Allan Collins » PHP

An Introduction to PHP

Allan Collins — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:48:16 +0000

Learning PHP is a big step for anyone to take. With PHP, you can extend WordPress by writing your own plugins or perhaps you want to write a web application that solves a problem.

Hello World!

Just about every programming book starts with the “Hello World!” application. The following will display “Hello World!” in the browser: echo “Hello World!”;

There you have it. Your very first PHP application.

For more information on how you can learn PHP in 17 hours click here.

Form Helper Class

Allan Collins — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:37:53 +0000

Download The Form Helper Class
Version 0.1

Tired of writing repetitive HTML for forms?
Create forms faster and maintain them easier with a form helper class.

Text Input

$object->input($label,$name,$value,$params);

Example: $form->input(‘First Name:’,'first_name’,'Joe’,array(‘size’=>’10′));

This will create the following:

First Name:

The $params array can be any parameter you want it to be. You can put classes, styles, etc.
$value and $params are optional.

TextArea

$object->textarea($label,$name,$value,$params);

Example: $form->textarea(‘Comment:’,'comment’,'This is my comment.’,array(‘rows’=>’10′));

This will create the following:

Comment:This is my comment.

The $params array can be any parameter you want it to be. You can put classes, styles, etc.
$value and $params are optional.

Select Dropdown

$object->select($label,$name,$value,$params);

Example: $form->select(‘How many kids do you have?’,'number_of_kids’,array(0,1,2,3,4));

This will create the following:

How many kids do you have?

The $params array can be any parameter you want it to be. You can put classes, styles, etc.
$params are optional.

This class doesn’t have the option to create checkboxes or radio buttons, but that is definitely on the way in a future update. I hope this class helps you as much as it helps me out.

include "formHelper.php"; // Include the class file.

$form=new formBuilder();  // Initialize the helper.

echo $form->open('formProcessor.php','post'); // Open the form tag, list where it goes and how it is supposed to get there.

echo $form->input('First Name:','first_name'); // Create an text input field.

echo $form->select('How many kids do you have?','number_of_kids',array(0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15)); // Create a select dropdown.

echo $form->textarea('Comments','comments','',array('rows'=>'10')); // Create a textarea.

echo $form->submit('Submit It Now!'); //Create a submit button.

echo ""; // Close the form tag.

Alternative to WordPress is_home()

Allan Collins — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:00:31 +0000

Do you have a static page set for your homepage and a blog posts section set as well? I bet you’ve tried the built in WordPress function is_home() that will return true for both the homepage and the blog section and have gotten frustrated.

Have no fear! I have created a function that I use on a continuous basis to check if the current page is the homepage.

Add this to your functions.php file in your theme folder:

function is_it_home($post_id=0) {
	global $post;
	$post_id=$post->ID;
	$frontpage=get_option('page_on_front');
	
	if ($post_id == $frontpage) {
		return true;
	}else{
		return false;
	}
	
}