• Getting Started
• Basics
• Arrays
• Loop/Branch
• Functions
• OOP
• Libraries
• Files
• MySQL
• SQL
• PHP/MySQL
• Regex
• Email
• Date/Time
• Web
• Forms
•  
•  
•  

Managing Files

• Using the "f*" family

• Using the "*file*" family

• Understanding Streams

• Updating the error_log

• Parsing directory structures

• LAB: Reading a CSV File

Using the "f*" family

• What are some commands in the "f*" family?

  
  

  fopen(), fread(), fwrite(), fgetcsv(), feof() and fclose()

• When would the "f*" family of commands be used?

  
  

  Use the "f*" commands when:
  (1) handling large files and/or binary files,
  or (2) when you need precise control over the position of the file pointer within the file

• How can the "f*" family of commands be used in developing a website?

  
  

  The "f*" commands are used when inspecting user uploaded files,
  or parsing special types of files such as CSV

Using the "*file*" family

• What are some commands in the "file" family?

  
  

  file_get_contents(), file_put_contents, file()

• When would the "file" family of commands be used?

  
  

  The "file" commands are especially useful when dealing with small files and/or text files

• What are some differences between the "file" and "f*" commands?

  
  

  The "file" commands open, process, and close the file in one operation

• How can the "file" family of commands be used in developing a website?

  
  

  The "file" commands are especially useful when dealing with logs and small text files

Understanding Streams

• What is "Streams"?

  
  

  Streams is a subsystem which underlies all file operations

• What are the major components of Streams?

  
  

  wrapper, context, transport, filter

• What wrappers are available?

  
  

  Depending on your server installation, "file", "http", "ftp", "ssh2", and others

• How can the use of Streams help with website development?

  
  

  Streams allows you to access local files as well as remote files on other servers

Updating the error_log

• What is the "error_log" command used for?

  
  

  Writes messages to the PHP error log, or another destination

• What does the "message_type" parameter do?

  
  

  The "message_type" parameter indicates the destination of the message

• What are some of the possible destinations?

  
  

  The PHP error log, email, or a specifically named file

• How can the "error_log" command help in website development?

  
  

  The "error_log" command can be used to keep a log of events happening on your website

Parsing directory structures

• Why would you want to parse or scan a directory structure?

  
  

  On websites with digital content, it might be important to be scan a list of files and/or directories

• What are some commands which can be used to parse a directory structure?

  
  

  glob(), scandir(), and the SPL DirectoryIterator classes

• What is the difference between using glob() vs. the RecursiveDirectoryIterator class?

  
  

  Both glob() and scandir() are not recursive and are useful only one directory at a time

LAB: Reading a CSV File

• What is the purpose of the lab?

  
  

  • Demonstrates how to open and read a CSV file
  • Builds a "Model" class which returns a list of products and titles

• Copy the file "files_project_products.csv" ...

  
  

  From the WorkingFiles folder for this chapter,
  copy the file "files_project_products.csv" into
  htdocs/sweetscomplete/Model/products.csv

• Create a file htdocs/sweetscomplete/Model/Products.php ...

  
  

  • In the file set up a class with the name "Products"
  • Define a public function "getProducts()"
  • Define a public function "getTitles()"

• Define a public variable $products ...

  
  

  At the top of the file, inside the class:
  public $products

• Define a function __construct() ...

  
  

  • Open the file ./Model/products.csv using "fopen()"
  • Use a "while()" loop to read until "eof()"
  • Use "fgetcsv()" to read one line at a time into an array $row
  • Using a foreach loop, convert the numeric array into
    an associative array which can then be added to $this->products

• Define "getProducts()" and "getTitles()" ...

  
  

  • getProducts() just needs to return $this->products
  • In this getTitles() define a "foreach()" loop using $this->products as $row
  • Populate an array $titles assigning $row[2]
  • Have the function return $titles

• Modify htdocs/sweetscomplete/products.php ...

  
  

  • At the top of the file add a statement: include "./Model/Products.php"
  • Delete the two arrays $titles and $products as they will be replaced
  • Create a "products" object: $products = new Products();
  • At the top of the file add a line $titles = $products->getTitles()
  • Have "$maxProducts" be a count of $titles
  • Replace $products with $products->getProducts() in the call to function displayProducts()"