* Introduction

- Introduction to PHP

- Comparison with alternatives

- Tools and set up

- Create a basic PHP Script

- Taking user input (HTML forms)

- Self Referring Forms

- Selecting alternatives

- Use PHP to generate HTTP headers

- URL variables

- Debugging

* Taking User Input

- Creating forms

- Security

- Using the form GET method

- Using the form POST method

- Obtaining data from forms through variables

- Hidden fields

- Secure Web Forms (HTTPS and SSL)

- Calling pages from themselves using forms

- Quoting HTML entities in user input

* Variables and Expressions in PHP

- Identifiers

- Data Types (integers, floats, strings and boolean)

- Type juggling

- Text constants, interpolation (strings, arrays, objects)

- Creating Variables

- Variable assignment

- Variable Scope

- Namespaces

- User-defined Constants

- String constants, variable interpolation into strings

- HTTP environment variables

- Magic Constants

- Variable References

* PHP Operators

- Arithmetic Operators

- Logical Operators

- Relational Operators

- The Identity Operator

- Bitwise Operators

- Error Suppression Operator

- Execution Operators

- Other Operators

- Assignment Operators

- Operator Precedence

- Associativity

* Conditional Tests and Events

- True and False

- If

- Comparing Strings and Numbers

- else and elseif

- Operator

- Comparing: equality or identity

- The switch / case statement

- Alternative Syntax

* Flow Control

- Loops

- while

- do ... while

- for

- break and continue

- goto

- exit

* Configuration

- The php.ini file

- Module Vs CGI Usage

- register_globals

- Control of error logging

- Control of resource limits

- Commonly set configurations

- File system security

- PHP4 compatibility in PHP5

* Functions

- Purpose of functions

- Built-in functions

- Declaring functions

- Functions Arguments

- Default Arguments

- Arguments - Call by Reference

- Return

- Returning References

- Variable Scope

- Static variables

- Recursion

- include and require

- Variable function calls

* Storing Data in Arrays

- What are arrays

- How and when to use arrays

- Indexing arrays, numeric and hashes

- Initialising arrays

- Using foreach

- Add/remove elements from arrays

- One-dimensional arrays

- Multi-dimensional arrays

- References to array elements

- Arrays in forms

- Array operators

- Array related functions

* Handling Databases

- PHP 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

- Avoiding SQL Injection attacks

- Access to: MySql, Oracle & MS-SQL

- Using PEAR DB

- Using PHP Data Objects

- Smart Programming

* String Manipulation

- Substring and [] operators

- Case conversion

- Trimming

- Formatting output data

- Regular expressions

* Sessions and Cookies

- 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

- Opening files, local and remote

- Reading and writing files

- PHP portability on different Operating Systems

- Finding file metadata

- Handling file permissions

- Handling file ownership

- File locking

- Opening and reading directories

- File uploads from the browser/user

* Other I/O Issues

- Getting IP addresses from visitors

- Getting referring URLs from visitors

- Environment variables

- Showing different content to different browsers

- Handling HTTP and MIME headers

* Object Oriented Programming basics

- Object basics

- Classes in PHP

- PHP4 - constructors

- PHP5 - constructors and destructors

- Inheritance

- Accessing instance data and functions

- __sleep and __wakeup

- __autoload

- Class constants

- PHP5 OO Additions

- Objects: Assignments and References

- Try throw catch Exception handling

* PEAR, PECL

- PHP Extentions

- APC - Alternative PHP Cache

- Xdebug - debugging and profiling

- PEAR installation and quick tour

- PEAR Config

- PEAR Log

- PEAR Auth

- PEAR HTML_Quickform

* Handling Email

- Sending email

- Sending multi part email - MIME

- Accessing mail boxes - IMAP & POP

* Graphics

- Graphics basics, referencing a PHP script in an IMG tag

- Image MIME type

- Basic examples, line/box drawing

- Creation from an existing image

- Image copying and resizing

- Drawing text on images

- True Type fonts