One of the most exciting programming languages at the moment is PHP, or Hypertext Preprocessor. The server-side language currently powers more than 80% of the web. It has garnered plenty of attention from skilled coders as its ecosystem is constantly changing and evolving.
The Internet is full of PHP blogs for both beginners and more advanced coders looking to develop their skills in a language that is in high demand in the workplace. The language is interpreted, not compiled, which means that it is executed in run-time.
This means that there is no slow compilation step, allowing you to instantly see changes you make in code. Plus, it has a quick feedback loop that makes PHP one of the speediest languages to use and perfect.
Here are some of the best PHP blogs and YouTube channels out there:
Stefan Mischook runs the Killer PHP blog, which is designed to teach non-nerds how to code in the language. The site values quality over quantity as Mischook only releases one or two blogs per month. Killer PHP will teach you the basics of the language, which includes articles and video tutorials that begin with how to install the language on your computer. You will get everything from how to write your first PHP script to developing loops and processing HTML forms. Mischook recommends that you learn Python in order to learn PHP with more ease.
This site pares down how to use PHP to the essentials. It consists mostly of tutorials with clearly-defined steps on how to do a variety of things with the language. You’ll learn how to send emails in PHP using Swift mailers, the authentication and authorization service of the language, the PHP coding standards and information on why WordPress uses PHP.
SitePoint’s PHP blog is one of the most visited blogs on the topic that you’ll find. The Australia-based site covers everything from APIs within the language to frameworks, development environment, security, performance and scaling, as well as debugging. It has some intermediate posts as well, teaching you how to use background processing to speed up load page times, among other topics.
Those who are starting out are set to benefit most from this site, but advanced users also follow this blog. The Zend Blog reports on the latest PHP trends, as well as the best practices in a world that consists of the web, the cloud, and app development. You will also learn basic programming lessons, including information on the correlation between the code’s performance and the user experience.
This site offers plenty of content, publishing about 4 posts per week on the latest PHP news, protocols and frameworks. The blog features guest posts from skilled programmers such as Rob Allen, including tutorials on how Fractal can optimize your APIs.
Ircmaxell is another solid PHP blog that focuses on how to enhance your coding experience with cutting-edge programming practices. You’ll also get information on the latest vulnerabilities in PHP and WordPress, as well as ways that site owners, hosts and plugin developers can protect their code further.
Matt Stauffer will teach you some basic PHP concepts, such as how to work with Google Spreadsheets in PHP, but the site’s mostly geared towards advanced coders. From defining console commands to creating custom annotations for PHPUnit and updates on the language’s caches, there’s plenty of value to be found in this site.
One of the best PHP blogs you’ll find on the language is PhpStorm Blog, offering you integrated development environment (IDE) pieces on a variety of topics. The blog covers Rename refactorings, code completions, coding productivity orientation and other useful tools to help you hone your coding skills.
Also known as PHP Academy, CodeCourse offers lengthy and comprehensive coding tutorials for visual learners. The channel even has playlists that help guide you through every step of the process, beginning with the installation of PHP all the way to the language’s basic functions such as building an image gallery.
Joseph Smith runs this channel, which offers web design and development tutorials on PHP, HTML and CSS. The site teaches you everything you need to know to get started with PHP, such as its data types, superglobals, functions and pagination.
Derek Banas has amassed more than 800,000 subscribers as his videos are simple and intuitive. His videos receive over 30 million views per month thanks to how accessible they are. Here you’ll learn PHP’s relationship with HTML, arrays, looping and expressions.
With Brad Hussey’s site, you will learn more than just the basics of PHP as he also shares news on the topic, as well as information on free seminars you can find online to advance your career with the language. His videos are short and to the point, consisting of lessons that are similar to lessons you would take in an academic setting. Hussey teaches the essentials to code dynamic websites with PHP, including string operators, comparison operators, and logical operators.
Don’t be fooled by the fact that PHP Roundtable only has 2,000+ subscribers as the channel is relatively new, but is full of useful PHP tips. As the name suggests, the channel offers roundtable discussions with several professionals in the field that run from 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes. Here you’ll get detailed information on PHP static analysis, a deep dive on PHP 7’s source code, and character encoding in PHP.
Talented web developer Jesse Boyer is the face of this channel, which covers a variety of topics from PHP to Python and WordPress. He’s a jack of all trades and he’s very good at what he does. In the PHP side of things, you’ll learn dependency injector containers, file logger tutorials, and abstract classes lessons.
Dave Hollingworth’s page has some beginner lessons, but the site mostly consists of content for more advanced coders. His YouTube channel teaches you how to generate unique, random tokens in PHP, as well as secure hashes, object oriented PHP tutorials, and common mistakes when writing code with PHP.
Much like plenty of the aforementioned PHP blogs and YouTube channels, thenewboston has created very detailed tutorials on PHP that begin with the installation of the language. However, the site’s playlists can be as lengthy as 200 videos long, beginning with the basics and moving all the way up to more advanced PHP practices. The site teaches you about constants, classes, properties, methods, and custom exceptions.
As the backbone of a large chunk of the web, WordPress, and other CMS applications, PHP is one of those languages that’s here to stay. The language may not be the simplest one out there, but it is a good stepping stone for coders looking to expand their skill set and improve their career prospects.
There’s plenty of great PHP content out there for coders of all experience levels, from beginner sites that dumb the language down for you to more advanced blogs for those looking to keep up. Many of these sites show you what the code looks like, followed by what the finished product looks like.
PHP is one of the most intuitive languages out there and it is how many of today’s generation of coders got their start. The language is exciting as its ecosystem is constantly changing and there’s no telling how much you can achieve with PHP.
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