PHP 7 Zend Certification Study Guide (eBook)

Andrew Beak is a cloud software architect working for a leading IPTV tech company in Cambridge, UK. He has 7 years of experience with the PHP language, with more than half of that time being in senior roles.  During his time in the industry Beak has worked on applications for large financial institutions, dynamic startups, payment processors, as well as a slew of smaller web applications.

Introduction. The Zend Certification SyllabusA basic introduction to the latest syllabus of the ZCE2017 exam and analyze the topics of the exam. IT will also talk about choosing the correct strategy.1. SyntaxThe chapter takes a look at the general syntax used in PHP programming.  Inserting PHP into web pagesLanguage ConstructsCommentsRepresenting numbersVariablesOperatorsControl StructuresErrorsConfigurationPerformance2. FunctionsFunctions are packages of code that can be used to execute a sequence of instructions. Any valid code can be used inside a function, including calls to other functions and classes. Topics covered here are:ArgumentsReferencesVariable FunctionsReturnsVariable ScopeCallables, Lambdas, and closures3. Strings and PatternsThey are a series of bytes and do not contain any information about how those bytes should be translated to characters. Topics covered:Declaring StringsReferencing characters in stringsPHP and multibyte stringsMatching StringsExtracting stringsSearching StringsReplacing stringsFormatting StringsFormatting NumbersString Patterns – Regular Expressions4. ArraysHere we will take a look at a number of array functions offered in PHP. Topics covered will be:Declaring and referencing arraysArray OperatorsQuirks of PHP array keysFilling up arraysPush, pop, shift, and unshiftComparing ArraysCombining ArraysIterating through arraysSorting Arrays5. Object Orientated PHPObject Orientated code runs slower than procedural code but makes it easier to model and manipulate complex data structures. Topics will be:Declaring Classes and Instantiating ObjectsVisibility or Access ModifiersInstance Properties and MethodsStatic Methods and PropertiesWorking with ObjectsConstructors and DestructorsInheritanceInterfacesExceptionsReflectionType HintingClass ConstantsLate Static BindingMagic (__*) MethodsStandard PHP Library (SPL)GeneratorsTraits6. SecurityThis is one of the key topics of the exam. The chapter will provide you a strategy to take up for securing your applications and servers. ConfigurationSession SecurityCross-Site ScriptingCross-Site Request ForgeriesSQL InjectionRemote Code InjectionEmail InjectionFilter InputEscape OutputEncryption, Hashing algorithmsFile uploadsDatabase storageAvoid publishing your password online7. Data Formats and TypesThe chapter takes a look at the various data formats used with PHP applications. Though questions on this topic are rare, you can expect to be asked a couple of fairly detailed questions from this section.XMLSOAPREST web servicesJSONDate and Time8. Input-Output PHP 7.1streams as a way of generalizing file, network, data compression, and other operations that share a set of common set of functions and uses.FilesFile System FunctionsStreams9. Web FeaturesThis chapter will teach you the web features of PHP. Topics covered will be:SessionsStarting a SessionSession Identifier and Session VariablesLogging a User OutSession HandlersGET and POST dataEncoding data into URLsFile UploadsFormsForm elementsCookiesHTTP HeadersHTTP AuthenticationHTTP Status Codes10. Databases and SQLPHP uses extensions to interact with a range of databases. This chapter will shed some light on the same. Topics are:Introduction to DatabasesWorking with SQLJoinsPrepared StatementsTransactions11. Error Handling12. ExercisesAppendix A. Quiz Answers