The PHP Anthology, Volume II: Applications

413 Pages·2003·2.61 MB·English

by  Harry Fuecks

Summary of Contents: Volume I
Preface ........................................................................................................ ix
1. PHP Basics .............................................................................................. 1
2. Object Oriented PHP ............................................................................. 23
3. PHP and MySQL ................................................................................... 65
4. Files ..................................................................................................... 111
5. Text Manipulation ............................................................................... 143
6. Dates and Times .................................................................................. 171
7. Images ................................................................................................. 209
8. Email ................................................................................................... 237
9. Web Page Elements.............................................................................. 253
10. Error Handling ................................................................................... 319
A. PHP Configuration .............................................................................. 339
B. Hosting Provider Checklist................................................................... 347
C. Security Checklist ................................................................................ 351
D. Working with PEAR ............................................................................ 355
Index ....................................................................................................... 363
Summary of Contents: Volume II
Preface ...................................................................................................... xiii
1. Access Control ......................................................................................... 1
2. XML ...................................................................................................... 79
3. Alternative Content Types ................................................................... 169
4. Stats and Tracking ............................................................................... 221
5. Caching ............................................................................................... 241
6. Development Technique ...................................................................... 269
7. Design Patterns .................................................................................... 311
A. PHP Configuration .............................................................................. 355
B. Hosting Provider Checklist................................................................... 363
C. Security Checklist ................................................................................ 367
D. Working with PEAR ............................................................................ 371
Index ....................................................................................................... 379

The PHP Anthology
Volume II: Applications
by Harry Fuecks
The PHP Anthology, Volume II: Applications
by Harry Fuecks
Copyright © 2003 SitePoint Pty. Ltd.
Editor: Georgina Laidlaw
Technical Editor: Kevin Yank
Cover Design: Julian Carroll
Printing History:
First Edition: December 2003
Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted
in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Notice of Liability
The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information herein.
However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied.
Neither the authors and SitePoint Pty. Ltd., nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any
damages to be caused either directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book, or by
the software or hardware products described herein.
Trademark Notice
Rather than indicating every occurrence of a trademarked name as such, this book uses the names
only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of infringe-
ment of the trademark.
Published by SitePoint Pty. Ltd.
424 Smith Street Collingwood
VIC Australia 3066.
Web: www.sitepoint.com
Email: [email protected]
ISBN 0-9579218-4-5
Printed and bound in the United States of America
About The Author
Harry is a technical writer, programmer, and system engineer. He has worked in
corporate IT since 1994, having completed a Bachelor’s degree in Physics. He
first came across PHP in 1999, while putting together a small Intranet. Today,
he’s the lead developer of a corporate Extranet, where PHP plays an important
role in delivering a unified platform for numerous back office systems.
In his off hours he writes technical articles for SitePoint and runs phpPatterns
(http://www.phppatterns.com/), a site exploring PHP application design.
Originally from the United Kingdom, he now lives in Switzerland. In May, Harry
became the proud father of a beautiful baby girl who keeps him busy all day (and
night!)
About SitePoint
SitePoint specializes in publishing fun, practical and easy-to-understand content
for Web Professionals. Visit http://www.sitepoint.com/ to access our books,
newsletters, articles and community forums.

For Natalie and Masha
viii
Table of Contents
Preface ................................................................................................... xiii
Who should read this book? ...................................................... xiv
What’s covered in this book? ..................................................... xiv
The Book’s Website.................................................................... xv
The Code Archive ............................................................... xv
Updates and Errata ............................................................ xvi
The SitePoint Forums ................................................................ xvi
The SitePoint Newsletters.......................................................... xvi
Your Feedback .......................................................................... xvii
Acknowledgements ................................................................... xvii
1. Access Control ....................................................................................... 1
How do I use HTTP authentication with PHP? ............................ 3
Heads Up ............................................................................ 3
Not by the Hairs of my Chin… ............................................ 6
How do I authenticate users with sessions?................................... 8
Session Security ................................................................... 9
Getting Started .................................................................. 11
Authentication in Action .................................................... 21
Room for Improvement ...................................................... 24
How do I build a user registration system? .................................. 25
More Classes!..................................................................... 25
Missing Pieces .................................................................... 36
How do I protect my site from auto sign ups? ............................. 37
Here’s One I Wrote Earlier................................................. 38
How do I deal with members who forget their passwords?........... 46
Password Reminder ............................................................ 46
New Password.................................................................... 51
How do I let users change their passwords? ................................ 55
How do I build a permissions system? ........................................ 61
How do I store sessions in MySQL? ........................................... 71
How do I track who is online? .................................................... 73
Further Reading ......................................................................... 76
2. XML .................................................................................................... 79
SAX, DOM and PHP ................................................................. 80
Installation Issues .............................................................. 82
About DOM ...................................................................... 83
How do I parse an RSS feed with PHP and SAX? ....................... 85
How do I parse an RSS feed with PHP and DOM? ................... 102