Often times in PHP you find yourself needing to insert text. Most sites do this by using a database backend, but you also have the option to include data from a text file. Three methods are available for this; require, include, and file_get_contents. Which is fastest, which is best? When should you use one over the other?
For this and my other blog, I use WordPress with permalinks turned on. I installed an add-in called StatTraq to keep track of statistics. But, the stats page never showed which pages were being shown. It just showed that ‘Multiple Posts’ were being displayed. Honestly, I just assumed this was the way StatTraq was supposed to work until I just happened to get hit by a comment spammer.
PHP allows you to define a string using either a single quote (‘) or a double quote (“). Why? Is one better? Faster? Why should you use one over the other. In this article, I am going to benchmark both methods; both with literal strings and strings with variables included.
Often a PHP developer will find themselves needing to know how long a function they are writing takes. Maybe a page seems to be taking too long to load, or maybe they have two different functions that perform the same task and need to see which one performs faster. This is where benchmarking comes in.
It you have spent time on sites that use a CMS system as a back-end, you may have noticed a line towards the bottom that tells you how long that page took to generate. While not always useful for the end user, it is very useful to you as a the developer. It gives you a quanitative look at how quickly your pages are being generated, and you can use this to determine if your code or queries need to be modified to work more quickly or if your server is overloaded.
After a previous article, I decided I needed a way to expand web buttons to look even more like ‘normal’ computer buttons. Windows XP buttons highlight when your mouse goes over them. I knew this was possible with links, so I set out to do it with buttons as well.
Tired of the boring gray buttons on web forms? With a little CSS you can make your buttons look just how you like.
HTTP return codes are 3 digit (usually) numbers that are returned to your browser when they request a page. Typically your browser will take care of these, but if you are developing your own site you should put these in your bag of knowledge.
How often do your online databases get updated? How often do you back up? Are you dependent on your host for backups? Try this quick PHP script to backup your MySQL databases from the server.