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New job PHP - Questions on where/how to start? GUI builder?

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:43 pm
by NB505
Hello all!

I have a new job doing PHP development with MySQL. I have experience with this on College level, not industry. what things do I need to study/know to get me to Industry level programming techniques??? what are some good applications out there to build quick HTML forms/pages on a professional level? also what books do you recommend to learn fast? any other advise would be helpfull!!?? I am a experience Java Developer, not PHP.

please help.

Re: New job PHP - Questions on where/how to start? GUI builder?

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:55 pm
by Benjamin
The manual is your best friend, on php.net. Get familiar with the array and string functions.

I'd recommend learning the symfony framework. Others may recommend codeigniter, cakephp and the zend framework.

There's lots of php, mysql books on Amazon. You can read the reviews to help pick out the right books for you.

I'd recommend setting up a local Linux development environment. Either on an extra box at home or dual boot.

I'm sure you'll get a lot more great advice from others on here.

Re: New job PHP - Questions on where/how to start? GUI builder?

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 9:12 pm
by NB505
astions wrote:The manual is your best friend, on php.net. Get familiar with the array and string functions.

I'd recommend learning the symfony framework. Others may recommend codeigniter, cakephp and the zend framework.

There's lots of php, mysql books on Amazon. You can read the reviews to help pick out the right books for you.

I'd recommend setting up a local Linux development environment. Either on an extra box at home or dual boot.

I'm sure you'll get a lot more great advice from others on here.
Great! thank you so much for your reply. just getting started with the right IDE and right directions is important. im just not sure where to go? is PHP 5 still the best version for production or PHP 6? im also used to Visual Studio.NET IDE, is there and IDE for PHP that is similiar to that? what anyone elses think? thanks!

Re: New job PHP - Questions on where/how to start? GUI builder?

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 9:30 pm
by NB505
what about the Eclipse IDE? how does that compare to symfony? do you think i should use Eclipse?

Re: New job PHP - Questions on where/how to start? GUI builder?

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 9:31 pm
by Benjamin
For an IDE I'd recommend eclipse pdt. Couple that with subversion (svn) and you'll be good to go. You'll more than likely be working with PHP 5+. Hopefully at least. PHP 4 doesn't have some of the cool features that PHP 5 has, such as exceptions, private, public and protected methods etc.

Re: New job PHP - Questions on where/how to start? GUI builder?

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 3:36 am
by onion2k
NB505 wrote:what are some good applications out there to build quick HTML forms/pages on a professional level?
Professional web developers generally code things like forms by hand rather than using an application for "drawing" them. Your form should be very basic HTML.. eg:

Code: Select all

<label for="name">Name</label><input type="text" id="form_name" name="form_name" value="Chris">
All the layout should be done using CSS. You should, in theory, be working with a designer so you might not need to worry about that.

Re: New job PHP - Questions on where/how to start? GUI builder?

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:36 pm
by NB505
Great! thanks for all your help guys. i appreciated it! im sure you'll be hearing more from me in the comming months.

Re: New job PHP - Questions on where/how to start? GUI builder?

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:16 am
by JAB Creations
Not to go against astions's suggestion of a framework though I recommend making sure you have a firm understanding of what to and what not to do, the order of things, etc before you begin to rely on frameworks. Frameworks like any other tool can be used effectively or ineffectively, for good or for evil. I think if you want to mess with frameworks first go ahead but if you don't have a good hold on the core language you could end up generating a lot of server load.

In example when you validate a form the absolute last thing you want to do is execute regex (regular expression) as it generates the most load on the server and you'd rather have the validation fail after minimal load is generated versus doing a lot of load and then failing any way. Reasonably minimizing the number of MySQL queries is important too...for example instead of putting an INSERT or DELETE query in to a PHP for loop and potentially executing a hundred queries you should construct a single query with PHP instead. Those are the sort of things you should know before you being to rely on a framework so if/when you do end up using a framework you don't end up blindly abusing it.

A developer with good design sense will also have the client (via JavaScript) prevent the visitor from offloading everything to the server...the less accessory and more critical functionality you can get the server to do the better you'll reduce overhead. So just because something works doesn't mean it works well. So if you get a piece of code that works (like a function) feel free to post it in the critique forums and ask if there is a way to improve the code. Sometimes there will be a lot you can do and sometimes it's negligible at most. You'll eventually start getting a feel for it.

However I've seen most employers utilize one framework or another so try to find a balance.

Also building your own site with the functionality you desire is a good way to practice, especially if you put your site out and let the public test it. That's pretty much how I've learned. Good luck! :)

Re: New job PHP - Questions on where/how to start? GUI builder?

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 8:27 pm
by volomike
Just want to agree with Onion2K here. I recommend at first you outsource your XHTML/CSS "GUI" (templates) to a professional freelancer or agency on the web. Find one with quality work that you can afford in your budget. Then, integrate your PHP. You'll have time later to analyze how the XHTML/CSS specialist did his/her work and learn from it.

Eventually, make a decision in your career. Do you want to be in the XHTML/CSS front-end business, or do you want to outsource? Do you want to do it all, end-to-end, or outsource pieces of it. For me, I wanted to be strong enough to do it all, but do realize that my design skills sometimes are brilliant, and sometimes they suck from an artistic perspective. That's why I use a design partner.