New to php

[Stefano Mtangoo]

Hello here!
I'm newer new to PHP. I haven't even started. What softwares and tools and Books that I need to start? I love simple web programming! One friend told me it is easier with XHTML and CSS but there is no place here for that Langueage. I think I need to study PHP!

Help please!
Steve :)

[jansson]

There is a good deal of books on the market, and I only have experiece of two of em'.
"Learning PHP 5" and "Programing PHP" from O'Reilly publisher. Both books is good book, although I
prefer the later. But that depends on that it is a bit quicker if you know the basics of programming. ("Learning PHP 5" is more suited if you nead all the basics thoroughly explained and want practice questions).

A list of a bare minimum:
*the php interpreter, either on your machine or at a host
*a web server, either on your machine or at a host (apache for example)
*a text editor ( I'm a 'vim' addict, but it's a forest to choose from)

Hope it'll get you started a bit at least :)

[ExplainThat]

Hello here!
I'm newer new to PHP. I haven't even started. What softwares and tools and Books that I need to start? I love simple web programming! One friend told me it is easier with XHTML and CSS but there is no place here for that Langueage. I think I need to study PHP!

Help please!
Steve :)

Your friend is misleading you. XHTML, CSS and PHP are not somehow mutually exclusive. You can get so far with client side technologies - such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript - and then find that you need to do some smart stuff on the server side to really make your site stand out. That is where PHP comes in. You can actually do a great deal without launching into PHP by making good use of SSI (Server Side Includes) but they are no substitute for a real server side scripting language. All that said, here are some useful links

The official PHP site with documentation, downloads and more
Has online tutorials covering the basics of PHP
A printable quick reference guide covering basic PHP

It might also be a good idea to join a good PHP forum e.g. PHPFreaks.

Apart from this you also need to test your PHP code locally. A simple way to do this is to install the Abyss webserver along with their preconfigured PHP 5.2 package on your machine. You will find everyting you need here. Finally, you need a decent editor for your PHP code. TryPSPad.

I should add that all the links and utilities I have pointed you to are free - there really is no need to start spending money just to learn PHP (or even ever).

Hope this helps. Some purely personal opinions that I am sure others will disagree with

• Your posting gives me the impression that you are new not just to PHP but to the whole business of website development as well. If that is the case you are better off taking things in steps. First create a simple static site, then add a dynamic element to it by using SSI and then jump into PHP.
• There is no dearth of content management tools and the like that purport to make website development easier. If I were you I would do things the hard way - learn CSS, HTML and the rest instead of just going shopping in the frozen foods section.

[Stefano Mtangoo]

Woooow Great stuffs! I will download and Start Learn. BTW I learn python Also.
Thanks a lot!!!
Steve

[Stefano Mtangoo]

Your friend is misleading you. ]

No He don't! He is experienced web designer. May be I'm the one who misunderstood Him, for I'm newbie with little knowledge of html. So where do I start sir? HTML,XHTML, CSS or what?
I want to become web as well as application programmer. I'M doing well in python but not much in web! I have also failed to run my script offline my firefox through abyss. Help please!!

Steve:(

[ExplainThat]

No He don't! He is experienced web designer. May be I'm the one who misunderstood Him, for I'm newbie with little knowledge of html. So where do I start sir? HTML,XHTML, CSS or what?
I want to become web as well as application programmer. I'M doing well in python but not much in web! I have also failed to run my script offline my firefox through abyss. Help please!!

Steve:(

Steve,

Here are a few general tips

• Pick a subject you enjoy to create your first site. That improves your chances of actually doing a good job with it
• Pick a decent domain name but don't let that become too much of an obsession. A great domain name with no content worth speaking of is of no use.
• Pick a decent host for your site. The one recommended by this forum is not a bad one though their pricing + service are far from being the best around.
• When picking a host make sure they allow you to run PHP5 scripts.
• Create a simple functional site using XHTML + CSS, get it launched and make sure you tell the search engines about it. It takes time for SEs to index your site and then serve it up in search results so no point waiting to launch until you have every last bit in place - it will never happen anyway.
• Use the SHTML or PHP extension on all your web pages. This makes it easier to make them dynamic later. My prefernce is to use SHTML and then call PHP scripts via SSI includes but there are other ways of doing this that are just as good. It helps to think ahead here so you don't end up having to make extension changes later and find you have to do extra work not to loose PR on pages that have already been indexed by SEs.
• In all probability your host will run UNIX/Linux. Be aware that file/folder names are case sensitive there. The best thing to do when doing your site and testing it locally using Abyss is to use lower case filenames. This will save you a lot of grief later.
• As you are building your site you will sooner or later run into the need to add a dynamic element to some/all of your pages. When this happens use SSI and/or PHP as appropriate. Perhaps your first requirement for this will arise out of a need to serve up common page elements - like your menu bar - from the single piece of source code which you will stitch into each of your webpages on the fly using SSI
• When designing your page layout think ahead - maybe you never want to go commercial but you never know. Check up on the ad formats offered by AdSense, AdBrite and the rest and design your page layout so you can put in one or more of these at a later date should it be necessary.

I can't tell you why you could not run your scripts using Abyss. Possible explanations are

• Your Abyss PHP configuration is incorrect.
• The path you are specifying to your script is incorrect.
• You are unwittingly using an alias that you have not defined in Abyss.
• There are errors in your script that is causing it to die.

In each of these cases your best bet is to start by looking at the Abyss log file to see just what it reports.

Enough help, I think, to get you launched on your new enterprise.

[sunitha.kalwani]

I think you are confused in choosing the programming languages... one of my friend he is expert in software programming he is familiar with many software languages but when i was confused like you while choosing the right application to learn he suggested me to take the PHP........

<snipped>

[peter_budo]

I have also failed to run my script offline my firefox through abyss. Help please!!
Steve:(

Steve do you have Apache server installed on your machine with PHP setup?

[ExplainThat]

Hmmm... Apache is a heavyweight solution. I suggested Abyss cos it does the job and is so easy to administer.

[peter_budo]

Apache is standard solution and very easy. Both PHP and Apache website provide good guides how to get both components setup. Then there is their forum, many online tutorials, numerous amount of books. If that is not good enought then there are friendly solutions such as XAMPP (Apache, PHP, MySQL and PHPMyAdmin instaled and setup in one go, ready to use)

[Stefano Mtangoo]

Hello dears,
Thanks all for your help! I have made wonderful progress!
Someone to correct me if I'm wrong:
You write pages using XHTML/CSS then Make them Dynamic by embedding PHP Codes!

Ok on top of that, I have written simple home page and want to embed PHP pages. I ahve named that home page as index.php. Then on left and right columns, I have put links to pages containing materials. Let say I have links to about_us.php and what_others_say.php: Question now is, I want when somebody clicks on about_us.php link, the page loads only on center column only with left and right columns unaffected. Can that be done!

Again thanks and God bless you for good work here!
Steve

[Stefano Mtangoo]

I Used WAMP and Netbeans IDE. I'm acquainted with XHTML/CSS and have no clue where to start with PHP. Does it look like Python or C++ ? I see alot of $ and Very confused Hlp pleas??????????????
Steve