Taken’ the PHPlunge...

[Ian Glass]

What, in your opinions, are the best tutorials and references for learning PHP. I’d also like any horror stories related to PHP (i.e. what I should look out for, what tripped you up, etc.). Help me learn from you vast $array(current) of knowledge. I’m a newbe at this, so I’m only half vast.

Right now, I've been to the PHP site and am reading this tutorial: http://jamhitz.tripod.com/. I’ve downloaded PHP Triad, is it any good? Please advise…

~~Thanks For the Help

[Aes]

Well, if you have money, I would highly recommend buying Kevin Yank's book offered through SitePoint. If it is half as good as the on-line version, then it is worth it. But, everyone says that it is better.

If not, http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/PHP/ is a great place to begin. I personally use PHPDev4 (similar to PHPTriad); if you want to try that out hop on over to http://www.firepages.com.au/phpdev4.htm and check it out.

Good luck -- PHP adds amazing abilities to your site.

[Maelstrom]

I have just started (within a few days) learning php/mysql. I found some greate tutorials.

for getting started Kevin Yanks tutorial is great (I realize you didn't say mysql but most good tutorials seem to be tied in)
www.webmasterbase.com
I am not sure of the artical numbers but there is 4
www.devshed.com has tonnes of great php material also neatly serperated from mysql. Go right to the php 101 material
www.devshed.com/server_side/php/php101/

should work I hope. There is 5 articals I blieve and they teach you everything that is basic.

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/programming/php/ is great as well

for the basics they cover jsut about everything. For how to create classes and larger scale php tutorials I am not sure.

[scrivener227]

So far, the only book I've read completely is Core PHP Programming by Leon Atkinson. It takes a pretty clear, simple approach to the language and has good examples. I understand Kevin Yank's book is good. Judging by his articles here, I don't think you'd go wrong with it.

Most of what I've learned has come from the gosh-that-didn't-work approach, using books and online articles as ready references. But overall, PHP has been pretty easy to pick up. It's soooo much easier than Perl, but from what I've found so far, it's just about as powerful a language as Perl. I've converted several apps from Perl to PHP already.

Best of luck,

--Jeff

[peanuts]

Don't forget www.thickbook.com a good starter reference and ofcourse www.phpbuilder.com

First thing you have to learn is something I never used in the beginning and now still get bothered with is that no matter what you can always close the php tag and then reopen it.. If you do that it saves you parse errors and having to use \ all the time. quick example:

<? 

//php stuff 

if($variable == "me")

{

?>

Just do all the HTML you want

<?

//back to php

}

?>

the way I did it first was:

<? 
//php stuff 
if($variable == "me")
{
echo " 
html stuff but all the " have to be \" otherwise it don't work
";
}
?>

Don't use echo or print for big pieces of HTML coding thats all I'm saying!!!

Greets,

Peanuts

[jeremyk]

I'm trying to hop on the PHP bandwagon, too. The best thing I did: bought a whiteboard, hung it up at my desk, and wrote down all my php notes and common syntaxes on it.

[RKuhle]

I also suggest that you read and study other peoples code as well. Try to decipher what their script is doing.

At the same time, try to pick up on their programming style. Learn proper indentation and get in the habit of documenting your code very early on.

This is just personal preference, but learn modular coding. It's much easier to use and read, not to mention easy to write. I've seen a lot of scripts lately that don't use this, drives me nuts!

[Technosailor]

I'm still learning. I'm trying hard and picking up the logic. Logic is easy thoguh. It's the actual coding that always trips me up.

I guess www.phpbuilder.com, www.devshed.com.

Those 2 and of course the SPF's here are my best learning aid.

Sketch

[JMulder]

There's a very helpfull thread in the PHP Forum:

http://www.sitepointforums.com/showt...threadid=18699

[Ian Glass]

Thanks for all your help. I think it's been useful so far.

[fashola]

By the way and just to add that most of us who read the articles of Kevin should buy his book.

It's a moral obligation but for the fact that there are no provision for sale via international orders/money transfer systems many people cannot buy.

[Aes]

Originally posted by peanuts
... Don't use echo or print for big pieces of HTML coding thats all I'm saying!!! ...

Why not? I prefer to use echo() to print out the HTML coding so the interpreter doesn't have to continually jump in and out of parse mode. Have you had any bad experiences with this? -- it's always worked fine for me.

[seanf]

It is slower Colin

Sean

[Ian Glass]

Originally posted by peanuts
First thing you have to learn is something I never used in the beginning and now still get bothered with is that no matter what you can always close the php tag and then reopen it..

Could I not use the "Here Document" for long pieces of HTML?

[seanf]

You can, but you can just jump in and out of PHP

Sean

[Maelstrom]

Originally posted by seanf
You can, but you can just jump in and out of PHP

Sean

Isn't that quite a bit faster than the here doc???

[seanf]

It should be faster, but not by a massive amount

Sean

[Ian Glass]

Thanks Guys!

Just one more thing, when you say "faster", are you talking about the time it takes to code, or the performance of the application? I ask this because I remember from ASP that opening and closing the tags had more overhead. Are there any other performance issues I should be aware of?

~~Thanks

[RKuhle]

Originally posted by Ian Glass
Thanks Guys!

Just one more thing, when you say "faster", are you talking about the time it takes to code, or the performance of the application? I ask this because I remember from ASP that opening and closing the tags had more overhead. Are there any other performance issues I should be aware of?

~~Thanks

Faster, is better performance. At first I was shocked that opening and closing tags was faster as well, but thats how it works!

Now that I think about it, in most cases its also faster to code.

[hurtdidit]

Some useful tips guys, thanks!!

[guysmy]

Originally posted by jeremyk
bought a whiteboard, hung it up at my desk, and wrote down all my php notes and common syntaxes on it.

Great idea, I may try that.