diff --git a/chapters/intro.xml b/chapters/intro.xml
index ae2ffaeb1de3..3673ec28e100 100644
--- a/chapters/intro.xml
+++ b/chapters/intro.xml
@@ -1,203 +1,193 @@
-
+
+
- Introduction
- What is PHP and what can it do?
+ What is PHP and what can it do?
+ Introduction
+
- What is PHP?
-
- PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext
- Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose
- scripting language that is especially suited for web
- development and can be embedded into HTML.
-
-
- Nice, but what does that mean? An example:
-
-
+
+ What is PHP?
+
+
+
+ PHP (a recursive acronym for
+ PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor)
+ is a widely used open-source general-purpose scripting language
+ especially suited for web development, and it can be embedded directly into HTML.
+
+
+
+ What does that mean in practice? Consider the following example:
+
+
- An introductory example
-
-An introductory example
+
-
- Example
-
-
+
+ Example
+
+
-
+
-
+
-]]>
-
+ ]]>
-
-
- Instead of lots of commands to output HTML (as seen in C or Perl),
- PHP pages contain HTML with embedded code that does
- something (in this case, output Hi, I'm a PHP script!).
- The PHP code is enclosed in special start and end processing
- instructions <?php and ?>
- that allow jumping in and out of PHP mode.
-
-
- What distinguishes PHP from something like client-side JavaScript
- is that the code is executed on the server, generating HTML which
- is then sent to the client. The client would receive
- the results of running that script, but would not know
- what the underlying code was. A web server can even be configured
- to process all HTML files with PHP, and then there's no
- way that users can tell that PHP is being used.
-
-
- The best part about using PHP is that it is extremely simple
- for a newcomer, but offers many advanced features for
- a professional programmer. Don't be afraid to read the long
- list of PHP's features. With PHP, almost anyone can get up and running and be
- writing simple scripts in no time at all.
-
-
- Although PHP's development is focused on server-side scripting,
- much more can be done with it. Read on, and see more in the
- What can PHP do? section,
- or go right to the introductory
- tutorial to jump straight to learning about web programming.
-
+
+
+ Instead of using many commands to output HTML (as in languages such as C or Perl),
+ PHP pages contain regular HTML with embedded code that performs
+ actions (in this case, outputting
+ Hi, I'm a PHP script!).
+ The PHP code is enclosed within special processing instructions
+ <?php and ?> that allow switching into and out of
+ PHP mode.
+
+
+
+ Unlike client-side JavaScript, PHP code is executed on the server,
+ generating HTML that is then sent to the client. The client sees
+ only the final output and not the underlying PHP code.
+ A web server can even be configured to process all HTML files through PHP,
+ making it impossible for users to know that PHP is being used.
+
+
+
+ One advantage of PHP is that it is extremely simple for beginners
+ while still offering advanced features for experienced developers.
+ With PHP, almost anyone can begin writing useful scripts quickly.
+
+
+
+ Although PHP’s primary focus is server-side scripting,
+ it is capable of much more. You can read more in the
+ What can PHP do? section,
+ or jump straight into the introductory tutorial
+ to start learning web programming.
+
+
+
- What can PHP do?
-
- Anything. PHP is mainly focused on server-side scripting,
- so it can do anything any other CGI program can do, such
- as collect form data, generate dynamic page content, or
- send and receive cookies. But PHP can do much more.
-
-
- There are two main areas where PHP scripts are used.
+
+ What can PHP do?
+
+
+
+ PHP is capable of performing anything that other CGI programs can do,
+ such as collecting form data, generating dynamic page content,
+ or sending and receiving cookies. However, PHP goes far beyond these capabilities.
+
+
+
+ PHP scripts are mainly used in two primary areas:
+
+
-
-
- Server-side scripting. This is the most widely used
- and main target field for PHP. Three things are needed
- to make this work: the PHP parser (CGI or server
- module), a web server, and a web browser. All these can
- run on a local machine in order to just experiment
- with PHP programming. See the
- installation instructions
- section for more information.
-
-
-
-
- Command line scripting. A PHP script can be run
- without any server or browser, only the
- PHP parser is needed to use it this way.
- This type of usage is ideal for scripts regularly
- executed using cron (on Unix or macOS) or Task Scheduler (on
- Windows). These scripts can also be used for simple text
- processing tasks. See the section about
- Command line usage of PHP
- for more information.
-
-
+
+
+ Server-side scripting.
+ This is PHP’s most common use case. To run server-side scripts,
+ you need three components: the PHP parser (as a CGI binary or a server module),
+ a web server, and a web browser. All of these can run locally for testing and development.
+ For details, refer to the installation instructions.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Command-line scripting.
+ PHP scripts can also run on the command line, without any web server or browser.
+ This is ideal for scripts executed using tools such as cron
+ on Unix/macOS or Task Scheduler on Windows.
+ PHP is also suitable for text-processing tasks.
+ See Command line usage of PHP for more information.
+
+
-
-
- PHP can be used on all major operating systems, including
- Linux, many Unix variants (including HP-UX, Solaris and OpenBSD),
- Microsoft Windows, macOS, RISC OS, and probably others.
- PHP also has support for most of the web servers today. This
- includes Apache, IIS, and many others. And this includes any
- web server that can utilize the FastCGI PHP binary, like lighttpd
- and nginx. PHP works as either a module, or as a CGI processor.
-
-
- So with PHP, developers have the freedom of choosing an operating
- system and a web server. Furthermore, they also have the choice
- of using procedural programming or object-oriented
- programming (OOP), or a mixture of them both.
-
-
- PHP is not limited to outputting HTML. PHP's abilities include
- outputting rich file types, such as images or PDF files, encrypting data,
- and sending emails. It can also output easily any text, such as JSON
- or XML. PHP can autogenerate these files, and save them in the
- file system, instead of printing it out, forming a server-side cache for
- dynamic content.
-
-
- One of the strongest and most significant features in PHP is its
- support for a wide range of databases.
- Writing a database-enabled web page is incredibly simple using one of
- the database specific extensions (e.g., for mysql),
- or using an abstraction layer like PDO, or connect
- to any database supporting the Open Database Connection standard via the
- ODBC extension. Other databases may utilize
- cURL or sockets,
- like CouchDB.
-
-
- PHP also has support for talking to other services using protocols
- such as LDAP, IMAP, SNMP, NNTP, POP3, HTTP, COM (on Windows) and
- countless others. It can also open raw network sockets and
- interact using any other protocol. PHP has support for the WDDX
- complex data exchange between virtually all Web programming
- languages. Talking about interconnection, PHP has support for
- instantiation of Java objects and using them transparently
- as PHP objects.
-
-
- PHP has useful text processing features,
- which includes the Perl compatible regular expressions (PCRE),
- and many extensions and tools to parse and access XML documents.
- PHP standardizes all of the XML extensions on the solid base of libxml2,
- and extends the feature set adding SimpleXML,
- XMLReader and XMLWriter support.
-
-
- And many other interesting extensions exist, which are categorized both
- alphabetically and by category.
- And there are additional PECL extensions that may or may not be documented
- within the PHP manual itself, like XDebug.
-
-
- This page is not enough to list all
- the features and benefits PHP can offer. Read on in
- the sections about installing
- PHP, and see the function
- reference part for explanation of the extensions
- mentioned here.
-
+
+
+ PHP runs on all major operating systems, including Linux, numerous Unix variants
+ (such as HP-UX, Solaris, and OpenBSD), Microsoft Windows, macOS, and others.
+ It also supports a wide range of web servers including Apache, IIS, lighttpd, and nginx.
+ PHP can operate either as a module or as a CGI/FastCGI processor.
+
+
+
+ PHP gives developers the freedom to choose their operating system,
+ web server, and programming paradigm. You may write procedural code,
+ object-oriented programs, or a combination of both.
+
+
+
+ PHP is not limited to generating HTML. It can create images, PDF files,
+ and other rich content types; encrypt data; and send emails.
+ It can output text formats such as XML or JSON and can generate files for
+ server-side caching.
+
+
+
+ One of PHP’s strongest features is its support for a
+ wide range of databases.
+ Using extensions such as MySQLi,
+ abstraction layers such as PDO,
+ or the ODBC extension,
+ making database-enabled web pages becomes straightforward.
+ Other databases can be accessed using cURL
+ or sockets, such as CouchDB.
+
+
+
+ PHP supports communication with services using protocols such as LDAP,
+ IMAP, SNMP, NNTP, POP3, HTTP, COM (on Windows), and more.
+ It can also open raw network sockets for custom protocols.
+ PHP supports WDDX for data exchange between different programming languages.
+ It can instantiate Java objects and interact with them through a PHP interface.
+
+
+
+ PHP includes powerful text processing features,
+ including PCRE-compatible regular expressions
+ (PCRE)
+ and multiple extensions for working with XML. XML functionality is built on
+ libxml2 and includes
+ SimpleXML,
+ XMLReader,
+ and XMLWriter.
+
+
+
+ Many other useful extensions exist, listed both
+ alphabetically
+ and by category.
+ Additional extensions are available through PECL
+ (PECL extensions),
+ including tools such as Xdebug.
+
+
+
+ This chapter cannot list every feature PHP offers. Read the sections on
+ installing PHP and consult the
+ function reference for more details
+ about the features and extensions mentioned here.
+
+
-
-
-
+
diff --git a/chapters/tutorial.xml b/chapters/tutorial.xml
index bafbdb5b4ddf..c914d8c6ca24 100644
--- a/chapters/tutorial.xml
+++ b/chapters/tutorial.xml
@@ -1,67 +1,81 @@
-
- A simple tutorial
+
+
+
+ A simple tutorial
+
- Here we would like to show the very basics of PHP in a short, simple
- tutorial. This text only deals with dynamic web page creation with
- PHP, though PHP is not only capable of creating web pages. See
- the section titled What can PHP
- do for more information.
+ Here we would like to show the very basics of PHP in a short, simple
+ tutorial. This text only deals with dynamic web page creation with
+ PHP, though PHP is not only capable of creating web pages. See
+ the section titled What can PHP
+ do for more information.
+
- PHP-enabled web pages are treated just like regular HTML pages and
- you can create and edit them the same way you normally create
- regular HTML pages.
+ PHP-enabled web pages are treated just like regular HTML pages and
+ you can create and edit them the same way you normally create
+ regular HTML pages.
- Your first PHP-enabled page
-
- This tutorial assumes PHP is already installed.
- Installation instructions can be found on the
- download page.
-
-
- Create a file named hello.php
- with the following content:
-
-
+
+ Your first PHP-enabled page
+
+
+
+ This tutorial assumes PHP is already installed.
+ Installation instructions can be found on the
+ download page.
+
+
+
+ Create a file named hello.php
+ with the following content:
+
+
- Our first PHP script: <filename>hello.php</filename>
-
-
+ Our first PHP script: <filename>hello.php</filename>
+
+
+
-]]>
-
-
- Using your terminal, navigate to the directory containing this file and
- start a development server with the following command:
-
-
-
+
+
+ Using your terminal, navigate to the directory containing this file and
+ start a development server with the following command:
+
+
+
-
-
- Use your browser to access the file with your web server's URL, ending
- with the /hello.php file reference.
- According to the previous command executed, the URL will be
- http://localhost:8000/hello.php.
- If everything is configured correctly, this file will be parsed by PHP
- and you will see the "Hello World!" output displayed in your browser.
-
-
- PHP can be embedded within a normal HTML web page. That means inside your HTML document
- you can write the PHP statements, as demonstrated in the following example:
-
-
-
+
+
+ Use your browser to access the file with your web server's URL, ending
+ with the /hello.php file reference.
+ According to the previous command executed, the URL will be
+ http://localhost:8000/hello.php.
+ If everything is configured correctly, this file will be parsed by PHP
+ and you will see the "Hello World!" output displayed in your browser.
+
+
+
+ PHP can be embedded within a normal HTML web page. That means inside
+ your HTML document you can write PHP statements, as demonstrated in the
+ following example:
+
+
+
@@ -71,13 +85,13 @@ php -S localhost:8000
Hello World'; ?>
-]]>
-
-
- This will result in the following output:
-
-
-
+
+
+ This will result in the following output:
+
+
+
@@ -87,165 +101,181 @@ php -S localhost:8000
Hello World
-]]>
-
+]]>
-
-
- This program is extremely simple and you really did not need to use
- PHP to create a page like this. All it does is display:
- Hello World using the PHP echo
- statement. Note that the file does not need to be executable
- or special in any way. The server finds out that this file needs to be interpreted
- by PHP because you used the ".php" extension, which the server is configured
- to pass on to PHP. Think of this as a normal HTML file which happens to have
- a set of special tags available to you that do a lot of interesting things.
-
-
-
- The point of the example is to show the special PHP tag format.
- In this example we used <?php to indicate the
- start of a PHP tag. Then we put the PHP statement and left PHP mode by
- adding the closing tag, ?>. You may jump in
- and out of PHP mode in an HTML file like this anywhere you want. For more
- details, read the manual section on the
- basic PHP syntax.
-
-
-
- A Note on Line Feeds
+
- Line feeds have little meaning in HTML, however it is still a good idea
- to make your HTML look nice and clean by putting line feeds in. A
- linefeed that follows immediately after a closing
- ?> will be removed by PHP. This can be extremely
- useful when you are putting in many blocks of PHP or include files
- containing PHP that aren't supposed to output anything. At the same time
- it can be a bit confusing. You can put a space after the closing
- ?> to force a space and a line feed to be output,
- or you can put an explicit line feed in the last echo/print from within
- your PHP block.
+ This program is extremely simple and you really did not need to use
+ PHP to create a page like this. All it does is display
+ Hello World using the PHP echo
+ statement. Note that the file does not need to be executable
+ or special in any way. The server finds out that this file needs to be interpreted
+ by PHP because you used the ".php" extension, which the server is configured
+ to pass on to PHP. Think of this as a normal HTML file which happens to have
+ a set of special tags available to you that do a lot of interesting things.
-
-
- A Note on Text Editors
- There are many text editors and Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)
- that you can use to create, edit and manage PHP files. A partial list of
- these tools is maintained at PHP Editors
- List. If you wish to recommend an editor, please visit the above
- page and ask the page maintainer to add the editor to the list. Having
- an editor with syntax highlighting can be helpful.
+ The point of the example is to show the special PHP tag format.
+ In this example we used <?php to indicate the
+ start of a PHP tag. Then we put the PHP statement and left PHP mode by
+ adding the closing tag, ?>. You may jump in
+ and out of PHP mode in an HTML file like this anywhere you want. For more
+ details, read the manual section on the
+ basic PHP syntax.
-
-
- A Note on Word Processors
+
+
+ A Note on Line Feeds
+
+
+ Line feeds have little meaning in HTML, however it is still a good idea
+ to make your HTML look nice and clean by putting line feeds in. A
+ line feed that follows immediately after a closing
+ ?> will be removed by PHP. This can be extremely
+ useful when you are putting in many blocks of PHP or include files
+ containing PHP that aren't supposed to output anything. At the same time
+ it can be a bit confusing. You can put a space after the closing
+ ?> to force a space and a line feed to be output,
+ or you can put an explicit line feed in the last echo/print from within
+ your PHP block.
+
+
+
+
+
+ A Note on Text Editors
+
+
+ There are many text editors and Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)
+ that you can use to create, edit and manage PHP files. A partial list of
+ these tools is maintained at
+ PHP Editors List.
+ If you wish to recommend an editor, please visit the above
+ page and ask the page maintainer to add the editor to the list.
+ Having an editor with syntax highlighting can be helpful.
+
+
+
+
+
+ A Note on Word Processors
+
+
+ Word processors such as StarOffice Writer, Microsoft Word and Abiword are
+ not optimal for editing PHP files. If you wish to use one for this
+ test script, you must ensure that you save the file as plain
+ text or PHP will not be able to read and execute the script.
+
+
+
- Word processors such as StarOffice Writer, Microsoft Word and Abiword are
- not optimal for editing PHP files. If you wish to use one for this
- test script, you must ensure that you save the file as plain
- text or PHP will not be able to read and execute the script.
+ Now that you have successfully created a working PHP script, it is
+ time to create the most famous PHP script. Make a call to the
+ phpinfo function and you will see a lot of useful
+ information about your system and setup such as available
+ predefined variables,
+ loaded PHP modules, and configuration
+ settings. Take some time and review this important information.
-
-
-
- Now that you have successfully created a working PHP script, it is
- time to create the most famous PHP script! Make a call to the
- phpinfo function and you will see a lot of useful
- information about your system and setup such as available
- predefined variables,
- loaded PHP modules, and configuration
- settings. Take some time and review this important information.
-
-
+
- Get system information from PHP
-
-
+ Get system information from PHP
+
+
-]]>
-
+]]>
-
+
- Something Useful
-
- Let us do something more useful now. We are going to check
- what sort of browser the visitor is using.
- For that, we check the user agent string the browser
- sends as part of the HTTP request. This information is stored in a variable. Variables always start
- with a dollar-sign in PHP. The variable we are interested in right now
- is $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'].
-
-
+
+ Something Useful
+
+
+
+ Let us do something more useful now. We are going to check
+ what sort of browser the visitor is using.
+ For that, we check the user agent string the browser
+ sends as part of the HTTP request. This information is stored in a
+ variable. Variables always start
+ with a dollar sign in PHP. The variable we are interested in right now
+ is $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'].
+
+
+
+
+ $_SERVER is a
+ special reserved PHP variable that contains all web server information.
+ It is known as a superglobal. See the related manual page on
+ superglobals
+ for more information.
+
+
+
- $_SERVER is a
- special reserved PHP variable that contains all web server information.
- It is known as a superglobal. See the related manual page on
- superglobals
- for more information.
+ To display this variable, you can simply do:
-
-
- To display this variable, you can simply do:
-
-
+
- Printing a variable (Array element)
-
-
+ Printing a variable (Array element)
+
+
+
-]]>
-
+]]>
+
+
+ A sample output of this script may be:
+
+
+
+
+
- A sample output of this script may be:
+ There are many types of
+ variables available in PHP. In the above example we printed an element
+ from an Array variable.
+ Arrays can be very useful.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- There are many types of
- variables available in PHP. In the above example we printed an element
- from an Array variable.
- Arrays can be very useful.
-
-
- $_SERVER is just one variable that PHP automatically
- makes available to you. A list can be seen in the
- Reserved Variables section
- of the manual or you can get a complete list of them by looking at
- the output of the phpinfo function used in the
- example in the previous section.
-
-
- You can put multiple PHP statements inside a PHP tag and create
- little blocks of code that do more than just a single echo.
- For example, if you want to check for Firefox you
- can do this:
-
-
+
+
+ $_SERVER is just one variable that PHP automatically
+ makes available to you. A list can be seen in the
+ Reserved Variables section
+ of the manual or you can get a complete list of them by looking at
+ the output of the phpinfo function used in the
+ example in the previous section.
+
+
+
+ You can put multiple PHP statements inside a PHP tag and create
+ little blocks of code that do more than just a single echo.
+ For example, if you want to check for Firefox you
+ can do this:
+
+
- Example using <link linkend="language.control-structures">control
- structures</link> and <link linkend="language.functions">functions</link>
-
-
+ Example using <link linkend="language.control-structures">control
+ structures</link> and <link linkend="language.functions">functions</link>
+
+
+
-]]>
-
-
- A sample output of this script may be:
-
-
-
+
+
+ A sample output of this script may be:
+
+
+
-
+]]>
-
-
- Here we introduce a couple of new concepts. We have an
- if statement.
- If you are familiar with the basic syntax used by the C
- language, this should look logical to you. Otherwise, you
- should probably pick up an introductory PHP book and read the first
- couple of chapters, or read the Language
- Reference part of the manual.
-
-
- The second concept we introduced was the str_contains
- function call. str_contains is a function built into
- PHP which determines if a given string contains another string. In this case we are
- looking for 'Firefox' (so-called needle) inside
- $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] (so-called haystack). If
- the needle is found inside the haystack, the function returns true. Otherwise, it
- returns &false;. If it returns &true;, the if expression evaluates to &true;
- and the code within its {braces} is executed. Otherwise, the code is not
- run. Feel free to create similar examples,
- with if,
- else, and other
- functions such as strtoupper and
- strlen. Each related manual page contains examples
- too. If you are unsure how to use functions, you will want to read both
- the manual page on how to read a
- function definition and the section about
- PHP functions.
-
-
- We can take this a step further and show how you can jump in and out
- of PHP mode even in the middle of a PHP block:
-
-
+
+
+ Here we introduce a couple of new concepts. We have an
+ if statement.
+ If you are familiar with the basic syntax used by the C
+ language, this should look logical to you. Otherwise, you
+ should probably pick up an introductory PHP book and read the first
+ couple of chapters, or read the Language
+ Reference part of the manual.
+
+
+
+ The second concept we introduced was the str_contains
+ function call. str_contains is a function built into
+ PHP which determines if a given string contains another string. In this case we are
+ looking for 'Firefox' (the needle) inside
+ $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] (the haystack). If
+ the needle is found inside the haystack, the function returns
+ true. Otherwise, it returns false.
+ When the function returns true, the
+ if expression evaluates to
+ true and the code within its braces is executed; otherwise, that block is
+ skipped. Feel free to create similar examples
+ with if,
+ else, and other
+ functions such as strtoupper and
+ strlen. Each related manual page contains examples
+ too. If you are unsure how to use functions, you will want to read both
+ the manual page on how to read a
+ function definition and the section about
+ PHP functions.
+
+
+
+ We can take this a step further and show how you can jump in and out
+ of PHP mode even in the middle of a PHP block:
+
+
- Mixing both HTML and PHP modes
-
-
+ Mixing both HTML and PHP modes
+
+
+
@@ -316,45 +350,51 @@ if (str_contains($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], 'Firefox')) {
-]]>
-
-
- A sample output of this script may be:
-
-
-
+
+
+ A sample output of this script may be:
+
+
+ str_contains() returned true
You are using Firefox
-]]>
-
+]]>
-
-
- Instead of using a PHP echo statement to output something, we jumped out
- of PHP mode and just sent straight HTML. The important and powerful point
- to note here is that the logical flow of the script remains intact. Only
- one of the HTML blocks will end up getting sent to the viewer depending on
- the result of str_contains. In other words, it depends on
- whether the string Firefox was found or not.
-
+
+
+ Instead of using a PHP echo statement to output
+ something, we jumped out of PHP mode and just sent straight HTML. The
+ important and powerful point to note here is that the logical flow of the
+ script remains intact. Only one of the HTML blocks will end up getting
+ sent to the viewer depending on the result of
+ str_contains, that is, whether the string
+ Firefox was found or not.
+
+
- Dealing with Forms
-
- One of the most powerful features of PHP is the way it handles HTML
- forms. The basic concept that is important to understand is that any
- form element will automatically be available to your PHP
- scripts. Please read the manual section on
- Variables from external
- sources for more information and examples on using forms
- with PHP. Here is an example HTML form:
-
-
+
+ Dealing with Forms
+
+
+
+ One of the most powerful features of PHP is the way it handles HTML
+ forms. The basic concept that is important to understand is that any
+ form element will automatically be available to your PHP
+ scripts. Please read the manual section on
+ Variables from external
+ sources for more information and examples on using forms
+ with PHP. Here is an example HTML form:
+
+
- A simple HTML form
-
-
+ A simple HTML form
+
+
+
@@ -364,73 +404,80 @@ if (str_contains($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], 'Firefox')) {
-]]>
-
+]]>
-
-
- There is nothing special about this form. It is a straight HTML form
- with no special tags of any kind. When the user fills in this form
- and hits the submit button, the action.php page
- is called. In this file you would write something like this:
-
-
+
+
+ There is nothing special about this form. It is a straight HTML form
+ with no special tags of any kind. When the user fills in this form
+ and hits the submit button, the action.php page
+ is called. In this file you would write something like this:
+
+
- Printing data from our form
-
-
+ Printing data from our form
+
+
+ .
You are years old.
-]]>
-
-
- A sample output of this script may be:
-
-
-
+
+
+ A sample output of this script may be:
+
+
+
-
+]]>
-
-
- Apart from the htmlspecialchars and
- (int) parts, it should be obvious what this does.
- htmlspecialchars makes sure any characters that are
- special in html are properly encoded so people can't inject HTML tags
- or Javascript into your page. For the age field, since we know it is a
- number, we can just convert
- it to an int which will automatically get rid of any
- stray characters. You can also have PHP do this for you automatically by
- using the filter extension.
- The $_POST['name'] and $_POST['age']
- variables are automatically set for you by PHP. Earlier we
- used the $_SERVER superglobal; above we just
- introduced the $_POST
- superglobal which contains all POST data. Notice how the
- method of our form is POST. If we used the
- method GET then our form information would live in
- the $_GET superglobal instead.
- You may also use the $_REQUEST
- superglobal, if you do not care about the source of your request data. It
- contains the merged information of GET, POST and COOKIE data.
-
+
+
+ Apart from the htmlspecialchars and
+ (int) parts, it should be obvious what this does.
+ htmlspecialchars makes sure any characters that are
+ special in HTML are properly encoded so people cannot inject HTML tags
+ or JavaScript into your page. For the age field, since we know it is a
+ number, we can just convert
+ it to an int which will automatically get rid of any
+ stray characters. You can also have PHP do this for you automatically by
+ using the filter extension.
+ The $_POST['name'] and $_POST['age']
+ variables are automatically set for you by PHP. Earlier we
+ used the $_SERVER superglobal; above we just
+ introduced the $_POST
+ superglobal which contains all POST data. Notice how the
+ method of our form is POST. If we used the
+ method GET then our form information would live in
+ the $_GET superglobal instead.
+ You may also use the $_REQUEST
+ superglobal if you do not care about the source of your request data. It
+ contains the merged information of GET, POST and COOKIE data.
+
+
- What's next?
-
- With your new knowledge you should be able to understand most of
- the manual and also the various example scripts available in the
- example archives.
-
-
- To view various slide presentations that show more of what PHP can do,
- see the PHP Conference Material Site:
- &url.php.talks;
-
+
+ What's next?
+
+
+
+ With your new knowledge you should be able to understand most of
+ the manual and also the various example scripts available in the
+ example archives.
+
+
+
+ To view various slide presentations that show more of what PHP can do,
+ see the PHP Conference Material Site:
+ http://talks.php.net/
+
+
-
+
+