PHP newbie questions

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riversr54
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PHP newbie questions

Post by riversr54 »

First of all, I'm an absolutely newbie to PHP. Most of my web page work has been done using ASP.net(vb.net and C#). I have been asked recently to do some work on a web site that is all PHP. I'm looking forward to learning more about PHP and the developemnt environment but I'm confused at this point.

Here's my first of what I'm sure will be multiple newbie questions. I've done a good bit of digging around on the Internet looking for PHP IDEs. I currently have installed Eclipse.
The thing that I am missing is the GUI interface part of design in PHP. In Microsoft Visual Studio you design the GUI, then write the code to work with it. Is there a similar concept in PHP IDEs? Everything I've seen so far would seem to indicate that all GUI design in the PHP world is done using basic HTML components, i.e. "input type" components. Is that true? Or have I missed something?

Second question?
Is there a way using any available IDE to import an entire PHP web site, all the files, everything and work it from there? From what I've seen, it looks like Dreamweaver has that sort of capability but regretfully I don't have access to Dreamweaver.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
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pickle
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Re: PHP newbie questions

Post by pickle »

You're correct in the belief that the GUI is HTML elements. There are programs out there that let you design the webpage, then tie in PHP to work with it. Due to the fluid & flexible nature of HTML though, that almost never results in clean code.

Since all aspects of your project (except the images) are text files, you don't really need a special IDE to import them. Any editor that has a built-in FTP client should let you FTP into the site & start working from there. If it's a production site, though, you'll probably want to move the files to a subdirectory or a sub-domain before you start playing around. Depending on how flexible the code is, that could cause a lot or no problems.
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riversr54
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Re: PHP newbie questions

Post by riversr54 »

Thanks for the quick reply and good advice.

I just found out that I do in fact have Dreamweaver CS4. I expect that will make my life a little easier, but I need a book or something to get me started. Any suggestions?

Thanks again,

riversr54
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superdezign
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Re: PHP newbie questions

Post by superdezign »

Dreamweaver is a tool that allows you to combine the IDE with the FTP, as well as allowing you to visually develop HTML. However, many experienced PHP programmers (including myself) do not like using this tool. It is powerful, but it is also bulky and, at least in the past, produced clunky HTML code.

That said, most of these "experienced" programmers are aware of ways to keep HTML and CSS clean, and use multiple programs instead of one to do the job. This can save on computing power, as you only open what you need. I, personally, use Notepad++ for programming in any language. It provides syntax highlighting, which is all that you *really* need. For FTP transfers, almost any program will do.

In order to program in PHP, you'll first want to familiarize yourself with HTML. To make yourself a part of this forum's community, it'd be a good idea to learn how to combine HTML with CSS, and not use table-based layouts. It slows down your load times, and it also makes you look bad. ;) Also, in order to help yourself, I'd recommend not leaning on the crutch of Dreamweaver. It has its uses, especially after you get used to auto-completion, but, as you may have discovered in school, the more that you do yourself, the better you know it.
riversr54
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Re: PHP newbie questions

Post by riversr54 »

I understand your comments about Dreamweaver. I used it once several years ago for another project and eventually gave up on it. Since I have it, I'll have to consider the uses.

I was not aware that Notepad good do syntax highlighting etc. How is that done enabled?

riversr54
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greyhoundcode
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Re: PHP newbie questions

Post by greyhoundcode »

riversr54 wrote:In Microsoft Visual Studio you design the GUI, then write the code to work with it. Is there a similar concept in PHP IDEs?
The closest I've found to what you describe is Delphi for PHP, I tried it out a year ago and it wasn't my cup of tea, but that's not to say it's a bad product - as you might expect you can get it for free on a 30 day trial basis to see if you like it.

It's certainly close in concept to Visual Studio, you select various controls from a 'palette' (the Visual Component Library for PHP) on to the web page and attach event handlers along the lines of onClick etc.
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