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5718 views · 2 years ago
A Beginners Guide To Artificial Intelligence For Web Developers

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
6002 views · 3 years ago
Web Sockets in PHP

In his talk Websockets in PHP, John Fransler walks us through the use of WebSockets in PHP.

While discussing bi-directional real-time application development, John notes that PHP is often not invited to the table due to its lack of native support. Of all the possible attempts to bring in PHP on this stage of real-time development, Ratchet, a PHP WebSocket library, comes closest. "Ratchet is a loosely coupled PHP library providing developers with tools to create real-time, bi-directional applications between clients and servers over WebSockets."* Ahem!

Today's dynamic world


In today's dynamic content world of the internet, it is required to serve real-time bi-directional messages between clients and servers. WebSockets are simple, full-duplex, and persistent. They work over Http and are a standard today.

WebSockets have compatibility with 96.5% of clients globally

There's a very high chance your client has the necessary plumbing to access your content via WebSockets. WebSockets gives the ability to have real-time data on to your clients without the need for polling.

To understand WebSockets, John takes an example of a Javascript client and Ratchet Server. Javascript has everything built in to allow access to a socket. For example, you can use the send method on a WebSocket variable to send a message to the server, or if you want to respond to a message from the server, you use the OnConnection method.

While on the Server, John uses Ratchet, which is built on React PHP. A server script is then configured and set up to run and listen on a port for incoming HTTP requests. For messages, JSON is used, and to find public methods, a router is set up. He then goes on to instantiate the server-side script in Ratchet.

There are four functions of a Ratchets message component interface that are used in this example:

OnOpen gets called when a new connection is made.

OnClose gets called when a client quits. It's essential to keep an eye on memory management, and essential to keep tidying up as you move through the code.

OnError gets called when there is an exception faced by the user.

OnMessage gives the text of the JSON message, which is being exchanged with the client.

For Initialization, Jason continues to walk through the example. He shows how one can loop through the clients, both inside the server and outside the server. Outside the server, it’s a feature of React PHP. On database access, and with traditional standard synchronous MySQL in PHP, what usually happens is that it forces the code to wait for the query to return a result and do nothing — Fortunately, with Asynchronous MySQLi, that is not the case.

John gets into the details explaining Variables, References & Pointers. He also gives a demo where a central site has updated information on the Bitcoin and ether prices. A client terminal reflects the last values. Now the client doesn't have to poll the server for new values. When there is a change in the Bitcoin or ether values, the server pushes down the client's update. No polling helps with a lot of overheads and gets closer to real-time.

Using Supervisord


For Long-running applications - Jason recommends running a supervisord, use proxy to expose the port, and add a site certificate. Supervisord keeps an eye out for the server running the service; it can be used to restart the service and log any service issues. Recommended proxies are AWS load balancer, Nginx, and HA Proxy. For scalability, use multiple smaller WebSocket servers and a smaller number of clients per server used and load balancing. If one has to support a chat feature to allow clients to talk to each other in near real-time, it is recommended to use Redis. The Redis server proxies the messages between the server nodes.

The talk concludes with John summarizing best practices on error handling and takes QnA on various aspects of WebSockets such as handling load balancers and asynchronous calls to MSQLi.

The presentation for this video, along with the code, is hosted at John Curt's GitHub. More info about John's current areas of interest can be found on John's Blog.

Watch the video now


Related videos
5244 views · 3 years ago
Top 12 PHP Libraries to Leverage Your Web App Development



PHP, by all means, is an immensely powerful language!



We may fall short of words, but there won't come any end to its qualities. The endless functionalities and possibilities of this server-side scripting language have managed to get it a strong and supportive community of PHP programmers on a global level. At present, PHP powers more than half on websites and applications on the internet.


Do you know what makes PHP so praiseworthy?



It is the simplicity, easy programming structure, and developer-friendly web functionalities that are to be credited to turn PHP into one of the top programming languages. You can create highly interactive and dynamic websites and applications with desired results by making use of PHP.



However, coding often could be a tough and tedious task to accomplish. As a solution to this, you get built-in PHP libraries that optimize the process of coding for maximum productivity.



But what are these libraries?




That's exactly what you will find out as you move ahead in this article, a list of top 12 PHP libraries capable of leading the development process in an intended manner.



So, without waiting any further, let's move ahead to learn about PHP libraries in-depth.



PChart




PChart is a PHP library assisting with the generation of text data in the form of something more appealing to the eyes and known as visual charts.



You can use this library to represent data as bar charts, pie charts, and many more different formats. The PHP script here utilizes SQL queries to put data in the impressive charts or graphs form.



Mink




Another well-known in the list of PHP libraries is Mink. It allows you to keep an eye on if a proper interaction is happening between your web apps and the browser. Eliminating the API differences between the two types of browser emulators, Mink offers an authentic testing environment for you. It also supports PHPUnit, Behat, and Symfony2.



Monolog




Monolog is a PHP logging library that helps you with saving logs to the specified locations by sending them to set files, sockets, inboxes, databases, or other web services. The use of the PSR-3 interface permits to type-hint logs in counter to your libraries that maintain optimum interoperability.



Hoa




This modular, extensible, and structured set of PHP libraries we know as Hoa establishes a link between the research and the industry.



It recommends essential paradigms, mechanisms, and algorithms for building the reliability of a site. Many PHP developers in different parts of the world use Hoa for ideal PHP development.



Guzzle




Guzzle is an HTTP client library for PHP that enables you to send HTTP requests to combine with web services.



It offers a simple interface that makes the development of query strings, POST requests, HTTP cookies, and many other attributes possible. You can also use Guzzle to send synchronous and asynchronous requests from the similar interface.



Ratchet




If your need is to develop real-time, two-directional apps between clients and servers over WebSockets, Ratchet is the PHP library you need to do it effectively.



Creating event-driven apps with Ratchet is a rapid, simple, and easy job to do!



Geocoder




Geocoder is a library to create applications that are very well geo-aware.



With Geocoder, there is an abstraction layer that helps with geocoding manipulations.



It is further split into two parts, known as HttpAdapter and Provider.



ImageWorkshop




ImageWorkshop is an open-source PHP library letting you work over the manipulation of images with layers. You can crop, resize, add watermarks, create thumbnails, and so much more. You can also enhance the images on the sites.



PhpThumb




phpThumb is the library specialized at handling the work associated with creating thumbnails with minimal coding. Accepting every image source type and image formats, it makes you do a lot ranging from rotating or cropping to watermarking or defining the image quality.



Parody




This simple library we know as Parody is used to copy classes and objects. It also provides results for method calls, acquiring properties, instantiating objects, and more. Sequential method chaining is used by Parody to produce defining class structures.



Imagine




This object-oriented PHP library is meant for working with images along with manipulating them. The often adopted operations such as resizing, cropping, and applying filters happen instantly and relatively well with Imagine.



With Imagine, you get a color class that forms the RGB values of any given color. Draw shapes like arc, ellipse, line, etc. with the features available.



PhpFastCache




PhpFastCache is an open-source PHP library that makes caching feasible. Coming as a single-file, it can be integrated within a matter of minutes.



Caching methods supported by PhpFastCache involve apc, memcache, memcached, wincache, pdo, and mpdo.


The Bottom Line




It's not about what extra difference these libraries make; it's about what significant individual contributions these libraries make for a final desired PHP app or website.



A PHP programmer, too, agrees with these libraries' benefits.



It's your time now to try and believe!
5898 views · 3 years ago


At Nomad PHP our goal is to empower developers in building a habit of continuous learning - and that means we have a habit of continuous improvement ourselves. Here are just some of the things we've done this year (with much more coming down the road)!

Website Redesign


We've refreshed the look and feel of Nomad PHP to better emphasize the goal of Nomad PHP - to help developers build a habit of continuous learning and grow their careers. This includes numerous usability enhancements as well as a focus on our new book library, blogs, and certification in addition to virtual meetups, workshops, conferences, and on-demand videos.

Free Meetups


As technology has advanced, more and more meetups and usergroups are able to stream their local usergroup meetings.

As our goal has always been to make technology accessible, we are proud to provide free streaming technology for local user groups, and share local user group meetings on our live virtual meetup schedule.

Student and Professional subscribers will continue to have access to our monthly conference level Pro Talks, hands on virtual workshops, and live conference streams in addition to streams by local user groups.

You can find a list of all upcoming talks (free and Pro) on our Live Meetings Page, or add your user group stream here.

Free Subscriber Tier


As our mission has evolved from being the meetup for developers without a meetup group to building an inclusive community of PHP developers where you can network, grow your skills, and share your knowledge with others - we are excited to announce our new Free Tier.

With a free Nomad PHP account you can:

* Stream free meetups

* Watch ad-supported videos in SD

* Read PHP blogs and write your own

* Network with other PHP developers

Create your free developer account to get started.

New Student Tier


To provide the best value, we've also restructured our plans to provide professional online meetings, workshops, and conference streaming to our Student Tier. This will allow students and new developers the chance to learn from the best speakers and top practioners and obtain entry level certifications at the best price possible.

However, with the addition of PHP Books and Magazines, and in order to provide the best value while keeping the Student plan affordable, new Student subscribers will not have access to the PHP Book and Magazine Library, or advanced certifications. These will now require a professional plan.

Student plans start at $12.95/mo

PHP Books and Magazines


We're excited to announce that we have expanded our PHP library. In addition to the ability to read the latest issues of php[architect] magazine, Professional subscribers now have access to read PHP and web development books online.

We're excited to announce the availability of Chris Hartjes' bookThe Grumpy Programmer's Guide to Testing PHP Applications, as well as several titles from Notes for Professionals, andUndisturbed REST: a Guide to Designing the Perfect API.

More titles including exclusive titles will be made available for online reading soon.

You can view our entire PHP Library here.

Blog Updates


We've received a lot of feedback on the blog writing process, and have upgraded several aspects of our blogging software. This includes the ability to save drafts prior to publishing, and the ability to upload, edit, and crop images and videos. We've also added some bug fixes for editing and writing code.

We're also excited to share that members with Student and Professional plans can now have their ownVLOG (video blog) with the ability to screencast/ record video from your webcam within the blog.

To see the most recent blog posts, or write your own, visit the Nomad PHP Blogs.

Certification Updates


We've updated our certifications for better usability and readability. We've also reworked some of the code samples and questions in our Level 1 PHP Certification exam.

You can find our available exams, test your skills, and obtain your Nomad PHP certification here.

Team Management


Our new team manager allows you to easily add or remove team members with your Nomad PHP team subscription. You'll also find real time metrics on how your team is using Nomad PHP, who on your team is investing in their growth and streaming meetups, watching videos, reading books, and earning certifications, and the overall content value consumed by your team.

The Team Manager is available to new teams, and will be made available to existing team managers over the next several weeks.

2020 Roadmap


There's still plenty of more great things coming in 2020. Here are the items at the top of our list:

* Mobile app for offline viewing

* Desktop app for offline viewing

* Nomad PHP member only books

* PHP Level 2 Certification

* Interactive tutorials

* Better video support in blogs

* Ability to schedule blog posts

* Meeting software for local usergroups

* Improved plan management for subscribers
Of course, what's most important to us is what's most important to you. Leave what you want to see on Nomad PHP in the comments below and if we're able to we'll get it added to our roadmap!
36851 views · 4 years ago
Securing PHP RESTful APIs using Firebase JWT Library

Hello Guys,

In our Last Blog Post, we have created restful apis,But not worked on its security and authentication. Login api can be public but after login apis should be authenticate using any secure token. one of them is JWT, So i am providing the Steps for Create and use JWT Token in our already created API.


Now its time To Implement JWT Authentication IN our Api, So these are the steps to implement it in our already created Apis


Step 1:Install and include Firebase JWT(JSON WEB TOKEN) in our project with following composer command        


 composer require firebase/php-jwt 


include the composer installed packages
require_once('vendor/autoload.php');


use namespace using following:
 use \Firebase\JWT\JWT; 



Step 2: Create a JWT server side using Firebase Jwt Library's encode method in Login action , and return it to Client



Define a private variable named Secret_Key in Class like following:

 private {
$payload = array(
'iss' => $_SERVER['HOST_NAME'],
'exp' => time()+600, 'uId' => $UiD
);
try{
$jwt = JWT::encode($payload, $this->Secret_Key,'HS256'); $res=array("status"=>true,"Token"=>$jwt);
}catch (UnexpectedValueException $e) {
$res=array("status"=>false,"Error"=>$e->getMessage());
}
return $res;
}


In our login action , if the user has been logged in successfully then with the status,_data_ and message just replace the login success code with following code:

$return['status']=1;
$return['_data_']=$UserData[0];
$return['message']='User Logged in Successfully.';

$jwt=$obj->generateToken($UserData[0]['id']);
if($jwt['status']==true)
{
$return['JWT']=$jwt['Token'];
}
else{
unset($return['_data_']);
$return['status']=0;
$return['message']='Error:'.$jwt['Error'];
}





Step 3: Now with every request after login should have the JWT token in its Post(even we can receive it in get or authentication header also but here we are receiving it in post)



No afetr successfully login you will get the JWt Token in your response,Just add that Token with every post request of after login api calls. So we will do it using postman, Find the screenshot 1 for checking the JWT Token is coming in login api response

JWT DEMO LOGIN API RESPONSE


Step 4:After reciving the JWt in every after login api call, we need to check whether the token is fine using JWT decode method in After login Apis like
UserBlogs
is a After login Api, So for verify that we are creating Authencate method in class like following:


 public function Authenticate($JWT,$Curret_User_id)
{
try {
$decoded = JWT::decode($JWT,$this->Secret_Key, array('HS256'));
$payload = json_decode(json_encode($decoded),true);

if($payload['uId'] == $Curret_User_id) {
$res=array("status"=>true);
}else{
$res=array("status"=>false,"Error"=>"Invalid Token or Token Exipred, So Please login Again!");
}
}catch (UnexpectedValueException $e) {
$res=array("status"=>false,"Error"=>$e->getMessage());
}
return $res;

}


Step 5: Cross check the response returned by Authenticate method in
UserBlogs
Action of api , replace the
UserBlogs
Action inner content with following code:


 if(isset($_POST['Uid']))
{

$resp=$obj->Authenticate($_POST['JWT'],$_POST['Uid']);
if($resp['status']==false)
{
$return['status']=0;
$return['message']='Error:'.$resp['Error'];
}
else{
$blogs=$obj->get_all_blogs($_POST['Uid']);
if(count($blogs)>0)
{
$return['status']=1;
$return['_data_']=$blogs;
$return['message']='Success.';
}
else
{
$return['status']=0;
$return['message']='Error:Invalid UserId!';
}
}
}
else
{
$return['status']=0;
$return['message']='Error:User Id not provided!';
}


Ah great its time to check out the UserBlogs Api, please find the screenshoot for that, Remember we need to put the JWt Token in POST Parameter as we have already recived that Value in Login Api call.

JWT DEMO Authentication in userBlogs API Call

Now if you want to verify that token is expiring in given time(10 minutes after generation time/login time), i am just clicking the same api with same token after 10 minutes and you can see there will not return any data and it is returning status false with following message :


JWT DEMO Authentication in userBlogs API Call


Also if you want to eloborate it more then i suggest you to try with modify Uid value with same token , you will another authentication issue and also if you modify the JWT token also then also you will not get the desired result and get authentication Issue

Thanks for reading out if you want the complete code of this file then please find following:
<?php 
header("Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8");
require_once('vendor/autoload.php');
use \Firebase\JWT\JWT;

class DBClass {

private $host = "localhost";
private $username = "root";
private $password = ""; private $database = "news";

public $connection;

private $Secret_Key="*$%43MVKJTKMN$#";
public function connect(){

$this->connection = null;

try{
$this->connection = new PDO("mysql:host=" . $this->host . ";dbname=" . $this->database, $this->username, $this->password);
$this->connection->exec("set names utf8");
}catch(PDOException $exception){
echo "Error: " . $exception->getMessage();
}

return $this->connection;
}

public function login($email,$password){

if($this->connection==null)
{
$this->connect();
}

$query = "SELECT id,name,email,createdAt,updatedAt from users where email= ? and password= ?";
$stmt = $this->connection->prepare($query);
$stmt->execute(array($email,md5($password)));
$ret= $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
return $ret;
}

public function get_all_blogs($Uid){

if($this->connection==null)
{
$this->connect();
}

$query = "SELECT b.*,u.id as Uid,u.email as Uemail,u.name as Uname from blogs b join users u on u.id=b.user_id where b.user_id= ?";
$stmt = $this->connection->prepare($query);
$stmt->execute(array($Uid));
$ret= $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
return $ret;
}

public function response($array)
{
echo json_encode($array);
exit;
}

public function generateToken($UiD)
{
$payload = array(
'iss' => $_SERVER['HOST_NAME'],
'exp' => time()+600, 'uId' => $UiD
);
try{
$jwt = JWT::encode($payload, $this->Secret_Key,'HS256'); $res=array("status"=>true,"Token"=>$jwt);
}catch (UnexpectedValueException $e) {
$res=array("status"=>false,"Error"=>$e->getMessage());
}
return $res;
}

public function Authenticate($JWT,$Current_User_id)
{
try {
$decoded = JWT::decode($JWT,$this->Secret_Key, array('HS256'));
$payload = json_decode(json_encode($decoded),true);

if($payload['uId'] == $Current_User_id) {
$res=array("status"=>true);
}else{
$res=array("status"=>false,"Error"=>"Invalid Token or Token Exipred, So Please login Again!");
}
}catch (UnexpectedValueException $e) {
$res=array("status"=>false,"Error"=>$e->getMessage());
}
return $res;

}
}

$return=array();
$obj = new DBClass();
if(isset($_GET['action']) && $_GET['action']!='')
{
if($_GET['action']=="login")
{
if(isset($_POST['email']) && isset($_POST['password']))
{
$UserData=$obj->login($_POST['email'],$_POST['password']);
if(count($UserData)>0)
{
$return['status']=1;
$return['_data_']=$UserData[0];
$return['message']='User Logged in Successfully.';

$jwt=$obj->generateToken($UserData[0]['id']);
if($jwt['status']==true)
{
$return['JWT']=$jwt['Token'];
}
else{
unset($return['_data_']);
$return['status']=0;
$return['message']='Error:'.$jwt['Error'];
}

}
else
{
$return['status']=0;
$return['message']='Error:Invalid Email or Password!';
}
}
else
{
$return['status']=0;
$return['message']='Error:Email or Password not provided!';
}
}
elseif($_GET['action']=="UserBlogs")
{
if(isset($_POST['Uid']))
{

$resp=$obj->Authenticate($_POST['JWT'],$_POST['Uid']);
if($resp['status']==false)
{
$return['status']=0;
$return['message']='Error:'.$resp['Error'];
}
else{
$blogs=$obj->get_all_blogs($_POST['Uid']);
if(count($blogs)>0)
{
$return['status']=1;
$return['_data_']=$blogs;
$return['message']='Success.';
}
else
{
$return['status']=0;
$return['message']='Error:Invalid UserId!';
}
}
}
else
{
$return['status']=0;
$return['message']='Error:User Id not provided!';
}
}
}
else
{
$return['status']=0;
$return['message']='Error:Action not provided!';
}
$obj->response($return);
$obj->connection=null;
?>

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