PHP 7 Zend Certification Study Guide: Ace the ZCE 2017-PHP Exam

by Andrew Beak

Overview

Improve your programming knowledge and become Zend Certified. This book closely follows the ZCE2017-PHP exam syllabus and adds important details that help candidates to prepare for the test.


Zend Certification is an industry recognized standard for PHP engineers. It is very difficult to pass the examination without extensive preparation. Unlike other books on PHP, this book is very focused on reaching industry standards.The Zend examination syllabus is comprised of three focus areas and a number of additional topics. This book explains the structure of the examination and then addresses each of the topics for PHP 7.


A short quiz follows each chapter to help identify gaps in your knowledge. PHP 7 Zend Certification Study Guide also contains a practice test containing 70 questions from the entire syllabus to use when reviewing for your exams. The book provides original code examples throughout and every php featured is explained clearly with examples and uses an efficient way to describe the most important details of the particular feature.




What You'll Learn


• Brush up your knowledge of PHP programming

• Explore new features of the PHP v7.1

• Build a secure configuration of your server

• Review strategies and tips to get Zend Certified


Who this Book Is For



Intermediate PHP programmers with two or three years of experience who are appearing for the Zend certification exams and programmers who are proficient in other languages, but want a quick reference book to dive into PHP.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781484232453
Publisher:	Apress
Publication date:	11/19/2017
Edition description:	1st ed.
Pages:	294
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Andrew Beak is a cloud software architect working for a leading IPTV tech company in Cambridge, UK. He has 7 years of experience with the PHP language, with more than half of that time being in senior roles. During his time in the industry Beak has worked on applications for large financial institutions, dynamic startups, payment processors, as well as a slew of smaller web applications.

Table of Contents

Introduction. The Zend Certification Syllabus


A basic introduction to the latest syllabus of the ZCE2017 exam and analyze the topics of the exam. IT will also talk about choosing the correct strategy.

1. Syntax


The chapter takes a look at the general syntax used in PHP programming.



Inserting PHP into web pages

Language Constructs

Comments

Representing numbers
Variables

Operators

Control Structures

Errors
Configuration

Performance



2. Functions



Functions are packages of code that can be used to execute a sequence of instructions. Any valid code can be used inside a function, including calls to other functions and classes. Topics covered here are:



Arguments

References

Variable Functions

Returns

Variable Scope

Callables, Lambdas, and closures



3. Strings and Patterns

They are a series of bytes and do not contain any information about how those bytes should be translated to characters. Topics covered:



Declaring Strings

Referencing characters in strings

PHP and multibyte strings

Matching Strings

Extracting strings

Searching Strings

Replacing strings

Formatting Strings

Formatting Numbers

String Patterns – Regular Expressions



4. Arrays



Here we will take a look at a number of array functions offered in PHP. Topics covered will be:


Declaring and referencing arrays
Array Operators

Quirks of PHP array keys

Filling up arrays

Push, pop, shift, and unshift

Comparing Arrays

Combining Arrays

Iterating through arrays

Sorting Arrays



5. Object Orientated PHP



Object Orientated code runs slower than procedural code but makes it easier to model and manipulate complex data structures. Topics will be:



Declaring Classes and Instantiating Objects

Visibility or Access Modifiers

Instance Properties and Methods

Static Methods and Properties

Working with Objects

Constructors and Destructors

Inheritance

Interfaces

Exceptions

Reflection

Type Hinting

Class Constants

Late Static Binding

Magic (__*) MethodsStandard PHP Library (SPL)

Generators

Traits



6. Security



This is one of the key topics of the exam. The chapter will provide you a strategy to take up for securing your applications and servers.


Configuration

Session Security

Cross-Site Scripting

Cross-Site Request Forgeries

SQL Injection

Remote Code Injection

Email Injection

Filter Input

Escape Output

Encryption, Hashing algorithms

File uploads

Database storage

Avoid publishing your password online



7. Data Formats and Types


The chapter takes a look at the various data formats used with PHP applications. Though questions on this topic are rare, you can expect to be asked a couple of fairly detailed questions from this section.


XML

SOAP

REST web services

JSON

Date and Time



8. Input-Output



PHP 7.1streams as a way of generalizing file, network, data compression, and other operations that share a set of common set of functions and uses.



Files

File System Functions

Streams



9. Web Features



This chapter will teach you the web features of PHP. Topics covered will be:


Sessions

Starting a Session

Session Identifier and Session Variables

Logging a User Out

Session Handlers

GET and POST data

Encoding data into URLs

File Uploads

Forms

Form elementsCookies

HTTP Headers

HTTP Authentication

HTTP Status Codes



10. Databases and SQL



PHP uses extensions to interact with a range of databases. This chapter will shed some light on the same. Topics are:



Introduction to Databases

Working with SQL

Joins

Prepared Statements

Transactions



11. Error Handling


12. Exercises



Appendix A. Quiz Answers