ITC280 - Blog week 1

PHP Solutions: Chapter 1 – What is PHP and why do I care?

Book Notes & Self Comments:

Defintion: Hypertext Preprocessor, server-scripting language (not like JavaScript & Visual Basic)
                - brings life to websites (easy updating)
                - no repeated code (dynamic code)
                - can send both html & xml (introduce logic into website, test conditions)
                - each page is built individually
                    (can respond to user input based on user log in, choice, feedback, etc)
                - allows a break up of page pieces into different files & lets server combine components
               

  What happens in php-driven website:
                1) browser sends request to web server
                2) web server hands request to php engine (embedded in the server)
                3) php engine processes code (where the database lies, sorts out database before building page)
                4) server builds the page and sends the page back to the browser

Problems with PHP:

-          Not forgiving language (will blow up when you make a mistake) most server side languages are this way

-          Each component builds upon itself so if HTML is poorly built, it will screw up with the rest of the page

                   Uses loops to repeat the codes

-          Needs to check user input for errors before processing it

-          Generally fairly safe but can be damaging when hacked
 
php editors:

Windows programs  -          PhpEd (nice beginner one) -          Crimson Editor -          Expression Web (no support for syntax checking)	Mac programs:      -          TextWrangler -          Coda
-     Dreamweaver CS5 -    Zend Studio (has syntax checking)                                         www.zend.com/en/products/studio/ -    PHP Development Tools (www.eclipse.org/pdt/) -    Komodo Edit (free)

Questions: