Notify URL and Return URL is used in Paypal Payment Gateway integration. Notify URL is used by PayPal to post information about the transaction. Return URL is used by the browser; A url where the user needs to be redirected on completion of the payment process.

The function unlink() is to remove a file, where as unset() is used for destroying a variable that was declared earlier.

Htmlentities() converts all applicable characters to HTML entities. While htmlspecialcharacter()converts special characters to HTML entities. This means htmlentities( ) will check for non English language characters, such as French accents, the German umlaut, etc.

Copy() makes a copy of the file. It returns TRUE on success. It can copy from any source to destination. Move simply Moves the file to destination if the file is valid. While move can move the uploaded file from temp server location to any destination on the server. If filename is a valid upload file, but cannot be moved for some reason, no action will occur.

Opendir():- It opens the directory. This function returns a directory stream on success and FALSE and an error on failure.

Syntax:

Opendir(directory, context)

Context is a set of options that can modify the behavior of a stream

Example: opens sample directory.

$dir = opendir("directory");

Readdir(): It returns an entry from a directory handle opened by opendir().

Syntax:

Readdir(dir_stream)

Example:

$file = readdir($dir);

closedir(): It closes a directory handle opened by opendir().

Syntax:

closedir(dir_stream)

Example:

$file = close($dir);

Chmod() is used for changing permissions on a file.

Syntax:

Chmod(file, mode)

Mode here specifies the permissions as follows:

The first number is always zero

The second number specifies permissions for the owner

The third number specifies permissions for the owner's user group

The fourth number specifies permissions for everybody else

Possible values (to set multiple permissions, add up the following numbers)

1 = execute permissions

2 = write permissions

4 = read permissions

Example:

// everything for owner, read for owner's group

chmod("test.txt",0740);

User names and passwords in PHP can be encrypted using md5 function.

MD5 function calculates the md5 hash of a string. It is basically used for encryption. It is also used for digital signature applications, where a large file must be "compressed" in a secure manner.

Example:

Md5($str);

Crypt() function can also be used to encrypt a string,. It used MD5, DES or blow fish algorithms for encryption.

Syntax:

Crypt(str, salt)

Salt is an optional parameter used to increase the number of characters encoded, to make the encoding more secure

Both GET and POST are used to collect data from a form. However, when security is desired $_POST should be used. When the $_ POST variable is used, all variables used are NOT displayed in the URL. Also, they have no restrictions to the length of the variables. GET should be used when the interaction with the form is more like a question. For e.g. firing a query etc. POST should be used more often when the interaction is more like an order or the interaction changes the state of the resource.

POST example:

<form action="sample.php" method="post">

Name: <input type="text" name="name" />

Age: <input type="text" name="age" />

<input type="submit" />

</form>

On clicking submit the URL resembles to: https://www.mysamplesite.com/sample.php

The sample.php file can be used for catching the form data using $_POST 

Hello <?php echo $_POST["name"]; ?>.<br />

You are <?php echo $_POST["age"]; ?> years old!

GET EXAMPLE

<form action="sample.php" method="get">

Name: <input type="text" name="name" />

Age: <input type="text" name="age" />

<input type="submit" />

</form>

On clicking submit the URL resembles to : https://www.mysamplesite.com/sample.php?name=jim&age=37

The sample.php file can be used for catching the form data using $_GET 

Hello <?php echo $_GET["name"]; ?>.<br />

You are <?php echo $_GET["age"]; ?> years old!