Archive a git branch

If you would like to archive and delete a branch from your branch list:

 
/* Display list of branches */
git branch
 
/* archive (tag) the branch */
git tag archive/<branchname> <branchname>
 
/* delete the branch */
git branch -D <branchname>
 

If you need to restore this branch at a later stage:

git checkout -b <branchname> archive/<branchname>

The history of the branch will be preserved exactly as it was when you tagged it.

Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1307114/how-can-i-archive-git-branches

Some facts about PHP Array

Source: php.net

In PHP the key of an array can either be an integer or a string. The value can be of any type.

Strings containing valid integers will be cast to the integer type. E.g. the key “8” will actually be stored under 8. On the other hand “08” will not be cast, as it isn’t a valid decimal integer.

Floats are also cast to integers, which means that the fractional part will be truncated. E.g. the key 8.7 will actually be stored under 8.

Bools are cast to integers, too, i.e. the key true will actually be stored under 1 and the key false under 0.

Null will be cast to the empty string, i.e. the key null will actually be stored under “”.

Arrays and objects can not be used as keys. Doing so will result in a warning: Illegal offset type.

If multiple elements in the array declaration use the same key, only the last one will be used as all others are overwritten.

Example: Type Casting and Overwriting example

<?php
$array = array(
    1    => "a",
    "1"  => "b",
    1.5  => "c",
    true => "d",
);
var_dump($array);
?>

The above example will output:

array(1) {
  [1]=>
  string(1) "d"
}

As all the keys in the above example are cast to 1, the value will be overwritten on every new element and the last assigned value “d” is the only one left over.

The key is optional. If it is not specified, PHP will use the increment of the largest previously used integer key. It is possible to specify the key only for some elements and leave it out for others:

Example: Keys not on all elements

<?php
$array = array(
         "a",
         "b",
    6 => "c",
         "d",
);
var_dump($array);
?>

The above example will output:

array(4) {
  [0]=>
  string(1) "a"
  [1]=>
  string(1) "b"
  [6]=>
  string(1) "c"
  [7]=>
  string(1) "d"
}

As you can see the last value “d” was assigned the key 7. This is because the largest integer key before that was 6.

AJAX with Core JavaScript

Using JavaScript libraries and frameworks sometimes make us forget how to implement AJAX call with pure JavaScript. That’s why I grabbed this from w3schools.com

var xhttp;
if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
    xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
    } else {
    // code for IE6, IE5
    xhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}

xhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
  if (xhttp.readyState == 4 && xhttp.status == 200) {
    document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = xhttp.responseText;
  }
};

xhttp.open("GET", "ajax_info.txt", true);
xhttp.send();

To POST data like an HTML form, add an HTTP header with setRequestHeader(). Specify the data you want to send in the send() method:

xhttp.open("POST", "ajax_test.asp", true);
xhttp.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
xhttp.send("fname=Henry&lname=Ford");

Source: http://www.w3schools.com/ajax

Introduction to XML Soap

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a XML based protocol that provides a way to communicate between applications running on different operating systems, with different technologies and programming languages.

A SOAP message is an ordinary XML document containing the following elements:

1. An Envelope element that identifies the XML document as a SOAP message
2. An optional Header element that contains header information
3. A Body element that contains call and response information
4. A Fault element containing errors and status information

For details go to http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_soap.asp

A SOAP Example

In the example below, a GetStockPrice request is sent to a server. The request has a StockName parameter, and a Price parameter that will be returned in the response. The namespace for the function is defined in “http://www.example.org/stock”.

A SOAP request:

POST /InStock HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.org
Content-Type: application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: nnn

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<soap:Envelope
xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope/"
soap:encodingStyle="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-encoding">

<soap:Body xmlns:m="http://www.example.org/stock">
  <m:GetStockPrice>
    <m:StockName>IBM</m:StockName>
  </m:GetStockPrice>
</soap:Body>

</soap:Envelope>

The SOAP response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: nnn

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<soap:Envelope
xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope/"
soap:encodingStyle="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-encoding">

<soap:Body xmlns:m="http://www.example.org/stock">
  <m:GetStockPriceResponse>
    <m:Price>34.5</m:Price>
  </m:GetStockPriceResponse>
</soap:Body>

</soap:Envelope>

Source: w3schools.com

A short introduction to RESTful application

RESTful applications use HTTP requests to post data (create and/or update), read data (e.g., make queries), and delete data. Thus, REST uses HTTP for all four CRUD (Create/Read/Update/Delete) operations.

REST is a lightweight alternative to mechanisms like RPC (Remote Procedure Calls) and Web Services (SOAP, WSDL, et al.)

With better cache support, lightweight requests and responses, and easier response parsing, REST allows for nimbler clients and servers, and reduces network traffic, too.

Source: rest.elkstein.org

Comparing the three MySQL APIs in PHP

Source: php.net

It is recommended to use either the mysqli or PDO_MySQLextensions. It is not recommended to use the old mysql extension for new development, as it was deprecated in PHP 5.5.0 and was removed in PHP 7. A detailed feature comparison matrix is provided below.

The overall performance of all three extensions is considered to be about the same. Although the performance of the extension contributes only a fraction of the total run time of a PHP web request. Often, the impact is as low as 0.1%.

Feature comparison

	ext/mysqli	PDO_MySQL	ext/mysql
PHP version introduced	5.0	5.1	2.0
Included with PHP 5.x	Yes	Yes	Yes
Included with PHP 7.x	Yes	Yes	No
Development status	Active	Active	Maintenance only in 5.x; removed in 7.x
Lifecycle	Active	Active	Deprecated in 5.x; removed in 7.x
Recommended for new projects	Yes	Yes	No
OOP Interface	Yes	Yes	No
Procedural Interface	Yes	No	Yes
API supports non-blocking, asynchronous queries with mysqlnd	Yes	No	No
Persistent Connections	Yes	Yes	Yes
API supports Charsets	Yes	Yes	Yes
API supports server-side Prepared Statements	Yes	Yes	No
API supports client-side Prepared Statements	No	Yes	No
API supports Stored Procedures	Yes	Yes	No
API supports Multiple Statements	Yes	Most	No
API supports Transactions	Yes	Yes	No
Transactions can be controlled with SQL	Yes	Yes	Yes
Supports all MySQL 5.1+ functionality	Yes	Most	No

Automatic underscore insertion in PHP

Source: php.net

When submitting a form, it is possible to use an image instead of the standard submit button with a tag like:

<input name="foo" src="image.gif" type="image" />

When the user clicks somewhere on the image, the accompanying form will be transmitted to the server with two additional variables: foo.x and foo.y.

Because foo.x and foo.y would make invalid variable names in PHP, they are automatically converted to foo_x and foo_y. The periods are replaced with underscores. So, you would access these variables like $_GET[‘foo_x’].

Note spaces in request variable names are also converted to underscores.

Parameter order of PHP functions

Source: php.net

Array function parameters are ordered as needle, haystack whereas String functions are the opposite, so haystack, needle.

How to send arrays to PHP from HTML?

Source: php.net

To get form submission result sent as an array to PHP script name the <input>, <select>  or <textarea> elements like this:

<input name="MyArray[]" />
<input name="MyArray[]" />
<input name="MyArray[]" />
<input name="MyArray[]" />

Notice the square brackets after the variable name, that’s what makes it an array.

It’s also possible to assign specific keys to your arrays:

<input name="AnotherArray[]" />
<input name="AnotherArray[]" />
<input name="AnotherArray[email]" />
<input name="AnotherArray[phone]" />

The AnotherArray array will now contain the keys 0, 1, email and phone. Specifying array keys is optional in HTML. If you do not specify the keys, the array gets filled in the order the elements appear in the form. Our first example will contain keys 0, 1, 2 and 3.

What’s new in PHP 7?

Check out the new features in PHP7:

http://php.net/manual/en/migration70.new-features.php