Creating a Wish List in the NetBeans IDE for PHP

In this tutorial, you will use the PHP support in the NetBeans IDE to create and run a simple web application. The example shows how to create a wish list. Once created and deployed, this application will enable you to share information on wish lists with your friends, for example, birthday or holiday gifts. The information will be stored in the database that you create in Lesson 1. Any registered user will be able to view the wish lists of other users, and you will develop this functionality in Lesson 2. The application will support registration of new users, a functionality that you will develop in Lesson 3. In Lessons 6 and 7 you will develop functionality that enables each registered user to edit their own wish list. Finally, you will package the application using the CSS technology in Lesson 8.

In Lesson 4 you will receive tips for making the code easier to maintain. Lesson 5 will provide you with possible solutions for security issues.

Tutorial Requirements

This tutorial requires the following technologies and resources:

• The NetBeans IDE for PHP
• The PHP5 engine
• The Apache2 HTTP Server
• The MySQL 5.0 database server
• The XDebug2.0 debugger

For details on installing and configuring the required software, see the document that describes preparing the environment for PHP development in your operating system.

Tutorial Contents

Lesson 1: Creating a Sample Database.

• Creating the user of a database
• Working out the database structure (2 tables)
• Database contents: 2 wishers and 4 wishes

Lesson 2: Wish List Application Design. Basic Functionality: Viewing a Wish List

• General overview
• A page flow diagram

Lesson 3: Basic Functionality: Creating a New Wisher

Lesson 4: Optimizing the Application Code

• Creating a db.php include file
• Implementing a class with the functions for executing most common database queries
• Refactoring the code

Lesson 5: Security Issues

• Session handling
• Basic functionality: wisher logon

Lesson 6: Basic functionality: Adding a New Wish

Lesson 7: Basic functionality: Editing and Deleting Wishes

Lesson 8: Packaging the application Using the CSS Technology

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