week1

• Mobile-First Web Applications


  Websites that are designed and optimized for mobile devices first, before being adapted for larger screens
• Why should your website be mobile-first?

  • Mobile-first websites have a lower bounce rate and a higher percentage of visits
  • Such platforms are ranked higher by search engines
  • You gain users' loyalty (customer satisfaction)
  • Attractive mobile-first design attracts more visitors
  • Web pages load faster and website performance improves
• Google has announced mobile-first indexing
• How to make a mobile-first website?

  • Use a responsive framework
  • Improve user experience
  • Implement techniques to increase page loading speed
  • Improve website navigation
• Modern Frontend Responsive Frameworks

  • Bootstrap
  • Foundation
  • Skeleton
  • HTML5 Boilerplate
  • Montage
  • SproutCore
  • Zebra
  • CreateJS
  • Less Framework
• XAMPP


  Open source, easy to install and use, PHP development environment developed by Apache Friends
• XAMPP stands for: X - Cross Platform (Windows/Mac/Linux), A - Apache server, M - MariaDB (fully open source version of MySQL), P - PHP engine built in, P - Perl (we won't be using this)
• Dynamic Websites


  Websites with "dynamic" content which are generated by client-side and server-side scripting
• Dynamic web pages are generated on the fly with content sourced from database/web services/server file system
• Client-Side Processing


  The part of a website that the user interacts with directly, usually written in JavaScript to reduce server load and provide instant feedback
• Server-Side Processing


  The back end or server-side of a website that stores and arranges data, and makes sure everything on the client-side works fine
• Server-side processing involves code processed by the HTTP (Web) server to generate a customised web page for each client request
• Our technologies


  • Client-side: HTML, CSS, JavaScript
  • Server-side: PHP
• HTML is the standard markup language for web pages
• CSS is used to control the styling and layout of web pages
• PHP is a widely-used server-side scripting language that can also be used for client-side
• PHP code is executed on the server, and the result is returned to the browser as plain HTML/CSS/JS
• PHP can be used to access files and databases on the server, provide dynamic pages, process form information, control user-access, encrypt data, and output HTML/images/PDFs/etc.
• PHP is open source, runs on various platforms, supports many databases, and has a large library of built-in functions and common extensions
• PHP


  Server-side scripting language
• PHP


  • Runs on various platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, etc.)
  • PHP scripts are executed on the server
  • Supports many databases (MySQL, Oracle, Sybase, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC, etc.)
  • Open source software
  • Large library of in-built functions and common extensions
  • Available on LJMU servers and most commercial web hosts
• PHP is a popular language in industry; useful to know for future placements/jobs
• Approximately 83.1% of sites use PHP as their server-side language
• A PHP Web Request


  1. Browser requests a .htm/html file (static content): server just sends that file

  2. Browser requests a .php file (dynamic content): server reads it, runs php script inside it, then sends html result back
• PHP script


  Starts with <?php and ends with ?>
• PHP type system


  • String
  • Integer
  • Float (floating point numbers - also called double)
  • Boolean
  • Array
  • Object
  • NULL
  • Resource
• PHP Variables


  Used for storing values, like text strings, numbers or arrays<|>Variables are case-sensitive<|>Do not need to be declared before adding a value to them<|>Do not need to specify a data type
• Global variables


  To use global variable inside function, use keyword 'global'
• PHP Concatenation


  The concatenation operator (.) is used to put two string values together
• PHP Operators


  • Arithmetic
  • Assignment
  • Comparison
  • Increment/Decrement
  • Logical
  • String
• PHP Conditional Statements


  • if statement
  • if...else statement
  • if...elseif....else statement
  • switch statement
• if statement


  • Use this statement to execute some code only if a specified condition is true
• if...else statement


  • Use this statement to execute some code if a condition is true and another code if the condition is false
• if...elseif....else statement


  • Use this statement to select one of several blocks of code to be executed
• switch statement


  • Use this statement to select one of many blocks of code to be executed
• PHP Loops


  • while
  • do...while
  • for
  • foreach
• PHP Functions


  A function is a block of statements that can be used repeatedly in a program<|>A function will not execute automatically when a page loads<|>A function will be executed by a call to the function
• User-defined Functions


  • Give the function a name that reflects what the function does
  • Avoid names that are already part of the PHP Library
  • The function name can start with a letter or underscore (not a number)
  • Functions are defined in blocks that are delineated with curly braces {}
• Useful PHP commands


  gettype(), unset(), isset(), empty(), var_dump(), is_null(), is_bool(), is_string(), is_numeric(), is_callable()
• PHP Arrays


  • Array Creation or Initialization
  • Size of Array
  • Adding and Modifying Elements