Now, to make you a better programmer we all know the value of comments. This allows you to understand the code that you have written defining and given meaning to operations as you build them up. You start with the terminators used by PHP and end with them as well. Single line comments look like this �// comment� and Multi-line ones use the syntax /* comment comment*/. A better example would be the one below:

//comment
/* comment
Comment*/
?>

In the next post we take on the best parts of PHP which would be variables which is essential in all programming languages.

As you might have seen, all of the PHP statement ends with �;� which would be somewhat similar to Perl. The valid HTML code that was handed back to the server was :



Who are You?

My name is MacGyver.

More in the coming posts when we dig deeper as we widen our understanding of PHP.

The first post had you making a program that was equivalent to the “Hello World” program used for teaching basics of a programming language and here’s how it worked. When the script was requested by opening the web page, Apache intercepted the request and passed it onto PHP which parsed the script looking for the code in between the terminators and then doing the requested operation which was to display the text contained within the echo command. This result was given back to the server then again to the client. The output contained a valid HTML so the browser was able to understand it and execute the requested operation.

INFORM THE USERS ABOUT INPUT LIMITS
When your database has a field limit, situate a size limit on a text box – this stops people from entering too much text only to find out that their data has been trimmed down by your database.

KEEP FORMS SHORT
Never make forms too long and verbose- this may cause confusion to people and may intimidate them.

TELL THEM WHERE THEY ARE
In case of splitting forms by pages, it is a good idea to let your visitors know how far they are through the process of form submission. This lets people know where they are at the process all times.

ERROR HANDLING
When there is an error within a field, always put a notice next to it and a message at the top indicating the user about the error – if you don’t put the message at the top, people will not notice that there is an error, and if you don’t put a notice near the problem field, people might not tell it from the others.

MARKING NECESSARY FIELDS
Always mark required fields – either with bold text, or, more commonly, an asterisk *. This is to make the users aware that the essential fields must first be satisfied before proceeding to the next step.

To be continued…

The use of forms is the main method in which users can send data to the scripts, so it is essential to get them right. Aside from the coding aspect of forms, there are a number of basic usability guidelines to follow to further improve the effectivity:

TABLES

The use of tables will make the layout of the elements appear neat and organized. Tables make the form easier to read, and it would also be easier to report individual errors that occur on fields. Also tables can also be utilized to give the form a design that would be pleasing to the eye without sacrificing practicality.

To be continued…

On the other hand, Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS) is a group of internet servers which has additional fetures for Microsoft operating system such as Windows NT and windows 2000 operating system servers. IIS can’t use Java, Perl and PHP on a .Net platform because Microsoft doesn’t support those technologies but Web developers can use Microsoft’s Active Server Page (ASP)technology otherwise. IIS has server administrators which include console from which all services and users can be administered. According to www.microsoft.com “I IS 6.0 which is redesigned with a new fault-tolerant process architecture that greatly boosts the reliability of Web sites and applications. IIS 6.0 isolates Web sites and applications into self-contained units called application pools, which separate applications from the other applications that are hosted on the same server.” Now i give you free hand to choose on what server you want to use? IIS or APACHE?

Image Source: www.trustis.com

to be continued…

Image Source: www.pdftown.com

Image Source: www.openlife.cc

$browsercap = get_browser(null, true);
$browser = $browsercap['browser'];

Array
(
[browser_name_regex] => ^mozilla/5.0 (windows; .; windows nt 5.1; .*rv:.*) gecko/.* firefox/0.9.*$
[browser_name_pattern] => Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; ?; Windows NT 5.1; *rv:*) Gecko
?>

As we can see, two examples of browsers are shown, IE and Mozilla which are two of the most common browsers being used by the many computers over the internet. Knowing this may mean the difference between having the proper scripts for use with any particular browser making it a nice thing to add to your page.