Simple PHP application

A simple application
We are going to develop a simple PHP application with a Web interface. The user enters two numbers and the application returns the two multiplied to together Start

UML Interaction Diagram

Interaction diagrams describe the communication between objects, but we will use them to describe interation between programs even if they are not objects

 Simple interaction diagram Simple example and explanation Ref to UML

User

User-script interaction
Browser page Web server get form.htm Locate file multiply.php PHP processor

Click link

Enter data Display form.htm Calculate button get multiply.php?x=5&y=6 Locate file and run as PHP x=5 y=6 5 * 6 = 30 HTML MIME Read output Display generated HTML run script 5 * 6 = 30

User

User-browser interaction
Browser Click link page

Enter data Display form.htm Calculate button

Read output Display generated HTML

User Browser interaction

User locates desired link
<a href=form.htm> Multiply numbers</a>

Browser retrieves the form from the server Form is displayed User fills in the fields on the form User clicks submit button

Magic stuff happens

User reads the result and goes back to the form to change the values in the form

form.htm
<!-this is not XHTML standard because it lacks headers but it does have all attribute values in quotes and all tags are terminated --> <form method="get" action="multiply.php"> x = <input type=text name="x" size="5"/> y = <input type=text name="y" size="5"/> <input type="submit" value="Calculate"/> </form>

Browser-Server interaction
Browser Web server

Click button

get multiply.php?x=5&y=6

Locate file and run as PHP

5 * 6 = 30

Browser-Server interaction
Parameters passed as data couplets (name/value pairs) either
Attached to URL (and visible to user in the address line)
Values must be URL-Encoded
space to + punctuation to %hex e.g. ? to %3f

METHOD=GET in an HTML Form

appended to the ACTION URL

Explicitly added to the base URL e.g.

<a href=multiply.php?x=5&y=6>5 * 6</a>

A separate document (invisible to user)

METHOD=POST in an HTML Form

Result passed back in a MIME wrapper

MIME tells browser what kind of file it is (HTML,JPEG, XML, Flash.. )
Content-type: image/jpeg

Server-script interaction
Web server multiply.php

get multiply.php?x=5&y=6 Locate file and run as PHP x=5 y=6 run script 5 * 6 = 30

User

User-script interaction
Browser page Web server get form.htm Locate file multiply.php PHP processor

Click link

Enter data Display form.htm Calculate button get multiply.php?x=5&y=6 Locate file and run as PHP x=5 y=6 5 * 6 = 30 HTML MIME Read output Display generated HTML run script 5 * 6 = 30

form.htm
<!-this is not XHTML standard because it lacks headers but it does have all attribute values in quotes and all tags are terminated --> <form method="get" action="multiply.php"> x = <input type=text name="x" size="5"/> y = <input type=text name="y" size="5"/> <input type="submit" value="Calculate"/> </form>

Browser-Server interaction
Browser Web server

Click button get multiply.php?x=5&y=6 Locate file and run as PHP

5 * 6 = 30 HTML MIME

URL
Relative URL
multiply.php?x=5&y=6

Absolute URL
http://localhost/UFIE8V/l3php/multiply.php?x=5&y=6 (my Home machine running IIS)

http://stocks.uwe.ac.uk/~cjwallac/UFIE8V/l3php/multiply.php (the development server)

http://www.uwe.ac.uk/~cjwallac/UFIE8V/l3php/multiply.php? (the public production server)

Server-script interaction
Web server multiply.php PHP processor

get multiply.php?x=5&y=6 Locate file and run as PHP x=5 y=6 run script 5 * 6 = 30

Server-PHP interaction
Parameters
GET and POST Parameters available as
variables of the same name $x, $y (deprecated but used in my code ) in an array $_GET[x] depends on the setup

Parameter values are URL-Decoded

Implicit Parameters
In addition to the user-defined parameters, other data is available about the client and about the server $PHP_SELF is the program name $HTTP_USER_AGENT is the browser

Reply
HTML goes through to output <?php ?> script is executed as PHP
Print or echo statements add to output

All output returned to Server Other kinds of output (JPEG, GIF.. ) require different headers to be output

Multiply.php script
<?php /* function: to multiply the two input numbers and display the result input: x, y : numbers author: Chris Wallace 9 Oct 204 */ // calculate the result // no typing or declaring new variable // also implicit conversion of string to number $prod = $x * $y; // values of variables interpolated into the string print "$x * $y = $prod"; ?>

The generated HTML

5 * 6 = 30 This simple text is not XHTML compliant of course. HTML to provide a readable page can be added around the PHP <a href=multiply2.php?x=5&y=6>5 * 6</a> Note that we have added the name/value pairs to the URL not very useful here obviously. some pairs can be in the action URL of a form, some in input fields The script multiply2.php includes the original PHP script within an HTML page

Multiply2.php
Program composition with require <html> <title>PHP introduction - multiply script</title> </head> <body> <img src="cems-banner.gif"> <h1>PHP introduction</h1> <table><tr><td><img src="multiply.jpg"></td><td width="5%"</td><td><font color="red" size="+4"> <?php include "multiply.php; ?> </font></td><tr></table> </body> </html>

Sticky Forms
Poor interface -user must to go back to original form to change the data and recalculate. Key idea:
Combine form and calculator into one script Do calculation (if required) first Put inputs as defaults in form

Simple combination of form and script

<a href=multiply3.php> Calculate Product </a>

multiply3.php
Combined form and calculator
<?php // first compute the output, but only if data has been input if( isset($calc)) { // data was submitted $prod = $x * $y; } else { // set defaults $x=0;$y=0;$prod=0; } ?> <form method="get" action="<?php print $PHP_SELF; ?>"> x = <input type=text name="x" size="5" value="<?php print $x?>"/> y= <input type=text name="y" size="5" value="<?php print $y?>"/> x * y = <?php print $prod ?> <br/><input type="submit" name="calc" value="Calculate"/> </form>

Initial Form
<form method="get" action=scripts/multiply3.php"> x = <input type=text name="x" size="5" value="0"/> y= <input type=text name="y" size="5" value="0"/> x * y = 0<br/><input type="submit" name="calc" value="Calculate"/> </form>

Form with Entered Values

<form method="get" action=scripts/multiply3.php"> x = <input type=text name="x" size="5" value="654321"/> y= <input type=text name="y" size="5" value="9"/> x * y = 5888889<br/><input type="submit" name="calc" value="Calculate"/> </form>

Forms processing
Interface and presentation can be easily improved
<a href=multiply4.php> Calculate Product </a>

Script can do validation and add error messages to the form where fields are missing or invalid. Where to do the processing?:
on Client in Javascript on Server in PHP or Java

What factors do you need to consider to decide?

SMS version
Now nearly the same application with an SMS presentation layer. For variety, Ive generalised to allow any number of numbers to be multiplied together Text
MUL num1 num2 num3 To: 076 24 80 37 59

Eg.
MUL 34 56 78

Reply
34 x 56 x 78 = 148512

SMS to script interface

Script plugs into SMS server Must obey the protocol:
Parameters
Text From Code

Reply text:
Reply: <message to send back>

Entry required in routing file:

MUL http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~cjwallac/ISD3/smsmult.php

smsmult.php
<?php $text=trim($text); // to remove trailing whitespace $nums = split(" +",$text); // split the string apart on spaces // + means 1 or more occurances $prod=1; foreach ($nums as $number){ $prod=$prod*$number; // accumulate the product } $numlist = join(" x ",$nums); // join the numbers with ' x ' print "Reply: $numlist = $prod"; ?>