Tag Archive for ‘PHP’ at Sean’s Blog

Tag Archive for 'PHP'

Learn PHP: Class Three

Published by Sean on November 9, 2007 0 Comments |

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Table of contents for Learn PHP

Today we are going to learn all about include and require! Include and require are handy to use not only in your php applications, but in general website design for sidebar’s and what not! So.. yeah.. Moving on!

Include and Require include a file within another PHP script. There are four ways of doing this:

include();
include_once();
require();
require_once();

Now using them is seriously simple. Lets say you have sidebar.php with your links? All you have do do is the following:

<?php include(”sidebar.php”); ?>

One thing to remember is how to control directories in PHP. For instance, if my file “sidebar.php” is in a folder called includes you put in:

<?php include(”includes/sidebar.php”); ?>

Or to take another route of it, if my file “sidebar.php” is in the / directory and the file I want the sidebar to show on is in a folder of that: /data I would put in:

<?php include(”../sidebar.php”); ?>

Now why are there four different ways to include them I hear you ask! Well they are pretty simple.

Include and Require are practically the same, apart from the way they give out errors. Include will continue parsing your script and just shove out an error. Require however will stop the whole script to give you an error. Really it’s all down to what you want.

Include_once and require_once you probably guess only allow you to include the file once. This is not only more secure but stops from silly errors where the file was just included and variables were overwritten halfway through the script. Again they give out the same errors as include and require.

So lets go over one of each!

<?php include(”sidebar.php”); ?>

<?php include_once(”sidebar.php”);?>

<?php require(”sidebar.php”);?>

<?php require_once(”sidebar.php”);?>

We really are spoilt for choice aren’t we!

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Tags: class, PHP.

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Learn PHP: Class Two

Published by Sean on October 30, 2007 0 Comments |

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Table of contents for Learn PHP

Moving on to Class II after a long break! We will today cover PHP’s If Else Statements.

Here is one in action:

<?php
if ($condition) {
echo “condition is true”;
}
?>

Simple enough? To start with as you can see you first write the statement name, in this case “if”. Then you enclose your condition in brackets, [A condition is essentially a question you ask PHP.] then you add an opening “curly bracket”. The opening curly bracket basically defines the start of the code to execute of the condition of the statement evaluates to true. In this case we are wanting PHP to output the text “condition is true” if the condition is true. Then finally we have a closing curly bracket.
In the above example the entire condition has simply been set to the variable $condition. Therefore what we are asking PHP is does the variable $condition exist, and if it does, does it have a value that is not NULL. [Null = Nothing, zero, zilch] In this case we didn’t actually define the variable $condition therefore the statement will evaluate to false and the code within the statement wont be executed. Therefore the above will output nothing at all. However the following code:

<?php
$condition = “Here!”
if ($condition) {
echo “condition is true”;
}
?>

Would output “Condition is True”.

Now if statements are pretty useless on their own! What you really want is if / else statements, which we will look at here!

<?php
$condition = 10;
if ($condition == 5) {
echo “condition is 5″;
}
?>

Basically here the variable condition is 10. PHP Checks if it is 5. As we all know 10 is not 5, so PHP does nothing. However in this statement:

<?php
$condition = 10;
if ($condition == 5) {
echo “condition is 5″;
} else if ($condition < 5) {
echo “condition is less than 5″;
} else {
echo “condition is ” . $condition;
}
?>

We have an if statement, an if else statement and an else statement.
Basically the code explains it, but the condition is 10. If the condition is 5, PHP will output that it is 5. Otherwise if the condition is less than 5. PHP will output that it is less than five. Lastly, if nothing matches in the if or else if statements PHP will output its else. Saying Condition is 10.

A last sample before we head off.

<?php
$condition = “yes”;
if ($condition == “no”){
echo “condition is false”;
} else if ($condition == “yes”){
echo “condition is true”;
} else {
echo “Something happened to the variable”;
}
?>

Here you can see that the condition is actually a word. PHP checks it just like it would a number and outputs all the same. Here PHP would output “Condition is True”.

And that’s it for today! Next week we have “arrays” so until then practise!

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Tags: class, PHP.

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Ruby on Rails vs PHP, Java & .NET

Published by Sean on September 6, 2007 0 Comments |

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Ruby on Rails vs PHP

Ruby on Rails vs .NET

Ruby on Rails vs Java

Tags: Java, PHP, Ruby, Video.

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Learn PHP: Class One

Published by Sean on August 26, 2007 0 Comments |

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Table of contents for Learn PHP

So now that we have done the Prep Class its time to move on to the actual learning!

PHP Class I.

Echo’ing:

<?php echo “text here”; ?>

<?php echo ‘text here’; ?>

Simple as that, thats how you get PHP to output some text. Whichever you use is really up to you, there is pros and cons to what you can do with each, you can read about them here. I prefer the double quoted version, just because I’m used to it.

Comments:
Comments are really important within any programming language, really to tidy up your code and so you remember what each bit does later on. PHP supports two different ways of commenting, C++ Style and Shell style. I will just stick with C++ Style for today

Example’s of echo’ng via C++ Style are as follows:

<?php
echo “Hi”; // Output: Hi
echo “Hi”; /* Hi */
?>

// Comments out the rest of the line. While /* */ lets you comment as far as you want, just remember to close the comment! If you don’t get me I’ll do a quick example:
This stop PHP echo’ing “Hi”

<?php
/*
echo “Hi”;
*/
?>

This however will not.

<?php
//
echo “Hi”;
//
?>

But this would

<?php
//echo “Hi”;
?>

/* style are obviously much easier for commenting out blocks of code. But for just adding a quick comment // style is alot better!

Variables:

<?php
$variablename = “Variable One”;
$variablename = ‘Variable One’;
$variablename = 1;
?>

Variables are vital within your programming language, you will use them over and over again! Again, you can use single or double quotes, both with their pros and cons, you can also use numbers, or other variables. I’ll give you a quick example of adding within variables.

<?php
$add = 2 + 1;
?>

That variable would add 2 + 1. But how to get what the Variable says? Well you just use echo again!

<?php
$add = 2 + 1;
echo $add;
?>

The output of that would be:

3

Nothing more, nothing less.
You can also add variables within variables. As complicated as that sounds its pretty easy. I’ll give you a quick example.

<?php
$one = 1;
$two = 2;
$add = $one + $two;
echo $add;
?>

So lets go over what we just learnt with a quick script;

<?php
$name = “Sean”; // My Name
$age = 16 +1; // Seventeen!
$nextage = $age +1; //Age I will be next year.
echo ‘Hi my name is ‘;
echo $name;
echo ‘ and I am ‘;
echo $age;
echo ‘ but I will be ‘
echo $nextage;
echo ‘ next year!’
?>

Of course that is probably the longest, but easiest way you could do it! The faster way to do it would be:

<?php
$name = “Sean”; // My Name
$age = 16 +1; // Seventeen!
$nextage = $age +1; //Age I will be next year.
echo “Hi my name is $name and I am $age but I will be $nextage next year!”;
?>

That’s defiantly the handiest way to do it! Don’t worry I’ll go abit more into that in the next lesson! Until then, practice!

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Tags: learn, PHP.

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Learn PHP: Prep

Published by Sean on August 25, 2007 0 Comments |

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Table of contents for Learn PHP

PHP

Nearly two or three times every week I get someone asking me to teach them how to program, many of these are from an online game I help out with called Injustice. Its amazing really that people that there is some hidden secret to coding and that I can just send you a link or say one or two lines and they will be able to code! I’m telling you people, its not magic!!
So instead of repeating myself over and over I’m shoving this article in here! Mainly because of this, secondly because I believe people can learn PHP a little easier than some of the websites make it. So on with the show!

Ok, so to actually learn PHP the best way to do it will be to install Xampp.
You can download Xampp here.
Xampp will install Apache [Webserver] MySQL [Database] and PHP among other things, but that is all we will be using! Once you download the file, run it, its a graphical installer for windows. For linux users, I’m sure you can work out how to install it! Once installed start the Apache and MySQL services, the control panel will be in front of you, all you have to do is tick the boxes! Yep thats it, your done installing. Now, to put files into your “webserver” you will go into C:/Xamp/ht_docs/ if you installed it in the default directory. So lets create a folder called project. And put a file called index.php in there. In the index.php file just put the word “Test”. Then all you have to do is go to, http://localhost/project/index.php and if you did everything right you should be looking at a webpage that just says “Test”. There you have it! You are ready to learn PHP!

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Tags: learn, PHP.

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Werewolf IRC Bot

Published by Sean on July 9, 2007 13 Comments |

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Well just doing a google search on “werewolf bot irc” I come up as the 2nd result, right after the buggy java version! So I figured I better make a post on it for people who come here looking for one. At the moment I am using a PHP based bot. [Probably not the best but it works] I’m going to change over to an EggBot version soon, as that’d be better but while you are all waiting for me to figure out how to do that the version I am using now is based on the PHP:IRC framework. You can download the framework here, and the mod for the werewolf mod here. [go for version 2.2 of the mod]

Really simple to setup, extract the framework, extract the bot.. shove the bot folder into the modules folder. Download PHP 5 the PHP 5.2.3 zip package..Extract it to C:/Php5/ [this just makes things easier] Move the Framework package to C://, rename it PHPirc. [Again, just simplifing things..]

Follow the readme on changing the php.ini parts of the files.. [the readme in the PHPirc folder]

Open your defines.php page 2nd or 3rd line

define(’OS’, ‘os’); - change it to Windows or Linux..

Open bot.conf, set your bots nickname and password and what not!

Open functions.conf, scroll to the bottom, replace the includes with this:

include typedefs.conf;include modules/default/priv_mod.conf

;include modules/default/dcc_mod.conf

include modules/werewolf/werewolf.conf

;include modules/bad_words/bad_words.conf

;include modules/peak_mod/peak_mod.conf

;include modules/seen/seen_mod.conf

;include modules/news/news_mod.conf

;include modules/imdb/imdb_mod.conf

;include modules/quotes_ini/quote_mod.conf

;include modules/quotes_sql/quote_mod.conf

;include modules/httpd/httpd_mod.conf

;include modules/fileserver/fileserver.conf

;include modules/bash/bash_mod.conf

Go, Start - Run,
Type in “cmd” [without the “’s]
a DOS window will open do the following commands:

cd C:/PhpIRCC:/php5/php.exe bot.php bot.conf

And presto! Your bot will connect to the network and start running! make sure it has auto-op in the channel you are using it in!

Any bugs? Drop me a comment, i’ll try my best to help you!

Tags: IRC, PHP.

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Things to consider when coding a login system

Published by Sean on July 9, 2007 0 Comments |

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This article is really based for PHP. But can work in any language really, just some general tips.

1. Usernames and passwords should be 6 characters long, or more.

2. Don’t give any extra information on a failed login.
This I belive is one of the most important parts of making your login system, you see many websites with the "Incorrect Password", and as helpful as it is it really is a security risk, on any scripts I make myself I ALWAYS go for the old reliable "Incorrect Username / Password" and so should you, why give the crackers more information than they need?

3. Passwords in the user account table of your database must be encrypted.
MD5 them or Sha1 them, its an open debate on which you do, which is more secure etc. etc., in the end, if the cracker has access to the database your in a bad place already! But why give them all the user passwords?

4. Never use "admin" or "root" as your adminstrator username.
This is one is pretty important, usually what I do here is set up my own account as admin, then have root and admin as fake accounts that log the ip’s of people who try to log into them, you could go abit more extreem here though too and ban the IP from the website straight away when they try to login, i tend to push away from that though, log the amount of attempts and what not!

5. Create a seperate area for administrators to login.
I only ever saw this technic used when working at Absolute Events, the admin centre was actually based off the address http://www.absoluteevents.ie/password of course there was a login after that, but it does through off the casual person and makes it quiet difficult, the only way this is really useful though is if you ONLY have Admin settings inside this centre, and if the user logs into the system normally they are like a normal user.

6. Logging users last login and IP.
This is one of my favorites, when the user logs in just use the PHP time() function and store it in the database, then fetch their IP and store it in the database aswell. From there you can tell the user their last login and IP, example: You last logged in on 09/06/2007 at 3.00pm with the IP: 127.0.0.1. From there the user can easily tell if they did not log in at that time and report it to an Administrator.

7. Use the maxlength attribute in forms..
This is another handy one to consider, stops the average user shoving nasty code in there!

And there you have it! A couple of basics on keeping your website secure, remember though, no script is 100% secure! I have only touched on the top of security in login systems here, Jeff Skrysak covers what I have just talked about and more, including SQL injection, something I haven’t even really put in here, which is a huge risk!

Tags: PHP, Security.

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