Roll Your Own Data Abstraction Module

You may already use database abstraction in yourapplications, perhaps through one of the available data-baseabstraction layers, such as PEAR::DB, or PDO (see the PDO articlein this issue), but what about various idiosyncrasies in the actualSQL? Perhaps you’ve never even considered this problem. Thisarticle will help you the data abstraction beast.—by Jason Lustig

Implementing Your Own Trackbacks

If you’ve been around the internet for any length oftime, chances are you’ve seen a weblog. Chances are, ifyou’ve seen a weblog, then you’ve seen a trackback. Youmight not have known it at the time or even understood what it was,but more and more of the blogging tools out there are using them.So, what are these elusive trackbacks and why do they even exist?Author Chris Cornutt explains.—by Chris Cornutt

End-To-End Testing With PHP and Internet Explorer

Automated testing can greatly improve the quality of yourproduct. In this article, Oz presents a framework for creatingautomated tests that can simulate end-user activity. By leveragingthe full faculty of Internet Ex-plorer, these tests can do justabout anything that your users can do.—by Oz Solomon

An Introduction to PDO

A common complaint of the anti-PHP “expert” isthe lack of a bundled, uniform database access component. With theadvent of an improved object model, in PHP 5.0, a few ofPHP’s core developers decided that the time has come to fillthis hole with PHP Data Objects (PDO). The package, itself, hasbeen in PECL for quite a while, now, but with the upcoming releasePHP 5.1, PDO will be bundled in the main PHP distribution. Whatdoes it do? How does it work? One of PDO’s main developers,Ilia Alshanetsky, explains.—by Ilia Alshanetsky

Security Corner: PHP Security Audits

Peer reviews are one of the most useful and underutilizeddevelopment techniques. Although professional security audits tendto be quite expensive, peer reviews can offer a great deal of valueat a decreased cost. With a moderate understanding of how to auditPHP code, you can be a valuable asset to any PHP development team,and columnist Chris Shiflett shows you how.—by Chris Shiflett

Test Pattern: State of Confusion

Bug-free code is code you can understand completely.Unfortunately, it doesn’t take much to cause us uncertainty. Even asmall amount of complexity will place demands on our memory, andour memory is extremely limited. If we tax our brains, we will getbugs. Marcus Baker examines how the number of bugs in a piece ofcode can be correlated to its readability.—by Marcus Baker

Tips & Tricks: Input Filtering, Part 3

This month’s installment of Tips & Tricks concludesthe series on filtering input, providing practical examples andhelpful tips to filter input using regular expressions, test forthe length of data, and ensure acceptable values.—by Ben Ramsey