Crs 592 Implementing Database Driven Web Services and e-Commerce Web Sites using Apache, MySQL/PostgreSQL, XML and PHP - an Advanced Course

This is a fast paced technical course for those who are experienced in databases and programming and who need to get up to speed implementing open source database driven web sites  and web services using PHP.

The course details the implementation of a fully functional e-commerce site - complete with user authentication , shopping basket, and credit card payment processing .

The course also covers the use of PHP to process XML , to generate graphical plots of data, and to generate complex reports. 

Course outline

Overview of the Internet and Web Technologies

• Three tier web applications
• Overview of XML
• Overview of e-commerce technologies
• Overview of Web services

Rapid intensive overview of PHP and Databases

• PHP - syntax and programming idioms
• Object oriented PHP programming
• String manipulation, regular expressions and pattern matching
• SQL and Relational Database theory
• Apache, MySQL and PostgreSQL configuration and security

Intensive overview of HTML , XML and XHTML

Accessing MySQL and PostgreSQL Databases from the Web with PHP

Implementing e-Commerce Sites using PHP

• Security issues
• Authentication using PHP and MySQL/PostgreSQL
• Secure transactions using PHP and MySQL/PostgreSQL
• Interacting with files on the server
• sending and processing email from PHP
• using FTP from PHP
• Generating Images
• Session Control
• User Authentication and Personalisation
• Implementing a Shopping Cart

Case studies

• Implementing a Content Management System
• Implementing a Web Based Email service
• Implementing a Mailing List Manager
• Implementing a Web Forum
• Generating PDF Documents

XML and PHP

• Parsing XML
• Stream based vs. Tree based XML processing
• Using XML Parsers
• Events and Event Handlers
• SAX and PHP
• Tree processing and PHP
• DOM and PHP
• XPath and XSLT and PHP

Web Services

• Overview of Web Services concepts
• Messaging with XML and SOAP
• WSDL - Describing Web Services
• UDDI - Discovering Web Services
• Realising the Web Services model in PHP

Intended Audience

The course is intended for experienced  web programmers who already have a good basic understanding of PHP and database programming, and who wish to raise their programming skills to the next level. 

Key Skills

• advanced PHP programming skills
• understanding the Apache, MySQL and PostgreSQL security mechanisms and how to use them to implement secure web sites
• understanding complex SQL queries of the kind used to generate reports
• web graphics programming with PHP
• understanding XML and XML processing with PHP
• using Javascript in conjunction with PHP 
• using PHP with XSLT
• understanding Web services and how to implement them using PHP

Practical Work

The exercises are designed to illustrate and extend the topics covered in the presentations. 

Each workstation will be running Linux / Windows and have Apache, PHP ,  MySQL and PostgreSQL  installed.

• Understanding Apache, MySQL and PostgreSQL security
• Knowing how to install a website on a system running Apache  , PHP , MySQL / PostgreSQL. 
• Implement stateful, three tier applications
• Integrate client side Javascript with server side PHP
• Use XML and XSLT in conjunction with PHP
• Implement reporting functions using PHP
• Understand how to implement Web Services using PHP
• Implement a full PHP and database  e-commerce site.