Hi, I'm considering learning PHP in order to progress with my skills. However do you think it is easy to master or could it take a lot of time? For example on learning PHP would you say that you could now easily create a CMS (say like WordPress but not as exstensive just simple CMS) ? What else can I do with PHP?
I don't know about CMS, but php has been invaluable to my website. You need to php to use MySQL. I'd suggest learning it.
There's no limit to what you can do with PHP. You can use it to manage websites, databases, email campaigns, forums, ecommerce, credit card transactions, hacking, and just about anything else.
Not necessarily, it's one of many languages that can use MySQL. ASP, Java, Perl/CGI, and most other server-side languages can deal with MySQL just as easily. Heck, Ruby makes it idiot proof
Creating a basic CMS is feasible. Is quite a few tutorials geared at this specific task. Good material to start learning. Here's a few : http://www.intranetjournal.com/php-cms/ http://www.php-mysql-tutorial.com/cms-php-mysql.php Last one has complete code and its less than 10k of code. Real basic layout wise but I'd guess over half of the size is HTML/CSS to format the results. Luck.
This is one of those "how long is a piece of string" questions. It all depends how advanced you want to learn it, how much time you are willing to put into learning it a day/week etc. You should be able to pick up the basics within say 20 hours of learning and playing, but you will spend a whole plethora of time learning about all of the useful functions that come premade for you that will speed up your development time