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PHP Tutorial

Hans-Petter Halvorsen
 Contents
• Introduction to Web Development
• Introduction to PHP
• Getting Started with PHP
• PHP Programming
• HTML Forms in PHP
• Session Variables in PHP
• PHP and MySQL Database
[Link]

PHP Tutorial

Introduction

Table of Contents Hans-Petter Halvorsen

Web Development Frameworks
Some of the most used server-side (backend) Web
Development Frameworks:
• PHP (Scripting language for Web development)
• [Link] Core (Microsoft, Visual Studio, C#)
• Ruby on Rails (Ruby)
• Django (Python)
• +++
 Tools
• PHP - a server scripting language for making dynamic web
pages/applications, typically communicating with a Database.
• We will host our PHP files on an existing Web Server that supports
PHP and MySQL.
• We will use Visual Studio Code (you can use another IDE if you
prefer).
• We will transfer the local files to the Web Server using FTP (File
Transfer Protocol). We will use WinSCP (you can use another FTP
tool if you prefer).
• MySQL - a widely used relational database system. MySQL is free
and open-source.
• phpMyAdmin - a free and open-source administration tool for
MySQL (and MariaDB).
[Link]

PHP Tutorial

Introduction to PHP

Hans-Petter Halvorsen
 PHP
• PHP is a server scripting language for making dynamic and interactive web
pages.
• PHP scripts are executed on the server/webserver.
• PHP files have extension ".php” and are typically a mix of PHP, HTML, CSS and
JavaScript
• PHP is free and open-source.
• With PHP you can easily communicate with a Database, and especially
MySQL.
• LAMP: Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.
• PHP is widely used and still by far the most used/popular language for web
development.
• PHP is easy to learn (but still very powerful) – which cannot be said on many
other web technologies and programming languages.
• Homepage: [Link]
 PHP + MySQL
• You need to have a PHP + MySQL Environment on
your local computer on get access to it from a
server/Internet.
• For local installation you need to download and
install Apache (or another web server that supports
PHP), PHP and MySQL.
• You can get server access from many providers (free
or paid). Just search for, e.g., “PHP web hosting”.
• (I will use an internal LAMP server available for
employees and students at my University.)
 LAMP
• LAMP = Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP
– PHP is the Programming Language
– MySQL is the Database System
– Apache is the Web Server software
– Linux is the operating system where the Web Server is
running
Each part in LAMP is free and open-source, so it is a
popular web hosting environment. You find also lots of
online documentation and a large community.
 LAMP/PHP Web Hosting
• There exists hundreds/thousands of different
LAMP/PHP/MySQL Hosting Providers, some free
but mostly paid options.
• Hostinger - [Link]
• InfinityFree - [Link]
• PRO ISP - [Link]
• +++ (Just Google)
 XAMPP
• XAMPP is a popular PHP development environment
• XAMPP is an acronym that stands for Cross-Platform,
Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl.
• It works on Windows, macOS and Linux
• It installs Apache, MariaDB, PHP and Perl.
– Apache is a Web Server.
– MariaDB is almost identical to MySQL.
– PHP and Perl are Web Programming languages.
• [Link]
 phpMyAdmin

phpMyAdmin is used to administrate your MySQL Database.

Here you can create tables, run SQL queries, etc.
phpMyAdmin is basically just a web application written in PHP.
 PHP Code Editors
You can use any kind of tool/IDE for Python(Django
development. Here are some recommendations:
• Visual Studio Code.
– Multiplatform and Free.
– Homepage: [Link]
• PhpStorm.
– Free 30-day full trial.
– Free access to all JetBrains IDEs for students and educators.
– Homepage: [Link]
• +++
 Visual Studio Code
• Visual Studio Code is a free and open-source
code editor developed by Microsoft.
• It supports many programming languages,
including PHP, through an extension.
• Visual Studio Code is a general-purpose Code
Editor for almost any kind of programming
language or framework through so-called
extensions that you can install on top of the IDE.
 PhpStorm
IDE for PHP development by JetBrains
Free Educational Use:
• JetBrains offers free PhpStorm
licenses and special deals for
educational purposes.
• Students and teachers are
eligible to use the JetBrains All
Products Pack (which includes
PhpStorm, as well as other
JetBrains IDEs and tools) free of
charge.
[Link]

PHP Tutorial

Getting Started with PHP

Table of Contents Hans-Petter Halvorsen

 Getting Started
• We need a Web Server with PHP installed
– You can setup your own server with PHP, but I will
just use an existing webserver with PHP in this
tutorial.
• We need a Code Editor like Visual Studio Code.
• We need an FTP program like WinSCP to transfer
files from local PC to the webserver.
• You will also need to have a MySQL Database
for some parts in this tutorial.
 My first PHP page
<?php
$name ="Hans-Petter Halvorsen";
Visual Studio Code
echo "Hello, my name is $name";
?>
[Link]
PHP Files have the file extension .php

The startup file is typically names [Link]

PHP code should be put inside

<?php
..
?>

Variables starts with $

Upload File using FTP - WinSCP

Here I have used the WinSCP FTP software

Test in your Web Browser
 Code Explained
<?php
$name ="Hans-Petter Halvorsen";
echo "Hello, my name is $name";
?>

PHP code should be put inside

<?php
..
?>

Variables starts with $

“echo” is a built-in function in PHP that is much used to output

text or contents of a variable to the web browser.
 HTML + PHP
Typically, you include PHP code in between your HTML code. Here is a basic example:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>Hello World</h1>
<?php
$name ="Hans-Petter Halvorsen";
echo "Hello, my name is $name";
?>
</body>
</html>
[Link]

PHP Tutorial

PHP Programming

Table of Contents Hans-Petter Halvorsen

Hello World App
 PHP
PHP is a programming language with all the
functionalities that a standard programming language
has, like:
• Variables, Data Types, Arrays, etc.
• If.. Else.., While Loops, For Loops, etc.
• Functions, Classes and OOP.
• In addition, PHP has lots of web specific functionality.
• PHP has also builtin support for Databases, i.e.,
inserting and retrieving data from different database
systems. Here we will focus on the specific web features and database features, and not
plain programming, since this is like C++/C# and any other programming language.
 Variables in PHP
• Variables in PHP starts with $.
• echo is a built-in function in PHP that is much
used to output contents of a variable to the web
browser. You can also use the print() function.
• Note! Variables in PHP is case-sensitive!
• You don’t need to define the datatype of the
variable in PHP (PHP is a so-called loosely typed
language)
 Combining Text and Variables

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>Hello World</h1>
<?php
$name ="Hans-Petter Halvorsen";

echo "Hello, my name is $name";

echo "<br>";

echo 'Hello ' . $name . ' how are you today?';

?>
</body>
</html
 Combining Text and Variables
There is a huge difference between double quotes (") and single quotes (') in PHP:
Here you see some examples:
$name ="Hans-Petter Halvorsen"; Double quotes (") :
echo "Hello, my name is $name"; Here will $name be treated as a variable

$name ="Hans-Petter Halvorsen"; Single quotes ('):

echo 'Hello, my name is $name'; Here will $name just be part of the string

$name ="Hans-Petter Halvorsen";

echo 'Hello ' . $name . ' how are you today?';

If using single quotes (‘), you can use . $name . to treat $name as a variable.
 Final Result shown
PHP code in the Web Browser
server-side

Generated HTML File that is

sent to the Client (Web Browser)
 String Function in PHP
PHP has many useful built-in functions for string manipulation, e.g.:
• strlen()
• str_word_count()
You will probably need to use
• str_replace() many of these String function in
• strpos() your PHP Web Applications daily.
• substr()
• strrev()
• trim()
• strtoupper()
• strtolower()
• +++
[Link]
 Comments in PHP
It is good practice to add and use
..
comments inside your code
// Single line comment
Using comments are also a good
/* Multiline comment “Debugging technique” by
.. commenting out one o more
..
..
code lines and make those are
*/ not executed.
 If .. Else, Loops, etc.
• PHP has built-in functionality
<!DOCTYPE html>
for Conditions and Loops as <html>
other programming languages. <body>
• The syntax is very similar to <h1>Getting Started with PHP</h1>
<?php
C/C#. $number = 18;
• PHP supports many different
types if ($number > 10)
{
• Here you see a basic example: echo "The number is larger than 10";
}
else
{
echo "The number is smaller than 10";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
 Functions
PHP has many useful built-in function, but you can of course also make your own functions
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>Getting Started with PHP</h1>
<?php
function FindAverage($number1, $number2)
{
$average = ($number1 + $number2)/2;
return $average;
}

$x = 6;
$y = 12;
$mean = FindAverage($x, $y);
echo $mean
?>
</body>
</html>
[Link]

PHP Tutorial

HTML Forms in PHP

Table of Contents Hans-Petter Halvorsen

 HTML Forms
Example of a Web Page that contains an HTML Form:

When the user clicks on the Save

button, the page will be sent back
to the server. Then it is possible to
tore the data in a database, etc.
 HTML Forms
We start by creating a basic HTML Form like this:
 HTML Forms
• An HTML form is <!DOCTYPE html>
typically used to <html>
<body>
collect data from
the user. <h1>Please enter your User Data</h1>

• Then typically the <form action="[Link]" method="POST">

data will then be <label for="firstName">First Name:</label><br>
<input type="text" id="firstName" name="firstName">
sent to the server <br>
for processing and <label for="lastName">Last Name:</label><br>
storage, e.g., in a <input type="text" id="lastName" name="lastName">
Database like <br><br>

MySQL. <input type="submit" value="Save">

</form>

</body>
</html>
 Forms and POST Example
<!DOCTYPE html> <!DOCTYPE html>
<html> <html>
<body> <body>

<h1>Please enter your User Data</h1> <h1>Information about your User Data</h1>

<form action="[Link]" method="POST"> Your First Name is <?php echo $_POST["firstName"]; ?>
<label for="firstName">First Name:</label><br> <br>
<input type="text" id="firstName" name="firstName">
<br> Your Last Name is: <?php echo $_POST["lastName"]; ?>

<label for="lastName">Last Name:</label><br> </body>

<input type="text" id="lastName" name="lastName"> </html>
<br><br>
[Link]
<input type="submit" value="Save">
</form>

</body>
</html>

We use $_POST to get the Form Data

GET Example
We can also $_GET
 GET and Query String
Note! Here we can also manually
change the Query String Data.

When using GET the values will be sent as part of the URL/Query String. This
alternative may not be advisable for secret information like passwords, etc.
[Link]

PHP Tutorial

Session Variables
in PHP
Table of Contents Hans-Petter Halvorsen
 Session Variables
• We can use something called Session variables in
order to send data between 2 web pages.
• Unlike a cookie, the information is not stored on the
users PC.
• Session variables are very handy in web development.
• Session variables hold information only for one single
user (you), so this means the information is only
available for you and not for other users of the web
page or web application.
• Sessions has a time limitation, typically 20 minutes.
• All web frameworks have these Sessions variables.
Session Example
Session Example
Session Example #2
“enter_password.php”
“verify_password.php”
“show_information.php”
[Link]

PHP Tutorial

PHP and MySQL

Database
Table of Contents Hans-Petter Halvorsen
 MySQL and PHP
• MySQL is a popular relational database system.
• It is free and open source.
• MySQL uses SQL (Structured Query Language)
• The combination of PHP and MySQL is very
popular and powerful.
• You can create powerful web applications
where you can show, save, update and delete
data in a MySQL database from the PHP code.
 phpMyAdmin

phpMyAdmin is used to administrate your MySQL Database.

Here you can create tables, run SQL queries, etc.
phpMyAdmin is basically just a web application written in PHP.
 Connect to the Database
There are 2 different methods that you can
use to connect to your MySQL Database from
PHP:
• MySQLi – Only works together with MySQL
• PDO – This option will also work for many
other types of database systems.
 Open Connection to Database
In this tutorial we will use MySQLi. Here you see an example how we can connect to the database:
<?php
$servername = "localhost";
$dbname = "dbname";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";

// Create connection
$conn = mysqli_connect($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if (!$conn) {
die("Connection failed: " . mysqli_connect_error());
}
echo "Connected successfully.";
?>
Close Connection after we have communicated with the database: mysqli_close($conn);
 CRUD
Typically, we want do the following operations:
• Create (Insert) Data
• Read (Select) Data
• Update Data
• Delete Data
=> This is referred to as CRUD functionality.
Typically, all Applications today need to communicate with a
Database and have CRUD functionality.
When you have learned to create a basic CRUD Application,
you have all the necessary tools you need to create any kind
of Application.
 SQL
• Structured Query Language (SQL) is used to
write, read and update data from Database
Systems.
• SQL is a standardized language used by most
database systems.
• You can use SQL inside the “phpMyAdmin”
or/and inside your PHP Web Application.
• SQL Example: select * from SCHOOL
 SQL Query Examples
• insert into STUDENT (Name , Number, SchoolId)
values ('John Smith', '100005', 1)

• select SchoolId, Name from SCHOOL

• select * from SCHOOL where SchoolId > 100

• update STUDENT set Name='John Wayne' where StudentId=2

• delete from STUDENT where SchoolId=3

We have 4 different Query Types: INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE and DELETE

CRUD: C – Create or Insert Data, R – Retrieve (Select) Data, U – Update Data, D – Delete Data
 Create Database
We can create Databases and Database Tables using PHP. But typically,
we create a Database and the necessary Tables in advance before we
start coding the Web Application. We use the phpMyAdmin tool.

CREATE TABLE BOOK

(
BookId int PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
Title varchar(100) NOT NULL,
Author varchar(100) NOT NULL,
Topic varchar(100) NOT NULL
);
 Database
We can also insert some data into the Table, e.g.:

insert into BOOK (Title, Author, Topic) values

('Web Apps', 'Elvis Presly', 'Programming');

insert into BOOK (Title, Author, Topic) values

('IoT and Cloud', 'John Wayne', 'IoT');

insert into BOOK (Title, Author, Topic) values

('C#', 'Rune Hansen', 'Programming');
 PHP Config File
Typically, we want to hide the Connection to the database, so, we can put it into a
separate PHP file called, e.g., “[Link]”. Then in the different PHP files we can include
this file. This file will contain username, password, etc. for the MySQL Server database.
<?php
$servername ="localhost";
$dbname = "xxxxxx";
$username = "xxxxxx";
$password = "xxxxxx";

// Create Connection
$conn = mysqli_connect($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check Connection
if(!$conn) {
die("Connection failed: ". mysqli_connect_error());
}
echo"Connected successfully.";
[Link] ?>
 PHP Config File

"xxxxxx";
"xxxxxx";
"xxxxxx";
 Save Data to the Database
<?php
require_once '[Link]';
// Insert Data
$sql = "INSERT INTO BOOK (Title, Author, Topic)
VALUES ('AI', 'Allan Johnsen', 'Data')";
Normally you get these Data from
an HTML Form where the user
if (mysqli_query($conn, $sql)) { enters this information.
echo "New record created successfully.";
} else {
echo "Error: " . $sql . "<br>" . mysqli_error($conn);
Then go to phpMyAdmin
}
and check if the data has
// Close Connection
been stored in the database.
mysqli_close($conn);
?>
Save Data to the Database
 Show Data from the Database
<?php
require_once '[Link]’;

// Get Data from Database

$sql = "SELECT BookId, Title, Author, Topic FROM BOOK";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);

if (mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0) {
// output data of each row
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
echo "BookId: " . $row["BookId"]. " - Title: " . $row["Title"]. " - Author: " .
$row["Author"]. " - Topic: " . $row["Topic"]. "<br>";
}
} else {
echo "0 results";
}

// Close Connection
mysqli_close($conn);
?>
Show Data from the Database
HTML Table
 Resources and References
• PHP Tutorial w3school:
[Link]
• PHP Tutorial TutorialsPoint:
[Link]
• PHP Documentation:
[Link]
• MySQL Tutorial:
[Link]
Hans-Petter Halvorsen
University of South-Eastern Norway
[Link]

E-mail: [Link]@[Link]
Web: [Link]