Hi, I 'm Aditya, the guy behind this website and many other. This site acts as my web playground, where I share all about me, my work and my knowledge.
I have over 10.5 yrs hands on experience in PHP, Mysql, JavaScript, open sources CMS like Joomla, Wordpress etc. During these 10.5 years, I have worked on more than 200 projects and/or websites but could not spare time for my blog. But now I am trying to write something whenever I can.
Today i want to share a very simple and easy to use Paypal class. If you are a web developer you must have integrated Paypal on your websites. With the help of this class you can handle paypal payment as well as instant payment notification. Frankly speaking i have not created the class but have used it so many times with great success. Thanks to the original developer.
It includes two php files, one is the class and other one is the implementation.
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No CommentsWhile PHP has offered XML support since its early versions, that support improved exponentially with the introduction of PHP5. Because the PHP4 support for XML was somewhat limited, such as offering only a SAX-based parser enabled by default and the PHP4 DOM not implementing the W3C standard, PHP XML developers reinvented the wheel, so to speak, with PHP5 and complied with commonly used standards.
PHP5 includes totally rewritten and new extensions, including the SAX parser, the DOM, SimpleXML, XMLReader, XMLWriter, and the XSLT processor. All these extensions are now based on the libxml2.
Along with the SAX support improved from PHP4, PHP5 also supports both the DOM according to W3C standard and the SimpleXML extension. SAX, DOM, and SimpleXML are all enabled by default. If you are familiar with the DOM from other languages, you will have an easier time coding with similar functionality in PHP than before.
SimpleXML, in combination where necessary with the DOM, is the ideal choice for developers working with straightforward, predictable, and relatively small XML documents to read, manipulate, and write XML in PHP5.
Of the many APIs available in PHP5, the DOM and SimpleXML are the most familiar, in the case of the DOM, and the easiest to code, in the case of SimpleXML.And for the most common situations, like those you are dealing with here, the most functional.
The Document Object Model (DOM) is a W3C standard set of objects for representing HTML and XML documents, a standard model of how you can combine these objects, and a standard interface for accessing and manipulating them. Many vendors support the DOM as an interface to their proprietary data structures and APIs, which gives the DOM model a lot of authority with developers due to its familiarity. The DOM is easy to understand and utilize since its structure in memory resembles the original XML document. To pass on information to the application, DOM creates a tree of objects that duplicates exactly the tree of elements from the XML file, with every XML element being a node in the tree. The DOM is a tree-based parser. Because DOM builds a tree of the entire document, it uses a lot of memory and processor time. Therefore, performance issues make it impractical to parse large documents with DOM. The key use of the DOM extension in the context of this article is its ability to import SimpleXML format and output DOM format XML, or the reverse, for use as a string or XML file.
The SimpleXML extension is the tool of choice for parsing an XML document. The SimpleXML extension requires PHP5 and includes interoperability with the DOM for writing XML files and built-in XPath support. SimpleXML works best with uncomplicated, record-like data, such as XML passed as a document or string from another internal part of the same application. Provided that the XML document isn't too complicated, too deep, and lacks mixed content, SimpleXML is easier to code than the DOM, as its name implies. It is also more reliable if you work with a known document structure.
The DOM is the W3C DOM specification that you work with in a browser and manipulate with JavaScript. It has all the same methods, so you will use familiar coding techniques. Listing 2 illustrates the use of the DOM to create an XML string and XML document, formatted for your viewing pleasure.
Listing 2. Using the DOM
<?php //Creates XML string and XML document using the DOM $dom = new DomDocument('1.0'); //add root - <books> $books = $dom->appendChild($dom->createElement('books')); //add <book> element to <books> $book = $books->appendChild($dom->createElement('book')); //add <title> element to <book> $title = $book->appendChild($dom->createElement('title')); //add <title> text node element to <title> $title->appendChild( $dom->createTextNode('Great American Novel')); //generate xml $dom->formatOutput = true; // set the formatOutput attribute of // domDocument to true // save XML as string or file $test1 = $dom->saveXML(); // put string in test1 $dom->save('test1.xml'); // save as file ?>
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This produces the output file in Listing 3.
<?xml version="1.0"?> <books> <book> <title>Great American Novel</title> </book> </books> |
Listing 4 imports a SimpleXMLElement object into a DOMElement object, illustrating the interoperability of the DOM and SimpleXML.
Listing 4. Interoperability, Part 1 — DOM imports SimpleXML
<?php $sxe = simplexml_load_string('<books><book><title>'. 'Great American Novel</title></book></books>'); if ($sxe === false) { echo 'Error while parsing the document'; exit; } $dom_sxe = dom_import_simplexml($sxe); if (!$dom_sxe) { echo 'Error while converting XML'; exit; } $dom = new DOMDocument('1.0'); $dom_sxe = $dom->importNode($dom_sxe, true); $dom_sxe = $dom->appendChild($dom_sxe); echo $dom->save('test2.xml'); ?>
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The function in Listing 5 takes a node of a DOM document and makes it into a SimpleXML node. You can then use this new object as a native SimpleXML element. If any errors occur, it returns FALSE.
Listing 5. Interoperability, Part 2 — SimpleXML imports DOM
<?php $dom = new domDocument; $dom->loadXML('<books><book><title>Great American Novel</title></book></books>'); if (!$dom) { echo 'Error while parsing the document'; exit; } $s = simplexml_import_dom($dom); echo $s->book[0]->title; // Great American Novel ?>
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>
The SimpleXML extension is the tool of choice for parsing an XML document. The SimpleXML extension includes interoperability with the DOM for writing XML files and built-in XPath support. SimpleXML is easier to code than the DOM, as its name implies.
For those of you who might be new to PHP, Listing 6 formats a test XML file as an include for your convenience.
Listing 6. Test XML file formatted as a PHP include called example.php in the following code samples
<?php $xmlstr = <<<XML <books> <book> <title>Great American Novel</title> <characters> <character> <name>Cliff</name> <desc>really great guy</desc> </character> <character> <name>Lovely Woman</name> <desc>matchless beauty</desc> </character> <character> <name>Loyal Dog</name> <desc>sleepy</desc> </character> </characters> <plot> Cliff meets Lovely Woman. Loyal Dog sleeps, but wakes up to bark at mailman. </plot> <success type="bestseller">4</success> <success type="bookclubs">9</success> </book> </books> XML; ?> |
In an Ajax application, you might want to extract the zip code from an XML document and query a database. Listing 7 extracts <plot> from your example XML include directly above.
Listing 7. Extracting the Node — How easy does it get?
<?php include 'example.php'; $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr); echo $xml->book[0]->plot; // "Cliff meets Lovely Woman. ..." ?> |
On the other hand, you might want to extract a multi-line address. When multiple instances of an element exist as children of a single parent element, normal iteration techniques apply. Listing 8 demonstrates this functionality.
Listing 8. Extracting multiple instances of an element
<?php include 'example.php'; $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr); /* For each <book> node, echo a separate <plot>. */ foreach ($xml->book as $book) { echo $book->plot, '<br />'; } ?>
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In addition to reading element names and their values, SimpleXML can also access element attributes. In Listing 9, access attributes of an element just as you would elements of an array.
Listing 9. Demonstrating SimpleXML accessing the attributes of an element
<?php //Input XML file repeated for your convenience $xmlstr = <<<XML <?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?> <books> <book> <title>Great American Novel</title> <characters> <character> <name>Cliff</name> <desc>really great guy</desc> </character> <character> <name>Lovely Woman</name> <desc>matchless beauty</desc> </character> <character> <name>Loyal Dog</name> <desc>sleepy</desc> </character> </characters> <plot> Cliff meets Lovely Woman. Loyal Dog sleeps, but wakes up to bark at mailman. </plot> <success type="bestseller">4</success> <success type="bookclubs">9</success> </book> </books> XML; ?> <?php include 'example.php'; $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr); /* Access the <success> nodes of the first book. * Output the success indications, too. */ foreach ($xml->book[0]->success as $success) { switch((string) $success['type']) { // Get attributes as element indices case 'bestseller': echo $success, ' months on bestseller list'; break; case 'bookclubs': echo $success, ' bookclub listings'; break; } } ?>
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To compare an element or attribute with a string or pass it into a function that requires a string, you must cast it to a string using (string). Otherwise, by default, PHP treats the element as an object, as Listing 10 demonstrates.
Listing 10. Call it a string or lose
<?php include 'example.php'; $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr); if ((string) $xml->book->title == 'Great American Novel') { print 'My favorite book.'; } htmlentities((string) $xml->book->title); ?>
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Data in SimpleXML doesn't have to be constant. Listing 11 will output a new XML document, shown below, just like the original, except that the new XML will change Cliff to Big Cliff.
Listing 11. Changing text node using SimpleXML
<?php $xmlstr = <<<XML <?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?> <books> <book> <title>Great American Novel</title> <characters> <character> <name>Cliff</name> <desc>really great guy</desc> </character> <character> <name>Lovely Woman</name> <desc>matchless beauty</desc> </character> <character> <name>Loyal Dog</name> <desc>sleepy</desc> </character> </characters> <plot> Cliff meets Lovely Woman. Loyal Dog sleeps, but wakes up to bark at mailman. </plot> <success type="bestseller">4</success> <success type="bookclubs">9</success> </book> </books> XML; ?> <?php include 'example.php'; $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr); $xml->book[0]->characters->character[0]->name = 'Big Cliff'; echo $xml->asXML(); ?> |
Since PHP 5.1.3, SimpleXML has had the ability to easily add children and attributes. Listing 12 will output an XML document based on the original but having a new character and descriptor.
Listing 12. Adding children and text nodes using SimpleXML
<?php $xmlstr = <<<XML <?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?> <books> <book> <title>Great American Novel</title> <characters> <character> <name>Cliff</name> <desc>really great guy</desc> </character> <character> <name>Lovely Woman</name> <desc>matchless beauty</desc> </character> <character> <name>Loyal Dog</name> <desc>sleepy</desc> </character> <character> <name>Yellow Cat</name> <desc>aloof</desc> </character> </characters> <plot> Cliff meets Lovely Woman. Loyal Dog sleeps, but wakes up to bark at mailman. </plot> <success type="bestseller">4</success> <success type="bookclubs">9</success> </book> </books> XML; ?> <?php include 'example.php'; $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr); $character = $xml->book[0]->characters->addChild('character'); $character->addChild('name', 'Yellow Cat'); $character->addChild('desc', 'aloof'); $success = $xml->book[0]->addChild('success', '2'); $success->addAttribute('type', 'reprints'); echo $xml->asXML(); ?>
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No CommentsPHP is one of the most widely used open-source server-side scripting languages that exist today. With over 20 million indexed domains using PHP, including major websites like Facebook, Digg and WordPress, there are good reasons why many Web developers prefer it to other server-side scripting languages, such as Python and Ruby.
Some of the most powerful PHP classes and libraries are as follows:
Allows you to create ZIP-archives (WinZip, PKZIP). PclZip determines the object class
Asido offers the following functions: image resizing, applying watermarks to images, rotate, copy, image cropping, conversion to grayscale, and more.
No CommentsShorthand for asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a group of interrelated web development techniques used on the client-side to create interactive web applications. With Ajax, web applications can retrieve data from the server asynchronously in the background without interfering with the display and behavior of the existing page.
The use of Ajax techniques has led to an increase in interactive or dynamic interfaces on web pages. Data is usually retrieved using the XMLHttpRequest object. Despite the name, the use of JavaScript and XML is not actually required, nor do the requests need to be asynchronous.
AJAX is based on the following web standards:
To get or send information from/to a database or a file on the server with traditional JavaScript, you will have to make an HTML form, and a user will have to click the "Submit" button to send/get the information, wait for the server to respond, then a new page will load with the results. Because the server returns a new page each time the user submits input, traditional web applications can run slowly and tend to be less user-friendly.
With AJAX, your JavaScript communicates directly with the server, through the JavaScript XMLHttpRequest object.
With the XMLHttpRequest object, a web page can make a request to, and get a response from a web server – without reloading the page. The user will stay on the same page, and he or she will not notice that scripts request pages, or send data to a server in the background.
To demonstrate the AJAX PHP connection we will create a very simple form with 2 input fields. In the first field you can type any text and we will send this text to our PHP script which will convert it to uppercase and sends it back to us
HTML code
<body> <form name="testForm"> Input text: <input type="text" onkeyup="doWork();" name="inputText" id="inputText" /> Output text: <input type="text" name="outputText" id="outputText" /> </form> </body>
1. First step
// Get the HTTP Object
function getHTTPObject(){
if (window.ActiveXObject)
return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
else if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
return new XMLHttpRequest();
else {
alert("Your browser does not support AJAX.");
return null;
}
}
2. Second Step
// Implement business logic
function doWork(){
httpObject = getHTTPObject();
if (httpObject != null) {
httpObject.open("GET", "upperCase.php?
inputText="+document.getElementById
('inputText').value, true);
httpObject.send(null);
httpObject.onreadystatechange = setOutput;
}
}
3. The last step on client side is to implement the setOutput() function which will change the value of our second field.
// Change the value of the outputText field
function setOutput(){
if(httpObject.readyState == 4){
document.getElementById('outputText').value
= httpObject.responseText;
}
}
Implementing the server side functionality is very simple compared to the client side. In the PHP code we just need to check the $_GET super-global array. Afterwards convert it to uppercase and echo the result. So the PHP code is this:
<?php if (isset($_GET['inputText']))
echo strtoupper($_GET['inputText']);
?>
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No CommentsCakePHP is a rapid development framework for PHP that provides an extensible architecture for developing, maintaining, and deploying applications. Using commonly known design patterns like MVC and ORM within the convention over configuration paradigm, CakePHP reduces development costs and helps developers write less code.
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