A roadmap for learning PHP
If You are are new in programming and don’t know what php is, this will be a quick help for you. 🥹
So, when I wanted to learn php, it was not because I want to learn php rather it was because I had to learn laravel as a job requirement. I knew It was crazy to think about learning a framework without any prior knowledge in the language it was based upon. But as I already worked with django framework, I was pretty much desperate. So, I went through a lot of things like google, reddit, stackoverflow and what not to have the best suggestion from people who are already proficient in php. And yes, I found a lot of paths and roadmaps. So, I wanted to list them all in a single place to find them easily when needed.
After all my research and hours of internet surfing, what I learnt is if you don’t have at least some understanding of the basics, learning a framework as a first step is a bit of overkill. But if you are coming from another language or you are an experienced developer, it might not be that hard. It’s hard to appreciate what a good framework does for you if you don’t have a fair understanding of how things are often done without one.
Whenever I am learning a new thing (except for a game of course XD), I like to go through the documentation first. So, as a starter to know what php is and how php works, documentation is all you need.
If You are not a complete newbie in coding and you already know how things work in OOP this will be a quick help for you.
But if you are quite new or you want to have an in-depth knowledge in php syntaxes, functions and other built in features of php, The following free tutorials from youtube will surely help:
After you have mastered raw php, you can try to do some beginners project in php.
- Laravel Project - Create Simple Student Management System
- Food Order Website with PHP and MySQL
- Laravel basic project
Remember, you need basic knowledge in HTML, CSS and javascript to understand and build these projects. You will also need a basic understanding of databases. Learning MySQL will be enough to start.
After you are done with learning basic php you can move on to learning a framework like Laravel, Symfony, CodeIgniter, CakePHP etc.
I am currently learning laravel. To learn laravel I can suggest 3 things of which 2 are free.
- Laravel documentation The official laravel documentation is a great tool in learning laravel. But following the documentation only might not feel straight and smooth. There’s a ton of things you might get confused about. So, I would suggest to follow one tutorial at least. The next two options are actually two tutorials of which one is free and another is paid.
- A free tutorial on Youtube
- A tutorial on Udemy
It’s paid but it goes on sale often.
Regarding this tutorial, I think I should give a little review as it’s a paid one. In my opinion, the instructor, Edwin Diaz is one of the finest instructor on Udemy. He teaches in a way that you won’t be able to move your attention from him. You wont feel bored and overall, the tutorial is good.
Here, I have offered a pathway to learn laravel explicitely since I am learning laravel currently. May be in another post I will write about Why I chose laravel at the first place. Also, if I find more good resources which helped or might help me in my php journey I will append those in this post.
Useful Resources:
- Mojipo.com A beautiful guide for becoming a php professional. Felt a bit newbie unfriendly to me.
- Detailed roadmap on github For someone with zero knowledge in computers, coding and how things work on zeroes and ones as well as someone with any level of prior knowledge in coding. You can start from any section based on your current skill level.