php|architect / February 2003

Time Travel - Breadcrumbs and History with PHP

What are you users up to while the visit your website? Peter James takes a look at how you can use a technique known as "breadcrumbing" to track your visitors' habits and usage of your PHP web applications.

PHP in an N-Tiered World

Dave Palmer writes about using PHP in a complex n-tier environment by interfacing directly with Java through the Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) platform.

Data Fingerprinting with Hash Functions in PHP

How safe is the data you send across the Internet through your web forms? This month, Leon Vismer delves into the world of Hashed Message Authentication Code (HMAC), a sometimes tricky but very useful technique to protect the integrity of your information.

The Object Oriented Evolution of PHP

One of the key ingredients in the upcoming version 5 of PHP will be the Zend Engine 2.0, with support for a brand new object-oriented programming model.

In this article, Zend Engine co-creator and leader of the PHP development group Zeev Suraski describes the evolution of the object-oriented programming support in PHP, covering the new features and changes that are scheduled for PHP 5.

Creating a Customized Template-Engine

For the do-it-yourselfers, Andreas Demmer shows how it is possible to build a customized templating engine that perfectly fits your needs, thus providing an alternative to off-the-shelf solutions that may be too complex (or not complex enough) for your needs

Using, Reusing and Extending Smarty

Tomica Jovanovic's article demonstrates how to take best advantage of the Smarty templating engine. If you're planning to create a content-driven website, this article is for you!