Hey, I'm learning PHP and I've always been the kind of person that learns best by doing. I could read books and sites about it all day but it's not going to stick unless I'm doing something with it. The little tutorials people create to do minor tricks don't do much for me either, they're never in-depth enough to get me to remember it. They also rarely describe everything they're doing.
I've figured out that I learn to code best by deciding on a project to do and then doing it. For my first PHP project, I want to make a guestbook. It doesn't seem too massive, but it'll also take a bit of time and explore several techniques and abilities of the language.
My biggest problem is that I'm not sure where to start. I think I will have an excellent understanding of php because it uses a similar syntax to languages I've used before so I really don't want to go through all the nonsense like "this is a function." Does anyone know of any sites that just basically lists a bunch of php commands and a description of what they do rather than a bunch of tutorials?
Also, if anyone knows of a guestbook tutorial, that would be cool, too. I want something that goes beginning to end, though. Not just "this is how to create a function that could possibly be used in something like a guestbook."
I know guestbooks aren't popular anymore, but like I said, I'm learning php and this seems like a good project to get my feet wet with.
Start off by visualizing the database schema. For starters I would create a guestbook table in your database and create the basic fields:
Guestbook table
id, userid, subject, description
User table
id, userid, username, password
Then begin your PHP script by adding a few dummy articles in the guestbook table, then connect the php to your database to fetch the results using mysql_fetch_array() and then output in a nice row by row table.
just kidding, the best way to learn a language not just php , is to find small codes and run them to see result and then analyse them back again and try to MODIFY them and do some retouch or add more , that will not just teach you how to code but creativity is the best gift after you learn coding, i strongly recommand websites that have biginner php coder , dont never jump to big codes it all come step by step will be hard to deal with but once you learn how to control your nerves about fidning bugs , then you will get it
a nice place to start with source codes planetsourcecode dot com and choose php , and look for examples that others did , as i said dont jump to big codes just start small you learn faster and faster that way
I don't. I tried to learn Javascript that way and could never remember anything once the tutorial was over. After a while, I just decided to make a big code that did a bunch of stuff. It took a little while, but I made it and got a much better understanding of the language that way than I did doing all kinds of little tutorials.
I also learned another language that way (I've never done C++ but I'm told it's very similar). I tried a bunch of different little things and could never quite remember stuff. After a while I figured I'd just create a combat code for an MMORPG and after a while, I had a working code. After that, I made a code for various spells, then another code for picking up, dropping, equipping, unequipping items.
I always seem to learn a lot better when I jump into something big rather than trying to learn with small tutorial codes.
I do agree with you on one thing, though. Modifying an existing code does help. I learned a lot by doing that, too. The problem with that is I can't find any large php codes to modify. Every time I download a script for something it's always several folders and files of all kinds of stuff and that's WAY too much stuff to dive into.
Thank you both for your responses. psalzmann, I didn't even think about the idea of a database for some reason. I'll mess around with that, too, then try this guestbook thing.
edit: two posts while I was typing this one. Thank you both for the links. I'll explore those now.
Yes a good way to get to learn any code is to make a big project and work out how it works and then you can keap that bit of code and use it in somthing else you will make then before long you have a lot of code that makes somthing big. there is a vid on how to make a basic guestbook on 3dbuzz.com its old but it will set you in the right way to making your own guestbook and making it up to date with php 5
Starting on a big project and coding it step by step is a good way to learn, but to be honest, you might not want to use that actual code online until you know a little more about PHP.
I don't know about you, but the first things I coded in PHP were full of errors and vulnerabilities. Since then, I've cleaned up my coding.
