PHP learning resources
Learning is a never ending process. But if you want to acquire a working knowledge about PHP programming then it is a mater of few weeks. Additionally if you have programming background in other languages especially on C then you can learn PHP quickly and very effectively, since syntax of PHP is analogous to C.
PHP is a server side scripting language. It is most popular language among the web developers in building a dynamic website. A webpage build by simple HTML script is said as static webpage since its content can't vary with the help of HTML code. What PHP can do it reads and processes various variables (e.g. client IP address, date and time, submitted form data from the client computer, data from remote database, etc.) and accordingly generates HTML code required to build a webpage. In this way the static HTML script itself varies according to the data processed by the PHP server there by producing a dynamic effect at the client computer. So before start learning PHP you must know how to build a successful webpage with the help of HTML code.
In my opinion your first step of learning PHP should be collecting necessary resources required for PHP development. They are,
- PHP editor,
- APACHE server and MySql database;
- PHP manual from www.php.net/download-docs.php.
PHP editor
Since PHP is a scripting language so a simple ASCII text editor like Windows Notepad may be used as PHP editor. But specialized PHP editor have few inbuilt features which are really helpful for writing or editing PHP script. These features may include highlighting PHP tags and brackets, auto completion of code, different color scheme for variables, constants, functions, etc. to easier the editing job. Lots of very high quality PHP editor available in the internet today even for free. Examples of few such editors are,
Among them my vote is for Notepad++.
APACHE server and MySql database
You should install APACHE server and MySql database on your computer in order to test the programs written by you. There are many such server packages available on the internet. Among them XAMPP server is the most popular.
PHP manual
PHP manual published by the official website of PHP http://php.net is a very helpful reference on PHP even for an experience programmer. Here you can find all the function references and example code explaining how they are used in practical applications.
Web references
There are many high quality websites which provide tips, tutorials and help on PHP development. You should bookmark those sites as references. Examples of few such websites are,
