Author: Saim Khalid

In PHP, PRG stands for “Post/Redirect/Get”. It is a commonly used technique that is designed to prevent the resubmission of a form after it’s been submitted. You can easily implement this technique in PHP to avoid duplicate form submissions. Usually a HTML form sends data to the server with the POST method. The server script…

In PHP, it is important to ensure that the input data is sanitized properly by removed any undesired characters before it is processed by the server side code. Usually, the users input their data to a PHP web application through a HTML form. If the form data consists of any undesired characters, it may prove…

The provision of sending emails is one the commonly required features of a typical PHP powered web application. You would like to send emails containing notifications, updates and other communications to your registered users, through your PHP application itself, instead of a different mail service. You can add this capability to your PHP application by…

From PHP version 7 onwards, the session_start() function accepts an array of options to override the session configuration directives set in “php.ini”. The [session] session in “php.ini” defines the default values of various options. The options, if provided, are in the form of an associative array of options that will override the currently set session configuration directives.…

A web session is the time duration between the time a user establishes connection with a server and the time the connection is terminated. Along with the cookies, the session variables make the data accessible across the various pages of an entire website. During a session, the website maintains information about the user’s actions and…

The worldwide web is powered by HTTP protocol, which is a stateless protocol. The mechanism of Cookies helps the server maintain the information of previous requests. PHP transparently supports HTTP cookies. Understanding Cookies in PHP This chapter will teach you how to set cookies, how to access them and how to delete them. The Anatomy…

One of the common features required in a typical PHP web application is the provision of letting the user upload files. Uploading files from a client is very easy in PHP. In this chapter, we shall learn how to use PHP script for the file upload process. How to Upload a File? The process of…

Since PHP is mostly used for web application development, the data sent by the browser client is mainly with the GET and POST types of HTTP request methods. The HTTP protocol also defines other methods for sending the request to the server. They are PUT, DELETE, HEAD and OPTIONS (in addition to GET and POST…

When developing websites, we generally have to reuse the same information or code in many places. For example, we might want the same header, footer or menu across all pages. PHP allows us to use file inclusion instead of writing the same code many times! File inclusion saves time, organizes our code and allows us…

Data types in PHP can be of “scalar type” or “compound type”. Integer, float, Boolean and string types are scalar types, whereas array and object types are classified as compound types. Values of more than one types can be stored together in a single variable of a compound type. In PHP, objects and arrays are…