PHP Training: PHP Courses and PHP Course Modules from GBdirect PHP Training (UK)

PHP Course Modules

Combine Modules for Customised PHP Training

All of our PHP course modules are outlined below. At present the entire set is delivered as single course over 3 or 4 days, depending on the experience and skills of delegates.

With judicious selection, however, a purchasing company could build itself a bespoke course from these modules to meet a very specific training need, e.g. a 1 day workshop on developing a shopping trolly application using appropriate PHP functions.

Please ring our training advisors for help in assembling a course with appropriate content, speed of progress, prerequisite knowledge, and consistent subject matter, etc.

N.B. GBdirect write fully-bespoke courses for clients in all of our specialist areas of consultancy. If you have such a requirement and the budget for it, please contact our course developers for advice and support.

Introduction to PHP

History of PHP
Comparison with dynamic content alternatives (Perl, CGI, ASP, JSP, Servlets , CGI, etc)
PHP tools and set up (web browser/server, editor, libraries, etc)
Create a basic PHP Script
Taking user input
Selecting alternatives
Use PHP to generate HTTP headers
Pass PHP variables via the URL

Taking User Input from Forms via PHP

Creating forms with PHP
Using the form GET method
Using the form POST method
Obtaining data from forms through variables
Using hidden fields
Calling pages from themselves using forms
Quoting HTML entities in user input

Variables and Expressions in PHP

Identifiers
Data Types (integers, floats and strings)
Creating Variables
Variable assignment
Variable Scope
User-defined Constants
HTTP environment variables

PHP Operators

Arithmetic Operators
Logical Operators
Relational Operators
Bitwise Operators
Other Operators
Assignment Operators

Conditional Tests and Events in PHP

True and False
If
else and elseif
The switch / case statement
The ? Operator
Comparing for equality or identity

PHP Flow Control

Loops
while
do ... while
for
break and continue
exit

PHP Functions

Purpose of functions
Built-in functions
Declaring functions
Arguments to functions
return
Scope (global vs local)
Recursion
Variable function calls

Storing Data in Arrays using PHP

What are arrays?
How and when to use arrays
Indexing arrays
Initialising arrays
Add/remove info from arrays
One-dimensional arrays
Multi-dimensional arrays
Array-related functions

Handling Databases with PHP

PHP's database APIs
Error-handling strategies
Connection/disconnection, log in/log out
Including common access functions
Doing simple SQL queries via PHP
Building HTML tables using SQL Queries

Using Cookies with PHP

Cookie properties
Setting a cookie in PHP
Retrieving PHP cookies
Expiring/Deleting PHP cookies
Drawbacks to cookies
Using cookies well
Cookie Security Issues

Session Management in PHP

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 Practice with sessions and PHP
PHP Sessions and databases

File and Directory Access Using PHP

Opening files, local and remote
Reading and writing files
include
require
Handling file permissions
Handling file ownership
File locking
Opening and reading directories
File uploads from the browser/user

Other I/O Issues in PHP

Getting IP adresses from visitors
Getting referring urls from visitors
Shell Commands
Environment variables
Showing different content to different browsers (IE, Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, etc)
Debugging
Handling HTTP and MIME headers

Handling Email with PHP

Sending email
Unix and NT setup
Attachments with PHP

Objects in PHP

Object basics
Inheritance
Classes in PHP
Constructor functions
Accessing instance data and functions

Graphics in PHP

Graphics basics
Image MIME type
Basic examples
Creation from an existing image
Image copying and resizing
Drawing text on images
True Type fonts