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Richard Blum
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Published:
June 30, 2025

PHP, MySQL, & JavaScript All-in-One For Dummies

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Overview

Learn the essentials of creating web apps with some of the most popular programming languages

PHP, MySQL, & JavaScript All-in-One For Dummies bundles the essentials of coding in some of the most in-demand web development languages. You'll learn to create your own data-driven web applications and interactive web content. The three powerful languages covered in this book form the backbone of top online apps like Wikipedia and Etsy. Paired with the basics of HTML and CSS—also covered in this All-in-One Dummies guide—you can make dynamic websites with a variety of elements. This book makes it easy to get started. You'll also find coverage of advanced skills, as well as resources you'll appreciate when you're ready to level up.

  • Get beginner-friendly instructions and clear explanations of how to program websites in common languages
  • Understand the basics of object-oriented programming, interacting with databases, and connecting front- and back-end code
  • Learn how to work according to popular DevOps principles, including containers and microservices
  • Troubleshoot problems in your code and avoid common web development mistakes

This All-in-One is a great value for new programmers looking to pick up web development skills, as well as those with more experience who want to expand to building web apps.

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About The Author

Richard Blum is a highly experienced programmer and systems administrator. He is also author of the most recent editions of Linux For Dummies and Linux All-in-One For Dummies.

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php, mysql, & javascript all-in-one for dummies

CHEAT SHEET

Working with PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript to create dynamic web applications can be difficult, but if you know a few programming tricks, you can make that job a lot easier. This Cheat Sheet shows you how to extract data from different databases in your PHP programs, filter out unwanted or potentially dangerous data from web forms, quickly find data stored in your MySQL database, and trigger timed events in your JavaScript programs.
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Not only can you use jQuery to modify content and styles of the existing elements in your web page, you can also use it to add or remove entire elements! There are a handful of different jQuery functions available for manipulating the element nodes contained in the DOM tree. Adding a node You can use jQuery to add a new node to the DOM tree to display additional content as needed.
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General Programming & Web Design

Filtering Data in PHP
Filtering Data in PHP
Validating input data is crucial to any PHP application. You don't want an attacker trying to attack your system by submitting improper form data. Fortunately, the PHP developers have provided some help with that process.PHP provides several filter functions that allow you to easily check for valid data or sanitize the data if any unwanted data is present.
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Array variables allow you to group related PHP data values together in a list using a single variable name. You can then either reference the values as a whole by referencing the variable name or handle each data value individually within the array by referencing its place in the list.PHP supports two types of arrays: numeric and associative.
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While you're coding in PHP, you’ll often find yourself using the built-in functions available (such as the rand() function you used earlier in the example programs). Functions are nothing more than PHP code someone else wrote to accomplish a useful feature that you can use in any program. Instead of having to copy all the code into your application, you just use the function name.
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It’s not necessarily recommended for a live production website, but for PHP development work you can build your own web server environment. You don’t even need to have a large server for a personal web development environment — you can build it using your existing Windows or Apple workstation or laptop. Web servers in Linux Linux desktops and servers are becoming more popular these days, especially for web development.
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The Apache server is a must anyone learning PHP programming. By default, the Apache web server uses the httpd.conf configuration file to store its settings. For Linux and Mac systems, the file is usually stored in the /etc folder structure, often under either /etc/httpd or /etc/apache2. The XAMPP package installs the Apache configuration file in the c:\xampp\apache\conf folder in Windows or /Applications/XAMPP/apache/conf in macOS.
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Knowing how to customize the MySQL server will come in handy as you learn your way through programming. The MySQL server uses two different filenames for its configuration settings: my.cnf for Linux and Mac systems my.ini for Windows systems One of the more confusing features about the MySQL server is that there are three ways to specify configuration settings: They can be compiled into the executable server program when built from source code.
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The PHP server configuration file is named php.ini, but it can be located in several different areas. The locations that the PHP server checks are (in order): The path set in the PHPIniDir directive in the Apache web server configuration file The path set in a system environment variable named PHPRC For Windows systems, the path set in the registry key named IniFilePath under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/PHP registry hive The folder where the PHP server executable file is stored The default web server's folder The OS system folder, which for Windows is the c:\winnt folder, and for Linux and Mac the /usr/local/lib folder The XAMPP install process places the php.
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PHP uses the setcookie() function to set new cookies and update existing cookies. Here’s the basic format of the setcookie() function: >setcookie(<em>name</em> [, <em>value</em>> [, <em>expire</em>> [, <em>path</em>> [, <em>domain</em>> [, <em>secure</em>> [, <em>httponly</em>>) The only required parameter is the name of the cookie, although you'll almost always want to include a cookie value, too.
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HTML5 has data validation capabilities that can be useful for web application development. Accepting data from unknown website visitors is a dangerous thing. However, dynamic web applications must have user interaction to work. The conundrum is how to do both.One method is to use data validation, which is the process of verifying that the data your site visitors enter into the form fields is correct.
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Over the years, MySQL database experts have devised rules for how databases should handle transactions. The benchmark for all professional database systems is the ACID test. No, we’re not throwing the server into an acid bath; the ACID test is actually an acronym for a set of database features defining how the database server should support transactions: Atomicity Consistency Isolation Durability Atomicity The atomicity feature states that for a transaction to be considered successful, all steps within the transaction must complete successfully.
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General Programming & Web Design

MySQL Features
MySQL Features
The MySQL database server was created by David Axmark, Allan Larsson, and Michael Widenius as an upgrade to the mSQL database server and was first released for general use in 1996. It’s now owned and supported by Oracle but released as open-source software.MySQL was originally created to incorporate indexing data to speed up data queries in the mSQL database server, by using the indexed sequential access method (ISAM).
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General Programming & Web Design

PHP Arithmetic Shortcuts
PHP Arithmetic Shortcuts
There are a few different shortcuts you can use when implementing arithmetic operators in your PHP code. A common function in programming code is to perform a mathematical operation on a value stored in a variable and then store the result back in the same variable, like this: $counter = $counter + 1; This code adds 1 to the value currently stored in the $counter variable and then saves the result back in the $counter variable.
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Working with PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript to create dynamic web applications can be difficult, but if you know a few programming tricks, you can make that job a lot easier. This Cheat Sheet shows you how to extract data from different databases in your PHP programs, filter out unwanted or potentially dangerous data from web forms, quickly find data stored in your MySQL database, and trigger timed events in your JavaScript programs.
Read More
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Cross-site scripting (known as XSS) is quite possibly the most dangerous type of attack made on dynamic web applications. The main idea of an XSS attack is to embed malicious JavaScript code in data that the attacker submits to the web application as part of the normal data input process. When the web application tries to display the data in a client browser, the JavaScript is pushed to the client browser that’s viewing the website and runs.
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PHP can be a helpful addition to your web pages. One question you may be asking is, “Why do I need a server-side programming language, too?” This information examines what your web applications will gain by adding PHP to the mix and what you can do when you incorporate PHP code in your applications. A centralized programming language One of the downsides to using a client-side programming language is that your code is dependent on how each individual browser runs it.
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The laser-guided miter tool for program development is the integrated development environment (IDE). IDE packages provide everything you could possibly need to develop any size of web application.Here are some of the advanced features IDE packages provide: Code completion: Start typing a code statement, and the package will provide a pop-up list of statements that match what you’re typing.
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Searching for data in a MySQL SELECT statement means incorporating a WHERE clause. It's easy to search for a single item:SELECT prodid, product WHERE prodid = 100;What gets tricky is if you need to search for an item based on search pattern. MySQL uses the LIKE clause to help out with that:SELECT prodid, product WHERE product LIKE 'apple%';The percent sign works as a wildcard character, matching zero or more characters in the string.
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The XMLHttpRequest object contains several class properties that you’ll need to know about to handle the HTTP response from the web server. The XMLHttpRequest Class Properties Property Description onreadystatechange Defines a callback function that the browser triggers when the HTTP connection changes state readyState Contains the connection status of the HTTP connection responseText Contains the response sent by the web server in text format responseXML Contains the response sent by the web server in XML format status Contains the numeric HTTP response code from the web server statusText Contains the text HTTP response string from the web server After you use the send() method to send a connection request to a web server, the HTTP connection process works through five connection states, as tracked by the readyState property: State 0: The connection has not been initialized.
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By far, the easiest method of setting up a PHP programming environment is to rent space on an existing server that has all the necessary components already installed. Plenty of companies offer PHP web development packages. Some of the more popular ones are GoDaddy HostGator 1&1 000webhost These large web-hosting companies offer multiple levels of support for their services.
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When you know your application will run in a MySQL environment, it makes sense to use the php_mysqli library functions to interact with the database. However, there may come a time when you want to write an application that can work using other databases as well. PHP supports quite a few database libraries, each of which interacts with a specific database server.
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Accessor magic methods are PHP methods you use to access the private property values you define in the class. Creating special methods to retrieve the current property values helps create a standard for how other programs use your class objects. These methods are often called getters because they retrieve (get) the value of the property.
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Mutator magic methods are PHP methods that change the value of a property that you set with the private visibility. These are also commonly called setters.The preferred way to handle class properties is to make them private so external programs can’t change them directly. Instead, to manipulate the data, external programs are forced to use mutator magic class methods that interface with the properties.
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JavaScript is great for web programming. HTML5 and CSS3 work together to create web pages. The HTML5 code produces the content that appears on the web page, and the CSS3 code helps style it to change the format and location of the web page elements. So, what exactly does JavaScript do to help augment those languages?
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When you use HTML5 forms in your web pages, you usually incorporate quite a few different elements — text boxes, text areas, check boxes, and radio buttons. Your JavaScript code can use the DOM tree objects to manipulate all these elements. The following information shows you how to use the DOM tree to work with different types of form elements.
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Often you'll run into a situation where you need to trigger an event dynamically in a web page, without the website visitor doing anything. JavaScript provides two simple functions that allow you to schedule an event to trigger at a preselected time.The setTimeout() function allows you to schedule a specified function to trigger at a specific time from the current time:setTimeout(<em>function</em>, <em>time</em>);The function parameter specifies the name of the function to trigger, while the time parameter specifies the amount of time (in milliseconds) for the browser to wait until triggering the function.
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