Basic PHP Programming

There are too many Content Management Products in the market today. Too many in fact, that you wouldn’t know which to choose anymore. This can place you in a difficult situation because these products are not all unique in themselves. Therefore, you may make the mistake of picking one which you think seems to be the best product, then later regret when it turns out to be otherwise.

So, when do you get a Content Management Product? First, decide whether or not you really need one. If you believe you have the need, then proceed in getting one. Second, determine your company’s policy on development technologies, open source and hosted solutions. For all you know, getting a Content Management Product may not get along with the applications your company prefers to use.

Contrary to common notion, programming is not really hard, at least at present. Compared to the earlier days of programming about more than twenty years ago when it was totally alien to most people, nowadays, almost anyone can learn this skill. It’s true that during the infant stage of programming there were learning books to assist those who wanted to study and train in this field. However, we are luckier now because there are tutorials, mostly online, that can help us in developing programming skills.

On the other hand though, undergoing tutorials either online or in actual location should be boosted by one’s perseverance and interest. Perseverance requires the learner to read tutorial lessons and later try out some actual programming work while interest pushes the person to really want to acquire and learn said ability.

Blogger is equipped with a superb interface used to tidy up blog entries as well as facilitate endorsement of a blog to attain a better position in its niche. This application only requires an uncomplicated SimpleXML set transported with an entire PHP system, along with some understanding of the Google Blogger API and a small part of PHP scripting to come up with the needed HTML code.

Blogger interface is so excellent that it should be put to full use when promoting a blog because with this method, one need not install blog software on a web server anymore since it is already inbuilt with Blogger. This way the web site owner saves time and effort, plus he is able to maintain his MySQL database allowance and set it aside for better and more advanced use in the future.

Editing or creating a php page can lead to migraines and irregular sleeps due to the complicated nature of its coding. However, you can actually save time (and get more sleeps too!) if you will use a WYSIWYG php editor. WYSIWYG stands for “What You See Is What You Get” and it is basically a visual editor. It was made specifically for those who wish to make web pages but do not know anything about coding. TinyMCE is a nice program for those who wish to make websites using javascript, html and php. You can even control the pictures you are going to use in the website you are making, allowing you to preview and move the pictures as freely as possible—of course, without the hassle of inputting codes you cannot understand.

Photo taken from http://www.thesynapticleap.org

Who says php programmers can’t be game programmers? Of course they can! But do not expect them to create a Grand Theft Auto kind of game out of php coding. They can’t. All they can make are simple, yet fun games such as quizzes, sudoku and puzzles. LizQuiz is a downloadable snippet, wherein you can just change the variables you will use for the quiz you are making. You can configure the quiz using an XML file, so you don’t need a database to store your pool of questions. You can even add multiple answers to a single question if the question sees fit. You can get the snippet here.

Photo taken from http://www.sliver.com

All over the world, people are using PHP in their daily internet experience and with companies working hard to make it into a more powerful tool for the internet of tomorrow, updates and add-on’s are a fact of life. Zend Technologies, one of the developers who work with PHP has announced the release of their new and improved Zend Framework release 1.8 which makes PHP better by bringing Rapid Application Development (RAD) to the industry. The ability to do RAD allows easy business application development using PHP that is set to fuel business ventures into the cloud. Read the rest of this entry »

This year’s TestFest 2009 is almost here and people from all over the globe work together, each devoting a few hours of their time to the proper testing of the newer and enhanced versions of the platform to allow a wider testing program. Most testing is done by a select few who work their best to test, isolate and address issues that come out with previous releases that should have been addressed by current updates. The test group, spanning 20 countries with a multitude of talents hopes to try out and see if all errors, vulnerabilities and enhancements are up to par with programming standards previously implemented. Read the rest of this entry »

As the internet evolves and the many people who work hard to make it possible try to issue improvements into the already forever present PHP platform, the newest version of PHP 5.3.0, release candidate 2 has been released for evaluation and testing. The update is in efforts to address security vulnerabilities that have been found with the last release only a month or so ago and it is deemed as part of the continuing evolution of PHP into one of the best and most secure web platforms ever. Project managers are advised to download the latest version fro testing with current projects so compatibility issues can be addressed early. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s surprising how many PHP programmers make the mistake of ignoring many of the basics, such as resizing big files. Big files make load times significantly slower, and are a bane to impatient people and people with slow internet connection speeds.

Failing to resize you large files makes you an unintentional elitist – it’s like you hung a sign on your site that says “Folks with slow internet connections speed are NOT welcome here.”

It’s a simple enough tip, but many ignore or overlook it precisely because of that. You might have a fast internet connection, but chances are many viewers don’t enjoy the same luxury. And maximizing viewership is a must for every website, and big files that cause delays in loading times totally defeat the purpose, especially with the shot attention span many people have when browsing the net.

The latest release available for Windows users that is designed to address security flaws in the integrated OPEN SSL libraries with subsequent updates to the Open SSL library (0.9.8k) patching the security vulnerability left by the said windows flaw. The update addresses errors to the ASN1_string function that releases security information upon a call to print. another error that was addressed was with concern to the CMS_verify function which was unable to handle error conditions involving malformed signed attributes. Another issue with the ASN1 structure concerned memory issues that sometimes caused crashes with some installations.
The security holes have long been a problem which the open-sourced community have always managed to release security bulletins and updates to address these issues. The systems which uses the OpenSSL standard is invalidated when the said flaws were discovered making dangerous loophpoles for access by hackers. The update is recommended for all users of the older version of PHP to address and avoid such security issues.