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How to get better at PHP!

Discussion in 'PHP' started by No User Name, Dec 11, 2010.

  1. #1
    Hi,
    I have been reading books about PHP & MYSQL. and I recently found a job as web developer, but its sort of training! I dont have a good payment just only 400 euros per month and I live in Germany... but my boss wants me to be better at PHP and to tell you the truth after reading books building some simple web sites with PHP I am not good PHP PROGRAMMER!
    it would be a good idea if my boss teaches me PHP but he is always nervous and I cant learn with him..
    I know to write functions,arrays..etc. but the company that I have been working has made some CMS scripts, e-commerce etc. and my boss wants me to read them, understand them and to use them as fast as he does! I dont know if I am dumb or whats wrong! I dont know what to learn more.. I need a suggestion where can I really learn PHP to understand it like he does! because some things that he does I dont read in books! I havent been to a school for IT or anything I have been learning HTML,CSS,PHP & MYSQL by myself.. with books,tutorials.etc... I am very good at CSS maybe better then my boss because I solve problems that he cant! but I really need your help guys how can I learn advanced PHP! where can I find good explanations of how PHP works so I could use the their damn CMS code...

    Best regards, Shpetim
     
    No User Name, Dec 11, 2010 IP
  2. olddocks

    olddocks Notable Member

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    #2
    The key to PHP is understanding database queries and get to know them first. Like your boss said, download some open source scripts and try to understand the coding mechanism and logic. You will see comments in the code which will aid your learning. Start simple code and slowly you can progress
     
    olddocks, Dec 12, 2010 IP
  3. cyberfox

    cyberfox Member

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    #3
    to learn advanced PHP , you ought to read advanced tutorials ... Dzone.com has really great articles ,, Learn OOP as well.
     
    cyberfox, Dec 12, 2010 IP
  4. susan_ham

    susan_ham Peon

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    #4
    It's not enough if you just learn PHP from books. Reading others' PHP codes and editing some PHP codes by yourself are both more important. Besides, you need not worry more about it at present, because it always need time to improve yourself.
     
    susan_ham, Dec 12, 2010 IP
  5. sms2life

    sms2life Peon

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    #5
    nothing get without hard work, learn from php.net/manual/en/index.php you can get more examples their
     
    sms2life, Dec 12, 2010 IP
  6. Kerosene

    Kerosene Alpha & Omega™ Staff

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    #6
    It sounds like they've given you an answer, and then asked for the question.

    It's much easier to learn PHP when you need to solve a specific problem.
    Has your boss actually asked you to solve a problem? If not, ask him EXACTLY what the objective is.
     
    Kerosene, Dec 12, 2010 IP
  7. No User Name

    No User Name Member

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    #7
    well, the main problem is that I see always new things! things that I havent been reading in books or seen anywhere else, and I always ask myself what is this! why is this here! and right now I had to do some jobs with the navigations and subnavigations, they were linked somehow to the URL.. my boss has been showing me how they have changed how the url to look better for search engines in .htaccess.

    thanks for your suggestions.. I needed to hear suggestions from senior php programmers because they know how they learned to write advanced codes...
    I was thinking about writing codes from the scratch (for example CMS) I thought thats the best way for me to learn to write php by myself.. but my boss said no you will learn better if I read and configure their codes.. the other problem is that the comments and variable names..etc. are in German... and I dont really speak German...
     
    No User Name, Dec 12, 2010 IP
  8. No User Name

    No User Name Member

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    #8
    Well do you think its possible? because he has more then 10 years of experience in PHP and he has created those systems... so I dont think I cant use them as fast as he does!
    So my question is it possible to use his systems as fast as he does.. is it normal or no meter how good you are at programming it takes you time to understand a system that someone else made?
     
    No User Name, Dec 12, 2010 IP
  9. JREAM

    JREAM Member

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    #9
    Do some youtube tutorials and get into OOP youll go far!
     
    JREAM, Dec 13, 2010 IP
  10. cazort

    cazort Peon

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    #10
    I personally find books about PHP and MySQL to be almost useless. Even though I'm a person who normally learns easily from books, something about computer programming does not lend itself to book learning. You really need to do hands-on experimenting.

    My recommendation, build some PHP applications for your own personal use, on your own local computer. For example, I wrote a database application to catalog images, and another to keep contacts. I don't really use them for much, but making them was fun. As you add features to these applications you can learn more and more about PHP.

    For PHP I find reading other people's code is of limited help because it tends to be long and complex, and different people have different coding styles, and the style that works for someone else might not work well for you. Also, most people write poorly documented code, and it can be hard to decipher. The official website, www.php.net is your best resource, in my opinion. Sometimes I find useful stuff on other sites, but there is no site I find as useful as that one.

    I think a good way to learn PHP is function-by-function. Become familiar with how each function works, play with it a little bit. Usually I just learn a function when I need it. Google is the best tool to figure out how to find a function to do a specific task; usually it'll just point to the first result as a page on PHP.net, and then you can read the official docs, the contributed examples, play around a bit, and you're good to go.

    Good luck!
     
    cazort, Dec 14, 2010 IP
    Kerosene likes this.
  11. ankit_frenz

    ankit_frenz Active Member

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    #11
    start with a simple CMS such as wp..read it docs..it will help you get an idea how cms work..next goon to your custome cms and read all pages first from end..whats the purpose of the page..than open the dbs take alook at tables than goto php codes and see exactly how things get done..
    hope that helps
     
    ankit_frenz, Dec 14, 2010 IP
  12. ketting00

    ketting00 Well-Known Member

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    #12
    I look at source codes (steal) from the other sites. Although PHP is a server-side script and renders in html in page source view, if you got the clue you'll be able to figure out how things work. This way will help you learn CMS pretty fast. But that's not guarantee anything.

    With the method, I can decipher how language function works on friendster.com in five weeks, after I give up on searching for tutorial with Google.
     
    ketting00, Dec 14, 2010 IP
  13. No User Name

    No User Name Member

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    #13
    Thank you very much guys.. I have already readed allmost 90% of all the cms system and I know how it works now, I have the big picture but yet I am not really fast on programming as my boss, but now I am going to get more on PHP OOP.

    its just one thing that is not really clear for me, its the function return() after reading about it and seeing examples I dont know why do we need to use it in a function!?
     
    No User Name, Dec 14, 2010 IP
  14. cazort

    cazort Peon

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    #14
    return() is used like in most other programming languages, to return a specific value as the value of a function. For example, if you wrote a function add($a,$b), then you would return($a+$b); and then the value $a+$b would be "returned" and substituted in whatever expression for add(a,b). It also ends the execution of the function, which can be handy.
     
    cazort, Dec 15, 2010 IP
  15. renlok

    renlok Well-Known Member

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    #15
    You cant really learn to program by reading books you just have to go though source code look up the functions and try and get an understanding of what it does
     
    renlok, Dec 16, 2010 IP