Introduction to PHP
History of PHP Comparison with dynamic content
alternatives (Perl, CGI, ASP, JSP,
Servlets , CGI, etc) PHP tools and set up (web browser
/ server,editor, libraries, etc) Create a basic PHP Script Taking user input Self Referring Forms Selecting alternatives Use PHP to generate HTTP headers Pass PHP variables via the URL Debugging Tips

Taking User Input from Forms via PHP
Creating forms with PHP Security Protection from Cross Site Scripting
Using the form GET method Using the form POST method Obtaining data from forms through variables Using hidden fields Secure Web Forms Calling pages from themselves using forms Quoting HTML entities in user input

Variables and Expressions in PHP
Identifiers Data Types (integers, floats, strings and booleans) Text constants, interpolation, here documents Creating Variables Variable assignment Variable Scope User-defined Constants HTTP environment variables Magic Constants Variable References

PHP Operators
Arithmetic Operators Logical Operators Relational Operators The Identity Operator Bitwise Operators Other Operators Assignment Operators Operator Precedence and Associativity

Conditional Tests and Events in PHP
True and False If Comparing Strings and Numbers else and elseif The switch / case statement The ? : Operator Comparing for equality or identity

PHP Flow Control
Loops while do ... while for break and continue exit

PHP Configuration
The php.ini file Module Vs CGI Usage register_globals Commonly set configurations PHP 4.1 and above PHP4 compatibility in PHP5 A glance at upcoming PHP6

PHP Functions
Purpose of functions Built-in functions Declaring functions Functions Arguments Arguments - Call by Reference Default Arguments Return Returning References Variable Scope (global vs local) Static variables Recursion include and require Variable function calls

Storing Data in Arrays using PHP
What are arrays? How and when to use arrays Indexing arrays, numeric and hashes Initialising arrays Using foreach Add/remove info from arrays One-dimensional arrays Multi-dimensional arrays Array operators Array related functions

Handling Databases with PHP
PHP's database APIs Error-handling strategies Connection/disconnection, log in/log out Escaping strings in SQL statements Including common access functions Doing simple SQL queries via PHP Building HTML tables using SQL Queries Show access to: MySql, Oracle & MS-SQL Using PEAR DB

String Manipulation in PHP
substring and [] operators Case conversion, trimming Formatting output data Regular expressions

Sessions and Cookies in PHP
What is a session? Dependencies on the php.ini file Understanding PHP session variables Create a PHP session variable Register and modify PHP session variables Putting PHP session IDs in pages Good Practise with sessions and PHP Cookie properties Setting a cookie in PHP Retrieving PHP cookies Expiring/Deleting PHP cookies Drawbacks to cookies Using cookies well Cookie Security Issues

File and Directory Access Using PHP
Opening files, local and remote Reading and writing files Handling file permissions Handling file ownership File locking Opening and reading directories File uploads from the browser/user

Other I/O Issues in PHP
Getting IP addresses from visitors Getting referring URLs from visitors Environment variables Showing different content to different browsers (IE, Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, etc) Handling HTTP and MIME headers

Object Orientation in PHP
Object basics Classes in PHP PHP4 - constructors PHP5 - constructors and destructors Inheritance Accessing instance data and functions __sleep and __wakeup Class constants PHP5 OO Additions Objects: Assignments and References