PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition: The book that should have been in the box

548 Pages·2012·25.543 MB·English

by  Brett McLaughlin

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PHP & MySQL
Second Edition
The book that should have been in the box®
Brett McLaughlin
Beijing | Cambridge | Farnham | Köln | Sebastopol | Tokyo
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PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual, Second Edition
by Brett McLaughlin
Copyright © 2013 Brett McLaughlin. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc.,
1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472.
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For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: (800)
998-9938 or [e-mail].
November 2011: First Edition.
November 2012: Second Edition.
Revision History for the Second Edition:
2012-11-5 First release
See http://oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=0636920024927 for release details.
The Missing Manual is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. The Missing
Manual logo, and “The book that should have been in the box” are trademarks of
O’Reilly Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to
distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations
appear in this book, and O’Reilly Media is aware of a trademark claim, the
designations are capitalized.
While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher
assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the
use of the information contained in it.
[LSI]
ISBN: 978-1-449-32557-2
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Contents
The Missing Credits ....................................... vii
Introduction ................................................ 1
Part One: PHP and MySQL Basics
CHAPTER 1: PHP: What, Why, and Where?. ............................. 15
PHP Comes in Two Flavors: Local and Remote. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
PHP: Going Local ..................................................21
Write Your First Program ...........................................38
Run Your First Program ............................................ 40
But Where’s That Web Server? ......................................42
CHAPTER2: PHP Meets HTML. ......................................... 45
Script or HTML? ....................................................46
PHP Talks Back ....................................................51
Run PHP Scripts Remotely ..........................................54
CHAPTER 3: PHP Syntax: Weird and Wonderful ........................ 61
Get Information from a Web Form ...................................62
Working with Text in PHP ...........................................69
The $_REQUEST Variable Is an Array ..................................83
What Do You Do with User Information? ..............................90
CHAPTER 4: MySQL and SQL: Database and Language................. 91
What Is a Database?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Installing MySQL ...................................................95
SQL Is a Language for Talking to Databases ..........................104
Part Two: Dynamic Web Pages
CHAPTER 5: Connecting PHP to MySQL. ............................... 119
Writing a Simple PHP Connection Script .............................120
Cleaning Up Your Code with Multiple Files ...........................132
Building a Basic SQL Query Runner .................................138
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CHAPTER 6: Regular Expressions ..................................... 155
String Matching, Double-Time ......................................156
CHAPTER 7: Generating Dynamic Web Pages. ........................ 173
Revisiting a User’s Information .....................................174
Planning Your Database Tables .....................................175
Saving a User’s Information ........................................182
Show Me the User .................................................190
Revisiting (and Redirecting) the Create User Script .................. 208
Part Three: From Web Pages to Web Applications
CHAPTER 8: When Things Go Wrong (and They Will) ................. 221
Planning Your Error Pages .........................................223
Finding a Middle Ground for Error Pages with PHP ....................229
Add Debugging to Your Application ................................237
Redirecting On Error ..............................................242
CHAPTER 9: Handling Images and Complexity. ....................... 253
Images Are Just Files ..............................................254
Images Are for Viewing ............................................279
And Now for Something Completely Different ........................288
CHAPTER 10: Binary Objects and Image Loading ...................... 289
Storing Different Objects in Different Tables ........................ 290
Inserting a Raw Image into a Table ..................................292
Your Binary Data Isn’t Safe to Insert...Yet ........................... 296
Connecting Users and Images ......................................303
Show Me the Image! ...............................................313
Embedding an Image Is Just Viewing an Image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .324
So, Which Approach Is Best? ...................................... 330
CHAPTER 11: Listing, Iterating, and Administrating. ................... 333
Thinking about What You Need as an Admin .........................334
Listing All Your Users ..............................................337
Deleting a User ...................................................345
Talking Back to Your Users .........................................351
Standardizing on Messaging .......................................362
Integrating Utilities, Views, and Messages ...........................369
iv COnTenTs
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Part Four: Security and the Real World
CHAPTER 12: Authentication and Authorization ....................... 385
Basic Authentication ..............................................386
Abstracting What’s the Same ......................................395
Passwords Don’t Belong in PHP Scripts ..............................399
Passwords Create Security, But Should Be Secure ....................413
CHAPTER 13: Cookies, Sign-Ins, and Ditching Crummy Pop-Ups. ...... 419
Moving Beyond Basic Authentication ............................... 420
Logging In with Cookies ...........................................426
Adding Context-Specific Menus ................................... 443
CHAPTER 14: Authorization and Sessions. ............................. 455
Modeling Groups in Your Database ..................................455
Checking for Group Membership ...................................461
Group-Specific Menus .............................................471
Entering Browser Sessions .........................................475
Memory Lane: Remember That Phishing Problem? ................... 486
Why Would You Ever Use Cookies? ................................ 489
Part Five: Appendixes
APPENDIx A: Installing PHP on Windows Without WAMP .............. 493
APPENDIx B: Installing MySQL Without MAMP or WAMP .............. 499
Index..................................................... 513
COnTenTs v
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The Missing Credits
ABouT THE AuTHoR
Brett McLaughlin is a senior-level technologist and strategist,
active especially in web programming and data-driven, custom-
er-facing systems. Rarely focused on only one component of a
system, he architects, designs, manages, and implements large-
scale applications from start to finish with mission-critical imple-
mentations and deadlines.
Of course, that’s all fancy-talk for saying that Brett’s a geek,
spending most of his day in front of a computer with his hands
flying across a keyboard. Currently, he spends most of his time
working on NASA projects, which sounds much cooler than it actually is. But hey,
maybe that satellite overhead really is controlled by PHP and MySQL...
ABouT THE CREATivE TEAM
Nan Barber (editor) has been working on the Missing Manual series since its incep-
tion. She lives in Boston with her husband and various electronic devices. Email:
[e-mail].
Holly Bauer (production editor) lives in Ye Olde Cambridge, Massachusetts, where
she is an avid home cook, prolific DIYer, and mid-century modern furniture design
enthusiast. Email: [e-mail].
Bob Russell (copyeditor) is a documentation specialist and President of Octal Pub-
lishing, Inc., in Salem, New Hampshire (www.octalpub.com). Email: bob.russell@
octalpub.com.
Bob Pfahler (indexer) is a freelance indexer. For the past five years, he has indexed
many computer books as well as biographies, history, and business books. When
he is not working, he likes to take bike rides in the foothills outside of Denver. He in-
dexed this book as an associate for Potomac Indexing (www.potomacindexing.com).
Roger House (technical reviewer) is a freelance software developer living in northern
California. He has written code in many languages for various kinds of applications.
He enjoys algorithm design, use of data structures, and applications of mathematics.
Web: www.rogerfhouse.com. Email: [e-mail].
Steve Suehring (technical reviewer) is a technical architect with an extensive back-
ground finding simple solutions to complex problems. Steve plays several musical
instruments (not at the same time) and can be reached through his website www
.b raingia.org.
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ACknoWLEDgMEnTS
Acknowledgments are nearly impossible to do well. Before you can thank anyone
of substance, the music swells and they’re shuffling you off stage. Seriously, apart
from the writing, there’s my wife, Leigh, and my kids, Dean, Robbie, and Addie.
Any energy or joy or relaxation that happens during the long writing process filters
through those four, and there are never enough royalties to cover the time lost with
them. I suppose it’s a reflection of their love and support for me that they’re OK
with me writing anyway.
There’s certainly the writing. Brian Sawyer was the first guy to call me when I became
available to write, and he called when I was really in need of just what he gave me:
excitement about me writing and encouragement that I could write for the Missing
Manual series. I won’t forget that call anytime soon. And, there’s Nan Barber, who
IM’ed and emailed me throughout the entire process. She showed a really unhealthy
level of trust that wasn’t earned, and I’m quite thankful...especially in the dark days of
early August, when I had hundreds of pages left to write, in just a few short weeks.
Roger House and Steve Suehring, my technical reviewers, were both picky and
gentle. That’s about all you can ask. And Steve filled out my PHP holes. He caught
one particularly nasty issue that I think vastly improved the book. You don’t realize
this, but you owe him a real debt of thanks if this book helps you.
— Brett McLaughlin
THE MiSSing MAnuAL SERiES
Missing Manuals are witty, superbly written guides to computer products that don’t
come with printed manuals (which is just about all of them). Each book features a
handcrafted index and cross-references to specific pages (not just chapters).
Recent and upcoming titles include:
Access 2010: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald
Adobe Edge Animate: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover
Buying a Home: The Missing Manual by Nancy Conner
CSS3: The Missing Manual, Third Edition, by David Sawyer McFarland
Creating a Website: The Missing Manual, Third Edition, by Matthew MacDonald
David Pogue’s Digital Photography: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
Dreamweaver CS5.5: The Missing Manual by David Sawyer McFarland
Droid 2: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla
Droid x2: The Missing Manual by Preston Gralla
Excel 2010: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald
Facebook: The Missing Manual, Third Edition by E.A. Vander Veer
viii The Missing CrediTs
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