Book Image

CodeIgniter for Rapid PHP Application Development

By : David Upton
Book Image

CodeIgniter for Rapid PHP Application Development

By: David Upton

Overview of this book

<p>CodeIgniter (CI) is a powerful open-source PHP framework with a very small footprint, built for PHP coders who need a simple and elegant toolkit to create full-featured web applications. CodeIgniter is an MVC framework, similar in some ways to the Rails framework for Ruby, and is designed to enable, not overwhelm.<br /><br />This book explains how to work with CodeIgniter in a clear logical way. It is not a detailed guide to the syntax of CodeIgniter, but makes an ideal complement to the existing online CodeIgniter user guide, helping you grasp the bigger picture and bringing together many ideas to get your application development started as smoothly as possible.</p>

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CodeIgniter for Rapid PHP Application Development
David Upton
Jul, 2007 | 260 pages
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Table of Contents (21 chapters)
CodeIgniter for Rapid PHP Application Development
CodeIgniter for Rapid PHP Application Development
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Introduction to CodeIgniter
Introduction to CodeIgniter
What can CodeIgniter Do for You?
Yes, But…What is CodeIgniter? What are Frameworks?
And Who is That Man?
The 'Open Source' Business Model
What CI Doesn't Do
License
Summary
2
Two Minutes' Work: Setting up a CodeIgniter Site
Two Minutes' Work: Setting up a CodeIgniter Site
Prerequisites
Installing CodeIgniter
Exploring the File Structure
The Configuration File
Does it Work?
Summary
3
Navigating Your Site
Navigating Your Site
MVC—Just Another Acronym?
The Structure of a CI Site: Controllers and Views
CodeIgniter Syntax Rules
Types of Files or Classes on a CI Site
What are All Those Folders For?
Designing a Better View
Designing a Better Controller
How CI Classes Pass Information and Control to Each Other
Summary
4
Using CI to Simplify Databases
Using CI to Simplify Databases
Configuration Settings
Designing the Database for Our Site
Active Record
Summary
Chapter Appendix: MYSQL Query to Set Up 'websites' Database
5
Simplifying HTML Pages and Forms
Simplifying HTML Pages and Forms
Writing a View
Long and Short PHP Syntax
Nesting Views
Practical Issues of Site Architecture
CI's Form Helper: Entering Data
My 'Display' Model
CI's Validation Class: Checking Data Easily
Summary
6
Simplifying Sessions and Security
Simplifying Sessions and Security
Starting to Design a Practical Site with CI
Moving Around the Site
Security/Sessions: Using Another CI Library Class
Security
Summary
7
CodeIgniter and Objects
CodeIgniter and Objects
Object-Oriented Programming
Adding Your own Code to the CI 'Super-Object'
Problems with the CI 'Super-Object'
Summary
8
Using CI to Test Code
Using CI to Test Code
Why Test, and What For?
CI's Error Handling Class
CI's Unit Test Class
CI's Benchmarking Class
CI's Profiler Class
Testing with Mock Databases
Control and Timing
Summary
9
Using CI to Communicate
Using CI to Communicate
Using the FTP Class to Test Remote Files
Machines Talking to Machines Again—XML-RPC
Talking to Humans for a Change: the Email Class
Summary
10
How CI Helps to Provide Dynamic Information
How CI Helps to Provide Dynamic Information
The Date Helper: Converting and Localizing Dates
Working with Text: the Text Helper and Inflector Helper
Going International: the Language Class
Making HTML Tables the Easy Way: the Table Class
Caching Pages
Summary
11
Using CI to Handle Files and Images
Using CI to Handle Files and Images
The File Helper
The Download Helper
The File Upload Class
CI's Image Class
Easy File Compression with the CI Zip Class
Summary
12
Production Versions, Updates, and Big Decisions
Production Versions, Updates, and Big Decisions
Connections: Check the Config Files
Look Out for PHP 4/5 and Operating System Differences
Coping with Change in New CI Versions
So Should I Update If a New CI Version Comes Out?
How to Add On to CI's Basic Classes
Summary
13
Instant CRUD—or Putting it All Together
Instant CRUD—or Putting it All Together
The CRUD Model: Design Philosophy
The Standard Controller Format
The Database Tables
The Heart of the Model: the Array
Function by Function: the CRUD Model
Summary
14
The Verdict on CI
The Verdict on CI
Some Code: the 'do_test' Model
A Balance Sheet
Problems with CI
Summary
15
Resources and Extensions
Resources and Extensions
CI's User Forums
Video Tutorials
Resources for Other Programmes, e.g. Xampplite, MySQL, PHP
Summary
Index
Index

About the Reviewers

Rick Ellis is the founder and CEO of EllisLab.com, the company that develops CodeIgniter and several other widely used web applications. Rick Ellis has a diverse background in media technology, having worked in creative and technical capacities on interactive projects for Disney, to feature films for Oliver Stone, and almost every kind of web-based project in-between.

Derek Allard is a programmer, author, and award-winning instructor based in Toronto, Canada. He builds web applications, is a standards and accessibility supporter, a scripting and database guy, and a PHP junkie. A sought-after educator and freelancer, Derek spends most of his time working with XHTML, PHP, XML and JavaScript.

As a highly visible CodeIgniter community member, Derek was hired by EllisLab as the Senior Technical Support Specialist. He devotes time to ensuring CodeIgniter and their flagship content management system, ExpressionEngine, remain market leaders.

He blogs about all things web at www.derekallard.com.

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