Given 2008-01-31 as the current date and the value of “$days_before” is 2, the code will echo 2008-01-29. The date 2 days before the current date.

Here is how you get the number of days between two dates.

This was taken from the manual - posted by: michiel at mb-it dot nl

Before anything else, I want the readers to know that I have used Zend Framework for a few months prior to using Code Igniter. I hang out in #zftalk (freenode) when I have time. So I am more of a ZF guy than a CI person. But after working with Code Igniter for a couple of weeks, I realized how much a love ZF over it (CI). Working and coding in ZF is more enjoyable than working in CI - I don’t know if it just me, but I don’t feel comfortable coding in Code Igniter.. I have had instances in CI where I think I could have done a better job if I wrote it in ZF - espcially with the ZF Components.

Code Igniter has some pretty nice features though. For instance, you can deploy an MVC project in less than a minute. You just have to configure the files an then viola! You are now up and running. While with ZF, you would have to make your own bootstrap file and you would have to choose which directory structure you will use. I think this is why a lot of people use CI. The learning curve is very easy and deployment is fast. But the joy ends there - well at least for me since I love exploring the unknown.

I have complete confidence that Zend Framework will be able to handle any project - from web sites to custom web applications — just about anything. It might take longer to configure and deploy, but in the end it is all worth it. I also find it very comforting that the Zend Framework Components are made by people who “really” know PHP. I have had bad experiences using “hacks”, poorly-tested user-contributed plug-ins by using other open-source ready-made CMSes.

In the end, both frameworks have their strengths and weakness. Code Igniter is fast to deploy and easy to configure. For Zend Framework, no matter what other people say about it– I love it FTW!

I have written this simple user authentication and user access privilege plugin in one of my Web Apps.

First, in my AuthController, I have something like this:

I know I should have done the queries in my User Model instead of inserting them in-line with the loginAction. Anyways, I did that do give you an idea of what I am querying.

Now, for the plugin. In my library folder, beside the Zend folder - which contains all the Zend Framework core files, I have a directory called Ekini.

../library/Ekini/Controller/Plugin/

Inside the Plugin directory, I have this file called: CheckHasAccess.php

The file contains the following code:

I know, lots of repition But I will refactoring this part when I have time. But I hope you got the idea of the entire thing.

Well, if you didn’t lemme explain it a bit.

First of all, the loginAction - logs in the user. It get the user details including the groups where the user is under. I have stored these details in the Session.

The CheckHasAccess Plugin gets called everytime someone loads a page. Plugins behave like this. Here are table structures for your reference.

--
-- Table structure for table `permissions`
-- 

CREATE TABLE `permissions` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `group_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
  `group_name` varchar(250) NOT NULL,
  `module_name` varchar(250) default 'default',
  `controller_name` varchar(250) default NULL,
  `action_name` varchar(250) default NULL,
  `permission` enum('allow','deny') NOT NULL default 'allow',
  PRIMARY KEY  (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=19 ;

--
-- Dumping data for table `permissions`
-- 

INSERT INTO `permissions` VALUES (1, 1, 'admin', 'default', 'admin', NULL, 'allow');
INSERT INTO `permissions` VALUES (3, 3, 'registereduser', 'default', 'admin', NULL, 'deny');
INSERT INTO `permissions` VALUES (7, 1, 'admin', 'default', 'index', NULL, 'allow');
INSERT INTO `permissions` VALUES (4, 2, 'moderator', 'default', 'admin', 'createsitevar', 'deny');
INSERT INTO `permissions` VALUES (5, 2, 'moderator', 'default', 'admin', 'managesitevars', 'deny');
INSERT INTO `permissions` VALUES (6, 2, 'moderator', 'default', 'admin', 'deletesitevar', 'deny');

--
-- Table structure for table `groups`
-- 

CREATE TABLE `groups` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `group_name` varchar(250) NOT NULL,
  `group_desc` varchar(250) NOT NULL,
  `group_parent` int(11) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`id`),
  UNIQUE KEY `group_name` (`group_name`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=5 ;

--
-- Dumping data for table `groups`
-- 

INSERT INTO `groups` VALUES (1, 'admin', 'Administrators', 0);
INSERT INTO `groups` VALUES (2, 'moderators', 'Moderators', 0);
INSERT INTO `groups` VALUES (3, 'registereduser', 'Registered User / Member', 0);
INSERT INTO `groups` VALUES (4, 'guest', 'Guest', 0);

--
-- Table structure for table `user_group`
-- 

CREATE TABLE `user_group` (
  `id` bigint(20) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `user_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
  `group_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=6 ;

--
-- Dumping data for table `user_group`
-- 

INSERT INTO `user_group` VALUES (1, 1, 1);
INSERT INTO `user_group` VALUES (2, 2, 2);
INSERT INTO `user_group` VALUES (3, 3, 3);