Hi,

I’ve just released a new beginners video tutorial that introduces people to PHP sessions:

PHP Sessions Video Tutorial

PHP sessions are one of the most important mechanisms in PHP because they solve a fundamental issue in web application development: keeping state on a user.

If what I just says confuses you, no worries, it’s explained in the video.

This is video 1 of 3 on sessions.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killerphp.com

Once and a while a get an email question put to me that I think many others are probably wondering about the same thing.

I got this email from Jordan:

Hi Stefan,

I am very interested in learning how to program, specifically with php. I went through all you videos which are excellent!

My main question is, after watching your videos and reading some tutorials I now understand the concepts such as variables, arrays,if statements etc., but have still have no idea how to put these together to create a web application.

I know exactly what I want the site to do but just have no idea where to begin. Where do I begin, is there something I can purchase that will guide me?

The simple answer to this is to just start writing code. Understanding PHP theoretically, is only the beginning of actually truly knowing it. Once you sit down and start writing code, things will seem to magically clear up as you go along.

(more…)

The following video teaches the basics of conditional statements in PHP; specifically the ‘if’ statement.

PHP conditionals video tutorial

Again, this video is for beginners to PHP and programming in general.

Note to uber-nerds:

If anyone complains to me that this video is to simple, I might hit you with a theoretical article on how aspects (as in aspect oriented programming) can be used to injects meta-data into your objects, without polluting the model.

… Good old Java.

Stefan

I recently ran into the following error when trying to launch PhpMyAdmin from the WAMP icon tray menu:

phpMyAdmin – Error
Cannot load mysql extension. Please check your PHP configuration.

What does this mean?

In a nutshell, PHP cannot find the library (mysql.dll – on Windows) it needs to connect to MySQL.

How can you fix this?

1. Use phpInfo() to find out what php.ini file PHP is using. It’s near the top.
2. Go into your php.ini and enable the extension that loads the mysql.dll library.
3. Set your Windows ‘Path’ to point to the directory where the mysql.dll is sitting.
4. Restart Windows.

The solution (and more details) can be found in this video:

Tip: Try the full-screen mode for the video .. it’s pretty nice.

I hope you find this useful.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook (All around nerd.)

www.killerphp.com

Hi,

I’ve update my beginners tutorial on object oriented PHP adding steps 18-22.

Again, this is a code intensive article where I expect you to follow along with your PHP editors.

PS: if you happen across any errors/typos, please let me know.

More to come.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killerphp.com

Hi,

Within a WAMP installation, I ran into a little issue today when trying to change php.ini’s ‘display_errors’ property.

By default WAMP installs with ‘display_errors’ to ‘Off’:

display_errors = Off

… This is a pain-in-the-ass setting when trying to write new PHP code because errors don’t get displayed in the browser window; you have to go to the log file.

So like any good nerd, I popped open php.ini and made the change:

display_errors = On

Problem is that it didn’t work. I soon discovered that WAMP was using ANOTHER php.ini file on my machine!

Solution:

Run phpinfo() and look for the property: ‘Loaded Configuration File’

This will tell you what php.ini WAMP is using.

-

I created a video (with more details on WAMP and php.ini) for those who like to watch.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killerphp.com

A while back I wrote an article for beginners on database driven websites:

‘Database driven websites: what are they and how are they built?’

The article explains the basic concepts behind dynamic websites, with the idea of making learning PHP that much easier. If you’re new to the game (of PHP,) I would strongly suggest that you read this article.

-

In this updated version (available on PDF,) I’ve included a few new diagrams.

Download the PDF: database driven websites

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

I’ve read 20+ books on PHP and have watched many videos. One thing that I found consistent about all of them was how they were not ‘friendly’ to non-nerd types.

Why?

Probably because (most of the time,) only hardcore code-monkeys seem to be writing these books. That means either one of two things:

1. They forget WHAT made it hard to learn to program.
2. They never had trouble (in the first place) because they were … well, hardcore code-monkeys!

Fortunately for you, I was not born a hardcore code-monkey (I was hardcore in other areas …) and I still remember those tricky concepts that frustrated me.

With that in mind, I designed the videos to make learning PHP dead simple. In fact (from what I hear,) my PHP videos make learning PHP easier than any other source out there!

Yes, this is a bold statement, but the emails and conversations (from people all around the world) tell a story.

… I used to read and then delete the many comments and emails I would get. But a marketing buddy of mine slapped me off side the head, and reminded me that I should be posting these.

Check out some of the comments below.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

Hi,

It has been a while since my last post, my apologies.

But there has been a good reason for this and this reason will be revealed soon.

Sorry I can’t give more information, but I have to keep this under wraps until we go public.

Thanks,

Stefan

I’ve just posted a quick intro FAQ to AJAX at killersites.com and I thought that some PHP’ers might find it useful as well.

Stefan Mischook

So what is this Ajax thing I keep hearing about?

Ajax is actually an acronym which stands for Asynchronous Javascript and Xml. The term Ajax is used to indicate the main technologies used to build Ajax-enabled web sites. From a user’s point of view an Ajax user interface looks and feels less like a web page and more like an actual application.

The most obvious feature of this is usually that a user can do things that cause what they see in their web browser to change, without the whole page having to be reloaded (for example add an item to a shopping cart).

.. read the whole AJAX FAQ.

A quick podcast where I explain the basics behind what database driven websites are.

This podcast targets total beginners.

Database Driven Websites Explained.

From Killersites.com blog:

Recently a more practical way of classifying languages has come to my attention – classifying languages by problem-domain or in other words, context.

* System Languages
* Architectural Languages
* Application Languages

I like this list, because it really conveys a sense of practical use for a language. I’ve hammered out the details below
…

Read the rest here:

3 Categories of Programming Languages

With the recent rise in popularity of the Ruby programming language (largely driven by the excellent but not perfect web framework called Rails), I’ve noticed a little fear in the air … fear on the part of some people in the PHP community.

Will Ruby kill PHP?

The short answer is: no.

MY REASONING

Though Ruby and PHP are both scripting languages that make developing web applications much easier than it is, say in the Java world, they are very different beasts … each appeals to a different audience.

RUBY IS ELEGENT BUT COMPLEX

Before I go on, I want to point out that Ruby is a great language and I think it makes perfect sense for PHP developers to learn a little Ruby: it is always a good idea to learn other languages because it will make you a better programmer.

That said, I believe Ruby will not appeal to, or fill the need of most PHP’ers – Ruby can be a little too abstract.

JAVA NERDS LOVE RUBY

Ruby is attracting many from the Java world because it expresses very advanced concepts in a simple syntax – contrast this to Java’s (often times) kludgy and verbose representation.

Ruby appeals to the Java crowd because Java people have been trained to think in terms of large scale enterprise applications – regardless of the size of the project.

… These ‘abstractions’ (generally speaking) lend themselves well to larger projects.

WHY PHP WORKS

PHP is often criticized because it has both a procedural and an object oriented way of doing things. Some people think that this divergence (within the language), takes away from it … I think this is part of its strength!

Objected oriented constructs are great for creating cleaner designs that are easier to maintain and promote the possibility of code reusability. Code reuseability is an often touted advantage of OOP, but from what I’ve seen in the Java world, it is not achieved so often.

With OOP, there is a cost of added complexity and overhead – you simply have to write more code to do things when you do it via OOP.

PHP PROVES THAT NON OO LANGUAGES STILL HAVE THEIR PLACE

I would suggest that the vast majority of PHP work is found in simple projects:

• Email from a web page.
• Process a simple form and save to a database.
• Create a simple store with 10 items.

My point is, that for many PHP projects, OOP may be a little overkill.

WHY RUBY WILL NOT KILL PHP

In Ruby everything is an object (even numbers!) and the core language has very sophisticated constructs that need to be understood to use Ruby effectively – Ruby strength is also its’ weakness.

… I don’t see the majority of PHP users wanting to jump that deep into the world of programmatic abstraction – for most, there is simply no point.

Stefan Mischook