To prepare for the test I read through and quizzed myself quite a few times using the PDF (PHP 5.3 Certification Guide) they provided. I also found a lovely program by uCertify, called Zend PHP 5 Certification Practice Test, this software, and other uCerify software, has a lovely “100% pass guarantee”. With such a confident guarantee, why wouldn’t I get it? It had quite a few questions, and after finishing any of the tests you could go back and see what you did wrong with an explanation. You could also see reports of your progress and quiz yourself on your trouble areas. I would recommend this software to anybody who is interested in getting certified. They have an impressive 98.17% pass through rate, but because there isn’t a way to report if you passed or failed on your exam, the number seems a bit shady.

We were required to bring 2 forms of identification, and one needed to be a photo identification. They weren’t very specific about which two identifications you could use, but after calling I confirmed I could use a drivers license and social security card. It would be nice if they listed what was accepted since they had a strict policy that if you miss the exam you have to repurchase the voucher. Nobody would appreciate having to repurchase a voucher over such a small detail.

Something I also didn’t notice before was that upon being Zend Certified, you can only use the logo on personal items such as your personal website, resume, business cards and the like. You cannot post the Zend Certified logo on your company website, which was something my boss was looking forward to. The terms can be found at the bottom of the Zend Certified Engineer Logo page.

Compared to using the few built in functions like FormatDateTime to get a few pre-formatted dates, or using other date functions like “year”, “month”, and “day” to concatenate a string together, this makes life much easier.

Here is a quick example of how to use it.

<!-- #include file="./formatDate.asp"-->
<%
Response.write(formatDate("Y-m-d H:i:s", CDate("02/25/2012 10:00:00")))
    ' 2012-02-25 10:00:00
Response.write(formatDate("l, F jS, Y", NOW()))
    ' Monday, February 27th, 2012
Response.write(formatDate("r"))
    ' Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:53:21 -0600
%>

I also extend the Date object for client side date formatting at work. You can view the source of this at Skynet’s Blog.

Format Date
formatDate(2).zip
Version: v1.0

A script which attempts to duplicate the PHP Date function.

Author:	Blaine Schmeisser
Date:	March 1, 2012

3.1 KiB
27 Downloads
Details…

Input:

div#top >
    el.second:has(div.three:contains("three")) +
    el.second +
    el.second >
        span.three:contains("three")

Output:

<div id="top">
    <el class="second">
        <div class="three">three</div>
    </el>
    <el class="second"></el>
    <el class="second">
        <span class="three">three</span>
    </el>
</div>

Selector to HTML
selectorToHTML.js
Version: v0.3

Author:	Blaine Schmeisser
Date:	February 16, 2012

3.7 KiB
39 Downloads
Details…

Selector to HTML (Min)
selectorToHTML.min.js
Version: v0.3

Selector to HTML Min

Author:	Blaine Schmeisser
Date:	March 17, 2012

1.8 KiB
28 Downloads
Details…

I’m releasing this function a bit ahead of time since it’s been a while since I’ve last updated this blog.

Notice it’s use of child and sibling selectors.

Example Input:

div#formValidation >
    div.message:contains('This field is required') +
    div.exit +
    div.arrowDown[rel=1]

Example Output:

<div id="formValidation">
    <div class="message">This field is required</div>
    <div class="exit"></div>
    <div class="arrowDown" rel="1"></div>
</div>

Selector to HTML
selectorToHTML.zip
Version: v0.2

Author:	Blaine Schmeisser
Date:	February 3, 2012

2.5 KiB
14 Downloads
Details…

To start out browse to “/application/config/config.asp” and edit a few of the items. Most of these can be left at their default state.

Setting up

All URI’s are redirected to the “default.asp” page and parsed to find the appropriate controller, method, and parameters. By default all controllers are stored in “/application/controllers/*.asp” they can be in sub directories if you wish, the router will still be able to find it. Each controller is a class with methods. It is only allowed to have 1 parameter, if more exist, they will be compiled into a single array. There is a default method if none is chosen, which is setup in the config file.

Global variables

There are a few global variables besides the ones in the config file.

helperClass /  helper
modelClass / model
viewClass / view
frameworkVersion

Example Controller

<%
    ' /application/controllers/default.asp
    ' www.example.com/ASPMVC/default/
    Class defaultController
        Public Function index(byRef myParams)
            ' Code here
        End Function
    End Class
%>

Views

You can access the view with a simple syntax:

view.retrieve(fileName, willReturn)

The filename is the name of the file excluding the prefix and suffix defined in the config file. If “willReturn” is true is will return all the code for you to execute, if not it will execute itself. Here is an example:

Execute view.retrieve("404", true)

Executing it yoruself allows you to share variables with the file since your variables are local to your class unless defined as globals.

Helpers

Helpers allow you to include library files or a file with groups of functions. This can aid you with common tasks shared between controllers or models. I included a built in helper “eventQue” which is an observer and allows you to “bind” functions and subs to events then trigger them. Here is an example:

<%
    ' Create myQue
    Dim myQue
    Execute helper.retrieve("eventQue", true)
    Set myQue = new eventQue

    ' Bind event to function
    Call myQue.bindObjFunction("header", Response, "write", "<script type='text/javascript'>alert('Hooks are enabled.')</script>")

    ' Call event
    myQue.trigger("header")
%>

Models

I believe this is where the most improvement with v0.5 was made. I was not pleased at all with the syntax of the last version. Models have the same syntax as the previous version. Here is an example:

<%
    Class tableModel
        Public Function getTables(ByRef fn_recordSet)
            fn_recordSet.Open "SELECT name FROM sys.tables", dbconn, 0, 1
        End Function
    End Class
%>

Inside the controller you can access the model using the following syntax:

<%
    Dim recordSet1
    Set recordSet1 = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")

    model.retrieve("table").getTables(recordSet1)
    Do While Not recordSet1.EOF
        Response.write("<br />" & recordSet1("name"))
        recordSet1.MoveNext
    Loop
    recordSet1.Close
%>

The specific model is stored inside of the parent “model”. When you retrieve it looks to see if it already has that model, and if so returns it. If you want to cache it yourself, the method “.retrieve” will return it for you.

<%
    Dim recordSet1, tableModel
    Set recordSet1 = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
    Set tableModel = model.retrieve("table")

    tableModel.getTables(recordSet1)
    Do While Not recordSet1.EOF
        Response.write("<br />" & recordSet1("name"))
        recordSet1.MoveNext
    Loop
    recordSet1.Close
%>

BlaineSch ASP Framework
v0.4_ASPFramework.zip
Version: v0.4

Author:	Blaine Schmeisser
Date:	February 3, 2012

10.3 KiB
42 Downloads
Details…

To get started browse to the file “/application/config/config.asp” and open it up and configure everything you may want to play with. There are only a few options since you declare most everything yourself.

Next, make a controller or edit the default controller. This is simply a file inside the “application/controllers” folder. At the top use a server side include to pull in the “core” file inside the “application/system” directory.

After that put whatever HTML and ASP you want. You have access to a constant “frameworkVersion”. Along with your config variables, you also have access to 3 more “view”, “model”, and “helper”. Each of these three variables all have one method used to pull in other files “retrieve” which takes 2 parameters: “fileName” which is a string of the file name you want, and “willReturn” a boolean that, if true, will return the data for you to execute yoruself, however, if false, will execute it for you. Let’s dive into some code!

Currently, the eventQue requies a class of events and requires two methods “getHooks” which returns an array of which hooks to call him out on, and a “trigger” function which always gets called on an event and passed a single variable with which hook was called.

' Event Que Requires
    Execute helper.retrieve("eventQue", true)
' Event Que Variables
    Dim myQue, variablesWork
    Set myQue = new eventQue
    variablesWork = "<strong>Variables:</strong> Working"
' Event Que Hook Class
    Class defaultControllerHooks
        Public Function getHooks()
            getHooks = Array("404", "header")
        End Function
        Public Function trigger(name)
            If name = "404" THen
                Response.write("<strong>Hooks:</strong> Working")
            ElseIf name = "header" Then
                triggerHeader()
            End If
        End Function
        Public Function triggerHeader
            %>
                <script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js"></script>
                <script type="text/javascript">
                    jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
                        $('#container').append($('<div class="item"><strong>JS + Hooks:</strong> Working</div>'));
                    });
                </script>
            <%
        End Function
    End Class
' Event Que Hooks
    Dim myHooks
    Set myHooks = new defaultControllerHooks
    myQue.addHooks(myHooks)

Next, the database is a bit odd. Most model functions ask for a record set which is passed by reference, you pass it in and then you are free to use it as you wish. I feel this area could use some more work.

' Database Setup
    Dim recordSet1, tableModelVar
    Execute model.retrieve("tables", true)
    Set recordSet1 = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
    Set tableModelVar = new tableModel
' Database Query
    tableModelVar.getTables(recordSet1)
    Do While Not recordSet1.EOF
        Response.write("Name: " & recordSet1("name") & vbCrLf) ' Name: userMaster
        recordSet1.MoveNext
    Loop
    recordSet1.Close

Lastly, views are simple as well. All variables you have open right now is accessible in the view.

' View
    Execute view.retrieve("404", true)

BlaineSch ASP Framework
v0.4_ASPFramework.zip
Version: v0.4

Author:	Blaine Schmeisser
Date:	February 3, 2012

10.3 KiB
42 Downloads
Details…

As you can see the basic syntax simply calls the eventQue file which is the class definition where the magic happens. The second file “pluginDemo1″ is a plugin who has 2 hooks one on “init’ and another on “destroy”. On this page we also call “init”.

<%
' Explicit
    Option Explicit
%>
<!-- #include file="./libraries/eventQue.asp" -->
<%
' Variables
    Dim events
    Set events = new eventQue
%>
<!-- #include file="./plugins/demoPlugin1.asp" -->
<%
    events.callHook("init")
%>

On the plugin page you will need to have a “getHooks” method which returns an array. You are also required to have a “trigger” function which has a string passed to it with which event was triggered. Only the triggers you specified will passed. We can’t call the function directly due to language restrictions.

<%
    Class demoPlugin1
        Public Function getHooks()
            getHooks = array("init", "destroy")
        End Function
        Public Function trigger(hookName)
            If hookName = "init" Then
                myInitHook()
            ElseIf hookName = "destroy" Then
                Response.write("THE WORLD IS OVER!")
            End If
        End Function
        Private Function myInitHook()
            Response.write("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.")
        End Function
    End Class
    Dim myPlugin
    Set myPlugin = new demoPlugin1
    events.addHooks(myPlugin)
    Set myPlugin = Nothing
%>

This is the output:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

Download the full example

Inside the configuration file (application/config/config.php) you will see a LOT of new ways to configure it. By default it tries to implement a lowerCamelCase naming convention. If the names aren’t obvious, let me know and I’ll try and update this section.

You will notice that you have a function below, if you wish, you can simply make the variable “$config['application']['hook']” a anonymous function if you wish. This is there so you can add events to the core, but since the eventQue has not been initialized yet, you will be unable to do so until later. I have a default one that triggers on the 404 page.

Next you will notice a database config file in the same directory. The name “default” is not necessary, you can name this whatever you want, the default database connection is always the first one in the array, regardless of the name of it. When calling a model you can pick which one of these profiles you want to use, or it will pick the default one. The drivers currently available are “mysql”, “mysqli”, and “mssql”.

Naming conventions is what I like the most about this framework. You might want to make a controller with the same name as a model, such as “user”. If both classes are named “user” it will throw an error. This allows me to add a suffix to a model “Model” by default and controller “Controller” but still call them by the same name. This is the case for the sample below, both the controller and model are called “pasteMaster”.

Another good thing about this framework, is that you can duplicate the “config.php” file. So the root application can have it’s own, then the admin panel can have another, this works great if you wanted the admin panel or something similar to have it’s own folder or URL.

I made a simple application that allows you to paste and view PHP code. This is not a secure application, it is just for demonstration purposes only. To do this I require a database connection, a single table, one controller, one model, and a few view files.

Here is the database structure I decided on:

CREATE  TABLE `pasteMaster` (
    `pasteId` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT ,
    `pasteURL` VARCHAR(45) NOT NULL ,
    `pasteData` TEXT NOT NULL ,
    `pasteType` VARCHAR(3) NOT NULL ,
    `pasteDate` DATETIME NOT NULL ,
    `pasteParent` INT NOT NULL DEFAULT 0 ,
    PRIMARY KEY (`pasteId`)
);

The model only has two new functions to interact with the database insertPaste($pasteURL, $pasteData, $pasteParent) and getPaste($url).

<?php
class pasteMasterModel extends Model {
    public function insertPaste($pasteURL, $pasteData, $pasteParent) {
        $this->query("
            INSERT INTO
                `pasteMaster`
                (`pasteURL`, `pasteData`, `pasteDate`, `pasteParent`)
            VALUES
                ('{$pasteURL}', '{$pasteData}', NOW(), {$pasteParent})
        ");
        return $this->insertId();
    }
    public function getPaste($url) {
        return $this->query("SELECT * FROM `pasteMaster` WHERE `pasteURL` = '{$url}' LIMIT 1");
    }
}

I also created a small helper which can generate a hash and verify that a hash is valid or not. These are part of the helper “hashHelper”.

<?PHP
function generateHash() {
    $retLen = 10;
    $possible = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789";
    $posLen = strlen($possible)-1;
    $return = '';
    for($i = 0;$i<$retLen;$i++) {
        $return .= $possible[mt_rand(0,$posLen)];
    }
    return $return;
}
function checkHash($a) {
    $pattern = '/^\w{10}$/';
    return (preg_match($pattern, $a, $matches)===1)?true:false;
}

The controller is where most of the magic happens. The index function allows for a “parent” parameter. This is because I allow each “paste” to have a parent, so there can be a type of hierachy in the posts and replies if I wanted. This method loads a view and gives it to variables “title” and “parent”. The title is required for my view files since all view files use the $title variable and will throw a warning if it’s not included.

<?PHP
public function index($parent = 0) {
    if(!is_numeric($parent)) {
        $parent = 0;
    }
    $this->view->load('default', array(
        'title' => 'PHP Paster - Paste',
        'parent' => $parent
    ));
    return;
}

The view function requires a $url parameter which is the unique string created for each “paste” we can look it up based on this. It’s a little prettier and safer than giving users the primary key. This method calls a helper “hashHelper” which I posted earlier. If we received a valid hash we retrieve it from the pasteMaster model. The “viewRaw” is a duplicate of “view” but sends the data to a different view that has a header of text/plain so no formatting will be done.

<?PHP
public function view($url) {
    $this->helper->load('hashHelper');
    $pasteId = 0;
    $pasteURL = $pasteDate = $pasteData = $pasteParent = '';

    if(checkHash($url)) {
        $this->model->load('pasteMaster');
        $result = $this->model->pasteMaster->getPaste($url);
        if($this->model->pasteMaster->rowCount($result) == 1) {
            $row = $this->model->pasteMaster->fetchObject($result);
            $pasteId = $row->pasteId;
            $pasteURL = $row->pasteURL;
            $pasteDate = $row->pasteDate;
            $pasteData = $row->pasteData;
            $pasteParent = $row->pasteParent;
        }
    }

    $this->view->load('view', array(
        'title' => 'PHP Paster - View',
        'pasteId' => $pasteId,
        'pasteURL' => $pasteURL,
        'pasteDate' => $pasteDate,
        'pasteData' => $pasteData,
        'pasteParent' => $pasteParent
    ));
    return;
}

The insert automatically loads a model and a helper since we know it will always use the model. We check a little of the input, then make sure to generate a unique hash, then insert into the database using the model.

<?PHP
public function insert() {
    $this->model->load('pasteMaster');
    $this->helper->load('hashHelper');

    // Variables
    $count = 1;
    $pasteData = htmlentities($_POST['post'], ENT_QUOTES);
    if(isset($_POST['parent'])) {
        $pasteParent = $_POST['parent'];
    } else {
        $pasteParent = 0;
    }

    // Variable Checks
    if(!is_numeric($pasteParent)) {
        $pasteParent = 0;
    }

    // Data too small?
    if(strlen($pasteData) == 0) {
        $newURL = $this->config['application']['baseURL'] . '/index/';
        header("Location: {$newURL}");
        return;
    }

    // Data too large?

    // Find unqiue hash
    while($count !== 0) {
        $pasteURL = generateHash();
        $result = $this->model->pasteMaster->getPaste($pasteURL);
        $count = $this->model->pasteMaster->rowCount($result);
    }

    // Insert and redirect
    $this->model->pasteMaster->insertPaste($pasteURL, $pasteData, $pasteParent);
    $newURL = $this->config['application']['baseURL'] . '/view/' . $pasteURL . '/';
    header("Location: {$newURL}");
    return;
}

Thank you for taking the time to read this example. I hope you enjoy version 2.0 of this framework!

BlaineSch PHP Framework
v2.0.zip
Version: v2.0

Author:	Blaine Schmeisser
Date:	February 3, 2012

60.9 KiB
26 Downloads
Details…

Click here to read more.

There are a few people who have already emailed me about getting a copy, and right after I post this, I will probably email them a link. However, if you did not receive a link and you are interested in getting a copy or viewing the online version, post a comment here or send me a message on my contact page.

All of my Google+ friends already have a download link. Make’s you want to add me, huh? View my profile below.
http://gplus.to/BlaineSch

Thank you for all the support!