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It's not hard to find example PHP code. The problem seems to be that most of it is frameworks/libraries/etc. This is great, but I'd like to see an example of an actual website.
This stems from my perception that I can't build anything but "toys." My websites tend to be fairly CRUDdy, and it feels like my sites are a bit of generic MVC stuff and a lot of "SELECT" and "INSERT" statements.
I just want some assurance that I'm not "doing it wrong" since these are personal projects, and I'd like to use them to get a job.
Below is a good site that also make its source available (which is very well commented and easy to follow/understand, from a Zend Framework standpoint)
http://www.dasprids.de/
Instructions/info for the source
http://www.dasprids.de/behind-the-site
Actual source
http://site.svn.dasprids.de/
Check out MediaWiki. That's the same software that runs Wikipedia, and it's open source.
It's worth noting that the php.net website is itself open source.
What about PHPBB, which is neither a framework, nor a library?
There are also plenty of Open Source websites you can find just by making some search. Especially blogs, content management systems, etc.
Edit: responding to the first comment to my answer, I want just to add that looking at Open Source websites would probably help to have an image of what large (or not so large) projects are, and also how things are done by experienced developers (for example using PDO, SQL transactions, templates, etc.).
But please take in account that most of the time, those projects are developed by several people. And since PHP does not have any coding standard and does everything possible to force the people to not use good practices, large, collaborative projects are not so good at improving your coding standard nor learning good practices. For this, books may me much more helpful, especially books about good practices.
It may be worth looking at wordpress. I haven't looked at the php behind it, but I know I learned a lot looking at the DB definitions.
Usually a framework is a good compromise between writing quality code and performance. Larger websites that need scale come up with their own custom hacks which eventually evolve into frameworks. In my experience writing in pure PHP it's too easy to go the quickest way to implementing a feature and end up with a mishmash of code, but others might be more disciplined.
It's not hard to find example PHP
code.
Good point is that you know how to find code. You said your code ends up in a generic MVC and CRUDdy, i think this is what most of the web applications around are doing. But the important thing to consider here is they do these MVC/CRUD stuffs in managed way and following standard Object Oriented Design Patterns.
If you want to get examples of real PHP applications then search for open source codes for that specific type application and not frameworks/libraries. Frameworks/libraries are a bunch of PHP CLASSES combined together following the application design architectures and they are supposed to provide you a code base to start your new project with existing set of usable codes, not that they give you the "application feel" rather "structured feel" at the starting point. But once you get along these frameworks/libraries working together to provide you a structured way to build your application, things will really ease later. Your job is guaranteed ;)
If you want to develop codes with these MVC frameworks then start with Codeigniter. It is well documented and as you stated your existing code turns out to be like MVC, you'll grab this framework and how to build with it in one shot. I've written a Hello World in Codeigniter you can refer to start with it. (Also Refer: Codeigniter Documentation)
To find code for real application (not frameworks/libraries) you might think of slightly changing your search queries, search for categories of web application or alike you want to see, not just for the code to do this and code to do that, always search for the better and efficient ways to code and develop things. Github, Sourceforge.net, Google Code are really great places to search for "real" & "cool" open source PHP applications.
Well, actually you can learn a lot by studying a solid framework like ie. the Zend Framework. If you would like to learn that I suggest you first have a look at the Zend Framework Quickstart and then start reading Surviving the deep end. Once you covered these, you should have learned the basics of the Zend Framework, and then you can start looking at open source projects that use it. As far as CMSes go, there are a few using the Zend Framework, like TomatoCMS and pimCore.
BTW Creating a website isn't exactly rocket science, most sites are in fact just a collection of dull CRUD screens (sometimes spiced up with some AJAX to deliver a better user experience) that are used to add content to the site...
On beta.mkforlag.com, where I try out new ideas and develop new pages and new layout for the main domain, most of the source code can be seen. Most of the site is in Swedish, but most of the php code (comments, variable names etc.) is in English.
You should also keep in mind that although I've been using PHP a couple of years I'm no PHP expert and most likely "doing it wrong" in many cases. If you're not that advanced, though, you may find at least some of my code useful.
My code of satya-weblog.com is almost live. I am using wordpress V 2.9, so download that and you know about my site!
Check at symfony framework also and you come to know of propel, yml etc
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I've been developing in PHP for about 8 years as a hobby. In 2009, I picked up codeigniter and since then I've not managed to get a single project developed.
I find it slows me down trying to work out how to modify it to work the way I want, when if I was working in pure PHP, I'd know, or I'd be able to quickly find a snippet for.
I've tried CodeIgniter, Kohana and Symfony. I love the ease of use (and I've also started using doctrine as an ORM which massively sped up my database work), but I find projects are taking me 3-4 times the amount of time it took in pure PHP. I get bored and frustrated when I can't find a solution to a problem I've previously solved in pure PHP.
Has anyone gone back from using frameworks to a no-framework approach. Is there anything like a basic security framework (prevent XSS, filter posted data, provide a cleaning function for use with databases)? I think something like that would benefit me much more than a full scale framework. I think learning to work with frameworks has taught me a lot, but I'd be happier working with my own code.
Current versions of PHP5 include much of the security framework you're looking for as part of the standard library.
Use filter_input_array to declaratively sanitize stuff coming in from the outside.
Access your database via PDO with parameterized SQL to prevent SQL injection attacks.
Use the following PHP settings to make your site more resistant to session fixation and cookie theft:
session.use_only_cookies (Prevents your session token from leaking into the URL)
session.cookie_httponly or the httponly attribute to session_set_cookie_params() (Protects against scripts reading the session cookie in compatible browsers)
More suggestions and PHP example code available on Wikipedia.
You can also use the httponly attribute with setcookie().
Nothing fancier than basic templating and header-setting is required for new HTTP and HTML5 features:
HTTP Strict Transport Security (Helps protect against WiFi exploits.)
X-Frame-Options (Restrict embedding of your pages. Good against phishing.)
HTML5 IFrame Sandbox Attribute (Sandbox 3rd-party ads/badges/videos. Already in WebKit. Likely to be at least partially implemented in Firefox 11.)
Content Security Policy (Firefox 4's new security framework, complimentary to the sandbox attribute. Now also being implemented in Chrome.)
If you're accepting HTML as input, I recommend grabbing HTML Purifier and calling it via a FILTER_CALLBACK line in your filter_input_array setup. Its whitelist-based approach to input security makes a great (and very powerful) first line of defense against XSS.
As far as I can tell, PHP doesn't come with a mechanism for protecting against cross-site request forgery, but I'm sure Google can help you with that one. The OWASP Security Cheatsheets include a section on it if you want to implement your own protection.
Out of curiosity, I decided to also start looking at standalone components and here's what I've found so far:
Templating:
PHP Template Inheritance (Regular PHP plus template inheritance)
TWIG (Django/Jinja2/Liquid-style syntax including autoescape and sandboxing. Compiles to cached PHP for speed.)
Dwoo (A faster, more featureful, PHP5-ish successor to Smarty. Includes a compatibility system for existing Smarty templates.)
Stuff I still haven't looked into properly:
Route dispatching (Only found RouteMap and Net_URL_Mapper so far. Thanks, cweiske.)
ORM (Just in case bare PDO isn't your thing)
I don't believe in frameworks... I have worked in many of them.
Reasons for hating MVC frameworks:
1) Code bloat, I purchase premium classes that assist me in development. Such as form classes or SQL classes.
2) I believe that MVC frameworks are not easily portable especially when using dependency managers.
3) I believe that you actually write more code with a MVC framework then if you had to use a boilerplate with a ton of useful classes that handle authentication etc.
4) Most frameworks also cater for just one or two databases natively.
I would suggest finding a form framework with authentication and text editor & a sql framework like madoo + a email class...
90% of your application is always forms , sql & ajax CLASSES - the rest can just be acquired when needed
I am a minimalist and I struggle with the idea of having code in my application that is not doing anything ... just in case I need it does not work for me.
With that much experience behind you, you must have your own set of favorite libraries, hand pick them and come up with your own simple framework. Framework or no framework (and which one at that) depends on the kind of project at hand, no glove fits all. So i would strongly suggest that if you feel that the existing frameworks are slowing you down, spend sometime and come up with a framework which works as per your needs.
Based on your statement that you've been using PHP as a hobby, as well as your profile statement "Slowly getting there", this seems like a learning curve issue. You don't appear to have the depth and breadth of experience to a) understand how to work within the structure that the framework imposes and b) you are thus unable to benefit from the efficiencies that the framework enables.
I urge you to stick with it. Go back to the beginning with the video tutorials. Find and read other peoples code until you understand it. Build your projects from the bottom up - start simply, and add functionality. Follow the forums, trying to answer questions yourself before reading replies.
I've been programming professionally for almost 20 years, across a variety of platforms, and it still took me a while to become comfortable with CI. But now that I am, I wouldn't go back to pure PHP (for my own projects) unless I had a site of sufficient scale that it exposed quantifiable performance issues (think Twitter).
Zend Framework is really super for that. You can use as much or as little as you want. Its all coded in php and open sourced so you can just hack at it and make it your own. The different component are not dependant on eachothers as much as in other frameworks.
You could build yourself a simple framework using some components from Zend without any problems.
Check it out!
I Know exactly the way you feel. I started 4~5 years ago in PHP (I came from Delphi, lol), and started in pure php. What I had back them was a "CMS Panel like" wich just read all tables fields and create the form. After sometime I reached somehow in the knowledge of PHP Frameworks, I tried CakePHP for first and didn't liked, after, got into Yii wich in my opinion is pretty intuitive and easy-use (With it's Gii generator it rocks pretty much). I Tried Symfony, ZF2, Laravel, Yii2-Beta and some frameworks for RAD, but still I wasn't feeling fast enough like before the frameworks.
Happened that I developed my own framework (It was naturally, not exactly that I woke up some day and said "I'm going to create a new framework", happened with the time) . I Know it's a bad bad bad practice and "wheel reinvention" move, BUT, I now develop my projects much faster (more than PHP only).
Since it's code is a total MESS, I started about one month ago to reformulating my framework, now it uses composer, follows common rules that exists between the php frameworks, is MVC.
Why I'm reformulating ? Because if someone needs to repair a project of mine it will not be a another world thing.
So I Understand you.
My Advice is, prepare your tools (call it a framework, a preset-app or whatever people names it), and use it the way you feel better, but still follow some common rules (Like MVC, "easy to module" things wich you can replace in case of broken.
For basic security, I use a custom filter method that wraps up my superglobals. Its syntax needs some getting used to, but is simpler than the PHP filter_var() API and doesn't let you slip sanitization:
$_GET->text("inputvar") or $_POST->name["field"]
It also allowed inline $_REQUEST->sql() escaping. But for database work keep using parameterized SQL, or your DAL/ORM of choice.
I did a one day study of ToroPHP and found it quite nice. It is a minimalist framework targetted to RESTful applications. This makes it possible to keep the server side code modular, without having to deal with bloat of any framework.
I don't know what is troubling you but codeigniter is a great framework.It has nice documentation and since lots of people use codeigniter you will find all the help in its documentation,or forum or on stackoverflow.I have worked on many frameworks (Codeigniter,CakePHP,Zend,Spring 3.0, Ruby on Rails),but I must say codeigniter has the best documentation.There are lot of things in codeigiter which are automatically handled and you don't have to worry about security.
Working on core PHP is like re-inventing the wheel. Well the most important thing is that moving from a core to framework will need lots of your effort once you are used to it, you will start loving it.Also Ruby on rails is also a great framework once you know its ins and outs you can have double speed.
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I have learned extremely basic PHP (I think so) using Lynda Tutorial. After that, I feel, I got some grip on that language. My ambition is to become a web developer! After some googling, I planned to learn some more advanced and practical php by using websites like PHPSCripts, Webapps etc..
But, now I'm in a confusion! After my studies, when I seek for a web developer position & got selected, how will I work, by just knowing some language basics?
Can you guys help me to become a good web developer, what will I have to learn & how to learn?
Also, can I get the steps to do a practical PHP project.
As a web developer it is important to have client and server side skills. But there are few web developers which are excellent at both... But knowing the basics and where to look for info is definitely a good starting point.
I would recommend to work through the following list(s) in the order presented. If you feel comfortable with a topic, move one. Even though that in reality you will often have to go back and forth during the learning process...
Client Side
HTML / XHTML
CSS
a JavaScript Library (e.g. jQuery, prototype/scriptaculos, etc.)
Server Side - Infrastructure
familiarize yourself with shell scripting if working on Linux (e.g. bash, etc.)
Webserver (e.g. Apache)
PHP Server
Databases (e.g. MySQL, PosgreSQL, etc.)
Server Side - Programming
PHP
SQL
Advanced Topics
After getting familiar with the basics...
AJAX (this is placed here because it is a client/server topic, not because it is advanced...)
Object Oriented Programming (OOP)
Security issues
Source Control Management (SCM) -> (e.g. git, etc.)
Model View Controller (MVC) software architecture
PHP Frameworks (Zend Framework, Symphony, CakePHP, Agavi)
Unit Testing (e.g. PHPUnit)
Object Relational Mapper (ORM) for PHP (doctrine, Propel)
Usually this keeps you busy for a while. At least it kept and still keeps me busy... ;)
Here are few suggestions:
Read these advanced/practical php articles on phpro.org
Learn the basics of OOP
Familiarize yourself with php frameworks and CMS
Familiarize yourself with HTML/CSS/Javascript
Try to make clones of other websites
Try to volunteer in open source projects, you may get started at:
openhatch
sourceforge
Im my opinion, A good webdeveloper MUST know:
HTML
CSS
JavaScript
After this, it's important to know:
Jquery
XHTML
Crossbrowsing (diferences of IE X Firefox x Chrome, etc)
Rationale:
HTML: it's the base of web.
CSS: in 2010, it's the base of web.
JavaScript: only the basic, to understand jquery after.
Jquery: you can solve a lot of problems quickly and it's large used.
XHTML: because your page may broke in modern browsers, if has a <br>, not a <br/>
Crossbrowsing: there is more than one browser in the world.
Just keep on practising. You will likely need solid HTML / CSS skills as well as PHP since the two go hand-in-hand - it's also useful to learn MySQL. Spend lots of time going through the tutorials on the excellent tizag.com as well as Lynda.
Once you're comfortable with all that and you're ready to move onto something more advanced, it's worth looking into Wordpress customisations and plugin development - that has the advantage of being pretty easy to use, with an awesome support community, and a whole bunch of mature code that you can look through yourself to get more familiar with how the language is used in the real world.
After that, try a framework like CodeIgniter or CakePHP - these are awesome for your productivity but do make sure you're comfortable with the basics first as the learning curve can be pretty steep and you want to reduce frustration as much as you can. :-) Learning design patterns will also be helpful at this stage.
One thing that will always be important to you, your users, your applications, and your potential employers is code security. I can't stress this enough. As soon as you put an application into real-world use, you have a moral and professional obligation to make that application secure. http://www.addedbytes.com/writing-secure-php/ <- read, digest, read other guides. Security is the single most important thing that a PHP developer can learn.
Above all, have fun! The best developers tend to be the ones that get genuine enjoyment out of what they're doing. You might find yourself eventually leaning in a different direction and using completely different technologies, so always keep your eyes open and be prepared to learn new things even if they don't necessarily 'fit' your current skillset. Also the more general knowledge you have about programming patterns, the better you will become in individual languages. Remember that it's an organic process so you will need to let it develop naturally - but help it along by exposing yourself to as much as possible (foreign language teachers call this 'immersion' :-) )
Regarding PHP
Make a small project using PHP, so you know that you know.
Learn a (MVC) framework like CakePHP or Agavi.
Read this SO answer.
Regarding Web Development in General
Know about CSS, XML, XHTML, XSLT, W3C validation, HTML5, JavaScript, AJAX (and most other acronyms you come across).
You will find there are various libraries which make your life easy, use them. And there will be one browser that will make your life difficult, but you will have do deal with it.
A solid web developer needs an understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and the server-side scripting language of her choice. But still more important is a solid foundation in programming. You don't have to be an expert computer scientist, but you need to understand how to structure a program and how to solve problems in a sensible way.
Most professional web development involves database access of some sort. Teach yourself SQL, and use a real SQL -- not Access -- for the effort. You can run MySQL or Postgres on a laptop these days, and it's free.
Learn to design databases well. Learn about normal forms, and indexes, and so forth. The time you spend on that will pay off in spades.
Take a while to study up on security. Look at the security bugs that have afflicted high-profile projects and sites. (Hint: they're pretty much mostly about trusting untrustworthy data, or else relying on old out-of-date infrastructure, but the consequences include site defacement and the compromise of valuable information.)
And then, take on a charity project somewhere. You won't get turned down, and you'll cut your teeth, so to speak. Just make sure you're not storing social security numbers or something crazy like that, because charity workers are often vulnerable to social engineering attacks.
the very very first thig to do is to learn Object Orientated Programming (if you haven't).. then you might want to start learning the MVC pattern... and then you must decide either you star using frameworks (like cakePHP, Symphony,Zend) or you prefer using CMS (like joomla or wordpress)... on the process you might also want to learn javascript using a framework (mootools, jquery or prototype)...
Edited: i forgot about databases and sql!! wow.. there's a lot to learn!
The only way to become a good programmer on a certain platform, is to study something more than just tutorials. Read a book, at least. Then the rest comes with practice.
A good way is to also learn a specific platform (depending on what they work with). Some work with Wordpress, so once you know basic PHP and how to use it with databases, and how to work with databases, you would be able to quickly make some basic information websites. Others use Joomla, Drupal, DLE, to quickly build websites, without having to hurt their heads with full backend and frontend architecture. If you need a more general approach, to be able to make more specific web applications, use frameworks like Zend, CakePHP, Symfony, CodeIgniter.
Also, besides knowledge of PHP, to build a small website by yourself, you will also need to know HTML, JavaScript (with AJAX, possibly a framework like jQuery), SQL.
And last but not least, you will need to learn how to protect the site against XSS, SQL Injection and other security threats.
Learn Object Orientated Programming (OOP for short).
Watching any programming tutorial is different than watching any movie. You need to have practice and have experiments form different angle of codes. Prentice and research is only way to get into the deep of any language. If you think you have well understanding about php then try to make some small application like phonebook which have database connection. After that you can move for any frame work like laravel, cakephp. But I always recommend to do at least one small project with raw php before move for any framework because when you come from raw php you will start loving working with frameworks otherwise you will may feel boring to learn again something new as my point of view.
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I have this idea for a website that's been floating around my head for quite sometime now and now have finally decided to get to work on it. Due to the nature of the project and my experience I am getting comfortable with the idea of running it as a PHP+MySQL application on an Apache server.
This is my first time doing web programming of any sort(I have a background in sysadmin and mainframe systems coding) and I am pretty unsure of what practices to take into consideration so that I don't find myself undoing/redoing things later in the project. Considering all the flak the language has taken on StackOverflow(which can be seen here and here) it would be nice to have a set of common mistakes to watch out for for a beginner like me. I did find this thread outlining things to avoid in PHP but most of the points made little sense to someone like me who's just setting out in PHP.
Do you have any suggestions, tips or tutorials outlining common gotcha's in the language which might come back later in the project demanding entire rewrites.
For what it's worth I am currently working my way through Programming PHP(O'Reilly) and PHP in Action(Manning).
I was in a very similar position a couple years ago, having come from a NOS background myself.
I actually started with PHP and MySQL for dummies. Once I had absorbed the knowledge contained therein, I hit the Web (I used SitePoint a lot, like Boushley recommended) and I read a couple of O'Reilley's book on the subject.
Once thing I will tell you, is that if you want to streamline your understanding and your efficiency, I have found great success with a number of MVC frameworks(CodeIgnitor, CakePHP, etc). If you have no idea what MVC is, I recommend finding out. Now that I use MVC, my code is easier to understand, modify, troubleshoot, etc.
And honestly, half of the learning in PHP is running into those common mistakes and learning from them. Its hard to appreciate those 'common mistakes' until you make them.
Don't worry about HOW you are going to learn, just START leaning!
If I could give you one piece of advice, it'd be to use a framework - they will make your life so much easier. They take away all the repetitive code from programming websites, handle security concerns and abstract lots of things, as well as make you build your website using a pattern such as Model-View-Controller.
I highly recommend the CodeIgniter framework for it's simplicity, power, great documentation and ease of use, but there are plenty of other good frameworks too. There are lots of questions on SO on this so have a quick search. There is a fantastic introductory screencast on CodeIgniter (soon to be a series) from BinaryCake, so check that out here.
I hope that's helped! If you have any PHP concerns, feel free to message me - it's my area of expertise (along with CodeIgniter) and I love it!
While still developing, have all errors show up:
ini_set('display_errors', '1');
error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);
Can save a lot of time (in case of say, typos in variable names). Change this when it goes live to not display or only display "real" errors depending on the type of site and security levels involved (you don't want everyone to know paths and variable names and such..).
Find a variable/function naming convention (under_scores vs camelCase vs..) that suits you and stick to it. Also, classes go in the /class directory, includes in /inc etc. Both these make it easier to understand your own code years from now. Oh, and the same goes for coding style, I guess: choose one and stick to it (indentation, bracket style, ..).
Comment your code :-) Personally I also have a little log at the end of longer files that shows when I did what and why. Each addition is timestamped, and the same timestamp is also in the comments behind the change itself, as the line number on which it sits can easily change. Similarly, in an included file containing a bunch of functions, I have the list of function names in a comment at the top of the file, with a one-line description behind them.
Finally on security (though this should really be your first concern ;-) ), treat all user input as suspect. That's POST & GET data, cookies, user-agent string, search strings - anything that is supplied by the browser. It's trivial to change cookie data or change/add form items.
Read up on SQL injection & XSS attacks, and look at PHP's relatively new data filter functions: http://php.net/manual/en/intro.filter.php
Google any of these to get some good reading
Don't use register_globals
Turn off magic_quotes - escape all user entered input in SQL statements
Escape any user entered input printed with htmlspecialchars()
Plus a lot more... These are some common things to watch out for though.
There are a number of great websites out there with lots of tutorials. One that comes to mind is Site Point. They'll try their best to sell you a book or two while your're there, but they do have some decent articles. This article for instance discusses some common security blunders in php.
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/php-security-blunders/
They have lots of them...
http://www.sitepoint.com/search/search.php?ps=10&q=php&submit=Search
Also a nettuts.com has a load of tutorials an things of that nature. They're more all across the board though.
http://nettuts.com/
And I think pretty much everywhere you look you'll see the common ones like watch out for register_globals, magic_quotes...
one good book to look at that is also free to download here covers beginner to advanced PHP techniques and is good way to learn good standards :)
Use a framework and use Object Oriented Programming
Books are great for learning additional languages, but for your first one, a good video tutorial is a great way to go!
Register for a Lynda.com account (google: lynda trial) and sign up for as many one day trials as you need (or be a good honest person and purchase a week). They have a pretty good beginner and advanced PHP series of video tutorials which are (IMHO) a great way to learn your first language.
A tip: If you can start programming Object Orientedly from the get-go, you will save some time in the future and learn good practice from the start, luckily the advanced tutorials cover this!
Here's a link: http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=435
I've never taken this particular course (when I learned a few years ago, it was different), but I just recommended this to a friend (who was just starting), and he really liked it!
Hope this helps!
If you're new to programming in general, A database backed web application is likely to be a bumpy ride. You will probably be programming in at least two, real programming languages, PHP and SQL, and if you're going to do anything of modest complexity, JavaScript too. Keeping them strait will be rough, because they are all quite different.
Just to warm up to programming, you might want to start instead using a more focused learning excercies, such as working through the Euler Project problems, or Code Kata.
Either way, Try to pick up good habits wherever you learn about them, including the popular suggestion here of using an MVC framework for the heavy lifting.
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I would like to be a PHP/MySQL programmer
What are the technologies that I must know?
Like:
Frameworks
IDEs
Template Engines
Ajax and CSS Frameworks
Please tell me the minimum requirements that I must know, and tell me your favourite things in the previous list?
Thanks
First off, there is no must know about learning PHP and MySQL... You go into it not knowing anything, and you'll come out of it knowing a bunch. If there was a must know, then nobody would be able to get into PHP and MySQL development. I personally think you are at a slight advantage going into this without knowing everything about it. It'll give you a fresh perspective and a think outside of the box attitude :)
As far as the object oriented stuff in this thread, it's true. But, as others have said, it's completely up to the programmer (you) to decide how to write your code. You can use object oriented practices, make a spaghetti code junction, or just right a bunch of functions, or whatever. Either way, as everyone else has been saying, it's up to you :)
IRC channel:
Don't really need this, but I find it helpful... See you in here :)
irc.freenode.net #php
Manual:
The manual is your friend and probably the only thing you should know before diving in.
http://www.php.net/manual/en/
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/apis-php.html
Frameworks:
Make sure it's an MVC framework :)
http://www.cakephp.org/
http://www.phpmvc.net/
http://www.codeigniter.com/
http://www.symfony.com/
http://www.laravel.com
http://www.yiiframework.com/
IDE:
Whatever suits you best :)
http://www.eclipse.org/
http://www.vim.org/
http://www.zend.com/en/products/studio/
http://php.netbeans.org/
https://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/
Template engines:
PHP is a good template engine
Model view controller frameworks help with this
twig.sensiolabs.org
http://www.smarty.net/
Ajax:
http://jquery.com/
http://www.mootools.net/
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/
http://www.prototypejs.org/
http://www.extjs.com/
http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/
https://angularjs.org/
CSS:
http://www.yaml.de/en/home.html
http://code.google.com/p/blueprintcss/
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/reset/
Definitely not an exhaustive list, and things change constantly... But, it's a start :)
Have fun!
Chrelad
Security is an important topic every web programmer should study before being allowed to post code that can be accessed publicly on the internet.
Examples of security issues:
Injection flaws
Cross-site scripting flaws
Cross-site request forgery
There are more security issues that you should know and keep in mind as you write PHP applications. The website http://www.owasp.org contains lots of useful information to help.
PHP was my first language, which I learned on the side while working as an office junior in my first job over 10 years ago. Here is some things from my experience:
Download the PHP manual, print it off, and start reading from page one. Keep going till you're at the end. Skim over the bits you probably won't need (like using KADM5 or Hyperwave) but always read the introductions so you know what PHP is capable of (this will save you trying to re-invent the wheel). The PHP documentation blows the docs of pretty-much every other language I've worked with since out of the water.
Next step; set up PHP. Manually. Don't use XAMPP or anything else, do it yourself. It always helps to know how your environment is set up.
Don't bother with an IDE at the beginning. Getting to know a language means getting up-close-and-personal. IDEs obscure things in an attempt to help you GetThingsDone which works great when you know what you're doing and know your target environment, but when you're starting out they just get in the way and hide what's important.
Don't bother with frameworks at the beginning, either. Again, they're there to help you GetThingsDone which only works when you know what you're doing in the first place. Start with the basics, otherwise you'll be learning the framework and not PHP.
PHP is essentially an advanced templating engine. Don't fall into the trap of over-hyped "PHP templating engines". They're just doing what PHP already does, doubling-up on the work and running twice as slow as PHP does. Stick with inline html/php to start with. Again, this'll help you get to understand what PHP is, how it works, and when to use it.
As with AJAX and CSS... they're nothing to do with PHP, but with the output you produce from PHP (and with AJAX getting input in). Don't load your plate with too much to eat at once. Start with plain PHP+HTML, and do your CSS by hand. Then, when you're happy, mix in a little javascript.
The best thing you can do with any language is learn the environment you're going to be working in, because programming is (relatively) similar across all of them. They all have loops, data structures, input/output, etc, but they all work just that little differently.
Don't believe the hype. I'm moving from PHP to Python at the moment and I could've just jumped on the Django band-wagon to GetThingsDone, but I know that if I came across a problem I wouldn't know where to begin to fix it. So I'm taking my own advice and starting from the beginning; reading the manual, setting up an test system, parsing simple files, getting input/output, getting it linked in with a web server... all part of getting to know my new environment.
What should every PHP programmer know ?
You need to know a language that is not PHP. I'm not saying you shouldn't develop your sites in PHP, it's actually really good for that, but you really need to know at least one other language to get some perspective.
Why? PHP is broken and full of bad design and misfeatures. You can write excellent code in PHP, but you're never going to be able to spot the bad design and failures of PHP itself if you don't know any better.
I'd suggest python, ruby, or C#
PS: If you don't think this is a helpful suggestion, then by all means downmod this answer, but if you are downmodding because you feel insulted by my claim that PHP is broken and badly designed, don't shoot the messenger, I'm just telling the truth!
First of all, that PHP itself IS a templating system
Security.
Just like Lucas Oman said - it is up to you in PHP to write the code well; and it does not coddle you. If you don't understand why you need to confirm a logout, or why you can't just validate in javascript, or why register_globals is bad - your app will be vulnerable in some form or another.
You need to learn the following (I would suggest in this order):
Basic Object-Oriented Principles (such as inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation)
The PHP language itself. Specifically, PHP 5.
Database Design Principles such as tables, keys, relationships, normalization, etc.
SQL - Structured (or Standard never can remember which) Query Language. Specifically learn the basics of select, insert, update, and delete queries.
Good design principles and coding practices (you can find posts here on StackOverflow for one) such as dividing presentation and business logic.
A Framework, Any Framework - this will help you become introduced to more advanced concepts of object-oriented design patterns and allow you to follow tutorials that will encourage good design and coding practices.
Object-Oriented Design Patterns like MVC, Database Abstraction Models and the like
Advanced SQL and other database stuff like triggers, stored procedures, and other functions.
Ignore the mysql_* functions. Not only do they provide no straightforward method of writing secure code, they actually go out of their way to make it painful and tedious if you try. Use mysqli or PDO instead (and you've got no excuse now - PHP 4 was end-of-life'd months ago).
All good answers, but there is something important missing: If you want to seriously get into PHP, then you should be aware that there are a lot of PHP programmers out there who are lazy, inept, ignorant, misguided and unfortunately get their code released to the public. The history of PHP means that it supports some questionable features (not just things like register_globals but also smaller things like automatic initialization) and people still use them. You don't want to.
I would say the most important thing is to learn how the whole process of building a page with PHP works - in that requests come from a client (web browser), hit the web server, get passed through to PHP, which then generates the response that is sent back. A solid understanding of this will ground you in
why you can't send headers after output has started
how sessions and cookies work
how each page should be built in a stateless manner (i.e. deliver whatever the request asks for, don't remember what happened last time, or guess what the user is doing)
The difference between HTML, PHP, JavaScript and CSS, and more importantly, what each is used for primarily and where the responsibility of each lies.
Once you've got that down, then you should be quite comfortable with writing any app. But unless you've got that down, you'll start mixing things as I've seen many rookies do before now.
That every value everywhere has to be encoded appropriately. echo $some_variable_that_seems_innocent is evil nine times out of ten.
Use htmlspecialchars() in HTML/XML, prepared statements or at least addslashes() when building SQL queries, json_encode() when inserting values into scripts, rawurlencode() when appending URL components, escapeshellargs() when constructing shell commands, etc.
If you insert text in URL that's part of a script in XHTML document, you'll need to encode data three times.
Although this isn't a technology, I think it's very important that you understand that, when using PHP, it is completely on you to write good code. PHP is capable of it, but it does not encourage it. You are completely responsible for writing code that is well designed and, if you choose, follows OO principles. You will have no help from the language.
Use a great IDE (like Eclipse for example) that let you debug and have some code completion. This will save you some time.
PHP have a lot of programmer and is very popular = a lot of thing is already done for you, before writing some code, doing a google search is always a good idea.
You should use some of the Framework if you start from scratch. This will answer all your question about AJax, template engines... because most of them come with these packages.
Here is some post about how to start choosing a framework: SO 1, SO2, Here is a list of PHP Framework.
You can develop PHP on Windows, Linux or Mac.
Getting a web server setup
To run PHP and MySQL locally on your computer you will need to install Apache webserver with php module and MySQL database server. ie. a LAMP webserver (Linux Apache MySQL PHP).
In the past, I would recommend installing Ubuntu. These days, there are a few solutions available that will give you one click installation webserver without using linux.
For Windows:
http://www.wampserver.com
For OSX:
http://www.mamp.info
After having a LAMP webserver use w3schools.com tutorials to start.
I would say a basic one would be HTML. ;)
No Php framework expert.As templating which make the system much complex then as it.
Understand business logic requirement and think the cons/pro.Hoping for SA to think all for you is not good programmer.
No ajax.I dealing with large of data,rendering to one js file about 4000 k data is very bad.
Start from notepad or VI
After learn php about 1 to 2 years,try learn other language like c# or c++ to improve your php application.
Php is addicted language rather then other language.You type it works.Other language,you type It's Compile It's Hang up.
7.For complexity application,php is the best to me rather then other language,because you think,you write it works.
You should know how to use effectively at least one Debugger/IDE. It is amazing what you can learn from your code by stepping through it and watching it run. It both makes it much simpler to track down bugs, and improves the quality of your code. I believe you should never commit code to a project that you haven't seen execute.
The PHP Language
Go to PHP.net and read through all of the documentation. When you are done, you won't know everything you need to know about php, but you will know where to look.
Be careful of code snippets you find on the web. Often they contain sql in html, which is bad practice, as well as security vulnerabilities such as sql injection. I've seen few that use prepared statements, which is good for security.
Personally, I found the book "Build your own database driven website using PHP and MySQL" extremely helpful.
Other than that, the one thing I found hardest to get used to with PHP is how relaxed it is, compared with any other language I've ever used. By that I mean no types, flexibility about syntax and punctuation. Personally I think that's a good thing, but I also know that it probably encourages pretty bad behavior.
Here's one other tip I have: try to use something like the DRY principle -- i.e., you'll find yourself writing the same little (or big) bits of code over and over again -- make them into functions as early as you can in the process of coding, and life will be a lot easier later on.