Learning PHP... Where To Start?

[daledavies]

I've devided I would like to start learning PHP, years ago in college (a-levels) I learned Pascal and I used to really enjoy programming but going out an partying got the better of me in the end! I passed, but then kinda forgot about programming for years!

Recently I've been feeling a strong urge to get back into it, given that I'm now heavilly into web design I thought PHP would be an excellent place to begin where I left off.

Obviously there are some excellent resources available on the internet, but through doing my degree I've found that a good book is always the best way to start off. I find they usually have the scope to cover a wider area of topics and in much more detail.

However I'm open to opinion, what do you think? Where should I start?

[Vickie]

Hi,
I used a book called " Professional PHP4" from Wrox. I found most of it fairly bad, but the following chapters allowed me to write my own custom e-commerce shopping basket website hosting. (only my second PHP app!)
Chapters :
3 PHP Fundamentals
4 PHP Structures
6 Debugging
7 User input and regular expressions
8 Sessions and Cookies
9 File Handling
10,11,12,13, 17

The other chapters were either over fussy, or just there for completeness. It's only available used, but the advantage might be that it doesn't stress the Object orientated stuff, especially those chapters. If you haven't done OO programming, there is no need to begin with that learning curve as well. You could use your pascal knowledge, and then build up to it.

[daledavies]

Thanks I'll go check it out

I have a dream that one day I might be able to write my own social networking app for bands in my area.

Although probably by the time Im good enough with php somebody else will have already done it!

[eUKhost.com]

Originally Posted by daledavies

Although probably by the time Im good enough with php somebody else will have already done it!

If someone else does the networking thing by that time then you will be doing something that would be new at that time. Knowledge is always good as concepts go on changing but knowledge should go on improving to get through those concepts.

I hope I've not over exaggerated this statement

[CJLees01]

Normally I wouldn't recommend books like this, but I recently bought "PHP & mySQL for Dummies" to learn PHP. I picked up a second hand copy on eBay for under a tenner.

Within 3 months I've gone from nothing to having built a (nearly) complete PHP website hosting with a shopping cart, photo upload facility, members-only area etc. It was really well written and very accessible. Once you've got the basics of PHP, their website hosting (www.php.net) has loads of information on more advanced functions, and good examples from other developers.

I would recommend buying a book covers combined PHP and mySQL together, because it make a lot of sense when you think about what you are most likely to use PHP for - reading from and inserting into a mySQL database.

Good luck!

[daledavies]

Originally Posted by eukhost.com

If someone else does the networking thing by that time then you will be doing something that would be new at that time. Knowledge is always good as concepts go on changing but knowledge should go on improving to get through those concepts.

So what your saying two things. If someone else has already done it by then, I can always improve on it and at least I will have learned some new stuff in the process.

Originally Posted by CJLees01

I would recommend buying a book covers combined PHP and mySQL together...

I agree with what you say, I think mySQL connections are something that is inevitable for a dynamic website hosting, and learning how to manipulate a database is definately something I will need to do.

Thanks for your support guys

[buidoionline]

php......is that the same as phpbb

[Hallief3]

php is a scripting language.

phpbb is a forum that is made from php.

www.phpbb.com

[daledavies]

Originally Posted by buidoionline

php......is that the same as phpbb

To quote Wikipedia...

"PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a reflective programming language originally designed for producing dynamic Web pages."

The article this was quoted from can be found here http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP. Again Wikipedia also provides a definition for PHPBB...

"phpBB is a popular internet forum package written in the PHP programming language. The name "phpBB" is an abbreviation of PHP Bulletin Board. Available under the GNU General Public License, phpBB is free software."

This article can be found here http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phpbb. Hope this helps

[jezza101]

I bought myself a book, think it was SAMS teach yaself in 21 days or whatever. I think most of the bokos will be fairly similar, tbh it served as a good intro but not much more. Once you have the basics I think the only real way to get into is to have a good project to work on and get stuck in.

I wanted to do some modifications to an open source php project so I learnt a lot from looking at other people's code. Each time I didnt understand something I didnt proceed until I had worked it out, it can be slow going initially but once you get your head round some of the more complex ideas it becomes kinda fun in a geeky way !

GL!