PHP

Bonavox

Hey people,

I want to learn PHP, and I was wondering how long it will take before I know how to make a fully functional database driven site. Basically I would be able to offer about an hour a day to learning, and have very minimal knowledge of HTML.

Any suggestions or tips about the learning process?

oMega_2093

http://www.w3schools.com/ use it wisely

It really depends on you. I recommend you start with XHTML (HTML) and CSS until you know the basis and you can build simple websites, just to understand a bit more of the server/HTTP/website world and the site building process.

PHP is not very hard, and in my opinion it's really encouraging. You can start with MySQL databases, but directly go into the relational database model, with some examples of it here: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question599.htm

Its basics aren't hard, and you'll find it easy as you think how to organise databases.

If I can help you with something else just say.

Bonavox

oMega_2093 wrote: »

http://www.w3schools.com/ use it wisely

It really depends on you. I recommend you start with XHTML (HTML) and CSS until you know the basis and you can build simple websites, just to understand a bit more of the server/HTTP/website world and the site building process.

PHP is not very hard, and in my opinion it's really encouraging. You can start with MySQL databases, but directly go into the relational database model, with some examples of it here: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question599.htm

Its basics aren't hard, and you'll find it easy as you think how to organise databases.

If I can help you with something else just say.

Thanks for the reply, that was really helpful!

pauldiv

I started using the w3schools site as an introduction to xhtml and css and found it was a good place to start. They also have some nice php examples

From experience I would suggest that you take a week to learn (x)html before doing the php tutorials because it would give you a good start

You don't need to worry about css at this stage because php is about coding and not layout and styling. There are lots of cool plain vanilla css layouts available at the IronMyers website - http://layouts.ironmyers.com - which you can use in your projects. If you start getting into css right away it will just hold you back. You just need to know the xhtml and learn how to put php code into the relevant page blocks

If you mention what you want to do with php and the type of projects you would like to undertake then maybe myself or one the others can point you to some good resources. For example I like doing database driven photo galleries and have lots of e-books and stuff on doing that with php

How long are you prepared to spend learning php?
It can be something you could spend years playing with.

Good luck.