Why I like PHP / MySQL

How many of you know that Yahoo is running on PHP? They started out with a proprietary CGI (Common Gateway Interface) program, and switched to PHP, I can't remember when they did, but they did switch to PHP. DirectNIC, one of the best domain name registration companies is also running on PHP and their database is very large, and their domain linguatron runs pretty fast. Who does not have a Friendster account? If you do have one, who was not irritated by their service that sometimes testimonials are missing, messages are missing, messages cannot be read, friends are missing and even runs so slow. They were running on JSP before. Now who has noticed the faster running Friendster site today? Have you noticed the filename extensions .php on the URLs today and before it used to be .jsp? What's so nice about PHP and why they like it? Why I like it?

This article is mainly for the web developers out there. But I also know that people that visit my site are also novices in web development so I will keep my language plain and simple, easy enough for my dog to understand.

First of all I want to differentiate Web Design and Web Development. Designing is mainly for aesthetics, so you should be proficient enough in several graphic software's, at least one vector graphics software and one raster graphics software. Development is targeted more on function of a website, thus programming is needed.

And here are the different web developing programming languages commonly used:

O	Perl One of the first server-side programming languages for website development, opensource, code syntax very much like C/C++ Official Website: http://www.perl.org
O	ASP Active Server Pages, now improved to ASP.net which uses the .net technology. Since it is from Microsoft, expect work to be done real fast. Expect this to be the easiest to learn. And expect this to have the most vulnerabilities from hackers, viruses, spyware, malware, etc. And expect it to have regular downloadable patches to it. Official Website: http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/
O	JSP Java Server Pages, since it is Java, it is made by Sun Microsystems. Not opensource but openstandard. Just the same way HTML is also an open standard, and there are tons of browsers that have to comply with the standard. Which gives rise to problems that browsers do not display 100% the same. The openstadardness of JSP gives the same problems. The JSP engines I am aware of are Resin, Tomcat and JRun. Although they is a majority of code is common among them, I've experienced problems when working on a project for Studios USA / Universal in the past in code syntax in connecting to databases. When it is from Java, it is also known to be secure. Official Website: http://java.sun.com/products/jsp
O	Miva One of the first server side languages I learned and had several client websites made on Miva before like The Heritage Hotel Manila; Meganomics Specialist International, Inc.; Simon Harrison Design Corporation; CCME Homemade Foodstuff; American Home Appliances (CMTC); Kenstar Travel Corporation; Novelty Entertainment Inc.; Penguin Computing Asia; Linux Consultants Asia Support; Office of Miriam Defensor Santiago; Expocraft Industries, Inc.; Waters Philippines; HatchAsia; P & J Agricultural Trading, Inc. and Philippine Council for NGO Certification. The more I learned, the more I didn't want Miva due to it's limitations compared to it's competitors.. Official Website: http://www.miva.com
O	ColdFusion ColdFusion is one of the best products invented by Allaire Corporation, who also made my favorite HTML editor HomeSite. ColdFusion came with it's own HTML editor and IDE (Integrated Development Environment) where it's IDE look very much like their HomeSite software. It was the top competitor of Macromedia Dreamweaver in terms of market share, so Macromedia bought Allaire Corporation and ColdFusion today is now Macromedia ColdFusion MX. Official Website: http://www.macromedia.com/software/coldfusion
O	PHP PHP, an opensource server side programming language just like perl, python, tcl, and others. Its growth was relatively fast considering it is opensource, and there is no corporate advertising, marketing and promotion involved. Just word-of-click and a lot of friendly people in the opensource community promoting the language(Just as I am promoting PHP now). I'll tell you more about it later. Official Website: http://www.php.net
O	Others There are still a lot more languages out there, maybe one is being created right now. But if ever I am going to mention a few that I know, we have TCL and you could learn more about TCL at http://www.tcl.tk and Python, which you could read more about it on http://www.python.org. If you still want to work through the CGI-Bin, Aside from Perl, you could also use Java, C/C++ and even Turbo Pascal!

Now that I have mentioned all of them, why did I choose PHP over the other languages? Here are my reasons:

O	Easy to Program If you are used to Visual Basic, you still might find PHP hard to program with, but if you program in C/C++, here is where you will appreciate the easiness of PHP. No variable declarations needed, just use variables when you need them. No variable type mismatches, just use them how you want to use them, they will act as how they are being used, so integer, float, string, interchange them and you get no errors.
O	HTTP Authentication Making Login and Password scripts for various purposes is always a common task in server side programming. Making a web-based login page is always time-consuming, HTTP Authentication is always easy to work with.
O	Works with compressed files PHP can read the contents of a ZIP file (.zip extension), and it could read and compress in GZIP (.gz extension)and BZIP2 (.bz2 extension) as well. So file compression could be done on-the-fly at real-time.
O	Time and Date Functions PHP can work in Gregorian, Julian, French Republican and Jewish calendars, who knows one day we'll have the Chinese calendar as well? So conversion tools or programming is not required. Time formats can be in GMT or UMT, adjusting the timezones like using EST, MDT. Applying Daylight Savings Time. Date and time functions in PHP as so powerful, there is a pre-defined function for almost any time/date task, so there is no much conversion knowing that there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, etc.
O	Connects to any Database on the Planet PHP supports the following databases: Adabas D, Ingres, Oracle(OCI7 and OCI8), dBase, InterBase, Ovrimos, Empress, FrontBase, PostgreSQL, FilePro(read-only), mSQL, Solid, Hyperwave, Direct MS-SQL, Sybase, IBM DB2, MySQL, Velocis, Informix, ODBC, Unix dbm. Since I listed ODBC above, so MS Access users would have no problems using it with PHP. Aside from that, there is the DBX database abstraction extension allowing you to transparently use any database supported by that extension.
O	Able to FTP PHP can connect to any FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server with its so many FTP functions, connecting, uploading, downloading, navigating, creating directories and even changing file security permissions.
O	Able to use other protocols PHP can also connect to NNTP, IMAP, POP3, SMTP, LDAP OpenSSL, SNMP servers. It can connect to IRC Gateways.
O	Integration Options with other Languages PHP integrates well with Java, Perl, XML, XLST. with specially made functions for integration alone.
O	Encryption Algoritms PHP supports the following encryption algoritms: DES, TripleDES, Blowfish (default), 3-WAY, SAFER-SK64, SAFER-SK128, TWOFISH, TEA, RC2 and GOST in CBC, OFB, CFB and ECB cipher modes.
O	On-the-fly functions Creation of Macromedia Flash, Adobe Acrobat, JPEG/GIF/PNG image files at real-time.
O	Instant Search Engine Using the free mnoGoSearch search engine software, a website search engine could be created with ease.

My PHP Prediction of the future will be having more functions. Today, support for DOM XML, .Net Functions, Lotus Notes Functions are already in experimental stages, and I believe there is more to come. It is opensource and there is always one crazy person who will add more functions to PHP and make it even more powerful. But even if PHP gets more powerful, I do not see it getting easier to use in the near future, maybe sometime but not soon. Since every programmer seems to be busy with their own business going on in their life, they do not seem to have enough time to improve the user-friendliness of PHP in terms of programming in PHP, but are more concerned on what PHP can do. So IDEs similar to ASP's .Net IDE will not come soon and these opensource programmers would rather concentrate on the functions that PHP cannot do. So people concentrated on RAD (Rapid Application Development), they might still stick with Microsoft's ASP. But PHP purist will always have saved classes in their work that they could always re-use so they will have their own version of their RAD.

If you want to learn more about PHP, you might want to check these out:

O	PHP Website
O	PHP Builder Advanced Tutorial Site
O	PHP Hosting on YDS Web Solution. They also offer custom programming in PHP.

Macromedia Flash 3rd Party Softwares

Knowing Macromedia Flash will already get you places, but if you check out sites like 2Advanced, you still keep wondering how other things were made.

Knowing Flash alone keeps your designs limited to only what Flash can do, and there are other 3rd Party softwares out there that can help you create better looking Flash projects. Here are the tools I have been using as well as the resource websites I use for creating my Flash projects.

3rd Party Softwares and Websites for Macromedia Flash

O	Glanda A software that creates Flash files for you with tons of built-in effects and templates. Official Website: http://www.sothink.com
O	SWFDecompiler A software that extracts symbols within an .swf file from any website having Flash. Where you could re-use these symbols for other Flash files you create. Official Website: http://www.sothink.com
O	Swish Softwares They have four main softwares, Max, Studio, Pix and Sites. All very powerful and if a tough competitor of Sothink. Official Website: http://www.swishzone.com
O	WildForm Softwares They have even more softwares. All very powerful and have more variety of softwares compared to Sothink and Swish. Official Website: http://www.wildform.com
O	Swift3D Probably the leader in creating 3D animations for Flash which is actually a 2D animation software. Official Website: http://www.erain.com
O	SoundForge Originally owned by SonicFoundry, is now under MediaSoft of Sony. This is a sound editing software since sound really enhances the Flash experience. A good sound editing software is needed to create the sound clips you need to edit. Official Website: http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com
O	AdobeAudition Originally owned by Syntrillium and called CoolEdit. This is now under Adobe and now called AdobeAudition. A tough competitor of SoundForge and is also a top choice of Flash animators. Official Website: http://www.adobe.com
O	Anfy Softwares Was first know for AnfyJava, that creates many visual effects for websites made in Java. They now have AnfyFlash that also creates excellent Flash presentations. Official Website: http://anfyteam.com
O	FlashKit If you are looking for a good Flash resource website, this is a one-stop shop. It also has many tutorials. I mainly use this site looking for sound effects and riffs. Official Website: http://www.flashkit.com
O	PhilWeavers The Philippines' best Flash designers are here. There is a mailing list where many Flash designers teach each other online on the mailing list. Official Website: http://www.philweavers.net
O	Webmonkey Good for beginners. Has good tutorials on anything related to web-development and designing. Official Website: http://www.webmonkey.com

Thanks to everyone that helped me learn all about Flash. I started out with a simple tutorial from Dollie, then the workshop of ICSHere, Inc. by Mitch, Eric who answer all my inquiries, and Informatics Computer Institute - Commonwealth that help me practice more through teaching, thus I also thank my students who asked some challenging questions that made me push myself a bit further in learning more about Flash.

I Resigned

Hello Students,

I submitted my resignation letter last May 29, 2004 since I can no longer work with so many other jobs I have been working on at my company, YDS Web Solution and OmniDomain.biz. It was a move that I am not in favor of since I do not want to go back to the heavy workload life I had before on Action Online, but I have too since I have a family that both me and my wife have to feed.

But as I promised, this website will not go away. As I have told my students already that this site will be my support to you with tips in all the subjects I teach, even if I am at Informatics or not. You could still ask me questions from time to time if you are having trouble with what you have learned at Informatics.

Now I will still continue my unfinished classes at Informatics so do not worry if we still have classes going on. But I will not accept new schedules anymore.

Now about the special cases:

Ms. Owen Igdameo: I owe you a special class in PowerPoint I believe. You were absent, I will schedule that right away.

Mrs. Rosary and Ms. Rose Quiambao: I owe you both a class in Excel. I will also schedule that right away.

Mrs. Dalisay Nazareno: All our lessons are actually done and we are visiting some useful sites. Just tell me the topics and I will look for the useful sites. Although I think we are schedule to end at June 10, but perhaps we could end the class like on June 3? I cannot come to class on June 1. Anyway I will text the website addresses to visit for the topics you mentioned. And you could also fill up the Student Feedback Form as well, which has to be submitted before the class ends. And on June 3, I will finalize everything, with a rundown of everything I have taught you Ma'am as well as answer all your questions if ever you still have any.

To the incoming students who expected me to be your teacher: I may not be your teacher, but I am sure you will have a good if not better teacher. Just keep in mind that everyday is continuous learning. And that the best investment in life is education. No one can steal it from you, and the more you know, the better future it brings you. So study hard, puhunan mo 'yan sa buhay (that's your investment in life).