Paul Hollands

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March 23, 2009

The common_php directory

The common_php directory contains a number of common function files that need to be included in each script in any application. It includes PHP files with one or more functions related either to the application framework or to individual web applications.

add_update_functions.php
book_request_functions.php
calendar.php
calendar_style.css
check_url.php
cip_functions.php
convert_line_breaks.php
date_parser.php
db_name.inc.php
do_sql.php
email_functions.php
has_value.php
interface_functions.php
is_even.php
kpi_functions.php
libfaq.ini
option_switcher.php
quote_me.php
read_config.php
read_file.php
round_me.php
target_use_attributes.php
upload_file.php
user_functions.php

Framework Specific Files

• .htaccess
  protection for the credentials files
• add_update_functions.php
  Functions for adding and updating rows in MySQL tables with the contents of the $_REQUEST hash ($r).
• calendar.php
  A calendar pop-up used to populates date fields in the interface.
• calendar_style.css
  Stylesheet for the above
• check_url.php
  Contains one function for validating URLs
• convert_line_breaks.php
  Converts new lines to <br/> tags.
• db_name.inc.php
  Formally a holder for the database name for a single application, but now deprecated. File still needs to be present though.
• do_sql.php
  Holds a number of key functions related to SQL querying including just_sql($sql) which is used extensively in every application.
• email_functions.php
  Functions for building multipart email headers for sending attachments and HTML email.
• has_value.php
  One function of the same name which runs the gauntlet of PHP tests to determine if a value is or isn't set for a particular variable. Note that if a value of zero is set it returns false. Be careful when trying to set zero as a value in SQL transactions.
  
  In terms of MySQL zero is a value (as different from NULL). Because PHP values are scalar and typing is dynamic this can get you into all kinds of trouble if you are testing a value from a MySQL row as a boolean, (zero == false in PHP).

  function has_value($var){
  
          if(is_array($var)){ return has_value($var[0]); }
  
  	if(!isset($var)){ return(false); }
  
  	if(is_null($var)){ return(false); }
  
  	if($var === 0){ return(false); }
  
  	if($var === NULL){ return(false); }
  
  	if($var === 'NULL'){ return(false); }
  
  	if($var === 'null'){ return(false); }
  
  	if($var === ""){ return(false); }
  
  	preg_match('/\w/', $var, $matches);
  
  	if(count($matches) == 0){ return(false); }
  
  	return(true);
  
  	}

• interface_functions.php
  Functions for building HTML forms from .skini definitions in the skins/ directory. These are written in Windows .ini file format. Picklists in <select/> elements are handled separately by functions in the option_switcher.php file.
• is_even.php
  Two functions, one to tell if a number is odd or even and the other to set the style class for alternating rows in a table.
• libfaq.ini
  DB connection definition and credentials store in a windows .ini file (ensure this file type is excluded from display in the Apache configuration). Used by the functions in do_sql.php.

  [connection_parameters]
  
  user = youruser
  password = yourpasswordhere
  host = localhost
  type = mysql
  db = yourdbnamehere
  

• option_switcher.php
  Used to define the <options/> for any select form elements built using the interface functions.
• quote_me.php
  Contains a function of the same name which properly escapes MySQL inserts automatically detecting for get_magic_quotes_gpc to avoid double escaping.
• read_config.php
  Contains one function of the same name and is used for pulling the contents of a Windows .ini file into a hash.
• read_file.php
  Functions for reading a file into a string or a list of lines.
• round_me.php
  An attempt at a function which correctly rounds monetary values to 2 decimal places as PHP's round function does odd things which might be mathematically more accurate but are annoying in the context of pounds and pence and lead to inaccuracies. I'm not clear whether this solves the issue, and it is a work in progress. Use with caution.
• upload_file.php
  Functions related to uploading files once they get to the server. You need to read the PHP manual to see what extra elements to include in your form for the process to work. The error reporting functions in this code don't work properly.
• user_functions.php
  Some basic user functions, including functions to determine if the user is an administrator.

Tags: Lightweight PHP Web Application Framework

Posted by pj at March 23, 2009 04:43 PM

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