Where To Begin Php?

I have begun web designing with the basics of HTML and then revamped it to XHTML after the teachers in my school brainwashed me into doing everything by frames, and actually using font tags. I learned some basic CSS, and still getting it down, but for now I get it. I need to start learning some development techniques.

 

I was going to begin with JavaScript, but then I wanted to learn a real computer coding language that has a much better scope, and then I discovered PHP. It fit my ideals of an open source project, and I wanted to learn how to use it. Where did you begin learning PHP and become better?

 

I don't really want to get an e-book but I don't mind having one, but I need somewhere to start. Its installed on my computere, with MySQL, using WampServer, so all I need to do get the actual query browser, and the tables. I have PHPmyAdmin, so now I need to begin the actual coding.

I have begun web designing with the basics of HTML and then revamped it to XHTML after the teachers in my school brainwashed me into doing everything by frames, and actually using font tags. I learned some basic CSS, and still getting it down, but for now I get it. I need to start learning some development techniques.

 

I was going to begin with JavaScript, but then I wanted to learn a real computer coding language that has a much better scope, and then I discovered PHP. It fit my ideals of an open source project, and I wanted to learn how to use it. Where did you begin learning PHP and become better?

 

I don't really want to get an e-book but I don't mind having one, but I need somewhere to start. Its installed on my computere, with MySQL, using WampServer, so all I need to do get the actual query browser, and the tables. I have PHPmyAdmin, so now I need to begin the actual coding.

You should definitely go to w3schools to learn some php, it's very easy to undrestand there, at least for me.

I've used some tutorials that have been "home-made" and they didn't work for me, as they didn't explain everything about php (not exactly everything, just the basics). w3schools are upto date and have pretty much everything you need to know about php.

 

Good luck.

Yah w3schools is the best place to learn the PHP I started there and learnt the basics in 2 days only. If you have some idea of UNIX scripting or C language then it is the best place to learn although they don't provide vary advanced concept but once you will understand the basics you cant learn advanced concepts from anywhere. Best thing is that you can take online help any time. Even you can learn HTML,CSS from that place that place is best for the web technologies...enjoy learning.

Edited January 28, 2009 by abhigyan (see edit history)

Just read the PHP manual located at the PHP website. That's all you really need. It's written in a way for beginners to understand it even if they have little to no programming knowledge. You'll find yourself going to the manual constantly after starting your own PHP scripts. You can even download the manual from off the website for offline browsing.

I have been to w3Schools, I learned the HTML and CSS there, but I never got much further than that. It wasn't really user-friendly once you got to PHP, since it didn't start with samples, bust just went into the syntax and advanced syntax. I want to see what I can start with before going in too advanced. I will try the manual, hope it helps, anyway was PHP the first thing you learned after the basics, and do you often put your scripts into a single file or seperate it, like instead of embedding as a seperate sheet for easy browsing?

If you have a php script you want to work on all or on a part of pages, then linking(is that the right word?) the script in the metadata is the way to go. I didn't start with learning in w3schools, I started on some other tutorials where things were explained in the theme of "php for dummies" but then I found them useless after a little while. They don't provide all the information you need. The php manual is handy when you need to look up something quickly.

was PHP the first thing you learned after the basics, and do you often put your scripts into a single file or seperate it, like instead of embedding as a seperate sheet for easy browsing?

After learning PHP, i found out that i had learned more than just PHP—i learned general programming fundamentals. PHP helped make JavaScript, Python and others easier to learn. Once you learn the basics, you start growing from there. If the project is big, i normally split my script into parts. But how you go about splitting the script requires organization, some form of logical structure. I'd recommend after learning the basics to learn OOP. This will help keep things better organized.

I started Php by reading tutorials from the net.There are many books that one can use of you really want to really learn. Just checking out code by other programmers sometimes teaches you invaluable things like how "straight" it is to the point.I would advise you to invest in some books and then contribute in forums that deal in PHP programming to meet others like you.

Yah w3schools is the best place to learn the PHP I started there and learnt the basics in 2 days only. If you have some idea of UNIX scripting or C language then it is the best place to learn although they don't provide vary advanced concept but once you will understand the basics you cant learn advanced concepts from anywhere. Best thing is that you can take online help any time. Even you can learn HTML,CSS from that place that place is best for the web technologies...enjoy learning.

Every where you can learn Php. It is little difficult than Html and Css. You can Browse Learn Php you will find lots of knowledge base websites that you can learn php.
But if you want to learn and practice yourself you will have to test php server(local server that have installed php). Then you can learn better way. In my opinion Download Wamp Server if you are using Windows and this website http://www.learnphponline.com/.
Edited January 29, 2009 by puneye (see edit history)

Recently, DIGIT Magzine printed FAST TRACK for PHP (Try for 1-2 months back)If you can get it or iys pdf version,Its a good starting place.

Go look up tutorials on the Internet. I suggest looking at http://www.w3schools.com/ as a starting place. Also, PHPMyAdmin is for MySQL management, which is advanced for a beginner, learn the basics first. Also check out the documentation at http://php.net/ for in depth help on certain functions and what not.

i presume you want to add some functionality to your already designed web pages.I've learned XHTML and CSS then learned php than saw ajax and now learning javascript, if you want to make a good web designer you just have to understand javascript. My advice is to read one book on the php topic, then go to php.net and continue the process of learning.

Edited February 4, 2009 by SofiaComp (see edit history)

I have begun web designing with the basics of HTML and then revamped it to XHTML after the teachers in my school brainwashed me into doing everything by frames, and actually using font tags. I learned some basic CSS, and still getting it down, but for now I get it. I need to start learning some development techniques.
I was going to begin with JavaScript, but then I wanted to learn a real computer coding language that has a much better scope, and then I discovered PHP. It fit my ideals of an open source project, and I wanted to learn how to use it. Where did you begin learning PHP and become better?

I don't really want to get an e-book but I don't mind having one, but I need somewhere to start. Its installed on my computere, with MySQL, using WampServer, so all I need to do get the actual query browser, and the tables. I have PHPmyAdmin, so now I need to begin the actual coding.

I think the most important thing is for one to start just anywhere! I started by downloading books that taught me from scratch but i haven't quite grasped the whole thing...it's going to happen soon!

I think just checking out scripts written fot other programs and kinda studying them really helps as I sometimes scan joomla scripts and get one or two things..shortcuts.

Good luck in your endeavour mate. Hope you get to write even scripts for your projects.

Later

I personally recommend Tizag, I used it to start learning php. But what you really need to learn this kind of language is practice, experiment everything you're learning: I'm no expert, but through trying out different webs I have learnt a lot. If you want the web: http://www.tizag.com/phpT/ . Believe me, read peacefully and try to put it all in game.

I learn things (programming wise) straight out of the book, my first fully functioning php website was 5 years ago, it had a calculator and a datalogger for our eletricity bill (this was before mysql). But before that, my very first website was around 6 years ago when i made a star sign thing and it told you the dates for each star sign, it was cool, but boring.

A year ago i made a flash games site for school (mwhahaha, im such a rebel) which was hosted on Xisto (and still is - http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ if you wanna see some history) and basically it goes on from there.

I made this rediculous website last year called "flino", also known as the flying rhino - dont ask about it but i made it for the sake of it.
And then after i made that, i made a website called "muffiningy", which was going to be about muffins, but it turned out to be an image hosting site with albums and photo sharing. It went well until i ran out of bandwidth.

And now im on to Script-Center and IRSaver (internet radio saver) and another site in the future that i have planned for a link bookmarker.

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So it really goes by what you want, but start with something basic, like mathematical functions and clocks. They are the easiest things do really, and after that you can move on to forms and text manipulation and then after that i would recommend you doing MySQL databasing.