Video: MySQL and SQL Joins Part 2

March 11th, 2010

Database Image

Hi,

We continue from where we left off in part 1 of our video on SQL joins. Still setting up things to do our SQL work, in this particular video, we continue to build our MySQL table.

The video:

There will be several other sample videos to come, but if you want them all NOW, (at the risk of being a shameless self promoter!) you can pick the entire 4hrs of the MySQL and SQL course in the killer video store.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

New Video: MySQL and SQL Joins Part 1

March 10th, 2010

Database Image

Hi,

I just released the first of many videos on more advanced SQL and MySQL than we’ve covered before. From the courses description:

This course teaches you the very basics of MySQL, SQL then shows you how to use PHP with them. Once you have that under your belt, we jump into more advanced SQL and MySQL.

In this free sample video, we prepare our environment (MySQL) so we can start working with on SQL join queries:

There will be several other sample videos to come, but if you want them all NOW, (at the risk of being a shameless self promoter!) you can pick the entire 4hrs of the MySQL and SQL course in the killer video store.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

New Screencasts: Use PHP, jQuery & AJAX to Load XML Data

March 4th, 2010

video-icon

Hi,

I wanted to announce that we released a two part video screencast tutorial in our video tutorial subscription service on using PHP, jQuery and AJAX to load XML data.

… We built this script for our own sites, so that we could grab RSS feeds from our forums and display them on various home pages.

Learn not just one cool programming technique, but two, three or more!

This is a cool video tutorial, because it shows you not only how to use jQuery, but you also get to see how to combine jQuery with PHP to do something pretty useful.

For example, with what you learn in this video tutorial, you could create a news aggregator page that grabs RSS feeds from your favorite news sites … no need to surf around.

The source files are included with the video subscription service. You can find it in the Misc. PHP videos section of the library.

I may post part 1 here within the next few days – still thinking about it.

:)

Stefan Mischook (Nerd supreme around here!)
www.killerphp.com

MySQL video tutorials coming out.

March 4th, 2010

Database Image

Hi,

I haven’t been working on killerphp for a little while because of work on other websites in the killersites network … OK, and other things too.

… Xbox can take up a lot of time!!

What’s news?

Well, we have a whole slew of advanced MySQL videos coming out within a week. We will be covering some more advanced topics not covered in our PHP basics video course.

As usual, many of the videos will be posted here for free and many others will be available via our video tutorial subscription service and also as a complete stand-alone screencast course for download or on DVD.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

The Trend is Zend … in PHP

February 9th, 2010

zend framework logo

Hi,

People ask me from time to time, what PHP framework is the best one to learn?

Well, I always look at technology choices with two things in mind:

  1. How capable is the technology?
  2. How accepted is the technology?

If you look around, it becomes pretty clear, that if you want to learn an effective web application framework, you want to learn the Zend Framework – indeed, the trend is with Zend.

Zend framework being used by companies large and small

I know from first-nerd experience that the Zend Framework is being widely adopted. Just recently for example, Intuit and the BBC have implemented new web apps that are Zend Framework based.

… I know because my good buddy Jon Lebensold of Zendcasts helped build one of them.

There are plenty of other examples out there I’m sure … and I am confident that the trend will continue towards the adoption of the Zend Framework. With the PHP company (Zend) and IBM behind it … it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that one out.

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

Two thumbs up for the Zend Framework Nerds.

January 26th, 2010

microphone-podcast-icon

Hi,

I’ve been busy with things and so not too many updates lately. Not to worry thought, we have a brand new course and lots of free videos coming out soon on advanced MySQL.

In the following podcast (it was a video but I changed my mind …), I talk about the pragmatism of the Zend Framework dudes.

MP3: zendframework-and-doctrine

Short and sweet.

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

Killersites University – Video Library

January 20th, 2010

killersites university logo

Hi,

I’ve been out of the picture for a little while, mainly because we’ve been busy with our new video tutorial subscription service.

Some PHP nerd details:

We built the web application from scratch using a basic MVC model with straightforward database work – no ORM was required for such a simple project.

The most time consuming aspect of this project was getting the UI to look good and work well – jQuery came in handy once again.

Anyway, you will find most of our PHP tutorials in there … and soon, a bunch of new video tutorials we are working on now.

The official announcement:

After a couple of months of hard work, we finally got the new video tutorial subscription system up and running.

About the University:

The Killersites University is a subscription based service that gives you total access to our GROWING collection of web design and web design related training videos. Not just a collection of tips and tricks videos, we provide complete video courses on popular subjects like:

* HTML
* CSS
* Dreamweaver
* PHP
* Javascript
* and much more

You can learn more about it here:

http://www.killersites.com/university/

What’s next?

Now that we have the University up and running, we will be able to focus a lot more time on new videos. Subscribe to the RSS feed or one of my newsletters to keep up-to-date.

Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com

Merry Xmas from Stefan.

December 24th, 2009

Hi,

I just wanted to wish everyone happy holidays and a merry xmas – if applicable.

:)

In other news .. well, we’ve been working hard on stuff and should have a bunch of new videos in January.

Thanks,
Stefan Mischook

What are ORM Frameworks – the video!

December 15th, 2009

Hi,

I decided to create a video based on my recent article on ORM frameworks. I shot this in HD … so select the HD option if you got big pipes.

Let me know what you think.

Stefan Mischook

What are ORM Frameworks?

December 8th, 2009

Database Image

In the following article we will learn a few things about ORM frameworks:

  • What they are.
  • What they do.
  • When and why to use them.
  • And finally, what ORM options PHP’ers have.

Let’s start …

If you’re working with PHP, you will certainly find yourself working with relational databases (like MySQL) sooner or later. Anyone who has ever built a reasonably complex web application knows, that the SQL can get really hairy at times – especially when you consider all the data filtering that you have to deal with!

ORM frameworks to the rescue!

ORM is yet another nerd-acronym, it is short for Object Relational Mapping. In a nutshell, an ORM framework is written in an object oriented language (like PHP, Java, C# etc…) and it is designed to virtually wrap around a relational database. If you look at the name (ORM), it basically translates into: mapping objects to relational tables.

There are many different competing ORM frameworks out there, because many nerds have their own ideas as to how to best do things – nothing new here! But you know what, some of these nerds are right … not all ORM frameworks are created equal.

Read the rest of this entry »

Defending against SQL Injection attacks

December 2nd, 2009

First, let me just say that this is not a tutorial, this is an article meant to give you an overview with a few options thrown in.

Ok, let’s start …

You should protect your relational databases (like MySQL) from the dreaded SQL injection attack. These attacks are conducted by evil sniveling nerds, trying to insert damaging SQL code into your HTML form fields (and query strings too) to do things like … drop database tables or even wipe out your database altogether!

… These attacks are very real!

My Recent Experience

We recently put up our new shopping cart system … I personally keep on eye on activity, and to my surprise, we can get 25-30 attempted attacks a day! Man, if I could just get my hands on one of these guys ….

:)

Fortunately, there are a few code-centric steps you can take to protect yourself from these SQL injection attacks:

  • Use this function: mysql_real_escape_string() and wrap your input variables with it.
  • Use an object-relational mapping (orm) system to basically avoid writing SQL to begin with. I hear the best one for PHP’rs today is Doctrine
  • use a prepared statement that basically processes everything and cleans it up for you. PHP has the PDOStatement class for this.

Another option (that I like to use), is to just remove the database from any possible external interaction. Sometimes this is not possible but when it is, it works well. So for instance, our cart does not talk to a relational database at all, so all these SQL injection attacks we get just makes me giggle like a little school girl.

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

Live Webinar on Google Wave and the Zend Framework

November 16th, 2009

Hi Guys,

My good buddy and right-hand-nerd, Jon is being flown down to do a live webinar for the Zend geeks at Intuit. It seems the accounting giant has recognized Jon’s ability to take the complex and make it seem simple.

Just in case you don’t know, Jon is the author of our crazy cool shopping cart tutorial and our new series on advanced PHP.

… Jon is starting to realize that my choice to go with the Zend Framework a few years ago made sense. Actually, it made dollars and cents!

:)

OK, bad nerd humor … I know. I’m just low on material that isn’t profanity laced.

If you want to know WHY, after looking at all the other PHP frameworks out there, that I thought the Zend Framework was the best choice long term (even back when Zend was still in Beta) .. you’re going to have to ask!

Anyway here is the official announcement:

Jon Lebensold, author of the popular PHP Shopping Cart and founder of Zendcasts.com will be writing a Google Wave Gadget in Boston at Intuit’s East coast office. Intuit is setting up a live webinar which you can attend by registering on the Zendcasts website.

Zendcasts.com began this year with the hope of assisting intermediate PHP developers further their Zend Framework skills. If you’re a PHP developer interested in building apps on Google Wave or want to watch someone build an AJAX application with web services like Google Wave and Intuit’s QuickBase, this free webinar will be worth spending a lunch hour at your desk.

The webinar takes place Wednesday, November 18 at 12:00 (noon) Eastern Standard Time (GMT -05:00).Register online now.

Here’s the banner:

qb-gwave-promo

Just in case you are not familiar with Quickbase … just click on the link.

That’s it for today. But coming soon, I will have some pretty big news … actually, the biggest thing to come to killerphp.com since we ordered that huge pizza! Ok, even bigger than that!!

;)

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

Getting into PHP6 and Advanced PHP Concepts Part 7

November 6th, 2009

Hi,

In our never ending quest for pure PHP nerdness, we continue our look at advanced PHP. This is video 7 of a series of videos where we explore PHP6 and other advanced PHP concepts, concepts often seen in PHP frameworks like Zend, PHP Cake and others.

The video:

More to come.

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

Getting into PHP6 and Advanced PHP Concepts Part 6

November 1st, 2009

Hi,

They just keep on coming! This is video 6 of a series of videos where we explore PHP6 and other advanced PHP concepts, concepts often seen in PHP frameworks like Zend, PHP Cake and others.

The video:

Yes, I’m using Youtube … it saves me bandwidth! I’ve been pushing 250 GB a month just on Killerphp.com!

Many more to come,

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

Getting into PHP6 and Advanced PHP Concepts Part 5

October 27th, 2009

Hi,

As promised, this is video number FIVE of a series of videos where we explore PHP6 and other advanced PHP concepts, concepts often seen in PHP frameworks like Zend, PHP Cake and others.

You can expect this series to continue over the next several weeks.

Thanks for watching!

Stefan
www.killerphp.com

Getting into PHP6 and Advanced PHP Concepts Part 4

October 23rd, 2009

Hi,

As promised, this is the FOURTH video of a series of videos where we explore PHP6 and other advanced PHP concepts, concepts often seen in PHP frameworks like Zend, PHP Cake and others.

You can expect this series to continue over the next several weeks.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

Getting into PHP6 and Advanced PHP Concepts Part 3

October 21st, 2009

boxshot-advphp

Hi,

As promised, this is the third video of a series of videos where we explore PHP6 and other advanced PHP concepts, concepts often seen in PHP frameworks like Zend, PHP Cake and others.

You can expect this series to continue over the next several weeks.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

Getting into PHP6 and Advanced PHP Concepts Part 2

October 20th, 2009

boxshot-advphp

Hi everyone,

As promised, here is my second installment of our new PHP video tutorial course that covers more advanced PHP subjects including:

- PHP 6
- Advanced PHP architectures seen in PHP frameworks like Zend, CakePHP etc …
- Magic methods
- anonymous functions
- namespaces

Etc …

The second video:

Just in case you missed it, here is the link to the first part of Getting into PHP6.

Thanks for watching,

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

Getting into PHP6 and Advanced PHP Concepts Part 1

October 16th, 2009

boxshot-advphp

Hi everyone!

I’m back again (after my big move across town) and this time, I’ve got a new set of PHP video tutorials!

… Yes, people started to wonder why killerphp.com had a bunch of Javascript videos coming out; shouldn’t those videos belong on killerjavascript.com!?

;)

Anyway, I am happy to announce our new set of PHP videos that cover more advanced PHP subjects including:

- PHP 6
- Advanced PHP architectures seen in PHP frameworks like Zend, CakePHP etc …
- Magic methods
- anonymous functions
- namespaces

Etc …

The ultimate goal of these techniques is to learn how we can write more compact PHP code.

The first video:

That’s all for now.

… Now if only I can figure out why my new external drive is clicking?

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

New Javascript Basics Video Tutorial Course Released!

October 5th, 2009

php video

PHP nerds,

I’m back … and ready to shamelessly promote!

… I’m quickly settling into my new place (the loft life is over after a decade!) and so time is freeing up for newsletters, videos and articles.

In my continued attempts to transform you guys from know-nothing-wannabe’s, to full fledge web programming guru nerds, I’ve release a new set of video tutorials on Javascript … a complementary language to PHP in the web programming world.

While PHP handily handles the backend/server-side of the web programming equation, Javascript is the language that is used to broker the communication between the browser and PHP … when it comes to all those fancy Ajax effects.

.. Think Google maps, modern blogs, youtube comment functionality etc ..

Anyway, as usual, you can try before you buy by watching a bunch of free sample videos from the course:

http://www.killerjavascript.com/videos/

If you have any questions, you know how to reach me.

PS: I have a whole bunch of free and NEW advanced PHP videos coming out very soon – say a week.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook
www.killerphp.com

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