ZEND PHP 5 Certification STUDY GUIDE

Chapter 5
Web Programming
Although you will find it used in scenarios as diverse as quality control and point-ofsale
systems, PHP was designed primarily as a Web-development language, and that
remains its most common use to this day.
In this chapter, we focus on the features of PHP that make it such a great choice
for developing Web applications, as well as some Web-related topics that you should
be familiar with in order to take the exam.
Anatomy of a Web Page
Most people think of a Web page as nothing more than a collection of HTML code.
This is fine if you happen to be a Web designer—but, as a PHP developer, your knowledge
must run much deeper if you want to take full advantage of what the Web has
to offer.
From the point of view of the Web server, the generation of a document starts with
an HTTP request, in which the client requests access to a resource using one of a
short list of methods. The client can also send a data payload (called request) along
with its request—for example, if you are posting an HTTP form, the payload could
consist of the form data, while if you are uploading a file, the payload would consist
of the file itself.
Once a request is received, the server decodes the data that it has received and
passes it on to the PHP interpreter (clearly, we are assuming that the request was
Licensed to 482634 - Amber Barrow (itsadmin@deakin.edu.au)