A look at the PHP development framework

PHP is actually not a young language since as of the year 2013 it’s already eighteen years old. Over the years, there have been numerous startup languages that tried to unseat PHP as the ‘lingua franca’ of web apps. However, the PHP development framework still commands over 80 percent of the web market in the world. One reason for the popularity of the framework is the ease with which new developers could begin, but equally important is the fact that it has been evolving for all those years. It has matured considerably since the last time people bashed it and acquiring more and more contemporary features from other languages.

Recent PHP versions have expanded the capabilities in order to keep up with the evolving technical requirements and markets. Web development with PHP means developing dynamic websites and web pages with the use of the capable and versatile server-side scripting language. The framework provides a plethora of benefits. It is not only open source but is also feature-rich. Furthermore, it has all the functionality that a paid or proprietary scripting language offers.

Why choose PHP? Because it is open source, it is free of cost and developed and updated by a community of developers all over the world. Thus, all the components could be used and distributed freely. It can be used to design any kind of web and could handle sites with plenty of traffic. Twitter, Wikipedia, Facebook and other widely visited sites use it as their framework. Since it is server-side scripting, it could do anything that other CGI programs could.

As a framework, PHP has an easily understandable and readable syntax. The code is embedded in the HTML source code and based on C/C++, so it is very familiar and programmers and developers are very comfortable in coding using it. It could be run on all major operating systems that include UNIX, Linux, Mac OS and Windows. PHP supports all major web servers, such as Microsoft IIS, Apache, personal webserver, Netscape and more. It also supports all major databases, like dBase, MySQL, InterBase, IBM DB2, ODBC, FrontBase, SQLite and more.

The development framework utilizes its own memory space and so decreases loading time and workload from the server. The processing speed is rapid and web apps such as CRM, eCommerce and Forums also are developed faster by it. PHP has multiple security layers that prevent malicious attacks and threats, therefore it is secure. The development community is vast with developers who regularly update documentation, tutorials, online help and FAQs.

The framework has been used for two decades now since it first started in 1995. It is trusted by hundreds of thousands of developers and websites and the list is growing on a daily basis. PHP has also proven its versatility and capability through the development and the maintenance of some of the most highly visited and popular sites. For those who are looking for dynamic, fully-functional and robust website as well as a much better web experience, PHP is the language of choice.

What is special about PHP 7?

PHP 7 came into existence in December 2015 with the new start of major PHP 7 series. This was introduced by the PHP Development team after a long wait. The below piece of information will show you on how this latest scripting language version would help you to give the big boost for the business, helping application development and improving end performance.

The 7th version of PHP is packed with the Zend Engine with some improvements and new features. Additionally, this success is the result of two years of development based on the feedback of the very active PHP community. It is expected to put the comprehensive mark in the coming years.

PHP has come a long way!

PHP which is known as server-side scripting language or personal home page originally is an open source language developed for web interactive dynamic web pages and a common programming language. Rasmus Lerdorf invented PHP in 1994 and is also known as Hypertext Preprocessor.

Rasmus Lerdorf never thought, PHP would grow to such an extensive programming language but it grew out of a need to develop the dynamic web applications. The period of PHP from 2013-2016 is the substantial one with the vast organic growth with no formal specification. It got a pivotal change in a short period of time.

Enormous potential for Business

PHP 7 is the amazing version as it offers a high potential to the companies, who are using PHP to develop the application as well as the end users who are running the application. It offers a way better performance than its predecessor PHP 5.6.

It is also updated with the syntax improvements and other functionalities and features which may positively affect the software making it easy for the user to modify anytime. Moreover, the developers of PHP 7 has removed the modules, improving the syntax and supporting 64-bit architecture. PHP 7 allows the developers to focus more on the quality of code rather than, comprehensive SDK and API.

Over and above, the usage of RAM has been reduced because due to fewer resources, they are able to withstand higher loads. This means that PHP 7 would perform like a rocket if you decide to update the PHP with the new version.

The Drawbacks of PHP7

Every technology has its downside and so does PHP 7. It is integrated with a return and scalar type parameter types and value types returned by functions declarations which enables defining a signature. PHP 7 developers themselves decide which part of the code they wish to apply for the scalar declarations.

This is supposed to bring the PHP closer to being a typical programming language which may also result in the conjunctions of the code. You would be able to use one fragment of the code whereas the other won’t.

New things always take the time to accept the things in the market, but there are obvious much wide areas, where developers and businesses would benefit.

VIM for PHP development

Today with the more advancement in the PHP development, VIM which is the modal editor performing the similar task of integrated development environment came into existence. It is basically the text editor used to develop wide era of PHP applications, with the less requirements of resources compared to the other platforms and also less hassle in developing the configurations. On choosing the streamlined IDE, you may be charged some penalties but provides the facility to write, organize and refactor code very much quickly. VIM PHP helps you to write the PHP code even much faster than before. Its behavior is dependent upon the use of Meta keys, which indicates that editor is in insert mode. Many developers use VIM for dipping in and out the odd file or for remote server during SSH session.

VIM belongs to the open source project and generally available on all platforms including windows. You can check out the official website for VIM to download the latest version. And if you are using Ubuntu environment, you can find VIM in your package. VIM is not the word processor, but though it can display text with the various formatting.

VIM vs. IDEs

This text based editor is very much light weight compared to the IDE’s for Netbeans and Eclipse. This becomes the boons in balancing the lack of available tasks supported out of box. UNIX can help VIM with standard command line tools, which works with the plain text interface. It also have a good impact of automation setup as, it provides you with automated bash script or an XML file without many point to click interface. The syntax command to write the command line is! Followed. From composing E-mails to editing, VIM serves to be the best for any kind of text editing:

• Configurable
• Extendable
• Core concept: combination

This editor has different modes of operation:

• Normal Mode: Here no editing is done, only you can give commands
• Insert mode: It allows editing as and when you need
• Visual mode: In this mode, it only allows you to select the text
 

Highlights for PHP syntax

It is integrated with php.vim plugin to get the improved version of plugin directories and to add a support for PHP keywords like define, static and more. It will also help you in customization by adding more colors of your choice to these keywords. Also, it guides you with the verification and grammatical syntax like if syntax is invalid or if you forget to close the brackets.

FileType Plugins

This kind of plugin enables you to define the basing on the detected PHP script. All files in .vim/ftplugin whose name starts with PHP will be automatically included whenever you are editing the files that contains the PHP code. This plugin works by themselves adding up in this file directory. Vim has multiple ftplugin directory, where general purpose scripts are placed.

Snippets_emu is the most used plugin for generation of the snippets related to control structure.

Why to use VIM

• It performs the similar functions compared to integrated development environment such as syntax highlighting, code completion, easy ways to write and more
• It is compatible on almost all machine
• VIM provides portable configuration and hence you can customize environment according to your wish on all machines
• Quite faster compared to IDE

VIM is the text based editor and graphics are already pre-installed on the Linux platforms, you don’t have to manually add it. Hence it becomes the most convenient source of editing text files when you only have the access to the command interface on the server. VIM is up to run the sudo commands so editing the system administered files also becomes the boon. Using the VIM tool enhances your work flow and also helps you in gaining the proper insight.

Awesome things you can do in PHP Development

PHP is the open source language and hence all the source code are available at a free of cost. Isn’t that great? Even a novice developer can make amazing websites and applications by the use of PHP. You can make the numbers and dates looks awesome with the little knowledge of PHP. But there are though many things, which most of the people won’t be aware about. Have a look on some key things about PHP development that you may not be aware of.

No tedious work to validate E-mail address: PHP has many built in functions which lessens half of your work and one of the built in function is checkdnsrr (). The main functionality of this function is to check the DNS record corresponding to the IP address. This is amazing function, it would return false, when you send an E-mail. You can return an error about the domain telling you whether it exist or not before you commence any work. This results in saving time, resources and of course making the things really look cool. Yes, there are some filters to validate but by using checkdnsrr () you can easily check the domain and e-mail address exist or not.

MYSQLI: Are you aware about MYSQLI? If not, you would miss it. It is the basic of MySQL functions and this would refrain from writing 500 times when you are developing the project. It has the feature of prepared data which is the safe way of sending data to MY SQL keeping the security in mind. It supports multiple statements, Complex Transaction statements and has enhanced debugging capabilities and embedded server support. You must start using it, instead of feeling sorry.

Use of Error_Reporting function: When you start developing the website, you would find the list of bugs. The error_reporting () sets the directive at runtime and specifies which errors are reported. It sets the duration (runtime) for your script. If the optional level is not set, error_reporting () will return the current error reporting level. Simply set error_reporting (0); and all is well with the world.

 PHP closing tags are not always necessary: Closing of PHP tag at the end of the file is always optional. In some cases it is good for not using close tags “?>”. This would prevent accidental white spaces or the new lines being added after closing tag. Additionally, you will be able to add the header later in response. Adding closing tags at the end of PHP may cause the unwanted effects because if at all, if you do not wish to send any output at that point, automatically PHP would start outfit buffering.

Template your site: Does your website uses same fashion of pages? If yes than designing the template for your site is just for you. By keeping all the design code for your site in different files, you can have all your PHP access file in the same design. This means if you render any changes, you just need to update a single file and you will be able to find changes in all your pages.

Developing a website or a web application in PHP yields multiple benefits, both for the businesses as well as the developers. And being an open source, it became one of the most preferred one. For the businesses looking for professional websites or applications, they can also reach out to professional PHP Development experts for best results.

Web Programming in PHP frameworks for PHP development

Web Programming refers to the coding of the web content and to be precise it refers to the client and server scripting. Web Programming is quite different from the other programming and it requires a sufficient knowledge of the application in client server area, network security and database. On the client side, generally JavaScript is used for the great user experience to design and implement the web application. The most common languages used for the web programming are XML, HTML, JavaScript, Perl5, and PHP. These programing languages also ensures that there are enough plugins to customize the applications according to the requirements.

In this blog, we’ll discuss about the following categories of web programming: 

• Asm.js

Validations that are static and dynamic both permits the engine of JavaScript to follow Ahead of Time (AOT) strategy for asm.js code. Asm.js is a language of abstract machine designed to do analysis of the computer programs. This allows the computer software to run on the web application with the better standards and other javascript.asm.js is a subset of a JavaScript and is used as a low level machine language which is much benefited to the compilers.

• Bigwig Programing language

Bigwig is the higlevel and domain specific programing language designed to build for interact rive webs services. The <bigwig> has a look and feel of “C” language but with special data and structures. The main aim of <bigwig> is to remove the uncertainties of the developers by lowering the cost by giving the output with increased functionality and reliability. Macro Mechanism is used for combining the sub languages of bigwig.

• Dart

Dart is a language developed by Google. This is the programming language is used to for developing mobile applications and iot (internet of things). It is open source and object oriented language much like “C”.

There are 2 runtime modes of Dart:

a.    Checked Mode: In this type of mode, static code is provided and can catch some bugs when proper match is not found. For instance, when some methods are defined as string and during run time returns integer. It will throw an exception.

b.    Production Mode: This is the default mode as it is the fastest way to run the programs. It must be turned off and runs all dynamic type of assertions.

• DataViva

DataViva is a platform run on Brazil. It provides the complete information about the exports, locality, and occupation of entire Brazil. This is done through eight apps and more than 1 trillion visualizations. Some of the descriptive data is shown through tree mapping and prescriptive data uses calculation analytics to visualize the data. The main purpose of these information is for the growth and development of the country and this proves to be the new way to convert data into knowledge and action.

• HTML5 Audio

HTML5 is a markup language for representing the content on www. HTML5 Audio incorporates audio tag which represent sound for audio input, playback and speech to text in the browser. Mostly it is used for audio file on the web page. The web audio api which is high level JavaScript api developed with the primary goal of audio routing graph.

• JavaScript

JavaScript is highly dynamic and prototype language used for client side scripting. It plays a main role in user interface on webpages. If you are looking to develop any professional website than JavaScript is must as it will make interactive, user friendly and attractive web pages. Apart from this it also helps you in optimizing the speed of your application. JavaScript is the object oriented language and the most easy language to start with.