Let’s use json_encode as an example here. Prior to PHP 5.2.0 JSON support was only available via a PECL extension and since 5.2.0 it’s been available as part of the PHP core. You could check that the server is running PHP 5.2.0 or above, but that could result in a
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If you write and/or use open source software, you know that running an up to date version of PHP is a must. This can be a problem sometimes, like if you are running on a host that doesn’t run the most up to date version of PHP. Another scenario would
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I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine the other day and we got on the topic of PHP not having a very standardized error system. Now that he’s working with Python the mix of errors and exceptions in PHP is an apparent shortcoming. PHP is funny like
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One of biggest draws to Redis for me is the fact that it has more data structure types than just key / value. These additional data structures allow you to do some amazing things while still benefitting from being in-memory. One of the most notable ways to leverage Redis would
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Getting the IP address of a user seems like a pretty trivial task but you can’t always rely on $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']. The super global value is the most reliable source because it is extracted directly from the TCP stack but if you’re behind a load balancer that address would be that
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In a previous post I’ve talked about installing phpredis a PHP Extension for Redis that has to be compiled from source. But what if you’re hosting scenario doesn’t allow you to compile extensions? Well you’re in luck, in addition to the extension, there are additional client libraries out there for
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Now that I’ve discussed the in-memory data stores (NoSQL if you will) let’s switch gears to a more traditional RDBMS. SQLite by definition is a software library that implement a self-contained server-less, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine. It’s more important claim to fame is that it is the most widely
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Redis is one of my favorite key-value stores, the range of data types alone make it a must have in any developer”s tool belt. Another great use for Redis is as your session handler in PHP. The optional persistence that Redis provides makes it a better option than using Memcached
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Memcached makes a semi-perfect solution for storing your PHP sessions. Why only semi-perfect? Well in Memcached’s defense, the fact that it is an in-memory data store makes it a great choice because of the speed. The negative is the lack of persistence, which makes it somewhat less desirable. What this
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Redis is one of my favorite new data stores of the NoSQL movement. It has the power and speed to act as a caching server like Memcached and it has more advanced data types to make it more like an RDBMS. Before we can talk about using Redis as a
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Calculating the age based on a date is a pretty simple task that can be accomplished many different ways (Google yield’s quite a few different approaches). The caveat that usually arises is that you need to factor in which side of the birthday you are on based on the day’s
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Now that we know how to use sessions and have built a simple login system, let’s take a look at some options for configuring PHP sessions. Out of the box, PHP is configured to file-based sessions with a max lifetime of 1440 seconds (a mere 24 minutes). Garbage collection probability
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Following up on yesterday’s introduction to PHP Sessions, let’s talk about building a simple login system in PHP. To start, you will need to make sure that pages on your site that are behind the login page will have sessions enabled. This can be done for all of your pages
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Sessions, one of those necessary evils when building websites. They come into play whenever you need to have data available between pages on a site. These scenarios typically arise when you have login restricted areas on a site. Why do I refer to them as evil? Quite a few reasons
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I remember one of my first paid programming gigs, it was to build a contact form for a friend’s website. Not one of those janky mailto: hacks that attempted to open the local email client. I’m talking about a form that would send mail from the server, you know, in
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This post started as part of yesterday’s post on encrypting passwords as a subsection labeled “Salt? Pepper? When did this become a cooking blog?” The fact is, I felt that the section was a bit long-winded and warranted a dedicated post. Without further ado let’s talk about some techniques for
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Not all hashing functions are created equally, some are considered more secure than others and yet all of them are more secure than storing plaintext passwords. In this post I’m going to discuss some of the common PHP hashing functions that can be used as an alternative to storing plaintext
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I recently encountered a scenario where one of my site’s login system stopped working. The piece of code that stopped working was the third-party login that leveraged GitHub for the authentication. It was one of those “it worked yesterday” moments for sure. After some research, I discovered that GitHub had
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Got a new project I wanted to share with everyone, it’s called icons.less (or LESS Icons) and it’s available for immediate forking and use over at GitHub. The project itself stemmed from my own desire to have a set of social icons that were easy to customize for different websites
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Within nearly every web site or application there is a need to redirect a user to another page. Perhaps you want to route them to a login page when they aren’t authenticated or maybe because a page moved and you want to take them to the new location. To accomplish
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A friend of mine recently asked me for some advice in regard to a freelancing project he was in the quoting phase of. I figured, what a great topic for a blog post! Keep in mind though, I haven’t freelanced in years, mainly because I am not a fan of
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If you know me you know that I’m a huge proponent of Redis. I started using it in mid-2011 as the storage engine for a chat system I was building for SceneKids. Over the last year and a half or so I’ve utilized Redis more and more for many other
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If you know me, you know I’m a pretty devout PHP coder when it comes to my own adventures in web development. I’ve been using it since version 3 (started with it in Y2K) and in using it that long, I’d be the last person to say that it’s a
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Social websites don’t always attract the most desireable patrons and often times those users opt to hide their identity (as well as blocking banner ads) behind a proxy server. There are quite a few free web-based proxies out there (generally ad funded, some have premium tiers) and they typically have
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Over the last few years I’ve gotten down and dirty with MySQL’s config file, my.cnf. I read and re-read the MySQL documentation as well as any blog posts I could find on the subject. I was able to keep my connections low with caching and fought against the InnoDB buffer
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