PHP is highly in demand and rightly so. It’s the most widely used programming language for web development. Most of the successful websites are built using PHP, and there is no doubt that PHP is attracting many new programmers towards the server-side scripting language. If you are one of the enthusiast learners keen to pick up a few tricks about PHP, you are at the right place. This article will focus on the pathway an aspiring PHP professional should take to become an accomplished developer.
PHP Functions and Classes
Since PHP is very popular, finding out more on PHP core functions and classes will not be difficult. Take advantage of the many PHP manuals before starting out with your development. You will find out that these manuals will provide you easy answers to many complicated processes. For example, one of the things you can learn about PHP functions and classes is that you can use trim () function to remove white space that stays at the beginning and end of a string.
Start Using OOP
Object Oriented Programming (OOP) helps in minimizing long-drawn PHP codes. OPP removes the need for repeating codes and methodically uses class and Objects to tie things together. OOP is fast, cuts down of time taken to code, can be easily debugged and also uses lesser server resources.
Configuration File
Start using a config file to maintain and standardize your codes. While you are coding, you would end up having pages and pages of codes, sometimes making it impossible for you to locate some part of the code and edit something. This can also happen when you have your database connection setting scattered. To avoid all these unnecessary hurdles, create a config file which will act as a master file. Here all the PHP files will be available. If you want to make any change anywhere, you can do it in the master file and effectively change the settings in other parts.
Keep Error Reporting on
When you start developing using PHP, never forget to turn on two things, that is, error_reporting and display_errors. Turning these error reports on will help you identify the run-time errors you make. Do this at least 10 seconds before starting production. Knowing that you are making errors and correcting them is important if you want a functional site running at the earliest possible time. The faster you know about the errors, the quicker you can correct your mistakes. However, once you are done, not forget to turn off the error_reporting and display_errors settings.
Have a Few Favorite Codes
Don’t we all like having a few of our favorites always close by to us. Then why not have a few favorite codes close by too? Here we are not essentially talking just about the one-time project but about your soon-to-be flourishing career. During the long span of your career you would need to develop similar projects many times. For such times having code snippets stored helps. There are several apps that help you store code snippets, make use of them as and when necessary.
Use Frameworks When Needed
PHP frameworks are the latest craze for PHP developers and they come with a lot of promise. From reducing the time taken to code, to providing extensive libraries, APIs, extensions and plugins frameworks can work as your helping hand. Thus start using frameworks and see an improvement in your work. Initially picking up on the usage of PHP framework may seem difficult but for a proficient programmer it isn’t very difficult. Some of the popular PHP frameworks are Yii Framework, CodeIgniter, CakePHP and Zend.
Use MySQL Administration Tool
Speed up your database by using a graphical interface. If you administer MySQL database such as mysqladmin in the beginning, you should ideally team it up with phpMyAdmin. This will help you speed up database development and administration. Using phpMyAdmin helps to cut down time as you get to view things in a graphical interface and not go through the tedious command line. You can also use the phpMyAdmin to run SQL queries, check issues if any, optimize tables and much more.
Stay in Touch with Others
PHP is open source thus promoting a large community. Being part of the community and participating in forum discussions will help you learn more than you though were possible through text books and manuals.
We hope that these tips help you in realizing all your PHP-related dreams and in becoming a better PHP professional.
Author Bio:
Rohit Singhal is a writer/emarketer working with PixelCrayons, a web/mobile development agency from which you can hire php developers and avail open source CMS solution to better your Web strategy.