Diving into PHP: Where to start?

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
Hello everyone,

I've been utilizing the Joomla! CMS for over a year now, and am in need of an extension that isn't already available; as such, I figure this is the ideal time to dive (back) into PHP! So, I went out and downloaded the documentation for PHP and MySQL, got several good reference books, and a few video tutorials (courtesy of Lynda.com, which is an excellent resource, IMHO).

I've already built a guestbook and few other scripts to refresh myself on the basics and am currently following along with one of the video tutorials while we develop our own CMS from scratch; I think this is a pretty solid method of re-learning the basics of PHP, seeing the differences / changes that have occured over the last... Umm.... 3 or 4 years.

However, I want your guys' insight, too!

How did you start learning PHP?

What resources, websites, etc. have you found useful?

What allowed you to move from editing scripts to developing your own professional scripts? How did you handle this transition?

There's not a lot of tutorials that cover intermediate PHP. Most books, videos, etc. are either geared towards people that have no experience with programming logic or are geared towards advanced PHP. How did you move from one spectrum to the other? Trial and error? :hrugs::

I've been trying to develop my own extension for Joomla! since the beginning of summer and have yet to have any success. Obviously, when you build an extension for another web application, you start with PHP and insure that it works by itself, and then proceed into integrating it into the app.

And, yes, I have been trying that. However, the problem is that I still haven't been able to get it to work within PHP, so that sorta shoots down the hope to integrate it, doesn't it? :ighs::

And, for those of you who are wondering, I'm simply trying to develop a script to query an API, receive the response, format the resultant XML and display it. Simple enough, right?

No, not at all... I'm literally losing hair over this. I'm only 23 and I had a full head of hair at the beginning of summer... Ahem, I now have a receding hair line. Friggin stress, I tell ya. And, if this project wasn't important (allowing me to launch 16 websites once I finish this project), I would have moved on and have chose something else for my first independent project. But, alas, bosses and their priorities (at least they've been patient and understanding).

So, finally to wrap up, I just want to say that I'd greatly appreciate any insight, advice or other commentary that you guys may have to offer. And, I'd also like to thank you for bearing with my through my lamenting.

[eluser]crumpet[/eluser]
I am self taught at php and did it over about 3 months.
My advice would be - work on the projects you want to do. I did a little bit of general reading and watched the screencasts on CI by Eliot Haughin as well as on the main page. But then the best thing to do is just start writing what you want to write. Your best friend is google search. Try and write as much as you can and then when you come to a problem you can't solve - google search it. When you can't find it on google search - ask questions in a forum like this. Also use php.net constantly, the comments at the bottom of the pages for each of the function references are often extremely helpful.

I think the reason you are finding there are no intermediate resources is because once you know all the language constructs of php you just have to start figuring out how to put them to work for you. And no one can really help you to do this because everyone is coding their own unique applications.

Also search for other applications that implement the api you are trying to use, source code, blogs, forum posts, etc.

[eluser]mtbkrdave[/eluser]
I started writing straight PHP in 2001 when a fellow undergrad at RIT showed me the basics. I used it for several iterations of my personal web site, and started (but never completed) the construction of a PHP-based personal photo server to house and tag my ever-expanding image collection.

Several career changes kept me away from any sort of web development until this year, and in the interim I used (and continue to use) Wordpress for my personal web site. Just a few months ago, I had an idea for a new web site and decided to get the PHP ball rolling again.

It was tough, given that frameworks and the language itself have come a long way since the last time I wrote a line of PHP. I was used to procedural programming, but this tutorial helped me get up to speed with OO-PHP very quickly.

I threw together an alpha-level demo of my web site with CI in about 15 hours, and I was amazed at how much time this framework saves me. Things like database queries and inserts, that used to take a lot of coding to get working [poorly, and without regard for security] are now just a function call away.

Keep up the fight - I'm sure you'll get your code working yet!

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
Excellent advice. Thank you both.

[eluser]tdktank59[/eluser]
A few years back i picked up php by coming on board a project. I knew nothing but the basics of html and some simple css (fonts and colors lol)

The way i picked it up and got to where I am today was by working on making the existing code better... That however is not the case for wordpress etc... since its already pretty good. So i just fixed up the site, added new features etc... all by hacking at what existed.

My main resource was www.w3schools.com and then I got the "php5 and mysql5 bible" (its a big book) and i use that as a reference book to this day.

Theres many styles to learning php and each person has there "way". But what I recommend is to write it in Boolean first, figure out what you want to do then start looking up how to do it. Google is a GREAT tool and it can help a lot. also check out php.net for functions and what not. There are also some great examples in the comments section on those pages.