Introduction to PHP: What is PHP? What hardware and software do I need? Linux and UNIX. Windows (98, NT, 2000, Millennium, XP). What does PHP cost? PHP versions.

A First PHP Web Page:
Writing and uploading. The structure of a PHP page. Sequences of statements.

Variables, Operators and Expressions:
Expressions and operators. Variables. Getting a value from a form. Alternative ways of getting values from a form. Comments in PHP. Including a file.

Control Statements:
Conditional statements - if. Boolean operators. Blocks, else if and else. Conditional statement - switch. Loops - the while statement. Making up a table in your PHP. Alternative loop - the for statement. Other control statement subjects.

Functions:
Global and static variables. Loading functions from another file. Defaulting parameters. Call by value v call by name. Example. Object oriented PHP.

Arrays:
Array manipulation. Array functionality. Creating Arrays. Manipulating arrays.

String Handling in PHP:
Strings. Strings - in variables and literals. String functions - an introduction. Low-level functions. Higher level functions. Matching, extraction and replacement functions.

Further Web Page and Network Handling:
Maintaining state. Cookie examples. Headers, Heads and Bodies. Uses of Cookies. Accessibility - a practical example of cookies. Example using PHP4 built-in session functions. Why email from the server? Informing the system owner. Emailing system users. Other users. Emailing from the server. Configuration. Sending a simple email. Adding to the headers. Sending attachments. A practical example of mailing from PHP.

Using MySQL Databases in PHP Pages:
Database structure. How to create a new table. Adding information to a table. Selecting information from a table and reporting it to a web page. Deleting a table. User input checking and other testing. Example: A PHP script to select and view the data in any table. Downloading all the tables from a database. Uploading tables from a flat text file. Using other relational databases from PHP. Using Oracle 8.x and 9.x. Using the Oracle OCI9 API. Portable database connection.

Sourcing, installing and configuring PHP:
Sourcing. Installing PHP. Installation of PHP under an Apache Web Server on Windows XP Pro. Installing PHP under OSX. Configuring PHP.

Security in PHP:
From first principles. Testing. PHP installed as CGI binary. Possible attacks. Installed as an Apache module. File system Security. Error Reporting. Using register global. Hiding PHP. Keeping Current.

Generating CSS through PHP:
Basic steps. Configuring PHP to parse css. Mime Type text/css. Dynamic input via GET, cookies and SERVER.

PHP and MySQL example application - adhoc database analysis:
Good practice in action. 4 layer model for application design. Use of separate business logic, web help and templates. Contextual Help system. Login screens. Building us a MySQL query in a PHP script.