PHP ORACLE WEB DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED WITH PHP AND ORACLE 1 CHAPTER 2 PHP AND ORACLE CONNECTION 27 CHAPTER 3 DATA PROCESSING 53 CHAPTER 4 TRANSACTIONS 85 CHAPTER 5 OBJECT ORIENTED APPROACH 119 CHAPTER 6 SECURITY 159 CHAPTER 7 CACHING 201 CHAPTER 8 XML ENABLED APPLICATIONS 239 CHAPTER 9 WEB SERVICES 291 CHAPTER 10 AJAX BASED APPLICATIONS 325 CONTENTS GETTING STARTED WITH PHP AND ORACLE THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF DATABASE DRIVEN APPLICATIONS ONES THAT USE DATABASES JUST TO STORE DATA PERFORMING ALL THE OPERATIONS ON IT ON THE CLIENT SIDE AND THE OTHERS THAT USE DATABASES NOT ONLY TO STORE DATA BUT ALSO TO PROCESS IT THUS MOVING DATA PROCESSING TO THE DATA WHILE BUILDING THE KEY BUSINESS LOGIC OF A DATABASE DRIVEN APPLICATION INSIDE THE DATABASE IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA YOU SHOULD BEAR IN MIND THAT NOT ALL THE DATABASES AVAILABLE TODAY ALLOW YOU TO PUT THIS INTO PRACTICE HOWEVER THE ORACLE DATABASE OFFERS RECORD BREAKING PERFORMANCE SCALABILITY AND RELIABILITY THE PARTNERSHIP FORMED BY ORACLE AND PHP AN OPEN SOURCE SCRIPTING LANGUAGE IS AN EXCELLENT SOLUTION FOR BUILDING HIGH PERFORMANCE SCALABLE AND RELIABLE DATA DRIVEN WEB APPLICATIONS THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS TECHNICAL INFORMATION THAT WILL HELP YOU TO QUICKLY START DEVELOPING PHP APPLICATIONS ON TOP OF ORACLE IT BEGINS WITH A CONCISE DISCUSSION OF WHY YOU MIGHT WANT TO USE PHP IN CONJUNCTION WITH ORACLE FOLLOWED BY THE PHP AND ORACLE ALTERNATIVES HAVING LEARNED WHAT ADVANTAGES THE PHP ORACLE COMBINATION HAS OVER ITS COMPETITORS YOU MIGHT WANT TO SEE ITS STRENGTHS IN ACTION IF YOU DON T HAVE PHP AND ORACLE DATABASE SOFTWARE INSTALLED YOU CAN READ THE WHAT YOU NEED TO START SECTION IN THIS CHAPTER THIS SECTION DISCUSSES THE PIECES OF SOFTWARE REQUIRED TO RUN THE EXAMPLES PROVIDED IN THIS BOOK YOU COULD ALSO READ APPENDIX A INSTALLING PHP AND ORACLE SOFTWARE WHICH PROVIDES A QUICK AND DIRTY GUIDE TO INSTALLING AND CONFIGURING THESE SOFTWARE COMPONENTS TO WORK TOGETHER IN YOUR SYSTEM ONCE YOU HAVE ALL THE REQUIRED PIECES OF SOFTWARE INSTALLED CONFIGURED AND WORKING PROPERLY YOU ARE READY TO BUILD YOUR FIRST PHP ORACLE APPLICATION FOR THE SAKE OF SIMPLICITY THE SAMPLE APPLICATION PROVIDED IN THIS CHAPTER SIMPLY OBTAINS THE CURRENT TIME FROM THE DATABASE AND THEN DISPLAYS IT TO THE USER IN SPITE OF ITS SIMPLICITY THE EXAMPLE DEMONSTRATES HOW TO PERFORM TWO BASIC THINGS THAT EVERY PHP ORACLE APPLICATION MUST TAKE CARE OF SPECIFICALLY IT DEMONSTRATES HOW A PHP APPLICATION CAN CONNECT TO AN ORACLE DATABASE AND THEN INTERACT WITH IT 1 GETTING STARTED WITH PHP AND ORACLE IF YOU HAVE ALREADY GOT YOUR FEET WET WITH PHP ORACLE DEVELOPMENT YOU PROBABLY WILL NOT BE INTERESTED IN READING THIS QUICK START CHAPTER IF SO YOU CAN MOVE TO CHAPTER 2 WHICH DISCUSSES HOW TO USE PHP S OCI8 EXTENSION PROVIDING A COMMON WAY TO INTERACT WITH ORACLE DATABASE FROM PHP WHY PHP AND ORACLE WITH ORACLE AS THE BACK END DATABASE YOU CAN DEVELOP AND DEPLOY DATA DRIVEN PHP APPLICATIONS WITH A POWERFUL PROVEN AND INDUSTRY LEADING INFRASTRUCTURE WHILE STILL TAKING ADVANTAGE OF PHP S EASE OF USE SHORT DEVELOPMENT TIME AND HIGH PERFORMANCE SIMPLICITY AND FLEXIBILITY ONE OF THE KEY REASONS BEHIND PHP S POPULARITY IS ITS SIMPLICITY SO YOU DON T HAVE TO BE A PHP GURU TO START BUILDING PHP APPLICATIONS ON ORACLE ALL YOU NEED TO LEARN ARE A FEW APIS WHICH ALLOW YOU TO INTERACT WITH THE DATABASE AND HANDLE THE RECEIVED DATA THE EXAMPLE DISCUSSED LATER IN THIS CHAPTER WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO BUILD A SIMPLE PHP ORACLE APPLICATION BY USING A FEW OCI8 FUNCTIONS PHP S OBJECT ORIENTED FEATURES AVAILABLE SINCE PHP 3 AND SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVED IN PHP 5 HELP YOU CREATE COMPLEX APPLICATIONS EASILY AND QUICKLY ONCE A CLASS HAS BEEN WRITTEN AND DEBUGGED YOU CAN REUSE IT IN A NUMBER OF WAYS THIS ALLOWS YOU TO REUSE WELL DESIGNED PIECES OF OBJECT ORIENTED CODE OVER AND OVER REDUCING OR ELIMINATING REDUNDANT CODE IN YOUR APPLICATIONS FOR A DETAILED DISCUSSION OF HOW TO COMBINE THE POWER OF OBJECT ORIENTED PHP AND ORACLE REFER TO CHAPTER 5 OBJECT ORIENTED APPROACH FROM A PHP DEVELOPER S PERSPECTIVE DEVELOPING PHP ORACLE APPLICATIONS IS MUCH EASIER THAN DEVELOPING PHP MYSQL APPLICATIONS THIS IS BECAUSE IN THE CASE OF ORACLE DATABASE YOU MAY IMPLEMENT KEY BUSINESS LOGIC OF THE APPLICATION ON THE DATABASE SIDE THIS NOT ONLY REDUCES THE AMOUNT OF PHP CODE BUT ALSO IMPROVES THE PERFORMANCE AND SCALABILITY OF THE ENTIRE APPLICATION IF YOU ARE A PHP DEVELOPER WHO TENDS TO THINK THAT ORACLE DATABASE REPRESENTS A COMPLICATED HARD TO DRIVE MECHANISM YOU SHOULD REALIZE THAT NO MATTER HOW COMPLEX THE ORACLE INSIDES MAY BE WHAT REALLY MATTERS IS THAT ORACLE OFFERS A LOT OF COMPREHENSIVE TOOLS INTENDED TO HELP YOU MANAGE DATABASE OBJECTS AND ACCESS DATA STORED IN THE DATABASE WITH MINIMUM EFFORT ALTHOUGH COVERAGE OF ALL THE TOOLS IS BEYOND THE SCOPE OF THIS BOOK THE EXAMPLES PROVIDED THROUGHOUT THE BOOK WILL HELP YOU TO OBTAIN A GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF HOW ORACLE SQL AND PL SQL TWO OF THE MOST POPULAR ORACLE TOOLS ARE USED TO ACCESS AND MANIPULATE DATA METADATA AND OTHER DATABASE RESOURCES 2 CHAPTER 1 PERFORMANCE ALTHOUGH YOU CAN PROCESS YOUR APPLICATION DATA ON THE CLIENT SIDE IN THE CASE OF ORACLE DATABASE THERE ARE MANY ADVANTAGES OF PROCESSING DATA INSIDE THE DATABASE FROM A PERFORMANCE STANDPOINT MOVING PROCESSING TO THE DATA ALLOWS YOU TO REDUCE THE COMMUNICATION OVERHEAD BETWEEN THE WEB SERVER AND THE DATABASE CONSERVE THE WEB SERVER RESOURCES TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OPTIMIZATIONS AND INDEXING TECHNIQUES PROVIDED BY THE ORACLE DATABASE BY USING TRIGGERS AND STORED PROCEDURES YOU CAN DEVELOP AN APPLICATION WHOSE BUSINESS LOGIC RESIDES ENTIRELY INSIDE THE DATABASE MOVING DATA PROCESSING TO THE DATABASE TIER IS PARTICULARLY USEFUL IF YOUR APPLICATION IS DATABASE INTENSIVE THIS IS BECAUSE YOUR APPLICATION DOESN T NEED TO TRANSFER A LARGE AMOUNT OF DATA BETWEEN TIERS WHILE PROCESSING DATA INSIDE THE DATABASE INSTEAD IT SENDS ONLY THE FINAL PRODUCT ACROSS THE WIRE ROBUSTNESS ORACLE GETS HIGH MARKS WHEN IT COMES TO PERFORMANCE RELIABILITY AND SCALABILITY BUILDING AND DEPLOYING YOUR PHP APPLICATIONS ON ORACLE DATABASE ENABLES YOU TO COMBINE THE POWER AND ROBUSTNESS OF ORACLE AND THE EASE OF USE SHORT DEVELOPMENT TIME AND HIGH PERFORMANCE OF PHP BY USING BOTH OF THESE TECHNOLOGIES IN A COMPLEMENTARY WAY YOU WILL BE ABLE TO MOVE KEY BUSINESS LOGIC OF YOUR APPLICATION TO THE DATA PROTECT YOUR APPLICATION AGAINST DATA LOSS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ORACLE SECURITY TECHNOLOGIES LEVERAGE THE POWER OF OBJECT ORIENTED TECHNOLOGY BUILD TRANSACTIONAL APPLICATIONS DEVELOP ROBUST XML ENABLED APPLICATIONS ALL THESE CAPABILITIES MAKE USING PHP IN CONJUNCTION WITH ORACLE A NATURAL CHOICE WHEN IT COMES TO DEVELOPING MISSION CRITICAL HIGHLY SECURE DATA DRIVEN WEB APPLICATIONS 3