PHP & Web Development Blogs

Artificial Intelligence has significantly transformed the way we work and interpret information. With technologies such as OCR, machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision; machines are now able to provide greater insights and perform tasks that typically required hours and hours of work from humans.

What is artificial intelligence?

A.I. or artificial intelligence is the technology that enables machines to perform tasks that usually require human intelligence. But instead of using human brains, A.I. uses different technologies such as computers, or even software algorithms, to perform tasks. Some of the most common A.I. technologies include speech recognition, voice recognition, machine translation, natural language processing, computer vision, and predictive analytics. The term artificial intelligence comes from the combination of artificial and intelligence. While artificial intelligence is a property of the physical world, intelligence is the property of the mind. How does it make sense in Web Development? As mentioned earlier, A.I. has significantly transformed the way we work and interpret information.

How is AI applied to web development?

In the majority of cases, AI is used to assist a developer in a number of functions: Automatically format existing content, analyze images for semantic meaning Break down complex tasks into smaller pieces Example applications of AI in web development Example image compression algorithms. Tools such as image recognition and machine learning have been key factors in the development of new image processing algorithms. Traditionally, manually processing an image was a lengthy and tedious process, but when computer vision was introduced into the process it drastically decreased the amount of time required to complete this task. Now, programs such as image recognition can identify objects in images and classify them based on both visual and metadata attributes.

Machine learning

When data is fed into a machine learning algorithm, the machine learns to understand it. For instance, if you provide a machine learning algorithm examples of dogs verses blueberries, the machine will learn to identify what a picture of a blueberry looks like, verses a picture of a dog. Natural Language Processing Natural language processing is a sub-field of machine learning. You can apply natural language processing for reading emails, chatting, or writing blog posts (such as this one!). A good example of natural language processing in action can be found in Microsoft's Cortana. Deep learning This is the most popular type of artificial intelligence today.

Deep learning

Deep learning algorithms are very similar to how the human brain works, with its built in mechanisms to learn and memorise a vast amount of information. It's these connections that enable machines to be able to recognise patterns and learn from them. An example of this is Google Translate, which recognises more than a 1,000 languages. This isn't an example of AI but it shows how useful these programs can be. Deep learning is one of the hottest technologies in the field of machine learning and this explains why almost all of the major technology companies are pushing these advances forward.

Natural language processing

For example, your phone can understand you better when you speak to it. If you say “Hey, Siri,” your phone will listen to you and respond to your questions. In general, it means that the system has been trained and is able to better understand the context of what you’re trying to communicate. This type of Natural Language Processing is used in the majority of companies today, including the likes of Google and Apple, to improve the user experience, provide better customer service, and to aid in the effective execution of processes. Machine learning Machine Learning is an extremely powerful technique used to further improve the knowledge of artificial intelligence, as well as to make machines smarter by discovering patterns and generalities in vast amounts of data.

Computer vision

Computer vision is a technology that has been able to recognize objects in images and video for eons. A popular example is Apple's Siri, which was one of the first software to use computer vision to provide contextual awareness. AI is built on this technology, providing the capability to recognize various images and videos. The industry is still in its infancy, but what we have seen so far has been incredibly incredible. What's amazing is that just a few years ago we thought that vision was completely under our control, but now, it has evolved to understand the nuances of objects.

Conclusion

“In the year 2050, the Amazon book you ordered for your Kindle will be delivered by a drone.”

This futuristic statement by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos did leave you pondering. But it is one thing to dream about the future and another thing to think about the innovations taking place in the present and how you can exploit them to drive better business results. To make the most of the technologies coming to our everyday lives, we must acquire a knowledge of the AI technology, its features, and its application. Succeeding in today’s competitive and challenging business world, requires a broad set of skills such as coding, business analysis, computer programming, and ecommerce marketing.

Learn more about AI with our video library

PHP is an incredibly powerful programming languaage, one that powers roughly 80% of the web! But it's also one of the easier languages to learn as you can see your changes in real time, without having to compile or wait for the code to repackage your app or website.

Defining a PHP script

To get started, create a file called "myfirstpage.php." You can actually call it anything you'd like, but the important part here is the extension: .php. This tells the server to treat this page as a PHP script.

Now let's go ahead and create a basic HTML page:

<html>

<head>

<title>Hello</title>

</head>

<body>

Hello

</body>

</html>

Go ahead and save your page and upload it to any host that supports PHP. Now visit your page and you should see a page that outputs "Hello."

Echo content

Now let's add some PHP code to our script. To signal the server to render PHP code we first open with the <?php tag, then we write our PHP code, and finally close it with the ?> tag. This is important as if we were creating an XML file and forgot to escape the opening XML tag which also has a question mark, we would run into a fatal error.

Now let's write some PHP code that tells the server to echo specific output. To echo or print the content on the page we can use the echo statement in our PHP code by placing the text we want to echo in single quotes and then end the command with a semi colon. Let's echo out "there!":

<html>

<head>

<title>Hello</title>

</head>

<body>

Hello <?php echo 'there!'; ?>

</body>

</html>

Now upload your script and test it on your webhost. You should now see "Hello there!" on your screen. Now this isn't as exciting since we could do the same thing in HTML without PHP, so let's create dynamic content based on the URL string.

Using $_GET

PHP allows you to interact with your visitors and handle incoming data. This means that you can use either the URL (querystring) or forms to retrieve user input. There are additional ways to access data as well, but we will not be covering those in this introduction.

In your browser, add the following to the end of your url: ?name=yourname

The full URL should now look like myfirstpage.php?name=yourname

You'll notice when you visit this page nothing happens - so let's change that! To access the value of name in the querystring, we can use $_GET['name'] like so:

<html>

<head>

<title>Hello</title>

</head>

<body>

Hello <?php echo $_GET['name']; ?>

</body>

</html>

You'll notice that unlike the text "there!" that the GET is not in quotes - this is because this is a variable and by not placing it in quotes we're telling PHP to render this as a variable and not as text. If we leave the single quotes, instead of saying "Hello yourname" it would say "Hello $_GET['name']."

Using logic and defining variables

Along with getting user input, you can also create conditions to determine what content should be output. For example, we can determine whether or not to say "Good morning" or "Good evening" depending on the time, along with your name using the querystring.

To do this, we'll be using if, elseif, and else along with the PHP date() function. You can learn more about how to use different date formats to output the date here, but we'll be using the date() function to get back the hour of the day (based on the server's time) between 0 (midnight) and 23 (11pm). We'll then use greater than (>) to determine what to assign to our $time variable which we'll output with the user's name.

<html>

<head>

<title>Hello</title>

</head>

<body>

<?php

if(date("G") > 18) {

$time = 'evening';

} elseif (date("G") > 12) {

$time = 'afternoon';

} else {

$time = 'morning';

}

echo 'Good '.$time.' '.$_GET['name'];

?>

</body>

</html>

Now upload your script again to the web server and refresh the page. Depending on the time of the server you should see either Good morning, Good afternoon, or Good evening followed by your name.

If you get an error, or the page is blank, make sure you have closed all of your quotes and have a semicolon after your statements/ commands. Missing a quote or semicolon is one of the most common causes of PHP errors.

You may also receive an error if the timezone has not been set on your server. To resolve this (or change the timezone/ output of the script) try adding this line as the first line following the opening PHP bracket (<?php):

date_default_timezone_set('America/Los_Angeles');

With that you have created your first PHP script and have already taken advantage of many of the fundamentals used in every PHP program. While there is more to learn you are well on your way, and have a great start on defining variables, using user input, and taking advantage of PHP's built in functions.


Want more? Go even further with our Beginning PHP video training course!

People that visit your website face an invisible threat each time they log on. Small businesses are especially vulnerable to digital data breaches, and that can change the way your customers feel about you. But, although you cannot stop hackers from trying, there are things you can do as a business owner to make your website a safer experience for everyone. Keep reading for tips.

Mature digitally.

You may be ahead of the times when it comes to products and services, but, chances are, your website hasn't fully kept up. It's time to learn all you can about the internet and digital security. If you are already somewhat tech savvy, a PHP Security Course from Nomad PHP can help you better understand everything from cryptography to website error messages.

Adapting to today's digital environment means transforming your website to quickly and easily identify threats via machine learning and network monitoring. And, as Upwork explains, digital maturity not only keeps your website safe, but adopting this mindset can also increase your efficiency and accuracy by reducing human errors.

Understand the threats.

It is not enough to simply keep up with your website, you also have to understand the types of threats that are out there. You're likely familiar with ransomware and phishing, but, it's also a good idea to know how a website can get hacked. Your site's content management system and vulnerabilities within your operating system are all weak points that hackers can easily identify.

Insist on security measures.

When customers log into your website, they input their credentials. Each time they do so, you can best protect their information by keeping your systems up to date. You'll also want to ensure that your site is hosted on a secure service and that you have an SSL certificate installed.

If you are not already, have your IT department or managed IT services perform regular website security checks. PhoenixNAP, an IT services provider, notes that those websites working via WordPress should also be safely outfitted with the most recent security plug-ins.

Eliminate spam.

If your website allows for comments that are not manually approved, anyone on the internet can post. This leaves it open for hackers and other unscrupulous individuals to comment with spam and malicious links that your customers may inadvertently click on. While many of these simply exist as a way for the commenter to drive traffic to another website, others are designed to draw your readers' attention, gain their trust, and access their personal information.

Prioritize passwords.

Your customers' passwords are the keys by which they open the door to your website. Unfortunately, many people do not treat them with as much care as they do the keys they use in the non-digital world.

It's true, passwords can be a pain, but you are not doing yourself or your customers any favors by allowing simple one-word passcodes to access your site. Instead, design your site to require a strong password. How-To Geek asserts that this will have a minimum of 12 characters and include a combination of upper and lower case letters, symbols, and numbers.

While you will likely rely on your IT experts to secure your website, the truth is that it is ultimately up to you to ensure this is done. So even if you are not a digital mastermind, knowing all you can about web security can help you be a better business owner. Your customers will be safer, and a secure website is just one way to strengthen your business's online presence and keep up with today's -- and tomorrow's -- technology.

A brief (by Mike's standards) note

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. - John F. Kennedy

I wanted to take a brief moment to express my gratitude this holiday season. First and foremost, a huge thank you to the beautiful Tanja Hoefler who has put in countless hours behind the scenes of Nomad PHP, ranging from finding the best articles and tweeting them out, to tracking down great speakers, to countless hours of video editing (including fixing all my mistakes from the live broadcast).

Thank you to our Founders

I also need to thank Cal and Kathy Evans, an amazing husband and wife team who have done so much for the community over many, many years - including founding and being an invaluable source as Tanja and I took over Nomad PHP. They are truly an inspiration for Tanja and myself, and I hope some day we can do as much for the community as they have.

Thank you to our Speakers

And I need to express my gratitude to our amazing speakers who spend countless hours preparing their presentations, and even stay up all night practicing or get up at 5am to be ready to share their knowledge with the community.

Thank you to our Advisors

Another special shout out goes to Eric Poe, Eric Hogue, and Andrew Caya who have all been tremendous advocates of Nomad PHP, as well as the foundation of our meetings. Their feedback, along with our amazing Advisory Board has helped shake the direction of Nomad PHP, and the many great things we hope to do in the future.

Thank you to our Sponsors

Which brings me to our sponsors. As we try to grow and expand Nomad PHP, as well as bring in more resources and make it more valuable (and affordable), we have done so at a fairly significant loss. That's ok, as that was the plan for 2018, but companies likeRingCentral,Twilio,Auth0, andOSMI have played a critical role in letting us move forward and keeping that loss manageable. Without them, I'm not sure we would be able to be offering the service we do, or have the plans we do for 2019!

*On a side note, if you're not familiar with OSMI, they're a GREAT non-profit who has done so much good in the tech space raising awareness about mental health, and educating employers - I highly recommend supporting this great non-profit organization.*

Thank you to our Family and Friends

Of course, I need to thank my family, my friends, and all those who have supported myself, Tanja, and Nomad PHP over the years.

Thank YOU

Least, but certainly not last - in fact perhaps most important of all - I want to thank the tremendous Nomad PHP community - over 3,000 members strong - that make Nomad PHP what it is. Without you, Nomad PHP wouldn't exist - it wouldn't need to. Andwithout you, and the greater PHP community, I wouldn't be here today, doing what I love to do.

For those that do not know my story, I grew up in medicine - becoming a first responder and pursuing a career as a lifeflight paramedic (helicopter ambulance) before realizing two things... ok three: I had a tremedous fear of heights, I hated needles, and I loved programming.

Leaving the nursing program left me unsure of what to do next, so I did what I loved - programming - where the number of mistakes I made I'm sure outnumbered the lines of good code. If it wasn't for the community being so patient, so encouraging, and helping me grow - I'm not sure what I would be doing today, but it certainly wouldn't involve PHP, Developer Relations, Nomad PHP, or the community.

So for that I want to say one final thank you - a thank you for giving me the gift to do what I love, and the opportunity to hopefully pay this forward, and give back to the community, helping others do the same.

Next year will be an amazing one for Nomad PHP, but I can't thank you all for how incredible and amazing these few short months in 2018 have been - because without you, there would be no 2019.

Have a very wonderful Thanksgiving,

Mike

***PS - want to support our 2019 initiatives and be recognized on Nomad PHP in the process? Become a Supporter.***

For any development project to be successful, it’s important to choose the right technology and programming language. Most of the time, developers get confused about which programming language to choose.

Nowadays, PHP and Python have gained popularity among the programming languages for web development projects. However, choosing one between PHP vs Python is a difficult task. Recently, this has become a good topic for discussion.

Here, in this blog, we will compare the two popular programming languages: PHP vs Python. Let’s see which one turns out to be the best choice for web development.

What is Python?

Python is an open-source programming language developed in the year 1991 by Guido Van Rossum. It is one of the most commonly used languages due to its high level and easy-to-understand syntax.

According to the survey by Stack Overflow, Python is one of the most preferred programming languages. These Python app examples highlight its robustness and suitability for building scalable and innovative solutions across different platforms. Most of the companies and developers around the world are using Python web development.

What is PHP?

PHP or Hypertext Pre-processor, is an open-source server scripting language that is used for creating interactive and engaging web pages. This programming language comes with many features, libraries, plugins, and add-ons that increase community support and functionalities.

PHP language was developed by Rasmus Lerdorf in the year 1995. Earlier, PHP was named as Personal Home Page, which was later changed to Hypertext Pre-processor. An advantage of using PHP language is it supports all web browsers.

PHP is a practical, flexible, and fast programming language that can handle dynamic content on HTML sites, session tracking, and databases.

Features: PHP vs Python

PHP

* Open-source language, anyone can download and use it for free.
* PHP is easy to use and code than other programming languages.
* It is more efficient than other scripting languages like ASP and JSP.
* Offers access to log in by creating a summary of the recent user accesses.
* Provides database integration and supports distinct databases such as MySQL and Oracle.
* It has predefined error-reporting constants that generate warning or error messages.

Python

* Python is an easy-to-learn programming language.
* Provides an ideal structure and support for large applications.
* It can operate on different hardware platforms utilizing the same user interface.
* Python can be integrated with C, C++, and Java programming code.
* It’s easy to incorporate low-level modules in Python interpreter.
* Python offers high-level dynamic types of data and support for dynamic type checking.
* Its features support automatic garbage collection.
* It supports an interactive mode of testing and debugging.

Pros and Cons: PHP vs Python

Here, we will compare the pros and cons of PHP vs python for web development.

Pros of PHP

* Has a large ecosystem.
* Flexible and platform-independent.
* Several open-source PHP frameworks are available to use for free.
* Offers many pluggable frameworks, Open-source and object-oriented.
* Supports different database interfaces such as No SQL, PostgreSQL, and so on.
* It is supported by many operating systems and works cross-platform.
* Encourages top-notch debugging.
* Provides in-built SQL support.
* Offers support for database collection modules.
* It supports all operating systems like Windows, Linux, and UNIX.

Cons of PHP

* Delayed and wired performance.
* Not apt for content-based applications.
* Utilizes weak typing that can lead to false knowledge and data to users.
* Its core behavior can’t be changed.
* There’s no IOT alliance.
* Fewer security protocols and features.

Pros of Python

* Easy to learn and maintain.
* An open-source and uniformly unfolding language.
* Enables cross-platform code reusability.
* Object-oriented and versatile language to deploy.
* Offers WORA functionality.
* Helps in developing GUI apps.
* Has automatic garbage collection.
* It can be integrated easily with other languages, such as Java or C++.
* Provides libraries like Tenseorflow for math-intensive tasks.

Cons of Python

* Creates delays in web app testing.
* It utilizes an enormous amount of memory to help developers in easy development.
* Operates slower than other web development languages.
* Not of much use in mobile computing browsers and mobile app development.
* It has dynamic typing, which makes error detection more difficult.
* It’s too large for a simple and small app or website.
* Run time errors occurs due to duck typing.

When Should You Select PHP?

PHP is a commonly used server-side scripting language among developers. The best use cases in which you should select PHP:
* For developing blogs, websites, and web applications.
* Work effectively on the server side.
* Less investment.

When Should You Select Python?

* Python programming language has gained popularity in recent times. Below we have given some of the best cases in which you should choose Python.
* For operating in the areas of robotics and data science.
* When you want accurate and extensive data analytics.
* Developing websites using the Django framework.

Why opt for PHP?

Here, we will give you some reasons why you should opt for the PHP programming language.
* Open-source language, easy to download and use.
* Easy to learn and operates effectively on the server side.
* This scripting language can run on distinct platforms such as Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and UNIX.
* It’s compatible with every server, like IIS, Apaches, and so on.
* Supports a broad range of databases.

Why opt for Python?

As you know, there are many advantages and disadvantages of using Python. Here, we will tell you why you should choose Python for web development.
* Python language is easy to use and maintain.
* Python syntax is quick to understand and debug as well. Therefore, its source code is easier to maintain.
* It has a garbage collection feature and memory addresses accordingly.
* It comes with many pre-built libraries.
* Python supports GUI apps such as Django, Tkinter, WXPython, etc.
* It’s a versatile and portable language. You can run Python on different types of operating systems or platforms.
* Python comes with a database-friendly interface that can store a colossal amount of data for commercial DBMS systems.
* It has an interactive shell that helps in unit testing before deploying a product.

Comparison: PHP vs Python

Above, we have given the features and pros & cons of PHP vs Python. In this section, we will give you a comparison between PHP vs Python in accordance with different parameters.

Parameters
Python
PHP
Release
    .
    .
Learning curve
Easier
Steep
Language type
Specialized for web development
General purpose programming language
Syntax
Clear & concise
Complex
Security
High
Medium
Readability
High
Low
Database connectivity
Faster
Slower
Debugging
Fast
Slower
Performance
Lesser support
Faster
Supported Frameworks
Flask, Django, Web2Py
Laravel, Zend, Codelgniter
GitHub Stars
    . 9k
    . 5k
TIOBE Rating
    . st position
    . th position
Forks
    . 5 k
    . 9k
Major Users
Instagram, YouTube, Quora, Reddit
Facebook, Yahoo, Flickr, Tumblr


This comprehensive comparison between PHP vs Python can help you to choose the right language for web development. Now, we will compare some other elements that would give you a clear picture of both PHP vs Python.

1. Ease of Learning

Python is an easier language to learn compared to PHP. If you are a beginner, then Python is a good choice as you can learn it quickly. Python programs are shorter as well as easy to write in comparison to other languages.

PHP programming language is made for creating sophisticated web apps. It’s not a general-purpose language, and it takes time to learn it.

2. Ease of Use

Python is an open-source programming language that is versatile and portable. Python’s syntax is simple, and coding is easy to learn compared to PHP. But PHP is not just an ordinary programming language it’s used for creating dynamic web pages with HTML. This makes PHP more difficult to use than Python.

3. Community Support

Both PHP and Python provide good community support. PHP has been in the market for a long time and has a large community of developers. Therefore, you can immediately get support if you opt for PHP.

However, there are even many Python developers who constantly develop python apps. So, the community support in Python is also good. Consequently, we can’t say whether PHP or Python is better at providing community support.

4. Flexibility

Nowadays, web apps backed by Machine Learning are in high demand. Also, ML is a significant part of Python. Python provides many machine-learning libraries, such as Tensorflow, Theano, Pandas, and Scikit-learn. Additionally, these libraries are rapid, unique, & robust and work effectively with a web framework.

Nonetheless, Python programming language can be used in many other fields apart from web development. But when it comes to PHP, it’s best for web development. Therefore, we can say Python is a better choice here.

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5. Speed to Market

Python provides a comprehensive set of modules and third-party libraries to help developers finish the project faster. One of the popular web frameworks written in Python is Django. It utilizes the MVC pattern to allow developers to create apps fast using a significant division of concerns and reusability.

PHP also has a vast set of tools, frameworks, and libraries. Laravel is a popular PHP framework that allows the MVC pattern. Additionally, it comes with many helpful functionalities for web development, like routing, templating, authentication, and so on.

6. Web Frameworks

You get robust and well-designed web development frameworks both in PHP and Python. Most of the big businesses utilize web frameworks that PHP provides. For example, Laravel and Symfony are mature web frameworks, and a huge community supports them. So, we can say PHP makes web development easy.

Python also has many exceptional frameworks that are highly scalable, easy to use, fast and secure. It’s two most popular web frameworks are Flask and Django. If you want a shorter development period, then you can choose Django over PHP-based frameworks.

7. Library Management

Python uses Pip to handle and deal with packages. Pip ensures that Python app development is easy, rapid, and meets development needs. Python has powerful library management compared to PHP. It has a wide range of packages and tools that assist and make web app development easier. So, in terms of library management, Python clearly wins it.

8. Security

When it comes to security, most businesses prefer using Python. For instance, Django offers many pre-built security features that aid in safeguarding the apps from distinct security breaches & threats.

Apart from that, many government organizations rely on Python as their secret hacking tool. Most of the security problems are addressed by its large community support. However, PHP is less strong than Python in aspects of security.

9. Environment Management

In terms of handling environments, Python is the best programming language. It has a Virtualenv system that aids in installing different versions of the language and switching between them immediately.
PHP has no comparison with Python when it comes to handling environments. There’s an analog of PHP, VirtPHP, but it’s archived and not maintained. Therefore, most of the developers opt for Python.

10. Debugging

Python has an in-built debugger called Python Debugger or PDB. It utilizes many debugging strategies. PDB enables dynamic typing and lets developers work effortlessly without stating things at the start of a program.
PHP also comes with an XDebug package for handling bugs and error-checking the codes. But PHP development is quite slow in identifying and removing bugs. Therefore, it often experiences security issues.

The Bottom Line PHP vs Python: Which One You Choose for Web Development?

From the blog, you must have inferred that both PHP and Python are good for web development. However, there are many aspects in which Python wins over PHP. But this doesn’t mean that you only have to opt for Python. The selection of programming language majorly depends on the complexity and needs of the project.

Sphinx Solutions is a leading and trusted web app development company. Our team of web developers can help you create the best web apps for your business based on your specifications. Schedule a call with our experts to get an estimation for your web app development project, or email us at [email protected].

PHP vs Python: FAQs

1. Why choose Python over PHP?
Python is chosen over PHP for web app development due to many reasons, such as ease to use, simple syntax, flexibility, security, high performance, etc.
2. Which programming language is secure: PHP vs Python?
Python is a preferred programming language when it comes to security as it has many security features compared to PHP.
3. Why is Python used mostly?
Python is a general-purpose programming language and is utilized in web development, mobile app development, AI, ML, game development, big data, and so on.
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