Handling HTTP Requests in PHP: A Guide

In this article, we will explore how to handle HTTP requests in PHP effectively. By default, PHP offers file-based routing. You can create an index.php file that will respond to the / path. This is similar to the Hello World example we covered earlier. Additionally, you can create a test.php file, which will automatically be served by Apache for the /test route. Understanding $_GET, $_POST, and $_REQUEST PHP provides superglobal objects like $_GET, $_POST, and $_REQUEST to handle different types of HTTP requests....

How to Create Your First PHP Program

When learning a new programming language, one of the first things we do is create a “Hello, World!” application. This simple program prints the famous string to the console. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of creating your first PHP program. Before getting started, make sure you have MAMP running, and open the htdocs folder as explained in the previous steps. For coding, we recommend using VS Code, a user-friendly code editor....

How to Handle Errors in PHP: Best Practices

As developers, we all make mistakes. Whether it’s forgetting a semicolon, using the wrong variable name, or passing the incorrect argument to a function, errors are a part of the programming process. In PHP, we categorize errors into three types: warnings, notices, and errors. Warnings and Notices: These are minor errors that don’t stop the program execution. PHP will display a message indicating the issue, but the program will continue running unaffected....

How to Use Blade Templates in Laravel

This tutorial is part of the Laravel Handbook. Download it from https://flaviocopes.com/access/ In Laravel, view files that end with .blade.php are Blade templates. Blade is a server-side templating language that allows you to write dynamic templates using HTML. Blade templates offer a wide range of features to make your templates more dynamic and powerful. You can insert data, add conditionals, use loops, display content based on user authentication, and much more....

How to Use Composer and Packagist in PHP

Composer is a PHP package manager that simplifies the process of installing packages into your projects. By using Composer, you can easily add libraries and dependencies to your PHP projects. In this tutorial, we will explore how to use Composer and Packagist to install and manage packages in PHP. Step 1: Installing Composer First, you need to install Composer on your machine. Composer works on Linux, Mac, and Windows operating systems....

How to Use Exceptions in PHP

Errors can occur unexpectedly in our code, but by using exceptions in PHP, we can handle them in a more controlled manner. Exceptions allow us to intercept errors and take appropriate actions, such as displaying error messages or implementing workarounds. To use exceptions, we wrap the code that might potentially raise an exception in a try block, followed by a catch block. The catch block is executed if there is an exception in the preceding try block....

How to Use Forms in PHP: A Step-by-Step Guide

Forms play a crucial role in allowing users to interact with web pages and send data to servers. In this tutorial, we will walk you through the process of using forms in PHP. First, let’s start with a simple HTML form: <form> <input type="text" name="name" /> <input type="submit" /> </form> To integrate this form into your PHP application, you can place it in your index.php file as if it were an HTML file....

How to Use HTTP Headers in PHP for Better Website Performance

In PHP, you can effectively manage the HTTP headers of a response using the header() function. HTTP headers play a crucial role in communication between the server and the browser, allowing you to transmit useful information back to the browser. For example, to generate a 500 Internal Server Error page, you can use the following PHP code: <?php header('HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error'); ?> By inspecting the page with the Browser Developer Tools open, you will see the updated status:...

How to Utilize PHP Cookie-based Sessions

One intriguing application of cookies is cookie-based sessions. Fortunately, PHP provides an effortless way to create a cookie-based session with the help of session_start(). To begin, add the following code snippet to a PHP file and load it in your browser: <?php session_start(); ?> Upon executing this code, you will notice a new cookie called PHPSESSID with an assigned value. This cookie acts as the session ID, which will be sent with every subsequent request....

How to Work with Files/Folders in PHP

PHP, being a server-side language, offers convenient access to the filesystem. In this blog post, we will explore some basic operations on files and folders using PHP. Checking if a File Exists To check if a file exists, we can use the file_exists() function like this: file_exists('test.txt'); // true Getting the Size of a File To get the size of a file, we can use the filesize() function: filesize('test.txt'); Opening a File To open a file, we can use the fopen() function....