PHP rocks my socks!

PHP is an interesting language. Most of the things seem familiar as they look a lot like JSP. In fact, having a good knowledge of Java programming makes PHP easier to understand. Right now, I am reading over the information in chapters 1 and 2. I am very intrigued over how certain things function.

For example, the author notes the Magic Quotes feature. This is to say that when you call a variable that has an apostrophe it is recited as /’. So to get rid of this you use the stripslashes() function. Now the cool part is that all of these functions are built in so you don’t have to include certain aspects of the language in order to work with the function.

My plan is to read a few more chapters over the following week. After I have a really good grasp on how PHP functions I want to create a set of assignments where I will change the SMIS website. The SMIS website (www.ugasmis.org) is in a horrible shape. As the VP of Web Development my job is to redesign the site. The site needs a major make over as well as some new features.

Here is a potential list of things that need to be updated/upgraded/created:

• VP of finance can have a section where they can log in and see who has paid their dues and who still owes
• A log in system for all officers to see their specific information as well as have the ability to update the news section (EX VP of Special Events needs to say that something has happened during the Recruiting dinner, so they can post a news item on the front page.)
• A new photo gallery
• A better way to sign up for company dinners
• Alumni signup / user accounts
• Resume list that actually works
• A way for teachers/students and others to suggest things for the website
• New layout
• …

There is probably more, but those are the ones I can think of right now. Since most of the things on the current SMIS page have PHP involved it would only make sense to work on for this class. The PHP used is poorly written, without comments, and works about 40% of the time.

So by next weekend I will have the basics down and will being setting up a priority list for all of the features and then begin programming/editing/altering/updating/creating/etc.