Zend Certification Preparation Tutorial

Zend Certiﬁcation Exam Preparation

What This Course Is Not

• Coherent coverage of all topics

• A guarantee of success

• In-depth

• Accredited by Zend

2

Aims of Today

• FAST overview of certiﬁcation content

• Refresher/Reminder on well-known things

• Comments on exam styles

• Identiﬁcation of any weak points

• Provision of resources for further study

3

Most Important Resource: php.net

• Main Page: http://php.net

• Local versions: http://uk2.php.net
• Many translations available

• Cool Shortcut: http://php.net/[function name]

• Redirects you straight to that page
• http://php.net/array_walk
•
http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/function.array-walk.php

5

Anatomy of a PHP Manual Page

• Description

• Parameters

• Return Values

• Changelog

• Examples

• See Also

• User-Contributed Notes

6

User-Contributed Notes

13

PHP Tags

Many different ways to open PHP tags:

• Standard Tags: <?php and ?>

• Short Tags: <? and ?>

• Script Tags: <script language="php"> and </script>

• ASP-Style Tags: <% and %>

Only the ﬁrst is recommended. Others are enabled with ini settings

• asp_tags

• short_open_tag

2

Commenting Code

Many different ways to do this too!
// a one-line comment

# a less common format of one-line comment

/* A comment
which can span
a great many
lines */

/**
* More common multi-line commenting
*
* @param string The variable for the method
*/

See Also: PHPDocumentor

• http://www.phpdoc.org/

3

Operators

• Operators are how we tell PHP what to do with our variables

• ZCE expects you to know many different types - look out for
precedence to trip you up

• See Also: http://php.net/manual/en/language.operators.php

4

Arithmetic Operators

-$a Negation
$a + $b Addition
$a - $b Subtraction
$a * $b Multiplication
$a / $b Division
$a % $b Modulus

Example of modulus operator:
echo (17 % 4); // 1
echo (13 % 5); // 3

5

Shorthand Operators

A contraction of operating on something and assigning the result

• $a = $a + $b

becomes:

• $a += $b

The same thing works for - / * % and .

6

Ternary Operator

This is a shortcut for an if/else statement.
$a = isset($_GET['param1']) ? $_GET['param1'] : 10;

There’s a contraction of it too, where the ﬁrst two items match:
$pages = $_GET['pages'] ? $_GET['pages'] : 20;
$pages = $_GET['pages'] ?: 20;

7

Comparison Operators

A great source of trick questions!

== Equal
=== Strictly equal
!= Not equal
!== Strictly not equal

8

Comparisons: The strpos Trap

$tagline = "PHP Made Easy";

if(strpos(strtolower($tagline), 'php')) {
echo 'php tagline: ' . $tagline;
}

9

Comparisons: The strpos Trap

$tagline = "PHP Made Easy";

if(false !== strpos(strtolower($tagline), 'php')) {
echo 'php tagline: ' . $tagline;
}

10

Data Types

PHP is dynamically weakly typed. It does "type juggling" when data types
don’t match.

PHP data types:

• integer

• ﬂoat

• boolean

• string

• array

• object

• resource

11

Number Systems

System Characters Notes
Binary 01 used in logical calculations
Decimal 0123456789 "normal" numbers
Octal 01234567 written with a leading 0
Hex 0123456789abcdef used for HTML colours

http://www.lornajane.net/posts/2011/Number-System-Primer

12

Variables

• Start with a $

• Don’t need to be initialised

• Represent a value, of any type

• Start with a letter, then can contain letters, numbers and underscores

• Are usually lowercase or CamelCase

Variable variables
$name = "Fiona";
$var = "name";

echo $$var; // Fiona

13

Constants

• Represent a value, of any type

• Are initialised with define() and cannot change

• Do not have a $ in front of their name

• Start with a letter, then can contain letters, numbers and
underscores

• Are usually UPPER CASE

14

Control Structures

We’ll look at examples of each of:

• if/elseif/else

• switch

• for

• while

• do..while

• foreach

15

If/ElseIf/Else

if($hour < 10) {
$beverage = "coffee";
} elseif($hour > 22) {
$beverage = "hot chocolate";
} else {
$beverage = "tea";
}

16

Switch

switch(date('D')) {
case 'Monday':
echo "Back to work";
break;
case 'Friday':
echo "Almost the weekend!";
break;
case 'Saturday':
case 'Sunday':
echo "Not a working day :)";
break;
default:
echo "Just another day";
break;
}

17

For

for($i=10; $i > 0; $i--) {
echo $i . " green bottles, hanging on the walln";
}

18

While

$finished = false;
while(!$finished) {
$second = substr(date('s'), 1);
if($second == '7') {
$finished = true;
} else {
echo $second;
}
sleep(3);
}

19

Do .. While

$finished = false;
do {
$second = substr(date('s'), 1);
if($second == '7') {
$finished = true;
} else {
echo $second;
}
sleep(3);
} while(!$finished);

20

Foreach

$list = array(
"chicken",
"lamb",
"reindeer");

foreach($list as $value) {
echo "On the menu: " . $value . "n";
}

21

Foreach

$list = array(
"chicken",
"lamb",
"reindeer");

// make plural
foreach($list as $key => $value) {
$list[$key] = $value . "s";

}

foreach($list as $value) {
echo "On the menu: " . $value . "n";
}

22

Break and Continue

• break go to after the next }

• continue go to the end of this iteration

Both can have a number to allow them to operate on nested structures

23

100 String Functions

Anyone want to talk about all hundred string functions?

2

String Functions

Anything you want to do with a string, there’s a function for that

Special terminology

• needle: the thing you are looking for

• haystack: the place you are looking

3

Quotes

• Single quote ’

• contains a string to be used as it is

• Double quote "

• can contain items to evaluate
• you can use (simple) variables here

4

Escape Characters

Escape character is backslash . Useful when you want to:

• put a $ in a string

• use a quote in a quoted string

• disable any special character meaning

We sometimes need to escape the escape character
echo "Escape character is backslash ";

5

Formatting Strings

Often we’ll concatenate as we need to, but we can also use formatting
functions

$animals = array(
array("animal" => "cat", "legs" => 4),
array("animal" => "bee", "legs" => 6),
array("animal" => "peacock", "legs" => 2));

foreach($animals as $animal) {
printf("This %s has %d legsn",
$animal['animal'], $animal['legs']);
}

See also: *printf() and *scanf()

6

HEREDOC

Ask PHP to output everything until the placeholder

$item = "star";
echo <<<ABC
Star light, $item bright,
The first $item I see tonight;
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight
ABC;

7

NOWDOC

echo <<<'ABC'
Star light, star bright,
The first star I see tonight;
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight
ABC;

8

Regular Expressions

• Often abbreviated to "RegEx"

• Describe a pattern for strings to match

/b[aeiou]t/
Matches "bat", "bet", "bit", "bot" and "but"

9

Regular Expressions

• Often abbreviated to "RegEx"

• Describe a pattern for strings to match

/b[aeiou]t/
Matches "bat", "bet", "bit", "bot" and "but"

Also matches "cricket bat", "bitter lemon"

9

Using Regex in PHP

$pattern = '/b[aeiou]t/';
// returns the number of times there's a match
echo preg_match($pattern, "bat"); // 1

Many other string handling functions use regex, and there’s also
preg_match_all

10

Character Ranges

We can use ranges of characters, e.g. to match hex:
/[0-9a-f]*/

11

Character Ranges

/[0-9a-f]*/

Upper and lower case are distinct; for alphanumeric: /[0-9a-zA-Z]/

11

Character Ranges

/[0-9a-f]*/


If you want to allow another couple of characters, go for it:
/[0-9a-zA-Z_]/

11

Character Ranges

/[0-9a-f]*/


If you want to allow another couple of characters, go for it:
/[0-9a-zA-Z_]/

To match any character, use a dot .

11

Character Classes

There are preset ways of saying "number", "whitespace" and so on:

w word character
s whitespace
d digit

When used in uppercase, these are negated

12

Pattern Modiﬁers

We can add modiﬁers to our pattern, to say how many matching
characters are allowed.

? 0 or 1 time

* 0 or more times
+ 1 or more times
{n} n times
{n,} n or more times
{n,m} between n and m times
{,m} up to m times

/b[aeiou]*t/
Matches "bat" and "bit" etc, but also "boot" and "boat"

13

Anchoring Patterns

To stop us from matching "cricket bat", we can anchor

^ start of line
$ end of line
A start of string
Z end of string

/^b[aeiou]t/ Will match "battering ram" but not "cricket bat"

14

Regex Delimiters

• Regexes often contained by a /

• Messy if your expression also contains slashes (e.g. for a URL)

• Also common to use pipe or hash

• Any matching pair works

15

Regex Resources

Brain exploding? Use this cheat sheet from
addedbytes.com@

http://bit.ly/kiWlbZ

16

Array Syntax

Some examples of the syntax around arrays:

$items = array("pen", "pencil", "ruler");
$items[7] = "calculator";
$items[] = "post-its";

var_dump($items);

Outputs this:
Array
(
[0] => pen
[1] => pencil
[2] => ruler
[7] => calculator
[8] => post-its
)

This is an enumerated array

2

Associative Arrays

Associative arrays have named keys

$characters[] = array("name" => "Lala",
"colour" => "Yellow");
$characters[] = array("name" => "Tinky Winky",
"colour" => "Purple");

This is a nested associative array
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[name] => Lala
[colour] => Yellow
)

[1] => Array
(
[name] => Tinky Winky
[colour] => Purple
) 3

Array Functions

Only 75+ of these
(12 just for sorting)

4

Functions

Declaring functions:

function addStars($message) {
return '** ' . $message . ' **';
}

Calling functions:

echo addStars("twinkle");

2

Functions and Arguments

Passing many arguments:

function setColour($red, $green, $blue) {
return '#' . $red . $green . $blue;
}

echo setColour('99','00','cc'); //#9900cc

And optional ones:

function setColourAndIntensity($red, $green, $blue,
$intensity = 'ff') {
return '#' . $red . $green . $blue . $intensity;
}
echo setColourAndIntensity('99','00','cc'); //#9900ccff
echo setColourAndIntensity('99','00','cc', '66'); //#9900cc66

Optional arguments should be the last on the list

3

Return Values

• By default, functions return NULL

• Good practice to return values

• Check if value is returned or assigned

4

Return Values

• By default, functions return NULL

• Good practice to return values

• Check if value is returned or assigned

• Now check again

4

Functions and Scope

• Functions are a "clean sheet" for variables

• Outside values are not available

• Pass in as parameters to use them

• There is also a global keyword

• it was acceptable at one time
• now considered poor practice

5

Scope Examples

function doStuff() {

$apples++;
}

$apples = 4;
echo $apples; //4
doStuff();
echo $apples; //4

6

Scope Examples

function doStuff() {
global $apples;
$apples++;
}

$apples = 4;
echo $apples; //4
doStuff();
echo $apples; //5

7

Pass by Reference

By default:

• Primitive types are copies

• Objects are references

To pass a variable by reference, declare it in the function with &:

function moreCakes(&$basket) {
$basket++;
return true;
}

$basket = 0;
moreCakes($basket);
moreCakes($basket);
echo $basket; // 2

8

Call-Time Pass-By-Reference

• The & goes in the function declaration

• NOT in the call

• PHP 5.3 gives an error about call-time pass-by-reference

See also:
http://php.net/manual/en/language.references.pass.php

9

Anonymous Functions

• Literally functions with no name

• More convenient than create_function()

• Called lambdas

• Unless they use variables from the outside scope

• Then they are called closures

Great explanation: http://bit.ly/kn9Arg

10

Lambda Example

$ping = function() {
echo "ping!";
};

$ping();

11

Closure Example

$message = "hello";
$greet = function ($name) use ($message) {
echo $message . ' ' . $name;
};

$greet('Daisy'); // hello Daisy

12

Closure Example

$message = "hello";
$greet = function ($name) use ($message) {
echo $message . ' ' . $name;
};
$message = "hey";
$greet('Daisy'); // hello Daisy

13

Namespaced Functions

Namespaces are a 5.3 feature

• Avoid naming collision

• Avoid stupid long function names

namespace lolcode;

function catSays() {
echo "meow";
}

lolcodecatSays();

http://blogs.sitepoint.com/php-53-namespaces-basics/

14

Working with Files

There are two main ways to work with ﬁles

• All at once, using file_* functions

• In bite-sized pieces, using f* functions

2

Working with Files

There are two main ways to work with ﬁles

• All at once, using file_* functions

• In bite-sized pieces, using f* functions

For platform independence we have DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR

2

File Functions

Read and write ﬁles using file_get_contents() and
file_put_contents()

$words = file_get_contents('words.txt');
echo $words; // This is a file containing words.
file_put_contents('words.txt', str_replace('words', 'nonsense', $words

3

The f* Functions

• Use a ﬁle handle from fopen()

• Read in chunks, using fgets()

• Or all in one go, using file() or fread()

• Write with fwrite()

• Close handle with fclose()

4

Fopen

Fopen can operate in various modes, passed in as the 2nd argument

r For reading
w for writing, empties the file first
a for writing, adding onto the end of the file
x for writing, fail if the file exists
c for writing, start at the top
+ in combination with any of the above, to enable reading/writing also
b binary mode

5

Reading from Files

$fh = fopen('lorem.txt', 'r');
while(!feof($fh)) {
echo fgets($fh);
}

flcose($fh);

Notice feof() which returns true when we reach the end of the ﬁle

6

Writing to Files

$fh = fopen('polly.txt', 'w');

for($i=0; $i<3; $i++) {
fwrite($fh, 'Polly put the kettle on' . PHP_EOL);
}
fwrite($fh, 'We'll all have tea' . PHP_EOL);

7

File System Functions

Other useful ﬁle and directory functions

• glob()

• is_dir()

• is_file()

• copy()

• rename()

• unlink()

8

phpinfo()

Call this function to ﬁnd out:

• What version of PHP you have

• Which php.ini is being used

• What your conﬁg settings are

• Which extensions are installed

2

Common Conﬁg Settings

• error_reporting

• display_errors

• memory_limit

• post_max_size

• include_path

• file_uploads

• upload_max_filesize

http://php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php

3

PHP include_path

• Use get_include_path() to get current

• There is a PATH_SEPARATOR for platform independence

• Set with set_include_path()

Include paths can be useful for libraries, etc

4

Question Types

• Multiple choice

• pick one answer
• may include "none of the above"

• Multiple choice, multiple option

• checkboxes rather than radio buttons
• if you tick too few, the software will tell you

• Free text

• function name, script output, or other string

2

Sample Question

What is the output of the following code?
<code>
echo strlen(sha1('0'), true);
</code>

(textarea)

3

Sample Question

What does the max_file_uploads configuration option contain?

• A The maximum number of file uploads per session

• B The maximum number of file uploads per request

• C The maximum number of file uploads per user

• D The maximum number of file uploads before the web service
process is restarted

4

Sample Question

What will the following code print?
$str = printf('%.1f',5.3);
echo 'Zend PHP Certification ';
echo $str;

• A Zend Certification 5.3

• B Zend PHP Certification

• C 5.3Zend PHP Certification 3

5

Sample Question

What is the output of the following code?
$a = 1;
++$a;
$a *= $a;
echo $a--;

• A4

• B3

• C5

• D0

• E1

6

Sample Question

Which of the following statements about static functions is true?

• A Static functions can only access static properties of the class

• B Static functions cannot be called from non-static functions

• C Static functions cannot be abstract

• D Static functions cannot be inherited

7

Sample Question

class A {
protected $a = 1;
function x() { echo $this->a++; }
}

$a = new A();
$b = $a;
$c = new A();
$b->x();
$a->x();
$c->x();
$b = $c;
$b->x();
$a->x();

• A 11122

• B 12345

• C 12123

• D 12134 8

Classes and Objects

A class is a recipe for making an object

class Robot {
public $name;

public function flashLights($pattern) {
// look! Pretty flashing lights
return true;
}
}

An object is an instance of a class

$marvin = new Robot();

2

Object Methods and Properties

Object variables are "properties" and their functions are "methods"

$marvin = new Robot();
$marvin->name = 'Marvin';
$marvin->flashLights();

3

Inheritance

OOP supports inheritance

• similar classes can share a parent and override features

• improves modularity, avoids duplication

• classes can only have one parent (unlike some other languages)

• classes can have many children

• there can be as many generations of inheritance as we need

4

Inheritance Examples

class Table {

public $legs;

public function getLegCount() {
return $this->legs;
}
}

class DiningTable extends Table {}

$newtable = new DiningTable();
$newtable->legs = 6;
echo $newtable->getLegCount(); // 6

5

Visibility

We can control which parts of a class are available and where:

• public: always available, everywhere

• private: only available inside this class

• protected: only available inside this class and descendants

This applies to both methods and properties

6

Protected Properties

class Table {
protected $legs;

return $this->legs;
}

public function setLegCount($legs) {
$this->legs = $legs;
return true;
}
}

$table = new Table();
$table->legs = 4;

// Fatal error: Cannot access protected property Table::$legs in /.../

7

Protected Properties

class Table {
protected $legs;

return $this->legs;
}

public function setLegCount($legs) {
$this->legs = $legs;
return true;
}
}

$table->setLegCount(4);

echo $table->getLegCount();

8

Protected Methods

Access modiﬁers for methods work exactly the same way:
class Table {
protected function getColours() {
return array("beech", "birch", "mahogany");
}
}

class DiningTable extends Table {
public function colourChoice() {
return parent::getColours();
}
}

If Table::getColours() were private, DiningTable would think that
method was undeﬁned

9

Object Keywords

• parent: the class this class extends

10

Object Keywords


• self: this class, usually used in a static context, instead of $this

• WARNING: in extending classes, this resolves to where it was
declared
• This was ﬁxed in PHP 5.3 by "late static binding"

10

Object Keywords


• self: this class, usually used in a static context, instead of $this

• WARNING: in extending classes, this resolves to where it was
declared
• This was ﬁxed in PHP 5.3 by "late static binding"

• static: the class in which the code is being used

• Just like self but actually works :)
• Added in 5.3 "Late Static Binding"

10

Comparing Objects

• Comparison ==

• objects must be of the (exact) same class
• objects must have identical properties

• Strict comparison ===

• both arguments must refer to the same object

11

Static Methods

We can call methods without instantiating a class

• $this is not available in a static method

• use the :: notation (paamayim nekudotayim)

• used where we don’t need object properties

class Table {
public static function getColours() {
return array("beech", "birch", "mahogany");
}
}

$choices = Table::getColours();

12

Static Properties

• Exactly like static methods

• Use static when declaring them

• Can be accessed without instantiating the class

Example: Singleton
class Singleton
{
private static $classInstance;

private function __construct () {}

static function getInstance () {
if (! isset(self::$classInstance)) {
self::$classInstance = new Singleton();
}
return (self::$classInstance);
}
}

13

Class Constants

• Class constants are similar to static properties

• But constants can’t change

class Robot {
const MESSAGE = "Here I am, brain the size of a planet";
public $name;

return true;
}
}

echo Robot::MESSAGE;

14

Interfaces

• prototypes of class methods

• classes "implement" an interface

• they must implement all these methods

• the object equivalent of a contract

PHP does not have multiple inheritance

15

Example Interface: Countable

This interface is deﬁned in SPL, and it looks like this:
Interface Countable {
public function count();
}

RTFM: http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/class.countable.php

16

Autoloading

Use include and require to bring class code into our applications.

We can also use autoloading if our classes are predictably named.
function __autoload($classname) {

if(preg_match('/[a-zA-Z]+Controller$/',$classname)) {
include('../controllers/' . $classname . '.php');
return true;
} elseif(preg_match('/[a-zA-Z]+Model$/',$classname)) {
include('../models/' . $classname . '.php');
return true;
} elseif(preg_match('/[a-zA-Z]+View$/',$classname)) {
include('../views/' . $classname . '.php');
return true;
}
}

No need to include/require if you have autoloading

17

The instanceOf Operator

To check whether an object is of a particular class, use instanceOf
$table = new DiningTable();

if($table instanceOf DiningTable) {
echo "a dining tablen";
}

if($table instanceOf Table) {
echo "a tablen";
}

InstanceOf will return true if the object:

• is of that class

• is of a child of that class

• implements that interface

18

Type Hinting

We have type hinting in PHP for complex types. So we can do:

function interrogate(Robot $robot) {
// imagine something more exciting
while($robot->getStatus() == 'OK') {
askAnotherQuestion($robot);
}
return true;
}

PHP will error unless the argument:

• is of that class

• is of a child of that class

• implements that class

19

Raising Exceptions

In PHP, we can throw any exception, any time.
function addTwoNumbers($a, $b) {
if(($a == 0) || ($b == 0)) {
throw new Exception("Zero is Boring!");
}

return $a + $b;
}

echo addTwoNumbers(3,2); // 5
echo addTwoNumbers(5,0); // error!!

Fatal error: Uncaught exception ’Exception’ with message ’Zero is Boring!’ in /
Stack trace:
#0 /.../exception.php(12): addTwoNumbers(5, 0)
#1 {main}
thrown in /.../exception.php on line 5

20

Extending Exceptions

We can extend the Exception class for our own use
class DontBeDaftException extends Exception {
}

function tableColour($colour) {
if($colour == "orange" || $colour == "spotty") {
throw new DontBeDaftException($colour . 'is not acceptable');
}
echo "The table is $colourn";
}

try {
tableColour("blue");
tableColour("orange");
} catch (DontBeDaftException $e) {
echo "Don't be daft! " . $e->getMessage();
} catch (Exception $e) {
echo "The sky is falling in! " . $e->getMessage();
}

21

Magic Methods

In PHP 5.3, we introduced magic methods

• Constructors/destructors

• Getters and setters

• Calling methods

• Serialisation hooks

• Etc

22

Constructors

• __construct: called when a new object is instantiated

• declare any parameters you like
• usually we inject dependencies
• perform any other setup

class BlueTable {
public function __construct() {
$this->colour = "blue";
}
}
$blue_table = new BlueTable();
echo $blue_table->colour; // blue

23

Destructors

• __destruct: called when the object is destroyed

• good time to close resource handles

24

Fake Properties

When we access a property that doesn’t exist, PHP calls __get() or
__set() for us
class Table {

public function __get($property) {
// called if we are reading
echo "you asked for $propertyn";
}

public function __set($property, $value) {
// called if we are writing
echo "you tried to set $property to $valuen";
}
}


$table->legs = 5;

echo "table has: " . $table->legs . "legsn";

25

Fake Methods

PHP calls __call when we call a method that doesn’t exist
class Table {
public function shift($x, $y) {
// the table moves
echo "shift table by $x and $yn";
}

public function __call($method, $arguments) {
// look out for calls to move(), these should be shift()
if($method == "move") {
return $this->shift($arguments[0], $arguments[1]);
}
}
}

$table->shift(3,5); // shift table by 3 and 5
$table->move(4,9); // shift table by 4 and 9

There is an equivalent function for static calls, __callStatic()

26

Serialising Objects

We can control what happens when we serialize and unserialize
objects
class Table {
}

$table->legs = 4;
$table->colour = "red";

echo serialize($table);
// O:5:"Table":2:{s:4:"legs";i:4;s:6:"colour";s:3:"red";}

27

Serialising Objects

• __sleep() to specify which properties to store

• __wakeup() to put in place any additional items on unserialize

class Table {
public function __sleep() {
return array("legs");
}
}

$table->legs = 7;
$table->colour = "red";

$data = serialize($table);
echo $data;
// O:5:"Table":1:{s:4:"legs";i:7;}

28

Serialising Objects

• __sleep() to specify which properties to store

• __wakeup() to put in place any additional items on unserialize

class Table {
public function __wakeup() {
$this->colour = "wood";
}
}

echo $data;
$other_table = unserialize($data);
print_r($other_table);

/* Table Object
(
[legs] => 7
[colour] => wood
) */

29

Magic Tricks: clone

Control the behaviour of cloning an object by deﬁning __clone()

• make it return false to prevent cloning (for a Singleton)

• recreate resources that shouldn’t be shared

30

Magic Tricks: toString

Control what happens when an object cast to a string. E.g. for an
exception
class TableException extends Exception {
public function __toString() {
return '** ' . $this->getMessage() . ' **';
}
}

try {
throw new TableException("it wobbles!");
} catch (TableException $e) {
echo $e;
}

// output: ** it wobbles! **

The default output would be
exception ’TableException’ with message ’it wobbles!’ in
/.../tostring.php:7 Stack trace:

31

Design Patterns

Common solutions to common problems. ZCE expects:

• Singleton

• Registry

• Factory

• ActiveRecord

• MVC (Model View Controller)

32

Singleton

We saw a singleton already

class Singleton
{
private static $classInstance;


static function getInstance () {
if (! isset(self::$classInstance)) {
self::$classInstance = new Singleton();
}
return (self::$classInstance);
}
}

• Only one instance is allowed

• We can’t instantiate it ourselves

33

Registry

class Registry
{
private static $storage;
public function set($key, $value) {
self::$storage[$key] = $value;
}
public function get($key) {
if(array_key_exists($key, self::$storage)) {
return self::$storage[$key];
}
return false;
}
}

Registry::set('shinyThing', new StdClass());
// later ...
$shiny = Registry::get('shinyThing');

34

Factory

class WidgetFactory
{
public function getWidget($type) {
switch($type) {
case 'DatePicker':
// assume simple look/feel
return new SimpleDatePicker(Registry::get('options'));
break;
default:
// do nothing, invalid widget type
break;
}
}
}

$widget_factory = new WidgetFactory();
$picker = $widget_factory->getWidget('DatePicker');
$picker->render();

35

Active Record

• A pattern that hides data access details

• Application simply deals with an object

• Object itself knows how to translate itself to storage

Code can be long/complicated

36

MVC

• Model-View-Controller

• Separates data access, processing and presentation

• Common in many frameworks today

• Controller retrieves data from models, and passes to appropriate
view

Concepts can be tested, code usually isn’t

37

Classes and Namespaces

• Namespaces help us avoid crazy long classnames

• We can combine libraries with the same classnames

• Our code can be more easily organised

38

Classes in Namespaces

Declaring the namespace and class:

namespace MyLibraryLogging

class FileLog{
}

Using the class from elsewhere (including inside another namespace):

$log_handler = new MyLibraryLoggingFileLog();

39

Classes in Namespaces

Declaring the namespace and class:

namespace MyLibraryLogging

class FileLog{
}

Using the namespace and shortened class name:

use MyLibraryLogging;
use MyLibraryLogging as Fred;

$log_handler = new LoggingFileLog();
$log_handler2 = new FredFileLog();

40

Reﬂection

• An API which allows us to inspect our functions/objects

• Gives meta information

• Includes private/protected properties and methods

41

Reﬂecting Functions

function addStars($message) {
return '** ' . $message . ' **';
}

$reflection = new ReflectionFunction('addStars');

$reflection->getName();
$reflection->getParameters();
$reflection->isUserDefined();
$reflection->getFileName();

42

Reﬂecting Classes

class Robot {
public $name;

return true;
}
}

$reflection = new ReflectionClass('Robot');
$reflection->getMethods();
$reflection->getFileName();
$reflection->getProperties();
$reflection->isInterface());

43

Reflection on the CLI

Reflection gives us these command-line switches:

• -rf for function information

• -rc for class information

• -re for extension information

• -ri for extension configuration

Not a ZCE question but really useful!

44

SPL Library

SPL: Standard PHP Library

• Bad news: Huge topic

• Good news: Not much mention in ZCE

45

SPL: Key Knowledge

• Introduced in PHP 5, new additions in each release

• ArrayObject class

• Standard iterator classes

• Really useful interfaces

• Countable (we saw earlier)
• ArrayAccess
• Iterator

• Data types for storage

• Detailed exceptions

• Autoloading

http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/book.spl.php
46

ArrayAccess

An interface which allows an object to behave like an array
abstract public boolean offsetExists ( mixed $offset )
abstract public mixed offsetGet ( mixed $offset )
abstract public void offsetSet ( mixed $offset , mixed $value )
abstract public void offsetUnset ( mixed $offset )

47

Iterator

An interface which deﬁnes how an object behaves when "foreach"-ed
abstract public mixed current ( void )
abstract public scalar key ( void )
abstract public void next ( void )
abstract public void rewind ( void )
abstract public boolean valid ( void )

48

OOP Resources

• OOP Series: http://bit.ly/j7yRUa

• Design Patterns:
http://www.fluffycat.com/PHP-Design-Patterns/

• MVC: http://bit.ly/j8Fscu

• SPL (ramsey): http://devzone.zend.com/article/2565

• SPL (Elazar): http://bit.ly/jiFokK

49

Forms

A form:
<form name="myform">
Name: <input type="text" name="item" /><br />
Imaginary? <input type="checkbox" name="type" value="imaginary" /><br
<input type="submit" value="Share" />
</form>

In the browser:

2

Submitting Forms

PHP data in $_GET:
Array
(
[item] => Unicorn
[type] => imaginary
)

If form has method="post" attribute, data will be in $_POST

3

Fun With Forms

• Forms can have many input types:

• For a full list: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_forms.asp

4

Fun With Forms

• Forms can have many input types:

• For a full list: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_forms.asp

• In the interests of balance: http://w3fools.com/

4

Uploading Files with Forms

• Use enctype="multipart/form-data" and input type file

• Upload information available in $_FILES

• One element per form file element, containing:

• name
• type
• size
• tmp_name
• error

• Config options: upload_max_filesize and upload_tmp_dir

5

HTTP Headers

Headers are request meta-data

Common headers:

• Accept and Content-Type

• Cookie and Set-Cookie

• User-Agent

• Authorization

Headers are sent with both requests and responses

6

Headers Example

curl -I http://www.google.co.uk/

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Wed, 04 May 2011 09:50:30 GMT
Expires: -1
Cache-Control: private, max-age=0
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
Set-Cookie: PREF=ID=0a902b1fd14bc62f:FF=0:TM=1304502630:LM=1304502630:
Set-Cookie: NID=46=CUminn6rbfPX-oPfF1LQ_PtTpJVvMIeB6q0csmOjv4mnciVY5yP
Server: gws
X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
Transfer-Encoding: chunked

7

Cookies

• Cookies are sent as HTTP headers

• Client returns them on subsequent same-domain requests

• No cookies in ﬁrst request

// set cookie
setcookie('name', 'Fred', time() + 3600);

// see what cookies we have
var_dump($_COOKIE);

8

Cookie Considerations

• Cookies are invisible to the user

• Data is stored client side

• Easily edited (check your browser options)

• Cannot be trusted

9

PHP Sessions

Sessions are a better way to store persistent data

• Available by default in PHP

• Start with session_start() or conﬁg session.auto_start

• Makes a superglobal $_SESSION available, which persists between
requests from the same user

10

PHP Sessions

Sessions are a better way to store persistent data

• Available by default in PHP

• Start with session_start() or conﬁg session.auto_start

• Makes a superglobal $_SESSION available, which persists between
requests from the same user

• Session has a unique identiﬁer

• Usually sent to client as a cookie

• Data is stored on the server

10

Session Storage

• Sessions stored as ﬁles in temp directory by default

• Many different handlers available:

• database
• memcache
• ... and extensible

• Set handler with session.save_handler

11

Session Functions

• session_id()

• session_regenerate_id()

• session_destroy()

12

HTTP Authentication

If you’re using Apache, you can use PHP and Basic Authentication

• If credentials were submitted, you’ll ﬁnd them in

• $_SERVER[’PHP_AUTH_USER’]
• $_SERVER[’PHP_AUTH_PW’]

• To trigger authentication, send a WWW-Authenticate: Basic
realm=[realm] header

• http://bit.ly/jBeOwb

• http://php.net/manual/en/features.http-auth.php

13

Date and Time

Unix Timestamp: seconds since 1st January 1970

• e.g. 1305656360

Date/Time functions

• date()

• mktime()

• BEWARE arguments hour, minute, second, month,
day, year

• strtotime()

See: http://bit.ly/iPyKgv

2

DateTime

• OO interface into the same (some better, some ﬁxed) functionality

• Added in 5.2

• Objects

• DateTime
• DateTimeZone
• DateInterval
• DatePeriod

See: http://bit.ly/kYuIj9

3

XML in PHP

There is (as usual) more than one way to do this

• SimpleXML
http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/book.simplexml.php

• DOM http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/book.dom.php

4

XML in PHP

There is (as usual) more than one way to do this

• SimpleXML
http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/book.simplexml.php

• DOM http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/book.dom.php

As a general rule, if SimpleXML can do it, use SimpleXML. Otherwise,
use DOM

They are interoperable using dom_import_simplexml() and
simplexml_import_dom()

4

SimpleXML

SimpleXML parses XML into a predictable Object structure

• Objects are of type SimpleXMLElement

• Child elements are properties, and themselves are
SimpleXMLElement objects

• Where there are multiple same-named children, these become an
array*

• Attributes are accessed using array notation

• Does have some limitations (cannot relocate nodes, for example)

* not really, it’s an object with ArrayAccess but it *looks* like an array to us

5

SimpleXMLElement Functions

Bringing in data:

• simplexml_load_file - Interprets an XML ﬁle into an object

• simplexml_load_string - Interprets a string of XML into an
object

6

SimpleXMLElement Functions

Manipulating XML

• SimpleXMLElement::children - Finds children of given node

• SimpleXMLElement::attributes - Identiﬁes an element’s
attributes

• SimpleXMLElement::addChild - Adds a child element to the
XML node

• SimpleXMLElement::addAttribute - Adds an attribute to the
SimpleXML element

• SimpleXMLElement::getName - Gets the name of the XML
element

• SimpleXMLElement::getDocNamespaces - Returns
namespaces declared in document

• SimpleXMLElement::asXML - Return a well-formed XML string
based on SimpleXML element 7

DOM and XML

• More powerful and ﬂexible

• More complex

• Documents represented by DOMDocument objects

8

DOMDocument Methods

• DOMDocument::load - Load XML from a ﬁle

• DOMDocument::loadXML - Load XML from a string

• DOMDocument::saveXML - Dumps the internal XML tree into a
string

• DOMDocument::createAttribute - Create new attribute

• DOMDocument::createElement - Create new element node

• DOMDocument::getElementsByTagName - Searches for all
elements with given tag name

• DOMDocument::normalizeDocument - Normalizes the document

There is also the DOMElement class

9

XML Resources

• http://bit.ly/l0EOkz

• http://bit.ly/jPeIKl

• http://devzone.zend.com/article/1713

10

XPath

Query language for XML, often compared with SQL

• In its simplest form, it searches for a top level tag

• A particular tag inside a tag library/shelf

• And so on to any level of nesting

• To search for tags at any level in the hierarchy, start with double
slash //book

• To ﬁnd elements, use an ’at’ sign //book@title

Both DOM and SimpleXML allow you to perform XPath on child nodes as
well as a whole document

11

JSON

• JavaScript Object Notation

• A string format for representing arrays/objects

• Write it with json_encode()

• Read it with json_decode()

12

JSON Example

$list = array("meat" => array(
"chicken",
"lamb",
"reindeer"),
"count" => 3);

echo json_encode($list);

"meat":["chicken","lamb","reindeer"],"count":3

13

Web Services

• Means of exposing functionality or data

• A lot like a web page

• Integration between applications

• Separation within an application

• Works over HTTP, using headers and status codes for additional
data

• Can use various data formats, including XML and JSON

14

RPC Services

These services typically have:

• A single endpoint

• Method names

• Method parameters

• A return value

15

Soap

• Not an acronym

• (used to stand for Simple Object Access Protocol)

• Special case of XML-RPC

• VERY easy to do in PHP

• Can be used with a WSDL

• Web Service Description Language

16

Publishing a Soap Service

include('Library.php');

$options = array('uri' => 'http://api.local/soap');
$server = new SoapServer(NULL, $options);
$server->setClass('Library');

$server->handle();

17

Consuming a Soap Service

To call PHP directly, we would do:
include('Library.php');

$lib = new Library();
$name = $lib->thinkOfAName();
echo $name; // Arthur Dent

Over Soap:
$options = array('uri' => 'http://api.local',
'location' => 'http://api.local/soap');
$client = new SoapClient(NULL, $options);

$name = $client->thinkOfAName();
echo $name; // Arthur Dent

18

REST

• REST: REpresentational State Transfer

• Can look like "pretty URLs"

• Stateless

• Uses HTTP features

• Can use any data format

GET Read
POST Create
In REST, we use HTTP verbs to provide CRUD:
PUT Update
DELETE Delete

19

Using REST

• Every item is a resource

• Each resource is represented by a URI

• The "directories" are called collections

• We can GET items or collections

• To create, we POST to the collection

• To update, we GET the resource, change it and then POST it back to
the URI

• To delete, we DELETE the resource

20

Filter Input, Escape Output

Filter input, escape output

2

Filter Input

• Trust nothing

• Ensure data is type expected

• Whitelist/Blacklist

• ctype_* functions

• Filter extension

3

PHP Security Conﬁguration

There are some key ini directives that can help us secure our system

• register_globals

• allow_url_fopen

• open_basedir

• disable_functions

• disable_classes

4

Cross Site Scripting

Someone inserts something malicious into your site that users see,
especially if you have user contributed content

Usually javascript, and can be subtle - redirecting users or rewriting links

Filter input, escape output

Input containing scripts should not be accepted, and should never be
displayed

5

Cross Site Request Forgery

Script makes request to another website

• Uses user privileges

• Invisible to user

• Form submissions that did not come from your forms

To protect:

• Send a unique token with every form

• Only accept a form response if it has the token in it

6

SQL Injection

http://xkcd.com/327/

7

SQL Injection

• Again, ﬁlter your input!

• SQL injection is passing of unescapted variables to your database

• Use *_escape_string() to combat it

• PDO and prepared statements protect against it

8

SQL

• Assumes MySQL

• DDL queries

• Data manipulation

• PDO

2

Tables

Creating tables:
CREATE TABLE pets (
pet_id int primary key auto_increment,
animal varchar(255),
name varchar(255));

Removing tables:
DROP TABLE pets;

3

SQL and Data

Inserting data:

insert into pets (animal, name) values ("dog", "Rover");
insert into pets (animal, name) values ("cat", "Fluffy");

Updating data:

update pets set name="Pig" where name="Rover";

Deleting data:

delete from pets;

A where clause can be added too

4

SQL Joins

A join is when we combine two data sets, e.g. owners and pets

+--------+--------+---------+----------+
| pet_id | animal | name | owner_id |
+--------+--------+---------+----------+
| 1 | dog | Pig | 3 |
| 2 | cat | Fluffy | 3 |
| 3 | rabbit | blackie | 2 |
| 4 | rabbit | Snowy | 1 |
| 5 | cat | Scratch | 3 |
| 6 | cat | Sniff | 3 |
+--------+--------+---------+----------+

+----------+---------+------+
| owner_id | name | age |
+----------+---------+------+
| 1 | Jack | 3 |
| 2 | Jill | 3 |
| 3 | Harriet | 9 |
+----------+---------+------+
5

PDO

PDO: PHP Database Objects

• Connects to (many!) various database back-ends

• Replaces the mysql_* functions and equivalents

• Abstracts database access

• Does not work around SQL differences

http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/book.pdo.php

8

PDO Examples

Fetching data
$dbh = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=test', 'user', 'pass');

$query = "select name from owners";
$stmt = $dbh->prepare($query);
$success = $stmt->execute();

if($success) {
while($row = $stmt->fetch()){
echo "<p>".$row['NAME']."</p>n";
}
}

9

Prepared Statements

• Prepared statements standard with PDO

• Use bind variables just as from command line

• These will be sanity checked as they are substituted

• Use placeholders in SQL

• Two types of placeholder

• :variable
• ?

• Can also bind to a parameter with bindParam()

10

Bind Variables

These are simple placeholders which we substitute values into


$sql = 'select * from pets
where animal = ?
and colour = ?';

$stmt = $dbh->prepare($sql);

$stmt->bindValue(1,'cat');
$stmt->bindValue(2,'black');

$stmt->execute();

11

Bind Variables

A more readable but equivalent approach:

$sql = 'select * from pets
where animal = :animal
and colour = :colour';

$stmt = $dbh->prepare($sql);

$stmt->bindValue(':colour','rabbit');
$stmt->bindValue(':animal','white');

$stmt->execute();

12

Transactions

• Some database types support transactions

• Transactions are atomic collections of statements

• If all statements complete successfully, transaction is committed

• Otherwise, it is rolled back and none of them ever happened

• PDO supports this

• PDO::beginTransaction()
• PDO::commit() or PDO::rollback()

13

Optimising Queries with EXPLAIN

• Take a query

• Put the EXPLAIN keyword in front of it

• Gives information about the number of rows scanned to build result
set

• Use G to make it easier to read

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/explain.html

14

Timings

• 70 questions approx

• 90 minutes

• 77 seconds on average

2

Timings

• 70 questions approx

• 90 minutes

• 77 seconds on average

Take your time!

2

Equipment

You will be allowed to take nothing with you.

They will give you something to write on and with

3

Scores

• Pass mark is not publicised

• No penalty for a wrong answer

• Some questions worth more marks than others

• You can ﬂag questions to come back to later

4

Scores

• Pass mark is not publicised

• No penalty for a wrong answer

• Some questions worth more marks than others

• You can ﬂag questions to come back to later

If you don’t know, GUESS

4

Reviewing Questions

When you get to the end of the questions:

• A grid of questions shows

• Unanswered questions are marked

• Flagged questions are marked

• You can go to them, and come back to the grid

• If you haven’t ticked enough boxes, this is shown too

5

ZCE Beneﬁts

• Right to use "ZCE" and logo

• Entry in Zend Yellow Pages directory

• Software licenses from Zend

• Some employers ask for it

• Bragging rights? :)

6

And Finally

• Links: http://bit.ly/ltbYs1

• Slides: http://slideshare.net/lornajane

• Feedback: http://joind.in/3214

GOOD LUCK!

7

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