so I have recently gained some interest in how websites work. I am trying to learn how websites such as facebook and twitter manage their user contents. I have tried looking on google but my lack of correct terminology makes it harder for me to find anything useful. So can someone suggest me a book/good read/video/article that would explain me how these things work? I have basic knowledge of database and some web developing terminology.
what I want to know is, how websites store user posts on the database and how you can store comments and other related stuff to the post.
Also whats the correct term for this type of websites? So i can do some more research on this.
Thanks in advance.
Learning about designing relational databases will help you understand how posts and comments are stored in a database and how to relate comments to posts, etc.
Learning about web development will help you understand how websites can use server-side languages like Python or PHP to retrieve and store data from the database and present it as a website.
My favorite book for beginning PHP web development was "PHP and MySQL Web Development" by Luke Welling and Laura Thomson
The best book I found for learning about databases was "Inside Relational Databases with Examples in Access".
I know PHP but I don't know why things work the way they do. I just know it has worked in the past so I just put it in there.
I can't seriously call myself a web developer until I truely know the languages I am working with. And if someone asks me why this does that etc., and I can't answer them, it's just wrong.
So my question is, where would be a good place to start learning how things work? I know there is the PHP Documentation but it's quiet large and intimidating. And I know there is college, but are there any other ways?
Appreciate it!
I suspect you just need to read a few good books. There's an existing question ("What is the best PHP programming book?") which should provide more than enough PHP specific books, but I'd also recommend some good general purpose books such as Code Complete. (There's a great language agnostic list within the "What is the single most influential book every programmer should read?" question.)
Whilst it might take a while to wade through these, you'll be a much better programmer if you do, and there's no reason why you can't just read them on a chapter by chapter basis as and when you have the time.
The old fashioned way - a good book.
php Cookbook
Programming PHP
I was wondering how to do the PHP OOP design pattern for real life application. I wish someone can share their learning experience with me. I am particular interested in PHP and actionscript. Most of the books I could find in the book store are only basic PHP (or AS3) programming. I appreciate any help. Thanks!
Please do not close this topic..I am so desperate to know the answer since no one around me can help me about the topic. Stackoverflow is the best forum that many experts always help people when someone needs it.
I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for but on the last couple Actionscript 3 projects I've developed I have used a combination of PureMVC and AMFPHP with great results. I am a PHP novice but know AS3 well. Hooking up a proxy to a AMFPHP service was pretty straightforward and using commands and notifications worked well.
If you're new to Actionscript or PureMVC you can find project skeletons that will help get you started.
I felt that PHP Objects, Patterns and Practice by Zandstra (ISBN13: 978-1430229254, ISBN10: 143022925X) was one of the most effective books when it came to upping my game in PHP. It covers patterns pretty extensively with some real world examples and clear explanations.
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I tried doing tutorials but it is unorganized and unstructured, where can I learn PHP from beginner to master? I'm looking for a site like www.w3chools.com, but somehow I feel it is incomplete, specially when it comes to more advanced functions.
I know some basics but I wouldn't be able to for example make a secure online webstore, and I seem to be stuck at this point, how / where should I proceed?
I started 7 years ago. In my personal experience, your road to programming will look something like this:
HTML -> CSS -> Javascript -> PHP/MySQL
[Insert other web script language
here] -> "Desktop Languages"
For HTML (and CSS), I started by using a graphical editor at (then freewebs.com) webs.com that allowed me to add code snippets. I used some random GeoCities site (may it rest in peace) to look up things. Now, use Google or Bing.
Then, I got Jeffrey Zeldman's book, Designing with Web Standards. I followed through the book, typing out the code in notepad. Try to understand what the code does.
Do yourself a favor, use Notepad++ or Programmer's Notepad. They support automatic tabbing for neater code. It will make you a better and more sane coder in the long run.
Another thing I used to do was look at people's code by right clicking in my browser and hitting "view source".
This only gets you the HTLM/CSS after the PHP has been run and the Javascript before it was run. Google Chrome is good for analyzing scripts because of the debugging capabilities. (Don't worry about that yet though.)
Javascript was an adventure back then. Now, we have jQuery. Start with that or a similar framework. This can be researched online. I have never bought a Javascript book. I do have an ancient one from Visual Quickstart that I used to learn what a method looks like. Beyond that, the particular book in question is
an outdated rag.
To learn PHP/MySQL you can get a book. The two languages are often put together so finding books that show you how to use them in tandem should be a snap. I used O'reilly books for PHP.
I don't like the online PHP reference so much, because when I'm testing I don't always have internet. I use a virtual server setup on my machine. Look into that when you are ready to start learning PHP and MySQL.
The last thing to remember is that web standards are always changing, but don't get too crazy about it. when I started, XHTML was all the rage and now everyone is talking about HTML5. I still use XHTML as do many others. It goes to show that things move at different paces for everyone.
Good luck, I hope I helped!
EDIT: Geoff Adams pretty much sums up my post - Play around the invest in books. And, it will take time. I'm till nowhere near perfect.
Getting to 'mastery' is going to take a lot of effort, time and work. You can't become an expert by simply reading tutorials - the best way is to learn by doing. Get to grips with the basics, then play around. Once you're more comfortable, invest in some books.
If you're looking to build a complex system then you might be better using an off-the-shelf alternative. Try Googling around for various e-commerce systems (Magento is in vogue at the moment) and Content Management Systems (CMSes) before you decide to reinvent the wheel.
Read this book
also keep going through those tutorials (XHTML, CSS, Javascript) and try out everything you learn as you learn it.
I love the apress books so perhaps Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional, Third Edition might be for you? Do you have a development background?
You may want to look at picking up a book at your local book store or look at grabbing one off Amazon.com. I haven't found really good PHP web resource to learn from. Usually I just do a quick google search on topics I'm trying to code.
Another option is to just dive in and start building applications. I've found that the best way to learn PHP is to learn as you go. Once you have a grasp on the basic syntax and how to move around the code, then you can pick up a book at look at OOP topics as well look into Frameworks such as Zend, CakePHP, etc.
Are you absolutely set on learning PHP? If you are, then buy a good book - there's several mentioned here that are actually ok - but please, learn the security aspects from the start. There's more than enough PHP developers in the world who are writing insecure code (I used to be one of them, so I'd know).
Practice is key though; I've been programming in PHP now for about 6 years, and I'd consider myself fairly competent (I passed my Zend PHP5 Certification a couple of months back), but I still find functions I've never seen before.
A tip - don't even think of looking at Zend Framework, Magento or anything like that until you're comfortable with the basics. If you do, you'll definitely struggle; they use some advanced concepts which even I find it hard to wrap my head around at times.
Alternatively, you could learn something else...
The book recommendations are great. "Mastery", though, comes only from practicing your craft. If you want to learn PHP, you need to build many sites, with PHP (and HTML, CSS, Javascript, MySQL, etc.).
To have confidence that you can build a secure online web store, well, you need to build one. Maybe you can find a company that will pay you to learn. Maybe you will find a colleague to mentor you through it. Or maybe you'll have to dig into books, multiple web sites, and some poorly written "integration guide" from a payment authorization provider. My first time through I was nervous. The second time it went a little quicker. And the third time I felt confident enough to estimate how long it would take.
I'm not trying to be difficult or flip. I just feel that "learn by doing" may be the only way to learn much of this stuff.
I am developing a Q & A Site for my students. I find stackoverflow an amazing example and would like to have something similar(if not this feature rich) for my course.
I am a sytem programmer not much familiar with web-application development. How do I begin. Database scheme, features, AJAXness etc. Can I get some existing codebase I can build on top of? Something opensource?
Language of choice is PHP. Any pointers are welcome.
Thank you in advance.
Edited: Added info
It would be reasonably trivial to create something similar as a learning exercise, but the real value behind the stackoverflow site is the polish, attention to detail and vision that's gone into the site and associated branding/marketing, etc.
Irrespective, you'll probably find that you get more answers if you do the ground work yourself and then post questions for any specific architecture/design/implementation issues you get stuck on.
It shouldn't be hard to replicate using PHP/MySQL. It's not a very complicated site. plan out how you want all of the tables/classes to be laid out (Questions, Answers, Users, Tags,Rep,Badges,etc.) and start coding.
Is there any particular part that you are confused about or looking for advice about?