[Rik]

I have got myself some decent hosting and I am going to dive in and start playing with all that php/sql/cms shit. See if i can figure out the basics... or die trying.

HTML and CSS Tutorials, References, and Articles | HTML Dog is very good for learning html/css...

Are there any similar (very much beginner orientated) sites for learning PHP?

or would a proper book be better?

Cheers Geeks


EDIT: Synopsis

Books:
PHP-Solutions-Dynamic-Design-Made

PHP-MySQL-Dynamic-Web-Sites

Websites:
PHP 101: PHP For the Absolute Beginner

[Rik]

phpdonkey.com

[emil]

My 2 cents: leave that to code monkeys.
I was happy to be able to understand what @require_once does. The rest is what programmers have been created for

[Rik]

i don't want to do any fully fledged programming.. just enough understanding to set up and maintain a cms would be more than sufficiant.

i am too stupid and old to learn the whole shabang by a long shot.

but true, if out of trying i learn.. i find that what i need is a code monkey to fettle my back end.. then i have learnt and i am happy.

[CharmingMan]

hi doogood,

check out this book first

http://www.amazon.com/PHP-Solutions-Dynamic-Design-Made/dp/1590597311/ref=sr_1_7_s9_rk?ie=UTF8&s=books&s9r=8a5801be0d595 d82010d5a94ebc9000b&itemPosition=7&qid=1210586698& sr=1-7

Really good book for an introduction to php, had many books from this publishers before and there always really nicely thought out and put together.

Maybe move onto some video tutorials after think I wateched one of a series called killer php. Was pretty good

[Rik]

'Chapter 1: What Is PHP And Why Should I Care?'

sounds like that book starts from the basics.. shall get that one in i think.

cheers.

[CharmingMan]

take it from me it is very good.

Have tried a couple of others that were mindmeltingly complicated and somehow this one seems to make sense of the madness.

If u interested in learning a cms too I would check out expression engine, dead easy to use and you only need to know very minimal php to get a basic cms driven site up and running

[freelancr]

Websites are good if you need to look up a function quickly, and online tutorials are nice if you need to learn how to do a specific task. Though they both miss out on lots of background stuff that is useful to know as they have to be consise and straight to the point they are addressing. Also a lot of tutorials are written on the assumption that you know enough to understand what the tutorial is asking you to do. So some complicated ones you may get stuck on because you don't understand what the code is doing.

I think books are the best way to learn as they guide you step by step building an application and making it better and better as each chapter goes on. They usually start with the basics so anyone can pick it up, and by the end you should know enough to teach yourself to make your own applications.

A good author is Larry Ullman, I have several of his books, and he has just released his latest one. It is titled PHP6, even though the current stable release is PHP5, he must be using the one in development. It should cover plenty of stuff to get you started, I doubt there will be much in it that will only work on PHP6.

Amazon.co.uk: PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide (Visual QuickPro Guides): Larry Ullman: Books

I had his previous 2 books, and both are very good reads and still useful for reference. The only bit I don't like about his books is it is a bit bloated with code repeated over and over, and word wrap is a bitch on his layout, christ knows why he opted for columns instead of just using the whole page. The content is very useful though!

The O'Reilly books aren't really suitable for absolute beginners as they can be a bit boring, but are very useful to use for reference or further learning. I think at last count I had about a dozen or so PHP books, got about 30 on other languages too! </bookworm>

[Rik]

Originally Posted by freelancr

the assumption that you know enough to understand what the tutorial is asking you to do. So some complicated ones you may get stuck on because you don't understand what the code is doing.

That is what I found. I had a very bewildered Sunday afternoon! Cheers freelancr.

I think i will probably buy a couple of books.. like i did with CSS... If you can't figure it in one book.. see what the other says!

[Rik]

Originally Posted by CharmingMan

take it from me it is very good.

Have tried a couple of others that were mindmeltingly complicated and somehow this one seems to make sense of the madness.

If u interested in learning a cms too I would check out expression engine, dead easy to use and you only need to know very minimal php to get a basic cms driven site up and running

I intend to try out a few cms's over time - doing really basic stuff and see which one i settle with. So far I have chosen Wordpress and EE.

A pure random pick has me playing with Wordpress first.

[herkalees]

I'm not sure you linked to this, above, or not, but this is a good one too: PHP 101: PHP For the Absolute Beginner

[freelancr]

I know quite a few people on here, and other developers on my msn list, use CMS Made Simple - Welcome to CMS Made Simple

I assume it is a cms without the bloat, never used it though so can't say if it is any good.

[Rik]

Originally Posted by herkalees

I'm not sure you linked to this, above, or not, but this is a good one too: PHP 101: PHP For the Absolute Beginner

Down the Rabbit Hole. Grand!

[Shiro]

@require_once

I'm being a little pedantic, but the above code is kind of screwed up. 'Require' means that the script fails (fatal error) if the necessary page doesn't exist. 'Include' does the same thing, but the page won't fail if the included page doesn't exist (although you will still get a warning). Why this is screwed up is because the '@' symbol tells the script to ignore any errors if they appear. But in such a case, the programmer should just use @include.

Not that anyone really cares other than me

[emil]

Fuck knows, haku, I'm using it just to get my nav in one single file. I have been told that include can pose security issues. I think.

That's the reason I believe programmers still need to be fed and grown around designer's houses.

[Shiro]

It will work, it just doesn't make sense from a purist view.

[emil]

[Rik]

Originally Posted by haku

It will work, it just doesn't make sense from a purist view.

[Shiro]

Nice

[2Dfruit]

If you're just looking for something simple, I suggest you try out the dreamweaver developer toolbox. It has a php framework built in that allows you to create pretty nifty stuff. I'd say start out with that and read the tuts off the interakt site. Once you get the hang of that, and get more familiar with php you can use it as a workhorse of sorts. What I do is use it for the bulky codey stuff...forms, lists nested stuffs..all that malarkey and then I put my own twists on things and incorporate different scripts into the framework. But then again, if you wanna do the WHOLE thing from scratch..more power to ya.