PHP Oracle Web Development: Data processing, Security, Caching, XML, Web Services, and Ajax Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Preface

• Chapter 1: Getting Started with PHP and Oracle
• Why PHP and Oracle?
• Simplicity and Flexibility
• Performance
• Robustness
• Exploring PHP and Oracle Alternatives
• PHP and MySQL
• JSF and Oracle
• What You Need to Start
• Pieces of Software Required
• Oracle Database Considerations
• Understanding the Oracle Database
• Choosing Between Oracle Database Editions
• Obtaining Oracle Database Software
• PHP Considerations
• Apache HTTP Server
• Why PHP 5
• Obtaining PHP
• Making PHP and Oracle Work Together
• Oracle Instant Client
• Zend Core for Oracle
• Using Oracle SQL*Plus
• Why Use SQL*Plus in PHP/Oracle Development?
• Connecting to a Database with SQL*Plus
• Running Scripts in SQL*Plus
• Putting It All Together
• Creating Your First PHP/Oracle Application
• Connecting to a Database
• Using the Local Naming Method
• Using the Easy Connect Method
• Issuing an SQL Statement Against the Database
• Fetching and Displaying Results
• Summary

• Chapter 2: PHP and Oracle Connection
• Introducing the PHP OCI8 Extension
• Why Use OCI8 Extension?
• Processing SQL Statements with OCI8
• Connecting to Oracle with OCI8
• Defining a Connection String
• OCI8 Functions for Connecting to Oracle
• Parsing and Executing SQL Statements with OCI8
• Preparing SQL Statements for Execution
• Using Bind Variables
• Executing SQL Statements
• Handling Errors
• Using the oci_error Function
• Using the trigger_error Function
• Using Exceptions
• Fetching Results with OCI8
• OCI8 Functions for Fetching
• Fetching the Next Row
• Fetching All the Rows
• Alternatives to PHP OCI8 Extension
• Using PEAR DB
• Using ADOdb
• Using PDO
• Creating Your Own Library on Top of OCI8
• Summary

• Chapter 3: Data Processing
• Implementing the Business Logic of a PHP/Oracle Application
• When to Move the Data to the Processing
• Advantages of Moving the Processing to the Data
• Ways of Implementing Business Logic Inside the Database
• Interaction between Components Implementing Business Logic
• Using Complex SQL Statements
• Employing Oracle SQL Functions in Queries
• Oracle SQL Functions versus PHP Data Processing
• Aggregate Functions
• The GROUP BY Clause
• Using Join Queries
• Taking Advantage of Views
• The Key Benefits of Using Views
• Hiding Data Complexity with Views
• Using the WHERE Clause
• Using Stored Subprograms
• What are Stored Subprograms?
• Advantages of Stored Subprograms
• An Example of When to Use a Stored Subprogram
• Creating Stored Subprograms
• Calling Stored Subprograms from PHP
• Using Triggers
• Creating Triggers
• Firing Triggers
• Calling Stored Procedures from a Trigger
• Summary

• Chapter 4: Transactions
• Overview of Transactions
• What is a Transaction?
• What are ACID Rules?
• How Transactions Work in Oracle
• Using Transactions in PHP/Oracle Applications
• Structuring a PHP/Oracle Application to Control Transactions
• Developing Transactional Code
• Controlling Transactions from PHP
• Moving Transactional Code to the Database
• Using Triggers
• Dealing with Statement-Level Rollbacks
• Transaction Isolation Considerations
• What OCI8 Connection Function to Choose
• Concurrent Update Issues
• Locking Issues
• Lost Updates
• Autonomous Transactions
• Summary

• Chapter 5: Object-Oriented Approach
• Implementing PHP Classes to Interact with Oracle
• Building Blocks of Applications
• Creating a Custom PHP Class from Scratch
• Testing the Newly Created Class
• Taking Advantage of PHP 5's Object-Oriented Features
• Functionality and Implementation
• Reusability
• Handling Exceptions
• Modifying an Existing Class to use Exceptions
• Distinguishing between Different Error Types
• Are Exceptions Necessarily Errors?
• Extending Existing Classes
• Using Standard Classes
• PEAR::Auth in Action
• Securing Pages with PEAR::Auth
• Customizing Standard Classes
• Customizing PEAR::Auth
• Building More Compact Client Code
• Interactions between Objects
• Composition
• Aggregation
• Event-Driven Communication
• Using Oracle Object-Relational Features
• Using Oracle Object Types
• Implementing Business Logic with Methods of Oracle Objects
• Using Oracle Objects to Simplify Application Creation
• Summary

• Chapter 6: Security
• Securing PHP/Oracle Applications
• Authenticating Users
• Separating Security Management and Data
• Using Two Database Schemas to Improve Security
• Using Three Database Schemas to Improve Security
• Employing PL/SQL Packages and Table Functions to Securely Access Database Data
• Using the %ROWTYPE Attribute
• Building a Custom Storage Container for the PEAR::Auth Class
• Testing the Authentication System
• Performing Authorization Based on the User Identity
• Using Sessions to Hold Information about the Authenticated User
• Holding a User's Information in Package Variables
• Protecting Resources Based on Information about the Authenticated User
• Hashing
• Hashing Passwords
• Modifying an Authentication System to Use Hashing
• Setting Up Fine-Grained Access with Database Views
• Implementing Column-Level Security with Views
• Masking the Column Values Returned to the Application
• Using the DECODE Function
• Implementing Row-Level Security with Views
• Using VPD to Implement Row-Level Security
• Summary

• Chapter 7: Caching
• Caching Data with Oracle and PHP
• Caching Queries on the Database Server
• Processing SQL Statements
• Using Bind Variables to Increase the Probability of Shared Pool Cache Hits
• Using Oracle's Application Contexts for Caching
• Creating a Global Application Context
• Manipulating Data Held in a Global Context
• Resetting Values in a Global Context
• Caching Mechanisms Available in PHP
• Choosing a Caching Strategy
• Caching Function Calls with the PEAR::Cache_Lite Package
• Updating Cached Data
• Implementing Notification-Based Caching
• Using Database Change Notification
• Auditing Notification Messages
• Building a PL/SQL Procedure Sending Notifications to the Web Server
• Performing Configuration Steps Required for Change Notification
• Building the Notification Handler
• Creating a Query Registration for the Notification Handler
• Quick Test
• Implementing Notification-Based Caching with PEAR::Cache_Lite
• Summary

• Chapter 8: XML-Enabled Applications
• Processing XML in PHP/Oracle Applications
• Processing XML Data with PHP
• Creating XML with the DOM PHP Extension
• Querying a DOM Document with XPath
• Transforming and Processing XML with XSLT
• Performing XML Processing inside the Database
• Using Oracle SQL/XML Generation Functions
• Moving All the XML Processing into the Database
• Storing XML Data in the Database
• Performing XSLT Transformations inside the Database
• Building PHP Applications on Oracle XML DB
• Using Oracle Database for Storing, Modifying, and Retrieving XML Data
• Database Storage Options for XML Data in Oracle Database
• Using XMLType for Handling XML Data in the Database
• Using XML Schemas
• Retrieving XML Data
• Accessing Relational Data Through XMLType Views
• Using XMLType Views
• Creating XML Schema-Based XMLType Views
• Performing DML Operations on XML Schema-Based XMLType Views
• Using Oracle XML DB Repository
• Manipulating Repository Resources with PL/SQL
• Accessing Repository Resources with SQL
• Taking Advantage of Standard Internet Protocols
• Handling Transactions
• Querying Data with Oracle XQuery
• Using XQuery to Construct XML from Relational Data
• Breaking up XML into Relational Data
• Summary

• Chapter 9: Web Services
• Exposing a PHP/Oracle Application as a Web Service Using PHP SOAP Extension
• Communicating Using SOAP
• What you Need to Build a SOAP Web Service
• Building a SOAP Web Service on Top of a PHP/Oracle Application
• Building the Business Logic of a Web Service Inside the Database
• Creating an XML Schema to Validate Incoming Documents
• Generating Unique IDs for Incoming Documents
• Creating PL/SQL Subprograms Implementing the Business Logic of the Web Service
• Building a PHP Handler Class
• Using WSDL
• Creating a SOAP Server with PHP's SOAP Extension
• Building a SOAP Client to Test the SOAP Server
• Adding Security
• Implementing Authorization Logic Inside the Database
• Creating a PHP Handler Class
• Creating a WSDL Document
• Creating a Client Script
• Summary

• Chapter 10: AJAX-Based Applications
• Building AJAX-Based PHP/Oracle Applications
• AJAX Interactions
• Designing an AJAX/PHP/Oracle Monitoring Application
• Building Blocks of an AJAX-Based Solution
• Creating the Data Structures
• Building the PHP Script that will Process AJAX Requests
• Using the XMLHttpRequest JavaScript Object
• Putting It All Together
• Using Caching to Further Improve Responsiveness
• Implementing Master/Detail Solutions with AJAX
• Planning a Master/Detail Solution that uses AJAX
• Building the Sample Application
• Creating the Data Structures
• Generating HTML with Oracle XQuery
• Sending Post Requests with AJAX
• Styling with CSS
• Putting It All Together
• Summary

• Appendix A: Installing PHP and Oracle Software
• Installing Oracle Database Software
• Installing Oracle Database Enterprise/Standard Editions
• Installing Oracle Database Express Edition (XE)
• Installing Oracle Database XE on Windows
• Installing Oracle Database XE on Linux
• Installing Apache HTTP Server
• Installing PHP
• Installing PHP on Windows
• Installing PHP on Unix-Like Systems
• Testing PHP
• Bridging the Gap Between Oracle and PHP
• Oracle Instant Client
• Enabling the OCI8 Extension in an Existing PHP Installation
• Installing SQL*Plus Instant Client
• Installing Zend Core for Oracle
• Installing Zend Core for Oracle on Windows
• Installing Zend Core for Oracle on Linux

• Index