There are some instances where you want to redirect the user away from the current page. For example, the user needs to be logged in, so you want them redirected to the login page. In PHP, this can be done like so: If you employ this method, remember that the script will continue after the…
This is advice that you will have heard many times before… but please, for your sake, ensure that you have proper backups in place. As you well know, all our work and effort can disappear with unbelievable ease. Knock that Monday morning cup of coffee over your portable hard drive that contains the only copy…
A common problem using the UNION command in MySQL is when you want to order data sets differently. If you do it incorrectly, you will see the error message: Incorrect usage of UNION and ORDER BY To solve the problem, wrap each SELECT statement in parenthesis as follows: Nice and simple; all you have to…
The modulo operator is very useful and often underused. To best describe what it does, I will give an example of where it is useful. First, imagine you are looping through an array of monkeys and want to highlight every third monkey in bold. This is how it is done using the modulo operator: In…
If you’ve ever had to transfer a large MySQL database, you know it can be a real pain. phpMyAdmin is the go-to for most web hosts, but when it comes to importing that massive SQL dump, it can be a big time-waster. Timeouts and errors are all too common when you’re trying to import data…
If you can access your website both with www and without then you are effectively serving duplicate content. I am sure Google are sensible enough to filter this out but some people feel like it could be an issue so my recommendation is better safe than sorry. Place the following code in your .htaccess file…
This is a great way to shorten simple if/else statements in PHP It is possible to use the Ternary Operator syntax to shorten this down to 1 line: Now, this is no doubt fairly common in your applications – a simple comparison determining the value of a variable. This can feasibly be rewritten for one…
Commenting on your code is an essential part of keeping your projects maintainable. It will save you and your team time in the long run. Over-commenting is a problem. Explaining every last detail creates noise and makes your project harder to work on. Consider the following: Less is More.Say just enough to clarify any unusual situations….
For anyone who hosts with 1and1, be aware that the server logs will be deleted after three months. As anyone who uses 1and1 will know, the statistics you can find via the control panel are adequate but nothing special… and frequently slow. Make sure you download the server logs regularly to produce your statistics or…
