Posted by mcloide on November 3, 2009
Julian just came with a detailed tutorial of how to install Zend Studion on the 64 edition of Ubuntu.
It has both solutions, installing the normal version and the 64 version of Zend Studio.
Check it out: http://www.smooka.com/blog/2009/11/02/installing-zend-studio-on-ubuntu-64-bit/
Posted in PHP | Tagged: 64bits, install, ubuntu, Zend, zend studio | Leave a Comment »
Posted by mcloide on August 25, 2009
One of the major goals of PHP is to allow a common website to be fully dynamic. For that can be used database requests, form posting, changing information when parameters change, etc.
No matter when working with AJAX/PHP/MYSQL or PHP/MYSQL or simply PHP/MAIL you will probably be using the pre-defined variable arrays of $_POST, $_GET, $_FILES or $_REQUEST. Among these there is one more variable that you should have knowledge about, the $_SERVER variable that holds all the server environment information and is also an array.
[Note]: All these arrays are associative
The $_POST array will hold all information that have been passed by a HTTP POST method, or in a simple way, all information that have been passed by a post form and all this information will become a associative index on the array. Per example, if you have a input text box that is named “name” to access it via post you would use $_POST['name'];
It’s always easier to understand the flow of information when you have more than one page, so let’s consider a 3 page application in wich:
Page 1: form.html (note that since we are gonna be using php script on the page, there is no need for the php extension even knowing that you can use it).
<html>
<body>
<form method=”post” action=”processForm.php”>
<input type=”text” name=”username” value=”" /><br />
<input type=”submit” value=”submit form” />
</form>
</body>
</html>
It’s a very simple page with a form and a textbox that will submit the information, once posted, to the processForm.php file, that, will process the post request. Note that on the form method the post is defined, but you could use as well the get method. The only thing about using the get method is that it will submit all the values on the browser url as part of a querystring and it would be necessary to use the $_GET variable to request the values.
Page 2: processForm.php - The process posted form page
<?php
if (!empty($_POST)) // checking if a post has been completed
{if (strlen($_POST['username']) > 0)
{
// has something, let’s force to go to the thanks page
header(‘location: thanksPage.php‘);
}}
?>
[Note]: Since is a full PHP page you don’t need the closing tag (in red).
Page 3: thanksPage.php – The thank you for posting page
At the last page of the example we will show a thank you page to the user for posting he’s username information.
<html>
<body>
<p> Thanks for posting the form </p>
</body>
</html>
The last page is quite simple and it’s a simple thanks message as part of the last process to be done to complete the post method.
Looking into a simple work flow we would have:
[page 1: form] → [enter information] → [submit] →
{ form is posted to the processPost.php page } :: [page 2: processing] → [check if the form has been submited] → [check if the username was given] →
{ page is redirected to the thanksPage.php } :: [page 3: user message] → [show message] → [end]
As you have probably noticed by now if the username is not given it will only show a blank page, we would not have a error message being show or even a return to the previous page. Another thing is that even that the username is given, there is no validation what so ever over the submited post.
This is where the $_GET comes to be extremely useful. Get should be used to communicate parameters between pages, but only communicating those parameters that does not contain sensitive information such as passwords or credit card numbers. As example, think in a AJAX call to a php script where the goal is to filter the search based on a given parameter. This is actually done by using $_GET on the php side and passing the filters by a querystring.
Since we don’t really need a form posting to use the get, let’s first demonstrate how to send parameters between pages using the $_GET array. To better understand the process let’s create a 2 page set where the first a user will click a link that will set a parameter on the second page.
Page 1: Links with parameters
<html>
<body>
<a href=”processGet.php?showmsg=1&msg=it%20worked “>click me to set parameters</a>
</body>
</html>
Note 3 elements on that link:
To get those parameters and it’s values, you need a PHP page to parse the $_GET array, so let’s check the page 2.
Page 2: processGet.php – parsing the $_GET array to retrieve the querystring parameters.
<?php
$showMsg = $_GET['showmsg'];
$msg = $_GET['msg'];
?>
<html>
<body>
<p>
<?php
if ($showMsg) { echo $msg; }
// the equivalent to this is echo ($showMsg) ? $msg : ”;
?>
</p>
</body>
</html>
The second page will check if the first parameter, showmsg, is set to 1 (or true) and if so it will display the msg “it works” on the page for the user.
[Note]: Since this is a php page with html tags in it, you need to close all open php tags (in red).
$_POST and $_GET become really helpful when working together. You would use the post to safely communicate data and the get to inform when something went wrong or simply to exchange information between pages.
Let’s get the example given to $_POST and add some $_GET parameters to communicate the information between page 1 and 2.
Page 1: form.php (note that the extension has changed)
<?php
$hasError = $_GET['error'];
$errorType = $_GET['type'];
?>
<html>
<body>
<?php if (!empty($hasError)) { ?>
<p><? if (!empty($errorType) && $errorType == 1) { echo ‘Please enter your username.’; } ?><br /></p>
// if you had more than one type you could parse all errors here
<?php } ?>
<form method=”post” action=”processForm.php”>
<input type=”text” name=”username” value=”" /><br />
<input type=”submit” name=”submit” value=”submit” />
</form>
</body>
</html>
Page 1 (form.php) contains the form that will submit the username information to the processing php page (processForm.php) and also contains a validation using parameters got from the $_GET array. These parameters will be sent by the second page, proccessForm.php, when an error on the submission is detected.
Page 2: processForm.php
<?php
if ($_POST) {
$username = $_POST['username'];
if (empty($username)) {
header (‘location: form.php?error=1&errortype=1′); // this will display an error message asking the user to enter his username information on the 1st page.
}
else {
header (‘location: thanksPage.php’); // the information was correctly given, so redirect to the thanks page.
}
}
else {
header(‘location: form.php?error=1&errortype=2′); // this could show a message warning the user that a post submission is needed to process
}
?>
With the help of the $_GET array and querystring now we have much more control over the form submission with a very basic validation and at the same time making the form much more dynamic.
I have mentioned above about the $_SERVER, $_REQUEST and $_FILES and where does they come in all of this? Well the $_REQUEST is the same as the $_POST, $_GET and $_COOKIES altogether in one array. In a coding point of view is good to be using all separate since you know what is being sent and where it came from, but using the $_REQUEST is up to each developer.
The $_FILES array is used when you are posting a file through a form (file upload – remember to set the correct enctype on the form). The file will not be available on the $_POST array making the only way to access it through the $_FILES array. Within this array you can find information where it’s currently stored (the tmp file on the server), it’s real name, type, etc.
To wrap up let’s take a look on the $_SERVER array. The server array contains all the information related to the server environment, from the PHP_SELF – the script executing the php coding, to the SERVER_NAME. Check it out on the php manual page for more info or simply do a var_dump($_SERVER) to learn everything about your development server.
On the next post we will gather everything that we have learned here and place it in a small one page application (yeah multi-page is not really necessary, but make it simpler to explain) where we are going to request a username / password from a user to login.
Have fun.
Posted in PHP, Zend, development | Tagged: $_FILES, $_GET, $_POST, $_REQUEST, $_SERVER, develop, form, PHP, php basics, php basics series, Zend | Leave a Comment »
Posted by mcloide on August 13, 2009
Searching a blog somethings is a bit annoying, so to make everyone life easier I have created a new page with the links for all posts about the Zend Certification Exam (currently PHP5 and in the future ZF).
Since is a page you can easily access it by the top menu ↑or on the right menu →
For now, a fast link: Zend Certification Series
Posted in PHP, Zend, development, resources | Tagged: certification, PHP, php5, series, Zend, zend certification series | Leave a Comment »
Posted by mcloide on August 5, 2009
I was looking for some info about posting an form with the Zend Framework and I came accross this blog – http://ganeshhs.com/ – it has a great amount of tutorials about the Zend Framework, from the basics to some a bit more advanced.
Cool stuff: http://ganeshhs.com/category/zend-framework
Posted in PHP, Zend, development, resources | Tagged: PHP, Zend, zend framework, tutorials | 1 Comment »
Posted by mcloide on July 29, 2009
I have just installed PHP5 Memcache on my Xubuntu dev machine and every page loaded was returning me an annoying error of Memcache connection error.
Warning: Memcache::connect() [memcache.connect]: Can't connect to localhost:11211, Connection refused (111)
When after you tried everything it still doesn’t work, you got to research for something that will actually correct your issue. With that in mind I found this great post that shows a very easy trouble shooting for fixing the connection error with Memcache.
The post is related to installing, but the last 3 commands will help you do a full troubleshoot with your current Memcache configuration.
Follow the link: http://netweblogic.com/php/installing-memcache-for-php-5-on-linux-centos/
Posted in PHP, Zend, development, linux, resources | Tagged: memcache, PHP, php5, troubleshoot, Zend | 1 Comment »
Posted by mcloide on July 29, 2009
One of the best webcast I have seen so far is now available to be downloaded and watched at PHP Artchitech site.
The webcast: Play-doh: Towards Better Object Modeling - with M. Weier O’Phinney have about 1 hour duration and points perfectly how to better construct objects and model your applications.
Matthew is one of the Zend Guru’s, so take one hour to watch it.
To watch the video: http://mtadata.s3.amazonaws.com/webcasts/20090724-playdoh.wmv
To watch the previous videos and register for the next webcasts go to:
http://www.phparch.com/conferences/webcasts
Have fun.
Posted in News, PHP, Zend, cool, development, resources | Tagged: matthew weiner o'phinney, modeling, object oriented, oop, PHP, Zend | 2 Comments »
Posted by mcloide on July 22, 2009
This is a great post from Antonio Lupetti that shows, in a very simple way, how to post a message on Twitter using the Twitter API and PHP.
Check it out: http://woork.blogspot.com/2007/10/twitter-send-message-from-php-page.html and tweet 
Update: Adding up to this tutorial there is a great tutorial as well: http://devzone.zend.com/article/4431-Using-the-Twitter-API-with-PHP-and-PEAR
Posted in Javascript, PHP, development | Tagged: api, PHP, twitter, Zend | Leave a Comment »
Posted by mcloide on June 9, 2009
I have always heard that love and hate walks together, but I never did believe that this would apply to web programming.
Today a friend of mine sent me this article – Frustration with Zend Controller Action Helpers – that only proves that Zend Framework, and I must say, one of the best frameworks I have ever worked with, still needs a lot of improvement.
Check the article. Is a good perspective of when things go wrong with the Zend Framework.
Posted in PHP, development | Tagged: action controller, hate, love, PHP, Zend, zend framework, zf | Leave a Comment »
Posted by mcloide on May 8, 2009
Truncating a long string and adding ellipsis is something that time from time you need to do. The worst of it is that you never remember the function name or how you did at the first time, so you have to re-do it all again.
I was talking to a friend of mine and we both got the same conclusion: this should be at Zend Framework.
Meanwhile when this doesn’t happen, here is a great blog with a function snippet to work it out: http://snippets.jc21.com/snippets/php/truncate-a-long-string-and-add-ellipsis/
Posted in PHP, Zend, development | Tagged: ellipsis, PHP, truncate string, Zend, zend framework, zf | Leave a Comment »
Posted by mcloide on April 1, 2009
I have decided to place the download inside SourceForge.net. There I can easily mantain notes, logs, and better organize versions and files.
To check the new Authorize.net download page, please go to: https://sourceforge.net/projects/authorizenetaim/
Keep your eyes open I might be releasing some more changes soon
Posted in PHP, Zend, development, resources | Tagged: aim, authorize, authorize.net, class, php5, sourceforge.net, Zend | 4 Comments »
