Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP (eBook)

Quentin Zervaas is a web developer based in Adelaide, South Australia, where he has been self-employed since 2003. After receiving his bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Adelaide in 2001, Quentin worked for several web development firms before branching out on his own, developing a wide range of custom web applications for customers all around the world. Quentin has recently started a new company called Recite Media (http://www.recite.com.au) with two partners. Recite Media develops web applications primarily for other development or design companies to resell. Its flagship product, Recite CMS, is being used by some of Australia's largest companies. Quentin also runs and writes for his PHP development resource site, phpRiot (phpRiot.com), which provides a number of useful articles on a wide variety of PHP-related topics. After completing his role as the technical reviewer for Beginning Ajax with PHP: From Novice to Professional (Apress, 2006), he decided to undertake writing Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP.

Contents at a Glance 4
Contents 5
About the Author 15
About the Technical Reviewer 16
Introduction 17
Who This Book Is For 17
How This Book Is Structured 18
Prerequisites 20
Downloading the Code 20
Contacting the Author 20
Application Planning and Design 21
What Is Web 2.0? 22
Database Connectivity 22
Web Site Templates 23
Web Site Features 23
Other Aspects of Development 25
Version Control and Unit Testing 28
Summary 28
Setting Up the Application Framework 29
Web Server Setup 29
Application Filesystem Structure 32
Installing the Zend Framework 34
Configuring the Web Server 35
Setting Up the Database 37
Using the Model- View- Controller Pattern 38
Defining Application Settings 47
Connecting to the Database 49
The Smarty Template Engine 50
Adding Logging Capabilities 61
Summary 64
User Authentication, Authorization, and Management 65
Creating the User Database Table 65
Introduction to Zend_ Auth 69
Introduction to Zend_ Acl 74
Combining Zend_ Auth, Zend_ Acl, and Zend_ Controller_ Front 77
Managing User Records with DatabaseObject 81
Managing User Profiles 86
Summary 92
User Registration, Login, and Logout 93
Adding User Registration to the Application 93
Implementing Account Login and Logout 120
Dealing with Forgotten Passwords 128
Implementing Account Management 136
Summary 141
Introduction to Prototype and Scriptaculous 142
Downloading and Installing Prototype 142
Selecting Objects in the Document Object Model 143
Prototype’s Hash Object 148
Other Element Extensions 149
Ajax Operations in Prototype 153
Event Handling in Prototype 164
Creating JavaScript Classes in Prototype 166
From Prototype to Scriptaculous 170
Downloading and Installing Scriptaculous 173
Combining Prototype, Scriptaculous, Ajax, and PHP in a Useful Example 173
Summary 188
Styling the Web Application 189
Adding Page Titles and Breadcrumbs 189
Integrating the Design into the Application 201
Constructing the CSS 210
Styling the Application Web Forms 222
Loading Prototype and Scriptaculous 225
Implementing Client- Side Form Validation 226
Summary 235
Building the Blogging System 236
Creating the Database Tables 236
Setting Up DatabaseObject and Profile Classes 238
Creating a Controller for Managing Blog Posts 240
Creating and Editing Blog Posts 245
Previewing Blog Posts 265
Updating the Status of a Blog Post 271
Summary 279
Extending the Blog Manager 281
Listing Blog Posts on the Blog Manager Index 281
Ajaxing the Blog Monthly Summary 299
Integrating a WYSIWYG Editor 307
Summary 312
Personalized User Areas 313
Controlling User Settings 313
The UserController Class 318
Displaying the User’s Blog 329
Populating the Application Home Page 342
Summary 349
Implementing Web 2.0 Features 350
Tags 351
Web Feeds 366
Microformats 373
Allowing Users to Create a Public Profile 378
Summary 384
A Dynamic Image Gallery 385
Storing Uploaded Files 386
Uploading Files 388
Sending Images 401
Resizing Images 404
Managing Blog Post Images 413
Displaying Images on User Blogs 431
Summary 439
Implementing Site Search 440
Introduction to Zend_ Search_ Lucene 440
Indexing Application Content 443
Creating the Search Tool 455
Adding Autocompletion to the Search Tool 465
Summary 480
Integrating Google Maps 481
Google Maps Features 481
Planning Integration 485
Adding Location Storage Capabilities 487
Creating Our First Map 490
Managing Locations on the Map 499
Displaying the Map on Users’ Public Blogs 521
Summary 528
Deployment and Maintenance 530
Application Logging 530
Site Error Handling 535
Web Site Administration 546
Application Deployment 549
Backup and Restore 554
Summary 556
Index 557