Cool Quick Reference Tips

On this page, you can find many neat tips and tricks to optimize your usage of our quick reference features. Send your suggestions for tips to webmaster@php.net.

For a description of PHP.net shortcut URLs, please visit our URL Howto page.

Add this stuff to search.ini in your Opera directory.

I replaced one of the existing search engine entries (number 4 in this case), but there are tools around that allow you to fully manage the search features of Opera.

After adding, saving and restarting Opera, I can access the UK mirror of the PHP function list by typing 'p is_dir' in the address bar of any Opera window. Obviously the UK part can be changed back to 'www' to access the main site instead of the mirror.

[Search Engine 4]
Name=PHP
URL=http://uk.php.net/manual-lookup.php?function=%s
Query=
Key=p
Is post=0
Has endseparator=0
Encoding=utf-8
Search Type=0

With KDE 2.1, it is possible to configure the Konqueror web browser to recognize quick reference URIs, for example: "php:mysql_connect".

Just open the Konqueror menu "Settings->Configure Konqueror", select the tab "Enhanced Browsing", check "Enable Web Shortcuts".

Then click on "Add..." and fill the dialog:

• Search provider name: "PHP Manual Quick Reference"
• Search URI: http://www.php.net/manual-lookup.php?function=\1
• URI Shortcuts: php

Voila!

Just right-click (control-click or click-and-hold for Macintosh users) on this link: PHP Quick Reference and add it to your bookmarks. With some browsers, you may need to edit your bookmarks manually to give the bookmark an easy-to-remember title. You can also edit the bookmark to change the default language by changing 'lang=en' to whatever language you want to use by default. (For example, to pull up the German translation of the manual, you would replace "lang=en" with "lang=de".)

Quick access to PHP documentation and site search for all Mozilla and Netscape 6 users:

1. Click "Bookmarks -> Manage Bookmarks"
2. Create a bookmark in a folder of your choice on the following URL: http://www.php.net/manual-lookup.php?function=%s (or mirror site of your choice)
   • Choose a name for your bookmark.
3. Right click the bookmark you´ve created and select "Properties..."
4. Choose a "custom keyword" you want to enter in the URL bar, eg. "phpman" and fill it in.
5. Click "ok" and open a new browser window.
6. Finished. Now you´re able to enter eg. "phpman fgets" to look up the manual entry on the function fgets() or eg. "phpman building PHP 4" to search all available information how to build PHP 4.

1. If you don't already have the IE5 Tools package, download and install it from www.microsoft.com/Windows/IE/WebAccess/ie5tools.asp
2. Launch the QuickSearch utility (you'll find it on your Links bar)
3. Add a new search shortcut by clicking on "New" and use the following settings:
   • Shortcut: php
   • Search: Custom URL
   • URL: http://www.php.net/manual-lookup.php?function=%s
   ... or substitute your favorite mirror site instead of www.php.net
   
   
   
4. Click "Ok", then click "Save" to keep your new settings
5. That's it! Try it by typing "php strlen" in the IE Address bar. You should jump right to the manual entry for strlen. And because the QuickRef code on the PHP site is smart, you can use it to do general searches of the PHP site. For example, try typing "php file upload" in your browser.

Further to the example above for Windows/IE users, here's something Linux folk can do:

1. Create a file called phpfind somewhere on an executable path
2. In that file, write the following code (substituting the path to Netscape, if necessary):

   #!/bin/sh
   /usr/bin/netscape http://www.php.net/manual-lookup.php?function=$1
   

3. Save it and type chmod +x phpfind to make it executable
4. That's it. When you type "phpfind funcionname" on your command line, Netscape will open the proper URL for you.

Here's another search option for Linux users who use Gnome. This is a macro for gnome's mini-commander panel applet (modified from the Yahoo search that comes with the applet):

Regex:
^php: *(.*)$

Macro:
gnome-moz-remote --newwin http://www.php.net/manual-lookup.php?function=$(echo
'\1'|sed -e ': p;s/+/%2B/;t p;: s;s/\ /+/;t s;: q;s/\"/%22/;t q')