Working with the File and Operating System

Summary

Although you can certainly go a very long way using solely PHP to build interesting and powerful Web applications, such capabilities are greatly expanded when functionality is integrated with the underlying platform and other technologies. As applied to this chapter, these technologies include the underlying operating and file systems. You’ll see this theme repeatedly throughout the remainder of this book, as PHP’s ability to interface with a wide variety of technologies like LDAP, SOAP, and Web Services is introduced.

In the next chapter, you’ll examine two key aspects of any Web application: Web forms and navigational cues.