Category Archives: PHP Programming

While I still consider myself a code monkey, my primary work these days is writing technical documentation. Recently I was asked by a client to create a visual map for their REST-based API. The map, we decided, would have fly-out boxes that showed the API method at a glance – its name, URI endpoint, query [...]

There’s a neat little framework for Ruby called Sinatra that makes it simple to configure REST-style API endpoints with just a smidgen of glue code. But why, asked PHP developer Josh Lockhart, should Ruby devs have all the fun? Josh has been busy these past few months creating his own PHP-based REST DSL (Domain-Specific Language) [...]

OAuth is all the rage. Unfortunately, OAuth also produces a lot of rage. Even when you understand the basics of OAuth, getting it to work is a whole other matter. I recently tackled OAuth while writing API documentation for a client (can you see the scars?), and stumbled across some great tools and tricks that can make the ordeal a little less painful.

PHP technology has been around for at least a dozen of years. Since its inception, PHP has been steadily gaining momentum as a “defacto” platform for open-source web development. Lately, however, a host of new web development tools like Ruby on Rails came on the market, which raised questions whether PHP will remain viable as a web development tool. I believe PHP will not only remain, but continue evolving as the preferred platform for years to come.

If you own a website or are planning to make one, then you will most likely need a way for people to contact you, especially if you are running an online business. PHP makes that efficient and easy, and only takes a short time to learn how.

Learn how to use $_GET effectively to collect data on any PHP page. When a request is made to a PHP script, take advantage of the built in PHP Super Global Array $_GET which automatically stores any Request data. Learn the difference between the Request and Response cycle of the web.

Autoload is a new feature introduced in PHP5 that you don’t have to explicitly require or include a PHP script file that contains the class being used any more but it will be automatically loaded or included when needed. For example, with PHP4 you would have to write something like this: require_once(“foo.php”); // foo.

This is a pre-release of a program coming soon to help secure your PHP code. When used properly it should help protect your code from noobies and script kiddies.. more methods are coming soon to make decoding difficult for even the most saavy code thief. What it does: – Code jumbling (Obfuscation by code morphing) [...]