Member Avatar for dandixon

Can anyone recommend a course for a php beginner, ive been doing alot in html and a few bits of search and forms stuff in php which has all been self taught but i want to go on a course to confirm really that im doing stuff right

can anyone suggest a course, anywhere in the country is fine?

  • 2 Contributors
  • 7 Replies
  • 100 Views
  • 7 Hours Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by dandixon

Dani AI

Generated

For an England-based beginner (see ) — and following 's suggestion to check local providers — the best short-term goal is a hands-on course that teaches modern PHP practices rather than old tutorials. Look for a syllabus that pairs live coding with a small real project and explicitly avoids deprecated APIs (for example, any course that still teaches the old mysql_* functions should be avoided).

Must-have syllabus items:

  • Local environment and tooling: XAMPP/Docker, Composer, Git.
  • Core PHP: syntax, functions, basic OOP.
  • Forms, validation and sanitisation; file uploads and sessions.
  • Database access with PDO or MySQLi and prepared statements.
  • Authentication and password handling (use PHP's password_hash).
  • Web-security basics: SQL injection, XSS, CSRF mitigation.
  • Debugging, error handling and a simple deployment workflow.
  • Optional: brief intro to a modern framework (Laravel/Symfony) as next-step learning.

Reliable places to look (England and online): accredited or corporate trainers such as the BCS, commercial trainers like QA, university/open providers such as The Open University, and structured online platforms like FutureLearn or Udemy. Complement any paid course with the official documentation and short interactive tutorials: the PHP Manual and learn-php.org are useful references.

Practical next steps: pick one short intro course with clear hands-on labs, set up a local environment, and build a tiny CRUD project (contact form + simple login) while insisting the instructor uses PDO/prepared statements and password_hash. Avoid outdated content, prioritise security and repeatable exercises, and use Git to track progress.

Recommended Answers

All 7 Replies

Member Avatar for Atli

anywhere in the country is fine?

Which country? This is a international forum ;-)

Edited by Atli because: Added some info
Member Avatar for dandixon

sorry forgot, england please

Member Avatar for Atli

... There is something seriously wrong with the layout of this thread.
My second post somehow managed to be double posted on both sides of my first post. timestamped an hour before I posted it xD

Member Avatar for dandixon

yeah thanks ive looked on google but to be honest most of the websites are pretty old and its hard to tell which ones are good, i was more looking for a reccomendation

Member Avatar for dandixon

i dont know why this thread has gone weird, im replying and its says i said it an hour ago

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.