Ubuntu Unleashed, Second Edition

<?php

$regex = “/([A-Za-z0-9_]*)\(\)/”;

$replace = “<em>$1</em> (<a href=\”http://www.php.net/$1\”>manual</A>)”;

$haystack = “File_get_contents()is easier than using fopen().”;

$result = preg_replace($regex, $replace, $haystack);

echo $result;

?>

The $1 is our backreference; it will be substituted with the results from the first subexpres-

sion. The way we have written the regular expression is very exact. The

[A-Za-z0-9_]*

part, which matches the function name, is marked as a subexpression. After that is \(\),

which means the exact symbols (and), not the regular expression meanings of them,

which means that

$1 in the replacement will contain fopen rather than fopen(), which is

how it should be. Of course, anything that is not backreferenced in the replacement is

removed, so we have to put the

() after the first $1 (not in the hyperlink) to repair the

function name.

After all that work, the output is perfect:

<em>File_get_contents()</em> (<a href=”http://www.php.net/

file_get_contents”>manual</A>) is easier than using <em>fopen()

</em> (<a href=”http://www.php.net/fopen”>manual</A>).

Handling HTML Forms

Given that PHP’s primary role is handling web pages, you might wonder why this section

has been left so late in the chapter. It is because handling HTML forms is so central to

PHP that it is essentially automatic.

Consider this form:

<form method=”POST” action=”thispage.php”>

User ID: <input type=”text” name=”UserID” /><br />

Password: <input type=”password” name=”Password” /><br />

<input type=”submit” />

</form>

When a visitor clicks Submit, thispage.php is called again and this time PHP has the vari-

ables available to it inside the

$_REQUEST array. Given that script, if the user enters 12345

and frosties as her user ID and password, PHP provides you with $_REQUEST[‘UserID’]

set to 12345 and $_REQUEST[‘Password’] set to frosties. Note that it is important that

you use HTTP post unless you specifically want

GET. POST enables you to send a great deal

more data and stops people from tampering with your URL to try to find holes in your

script.

Handling HTML Forms

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