The PHP Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks and Hacks

0. Preface
* Who Should Read this Book?
* What’s Covered in this Book?
* Running the Code Examples
* The Book’s Web Site
o The Code Archive
o Updates and Errata
* The SitePoint Forums
* The SitePoint Newsletters
* Your Feedback
* Conventions Used in this Book
o Code Samples
o Tips, Notes, and Warnings
1. Introduction
* Where do I get help?
* What is OOP?
* How do I write portable PHP code?
* Summary
2. Using Databases with PDO
* What is PDO?
* How do I access a database?
* How do I fetch data from a table?
* How do I resolve errors in my SQL queries?
* How do I add data to, or modify data in, my database?
* How do I protect my web site from an SQL injection attack?
* How do I create flexible SQL statements?
* How do I find out how many rows I’ve touched?
* How do I find out a new INSERT’s row number in an autoincrementing field?
* How do I search my table?
* How do I work with transactions?
* How do I use stored procedures with PDO?
* How do I back up my database?
* Summary
3. Strings
* How do I output strings safely?
* How do I preserve formatting?
* How do I strip HTML tags from text?
* How do I force text to wrap after a certain number of characters?
* How do I perform advanced search and replace operations?
* How do I break up text into an array of lines?
* How do I trim whitespace from text?
* How do I output formatted text?
* How do I validate submitted data?
* Summary
4. Dates and Times
* How do I use Unix timestamps?
* How do I obtain the current date?
* How do I find a day of the week?
* How do I find the number of days in a month?
* How do I create a calendar?
* How do I store dates in MySQL?
* How do I format MySQL timestamps?
* How do I perform date calculations using MySQL?
* Summary
5. Forms, Tables, and Pretty URLs
* How do I build HTML forms with PHP?
* How do I display data in a table?
* How do I display data in a sortable table?
* How do I create a customized data grid?
* How do I make “pretty” URLs in PHP?
* Summary
6. Working with Files
* How do I read a local file?
* How do I use file handles?
* How do I modify a local file?
* How do I access information about a local file?
* How do I examine directories with PHP?
* How do I display PHP source code online?
* How do I store configuration information in a file?
* How do I access a file on a remote server?
* How do I use FTP from PHP?
* How do I manage file downloads with PHP?
* How do I create compressed ZIP/TAR files with PHP?
* How do I work with files using the Standard PHP Library in PHP 5?
* Summary
7. Email
* How do I send a simple email?
* How do I simplify the generation of complex emails?
* How do I add attachments to messages?
* How do I send HTML email?
* How do I mail a message to a group of people?
* How do I handle incoming mail with PHP?
* How can I protect my site against email injection attacks?
* Summary
8. Images
* How do I specify the correct image MIME type?
* How do I create thumbnail images?
* How do I resize images without stretching them?
* How can I put together a simple thumbnail gallery?
* How do I extract EXIF information from images?
* How do I add a watermark to an image?
* How do I display charts and graphs with PHP?
* How do I prevent the hotlinking of images?
* How do I create images that can be verified by humans only?
* Summary
9. Error Handling
* What error levels does PHP report?
* What built-in settings does PHP offer for error handling?
* How can I trigger PHP errors?
* How do I implement a custom error handler with PHP?
* How do I log and report errors?
* How can I use PHP exceptions for error handling?
* How do I create a custom Exception class?
* How do I implement a custom exception handler with PHP?
* How can I handle PHP errors as if they were exceptions?
* How do I display errors and exceptions gracefully?
* How do I redirect users to another page following an error condition?
* Summary
10. Access Control
* How do I use HTTP authentication?
* How do I use sessions?
* How do I create a session class?
* How do I create a class to control access to a section of the site?
* How do I build a registration system?
* How do I deal with members who forget their passwords?
* How do I let users change their passwords?
* How to do I build a permissions system?
* How do I store sessions in a database?
* Summary
11. Caching
* How do I prevent web browsers from caching a page?
* How do I control client-side caching?
* How do I examine HTTP headers in my browser?
* How do I cache file downloads with Internet Explorer?
* How do I use output buffering for server-side caching?
* How do I cache just the parts of a page that change infrequently?
* How do I use PEAR::Cache_Lite for server-side caching?
* What configuration options does Cache_Lite support?
* How do I purge the Cache_Lite cache?
* How do I cache function calls?
* Summary
12. XML and Web Services
* Which XML technologies are available in PHP 5?
* Why should I use PHP’s XML extensions instead of PHP string functions?
* How do I parse an RSS feed?
* How do I generate an RSS feed?
* How do I search for a node or content in XML?
* How can I consume XML-RPC web services?
* How do I serve my own XML-RPC web services?
* How can I consume SOAP web services?
* How do I serve SOAP web services?
* How can I consume REST services?
* How can I serve REST services?
* Summary
13. Best Practices
* How do I track revisions to my project’s code?
* How can I maintain multiple versions of a single codebase?
* How can I write distributable code?
* How can I document my code for later reference by myself or others?
* How can I ensure future changes to my code won’t break current functionality?
* How can I determine what remains to be tested?
* I’ve reviewed some of my old code, and it’s horrible. How can I make it better?
* How can I deploy code safely?
* Summary

Appendix

1. PHP Configuration
* Configuration Mechanisms
* Key Security and Portability Settings
* Includes and Execution Settings
* Error-related Settings
* Miscellaneous Settings
2. Hosting Provider Checklist
* General Issues
o Does the host support Linux and Apache?
o Does the host provide you with SSH access to the server?
o Is the host a reseller, or does it maintain servers itself?
o To what degree does the host “overload” the server?
o What’s the hosting provider’s policy on running scripts and programs from the command line?
o Does the host provide you access to cron, the Unix utility that allows you to schedule batch jobs?
* PHP-related Issues
o Can you see the output of phpinfo on the server you will actually be assigned to?
o Is PHP installed as an Apache module (not the CGI variant)?
o Is the Apache settingAllowOverride set to Options or All?
o Is PHP Safe Mode disabled?
o Check the upgrade policy of your host.
o Ask for a list of installed PHP extensions.
o Will PHP be available for use from the command line?
o What’s the host’s knowledge of PHP?
* Security Checklist
o Top Security Vulnerabilities
+ Cross-site Scripting (XSS)
+ Injection Flaws
+ Malicious File Execution
+ Insecure Direct Object Reference
+ Cross-site Request Forgery (CSRF)
+ Information Leakage and Improper Error Handling
+ Broken Authentication and Session Management
+ Insecure Cryptographic Storage
+ Insecu...