Through the use of HTTP headers you can dictate to the browser when to request updated content and when to serve files from the local cache. I highly suggest downloading the Firefox plugins Firebug and YSlow to help you analyze your HTTP headers. Below you can see a screenshot of the headers tab available on any HTTP request through Firebug.

The difficulty of caching is determining how you want the browser to cache and then pulling it all together on the server-side. Different file types, for instance, might be generally more static than others and therefore safer to cache for long periods of time. On the other hand, some content may updated on a regular basis and not need to be cached for long, if at all. Since the browser is closest to the user and your server is potentially never involved in the serving of content the highest performance boost can come from effective browser caching.

Below is an example of setting a header property in PHP. This would tell the browser to cache the files for one year from the date of this post.

<?php

header('Expires: Fri, 25 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT');

?>

Here is an example of setting headers with Apache. This would set an expiration of one year from today on all images files.

<FilesMatch "\.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif)$">

Header set Expires "Fri, 25 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT"

</FilesMatch>

There are a number of header parameters that can be sent as part of your response to HTTP requests. Here is a breakdown of the ones you should be familiar with for caching purposes…

Last-modified: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This header tells the browser when the file being requested was last altered. The browser “asks” your server if it has a file that has a more recent “Last-modified” timestamp than the version that is currently has stored. If a newer file exists on your server then the browser requests the updated file, else the existing file is served. Although the communication does have a little overhead, it is much more efficient than simply serving the same unmodified content over and over.

Etag: “28ff-44aee6630f900″

Etags are basically unique identifiers attached to your files that the browser can use to compare cached files against. This works much like the “Last-modified” tag and there has been quite a bit of debate as to whether one is better than the other or whether to include both. I personally suggest including both as there may be rare situations where the Etag would detect changes that are not effected in the timestamp.

Expires: Fri, 25 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The expires header is ideal when you can plan on how long your content is safely cacheable. Why is it superior to the previous two cache controls? Using expires does not require a trip to the server to verify the freshness of your content. The browser simply serves the files from the local cache for the fastest user experience and zero server overhead.

Cache-Control: max-age=86400

The max-age tag, much like the expires header, eliminates the need to check for updated content when the cached file is within the age limit specified. The value assigned to the max-age is the number of milliseconds the file will be considered fresh. During that time, the locally stored files will be served. It is important to note that HTTP/1.1 allows caching of anything unless overridden by the “Cache-Control” header.

For static content I highly suggest serving files from a cookie-free subdomain (i.e. static.domain.com) and establishing a “never expires” policy. Many larger site have already taken advantage of this tactic but smaller sites can also benefit from the method. When you need to make a change to a file simply change the reference to the file to an incremented version (javascrtipt_1.js -> javascript_2.js) of itself and then the newer version will be downloaded and cached. There are even ways to automate the versioning process.

For dynamic files it is best to use the Cache-Control: no-cache header and for more static files the Last-modified header is appropriate. Another method to ensure content is refreshed is to append some unique querystring value to the URI.

Example of setting a “never expires” header for all static files…

<FilesMatch "\.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|swf|css|js|ico|pdf)$">

Header add "Expires" "Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT"

Header add "Cache-Control" "max-age=31536000"

</FilesMatch>

or with PHP…

<?php

header('Expires: Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT');

header('Cache-Control: max-age=31536000');

?>

Server Caching

Server-side caching can have a huge impact on performance. Since the highest level of caching your PHP files should be set to is Last-modified, Apache will be serving these files most frequently. There are a number of third party caching/PHP optimizers that make caching a breeze such as XCache, eAccelerator, memcached and others. You can even store your compiled pages in memory with these optimizers for an even faster client/server transaction.

You are not limited to using one of these third parties for caching. You can manually cache files in PHP through the use of code like the following…

<?php

$current = $_SERVER["SCRIPT_NAME"];

$parts = Explode(’/', $current);

$current = $parts[count($parts) - 1];

$store = ‘cache/’;

$page = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];

$cache = $store.md5($page).’.cache’;

if(file_exists($cache) && (filemtime($current) < filemtime($cache)) ) {

@readfile($cache);

exit();

}

ob_start();

// YOUR PHP SCRIPT //

$new = fopen($cache, ‘w’);

fwrite($new, ob_get_contents());

fclose($new);

ob_end_flush();

?>

Intermediary Caching

By intermediary caching I am referring to anything between the browser and the server that caches your content. Perhaps you are using a third party CDN (content delivery network) such as Akamai or edgecast to speed up HTTP request delivery. These types of services are tailored to high volume websites with widespread user-bases and are generally cost-prohibitive to small-medium sized websites.

There are also other caches you may not not even know exist. Many large corporations, educational institutions and even countries cache content coming into their network. Oftentimes the proxies function much like browsers in their respect for HTTP headers however they do not always abide by your rules so be sure and identify private content by defining unique querystring parameters lest sensitive information be spread to multiple recipients.

Hopefully, if you are not caching now, you will be motivated to implement a caching policy soon. I plan to follow up soon with a more in-depth Apache/PHP caching post.

What Is PHP?

2008-05-30T00:03:00.000+05:30

The endless possibilities of the PHP scripting language and a great community of users has made it one of the most popular open-source languages. For all you people living outside the UNIX world, Open Source means it doesn't cost anything. You can use it as much as you want and where you want, and nobody will ever charge you thousands of dollars for licenses and support. Even though it was originally conceived as a set of macros to help coders maintain personal home pages, its name grew a lot more from its purpose. Since then, PHP's capabilities have been extended, taking it beyond a set of utilities to a full-featured programming language, capable of managing huge database-driven online environments.

PHP scripting

PHP is now officially known as "PHP: HyperText Preprocessor". It is a server-side scripting language usually written in an HTML context. Unlike an ordinary HTML page, a PHP script is not sent directly to a client by the server; instead, it is parsed by the PHP binary or module, which is server-side installed. HTML elements in the script are left alone, but PHP code is interpreted and executed. PHP code in a script can query databases, create images, read and write files, talk to remote servers - the possibilities are endless. The output from PHP code is combined with the HTML in the script and the result sent to the user?s web-browser, therefore it can never tell the user whether the web-server uses PHP or not, because all the browser sees is HTML.

PHP's support for Apache and MySQL further increases its popularity. Apache is now the most-used web-server in the world, and PHP can be compiled as an Apache module. MySQL is a powerful free SQL database, and PHP provides a comprehensive set of functions for working with it. The combination of Apache, MySQL and PHP is all but unbeatable.

That doesn?t mean that PHP cannot work in other environments or with other tools. In fact, PHP supports an extensive list of databases and web-servers. The rise in popularity of PHP has coincided with a change of approach in web-publishing. While in the mid-1990s it was ok to build sites, even relatively large sites, with hundreds of individual hard-coded HTML pages, today?s webmasters are making the most of the power of databases to manage their content more effectively and to personalize their sites according to individual user preferences.

Reasons for using PHP

There are some indisputable great reasons to work with PHP. As an open source product, PHP is well supported by a talented production team and a committed user community. Furthermore, PHP can be run on all the major operating systems with most servers.

The speed of development is also important. Because PHP allows you to separate HTML code from scripted elements, you will notice a significant decrease in development time on many projects. In many instances, you will be able to separate the coding stage of a project from the design and build stages. Not only can this make life easier for you as a programmer, but it also can remove obstacles that stand in the way of effective and flexible design.

Well-maintained open source projects offer users additional benefits. You benefit from an accessible and committed community who offer a wealth of experience in the subject, as fast and as cheap as possible. Chances are that any problem you encounter in your coding can be answered swiftly and easily with a little research. If that fails, a question sent to a mailing list or forum can have an intelligent, authoritative response. You also can be sure that bugs will be addressed as they are found, and that new features will be made available as the need is defined. You will not have to wait for the next commercial release before taking advantage of improvements, and there is no hidden interest in a particular server product or operating system. You are free to make choices that suit your needs or those of your clients and incorporate whatever components you want.