February 2016 – Sunday Edition

Handle REST easily using PHP

Managing a RESTful application in PHP can become a headache if you are new to REST but I have developed a reusable class function that will save you hours of development time shown below. Feel free to reuse it.

<?php
    protected function returnRestfulValues($data)
    {
        if ($this->method == 'GET') {
            // find values in the url in fixed positions. ie: example/verb/123/456
            return "SUCCESS: You performed a GET request using verb '" . $this->verb . "' with args " . $this->args[0];
        
        } elseif ($this->method == 'POST' ) {
            // find values in POST request body.
            return $this->request;
        
        } elseif ($this->method == 'PUT') {
            // important! form 'enctype' should be: "x-www-form-urlencoded".
            // put url-encoded data contained in the request body into an array.
            // (ie: key/values from PUT request body (ie: "username=bob&password=willowtree")
            parse_str($this->file, $data); // http://php.net/manual/en/function.parse-str.php
            $url_values = $this->args; // (ie: the record ID to update)
            return $data;
        
        } elseif ($this->method == 'DELETE') {
            // works just like GET other than the HTTP verb DELETE
            return $this->args;
        
        } else {
            return "Whoops! you're not doing it correctly.";
        }
    }
?>

<?php

protected function returnRestfulValues($data)

{

if ($this->method == 'GET') {

// find values in the url in fixed positions. ie: example/verb/123/456

return "SUCCESS: You performed a GET request using verb '" . $this->verb . "' with args " . $this->args[0];

} elseif ($this->method == 'POST' ) {

// find values in POST request body.

return $this->request;

} elseif ($this->method == 'PUT') {

// important! form 'enctype' should be: "x-www-form-urlencoded".

// put url-encoded data contained in the request body into an array.

// (ie: key/values from PUT request body (ie: "username=bob&password=willowtree")

parse_str($this->file, $data); // http://php.net/manual/en/function.parse-str.php

$url_values = $this->args; // (ie: the record ID to update)

return $data;

} elseif ($this->method == 'DELETE') {

// works just like GET other than the HTTP verb DELETE

return $this->args;

} else {

return "Whoops! you're not doing it correctly.";

}

Create $variable from $value using PHP

Sometimes you might need to create a variable in PHP having the name of some value. Below is the easiest way to accomplish this need.

<?php
   // wrapping a variable with {} will concate the string into a variable.
   ${$variable} = $variable;
?>

<?php

// wrapping a variable with {} will concate the string into a variable.

${$variable} = $variable;

PHP Shorthand If/Else Statements

Using PHP shorthand IF/Else statements are a great time saver and help make your code look neater. Here is a collection of examples I often use.

Basic True / False Declaration
$is_admin = ($user['permissions'] == 'admin' ? true : false);

Conditional Welcome Message
echo 'Welcome '.($user['is_logged_in'] ? $user['first_name'] : 'Guest').'!';

Conditional Items Message
echo 'Your cart contains '.$num_items.' item'.($num_items != 1 ? 's' : '').'.';

Conditional Error Reporting Level
error_reporting($WEBSITE_IS_LIVE ? 0 : E_STRICT);

Conditional Basepath
echo '<base href="http'.($PAGE_IS_SECURE ? 's' : '').'://mydomain.com" />';

Nested PHP Shorthand
echo 'Your score is:  '.($score > 10 ? ($age > 10 ? 'Average' : 'Exceptional') : ($age > 10 ? 'Horrible' : 'Average') );

Leap Year Check
$is_leap_year = ((($year % 4) == 0) && ((($year % 100) != 0) || (($year %400) == 0)));

Conditional PHP Redirect
header('Location: '.($valid_login ? '/members/index.php' : 'login.php?errors=1')); exit();

Basic True / False Declaration

$is_admin = ($user['permissions'] == 'admin' ? true : false);

Conditional Welcome Message

echo 'Welcome '.($user['is_logged_in'] ? $user['first_name'] : 'Guest').'!';

Conditional Items Message

echo 'Your cart contains '.$num_items.' item'.($num_items != 1 ? 's' : '').'.';

Conditional Error Reporting Level

error_reporting($WEBSITE_IS_LIVE ? 0 : E_STRICT);

Conditional Basepath

echo '<base href="http'.($PAGE_IS_SECURE ? 's' : '').'://mydomain.com" />';

Nested PHP Shorthand

echo 'Your score is: '.($score > 10 ? ($age > 10 ? 'Average' : 'Exceptional') : ($age > 10 ? 'Horrible' : 'Average') );

Leap Year Check

$is_leap_year = ((($year % 4) == 0) && ((($year % 100) != 0) || (($year %400) == 0)));

Conditional PHP Redirect

header('Location: '.($valid_login ? '/members/index.php' : 'login.php?errors=1')); exit();

Enforce UTF-8 on JSON export using PHP

When you export JSON form PHPwhich contains data from an “unclean” data source you must enforce UTF-8 upon the data that will be added into your JSON structure. Below I’ll show an example of exporting JSON and enforcing UTF-8 upon each record data entity.

<?php
   /* Let's assume I pulled all jobs from some database here */
   $jobs = Jobs::getAll();

    // Convert this array of objects into an assoc array.
    $json = [];
    foreach ($jobs as $job) {
        // must enforce utf-8 onto all field data to insure json_encode() is not violated.
        $rec = (array)$item;
        foreach ($rec as $key => $val) {
            $rec[$key] = utf8_encode($val);
        }
        /* Repack the array assigning the record's jobid as the JSON record id */
        $json[$item->jobid] = $rec; // faster than array_push(arr, val);
    }

    /* Output JSON. Don't forget proper header. */
    header('Content-Type: application/json');
    echo json_encode($json);

?>

<?php

/* Let's assume I pulled all jobs from some database here */

$jobs = Jobs::getAll();

// Convert this array of objects into an assoc array.

$json = [];

foreach ($jobs as $job) {

// must enforce utf-8 onto all field data to insure json_encode() is not violated.

$rec = (array)$item;

foreach ($rec as $key => $val) {

$rec[$key] = utf8_encode($val);

}

/* Repack the array assigning the record's jobid as the JSON record id */

$json[$item->jobid] = $rec; // faster than array_push(arr, val);

}

/* Output JSON. Don't forget proper header. */

header('Content-Type: application/json');

echo json_encode($json);

Create and Export XML using PHP

Sometimes you need to export a collection of data for use to another system. One of the easiest ways is to export it to XML as it is widely accepted as a data exchange format and standard. PHP makes creating and exporting to XML very easy. Below I’ll show you an example where I am exporting some jobs from a job board I created.

<?php

/* Let's assume the following variable contains all my jobs in an array of PHP objects */
$jobs = DataModel::getAllJobs();  

/* Create a new empty XML object */
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement('<xml/>');

/* Loop thru all the job records and add them to the XML object */
foreach ($jobs as $job) {
    $record = $xml->addChild('job');
    $record->addChild('title', $job->title);
    $record->addChild('description', $job->description);
    $record->addChild('apply_link', $job->apply_link);
}

/* Export them. Don't forget to set the proper header type. */
header('Content-type: text/xml');
print($xml->asXML());  

?>

<?php

/* Let's assume the following variable contains all my jobs in an array of PHP objects */

$jobs = DataModel::getAllJobs();

/* Create a new empty XML object */

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement('<xml/>');

/* Loop thru all the job records and add them to the XML object */

foreach ($jobs as $job) {

$record = $xml->addChild('job');

$record->addChild('title', $job->title);

$record->addChild('description', $job->description);

$record->addChild('apply_link', $job->apply_link);

}

/* Export them. Don't forget to set the proper header type. */

header('Content-type: text/xml');

print($xml->asXML());