If you don’t know where to start, here are 6 great sites to learn PHP programming online for free.

PHP.net

The first place to look at is PHP.net. This is PHP’s official website. This site has everything you need to know about PHP. So when you definitely know that you want to create a website in PHP, start the tutorial and get busy.

Once you have learned the basic introductory concepts to creating a PHP based website, it is time to look at the user manual. Everything you need to know is there. Once you have finished reading, you should now be a PHP expert. If not, here are some other site links which provide you with the PHP scripting basics.

w3 Schools

w3 Schools offers tutorials for programming inPHP and other scripting languages, but we are going to focus on the PHP section.

At w3 Schools, you can learn the basics of PHP such as the syntax, variables, strings, arrays, selection and loop statements, how to use forms and much more. Once you have mastered the basics, you can then go onto the advance stuff such as includes, file uploads, cookies, sessions, and how to send secure emails.

The next section is to learn how to implement a database, which nearly every PHP website needs to have. This section looks at how to connect, create and alter a database and its data.

So you think you are done learning? Nice try. We still have heaps more to learn. There is PHP and XML, PHP and AJAX, and PHP and References still to go. Once done and you think you know everything there is to programming in PHP, try the online quiz, then attempt the exam.

Learn Programming in PHP Online

Although Learn PHP Online is not as detailed as W3 Schools or PHP.net, it does provide useful tutorial scripts on how to do basic things such as find odd or even numbers, learn the difference between echo and print, create email activation for registration forms and learn how to prevent SQL Injection attacks.

PHPBuddy

PHPBuddy contains articles and tutorials on how to do basic PHP tasks such as how to work with Sessions, and encrypting and protecting your PHP code, so it is worth checking out.

About.com:PHP/MySQL

About.com has a whole section on learning PHP and MySQL. You can learn about the PHP functions, loops, how to use PHP and HTML together, how to use time and calendars, create forms, use redirection, countdowns and simple math functions.

The MySQL section provides you with everything you need to know on using a database with PHP. Some advance skills include uploading files and using encryption. About.com also has free scripts and tutorials on how to send emails, creating a simple address book, calendars, login scripts and creating polls.

Tizag

Tizag contains everything you need to know about programming in PHP. It provides basic tutorials on how to print data to the screen using variables, how to use loops and if/else statements, how to use POST and GET commands, how to use strings, sessions and cookies. Although you may already know these from the other sites, it is still useful to check out.

So I hope these 6 websites help you to become a PHP master. When you do, please be sure to let us know in the comments.  If you have used these sites before or other sites that we might have missed to learn PHP, tell us your thoughts and comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Top 10 Professional Sample Code Websites For Programmers (28)
• 8 Websites Every Microsoft .NET Developer Should Know About (18)
• Learn To Code At Any Level With Google Code University (7)
• Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox (4)
• Top 5 Sites To Learn CSS Online (32)

For those of you not familiar with Microsoft.NET technologies, they represent a platform and set of tools that computer programmers can use to build very rich, interactive applications for the Windows desktop, the Internet, or even hand-held mobile devices. Chances are strong that one of your favorite websites was built using Microsoft ASP.NET.

1. CodeProject

I cannot count the number of times I have downloaded code from this site over the years. The quick and helpful articles always include a code download and are written by real world developers who give you straight to the point help for a particular coding problem.

Developers who submit articles to the website are not paid, but instead submit the article and code to get approval of the site’s community. The site covers more than just .NET and the Windows platform, so it is a good resource for developers that need to go outside of their normal skill sets.

2. DotNetNuke

DotNetNuke is an open source framework that developers can download and use to build their own web applications using Microsoft ASP.NET. If you are a .NET developer and you have not at least downloaded the code to look at it, then you really need to immediately.

The software has been through several iterations over the years and demonstrates some of the most efficient coding practices around. Even though the site includes a professional edition for purchase, there is a community edition which is free to download and very much worth registering free with the site to access.

3. 4GuysFromRolla

If you are a web developer, which let’s face it, most .NET developers are, then this is a must visit site. It includes articles that cover everything you need to know about ASP.NET and even includes a lot of information for ASP developers (because, believe it or not, there are still developers out there using ASP).

Over the years, I have had numerous problems resolved by looking at posts on their forum or learned how to incorporate some slick new feature using one of the frequently posted articles.

4. DevSource

As you can see from the image, this online development magazine is sponsored by Microsoft, but don’t hold that against them.  I strongly suggest subscribing to their free weekly newsletter, since it will keep you up to date on all the latest rumblings coming out of Microsoft.

You also should check out the DevLife column, which includes regular posts by the experienced and very down to earth, Julia Lerman.

5. DevX

Another online development magazine, this one is not solely focused on Microsoft technologies and tends to profile some really interesting and niche technologies.

I have personally written several articles for them since they are one of the only web sites that wants articles about robotics and speech technologies. Their near daily stream of articles cover everything from traditional .NET development to VB classic (yeah, because there are still some people doing that still).

6. MSDN Magazine

MSDN Magazine is for the development world what the Nature Journal is for scientists. It includes standards that every developer should be following. They are VERY strict on what content gets into this journal. An article in MSDN magazine is typically much longer and more in depth than articles in any of the online resources I have previously mentioned. But you can feel assured that the articles were scoured and well picked though before making it to print.

7. Channel9

This Microsoft resource is a must see for anyone that loves to watch videos about really cool technologies. The Channel 9 team goes around the Microsoft campus interviewing various teams and often offers a sneak peek of up and coming software and technology.

In addition to interviewing the folks at Microsoft, Channel 9 also talks to industry gurus outside of Microsoft.

8. ScottGu’s Blog

Scott Guthrie is the Corporate Vice President for the Developer Division at Microsoft and his regularly updated blog often features announcements not seen any where else.

Scott covers everything from .NET base class libraries to Silverlight. If you want to impress your developer friends with your seemingly inside track to Microsoft, this is the site to visit.

If you are a .NET developer and you know of some really helpful sites, drop us a note and let us know about them. There are tons of resources out there for .NET developers. These are just a few of my all time favorites, so we would love to hear of others that you like.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Top 10 Professional Sample Code Websites For Programmers (28)
• 6 Free Sites To Learn About Programming in PHP (19)
• Learn To Code At Any Level With Google Code University (7)
• Learn How To Write Computer Program with SmallBasic (16)
• Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox (4)

Now, thanks to the power of the Internet, there is a proliferation of websites where professional programmers offer these modules to the general public for absolutely free. For other application developers, these libraries are a goldmine.  Whether you write in VB, C, C++, C#, Perl, PHP, Ruby, or any other programming language, there’s a website out there where you can find such reusable sample code.

Choosing the Top Websites for Sample Code

Every developer has a list of their favorite websites where they not only search for free sample code, but they also take part in the developer community that exists at these sites.  Programmers often develop a very passionate attachment to some of these websites.

The following is, by no means, an exhaustive list of the best developer websites online.  Such a list would be difficult, since there are thousands of excellent resources throughout the net. The following is simply a list of ten of the best places to start if you’re looking for high quality sample code.  So please, folks, no food fights if your favorite isn’t mentioned. The following websites are listed in no particular order.

#1 – Programmer’s Heaven

Programmer’s Heaven is a huge online resource that is very much a community of many different programmers.  The site includes information, tips, and forums on languages like Basic, C++, Delphi, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Visual Basic and more. You can also search the site by application or platform.

Programmer’s Heaven has forums, blogs, articles, files, links and news for every single programming language listed on the site.  The size of this website is impressive, and the community is growing quickly into one of the largest developer communities on the net.

If you need sample code that’s not already on the site, just ask for help in the forums.

#2 – SourceForge.net

It goes without saying that SourceForge is one of the most significant open source communities on the Internet.  When you need to review sample code to learn how to do something, this is a great place to search.

From the main page, just click “Find Software,” and then “Development.”  The next page will astound you. You’ll discover an entire world of open source projects.

You read that right, that’s over 54,000 listings under “Software Development.”  If you find a software project that sparks your interest, and you can see how the software could be greatly improved, you might consider joining up with one of the many open source projects.

See the SourceForge overview for how this works. Open source is a way of life, and these coders take it very seriously.

#3 – CodeGuru

CodeGuru is also a cool site for developers. It mostly covers just Visual C++/C++, .Net/C# and Visual Basic. While this isn’t a huge selection of programming languages, the site is filled with articles that are far more comprehensive than your standard short forum posts that you find at other websites. CodeGuru offers useful explanations of how to accomplish specific tasks.

The example above is an article on how to load images from or save images to a database using Visual Basic. The article has quality screenshots and well written sample code.

#4 – The Code Project

CodeProject is a booming developer community that’s organized very much like a free article directory website, except in this case the content producers are actually programmers who are trying to provide the best programming articles available.  Most of these come complete with well written explanations along with the sample code.

The Code Project isn’t your run-of-the-mill resource where you’ll sift through the site for the code you need and then run. You’re likely to get sucked into the many prize competitions, surveys, articles, message boards, or even the job board. This community is a lot of fun and a good way to connect with other programmers with common coding interests. Before you know it, you may be tempted to write an article yourself!

#5 – DevX

No list of developer resources would be complete without a mention of DevX. This site is a massive programmer’s paradise – a huge portal to other huge sites covering the most popular programming topics such as Java, C++, Database programming, Visual Basic, Mobile programming and much more.

Running your mouse over the left menu bar, as shown above, will display the sub-communities that exist under the DevX umbrella portal. When I had a significant Visual Basic project to complete in 2001, this website quickly became my home away from home.

#6 – Planet Source Code

Planet-Source-Code is one of those websites that you hate to like, but you need it anyway. It’s horribly designed, with a weird tiny-font menu listing at the top and ads splattered throughout the page, but if you know where to click, you’ll find a huge library of very useful sample code. At the top right where it reads “To start, just choose:” select the programming language of your choice. The site covers most of the major languages. On the next page you’ll see many categories of sample code to choose from.

Most of the languages have search filter options, and as you can see here, each category has tens, and even hundreds of thousands of lines of sample code available.

#7 – GNU and The Free Software Directory

If your thing is Open Source, then you can’t miss out on the Free Software Directory that’s linked directly from the GNU home page. This directory is just an impressive list of free software within categories like audio and video, database, email, games, graphics, Internet apps, communications and much more.

#8 – Google Code

Google has also joined the open source crowd with Google Code, a site that offers mostly web based sample code within categories like browser apps, website ads, product APIs, and social networking apps.

Google Code received a honorary mention in the MakeUseOf article “10 Google Services that Get No Love,” by Mark.

As always, Google uses its standard format – a very clean and easy to use website where you’ll have no problem quickly finding exactly the open source code that you need.

#9 – DevelopersDex

DevelopersDex is another developers community that has rewarded some of the highest quality contributors with “guru” status.  The site is essentially a giant developer’s forum, currently approaching just under 50 thousand members. The site covers ASP, C#, SQL, VB, and XML.

Each programming category features complete subcategories such as FAQs, job directories, news, and of course forums and newsgroups.

If you’re a developer using one of these languages and you’re looking for a massive web portal to browse through, this is a good one.

#10 – DevArticles

Saving one of my favorites for last, DevArticles offers one of the most comprehensive directories of articles offering sample codes on the Internet.  The list of available software categories is astonishing, including like Flash, embedded tools, and even mobile Linux.

Clicking on any one of those categories turns up a list of useful articles complete with sample code and full descriptions.

Is There More?

This list of developer resources that offer quality sample code snippets is nowhere near complete.  The internet is chock full of resources, and everyone has a list of personal favorites, which often depends heavily upon which software languages you prefer, and what type of programming you’re doing.

Are you a regular visitor to any of the websites listed above when you’re looking for sample code?  Do you have any personal favorites that aren’t listed here?  Share your own favorite sample code resources in the comments section below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Install Firebug on IE, Safari, Chrome & Opera (22)
• Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox (4)
• Selected 25 CSS Applications and Tools (19)
• Notepad Programming on Steroids for Application Developers (19)
• 3 Windows Text Editors For Programmers (13)

PHP Speedy is a WordPress plugin that cleans up and compresses your code so that it can load faster. There are few technical configurations that you need to make, but it is definitely manageable, even when you don’t have any coding knowledge

The details…

There are many factors that can cause your WordPress blog to slow down. One of them is having too many javascript and CSS files in your site that choke up your bandwidth. This often happens when you installed too many plugins, or placed too many advertisements on your site. The more javascript/CSS files you have, the more HTTP requests that your site has to make and the longer it take for the page to load.

What PHP Speedy does is:

• Consolidates all the javascript and CSS and combines them all into two files, one for the javascript code and another for CSS (only applies for those files listed in the <head> tag). This includes all the javascript and CSS file introduced by any of the other plugins.
• Minifies and compresses the combined file and saves it to the cache.
• Removes all the javascript and CSS link in the <head> tag and serves the combined file from the cache to the readers.

With PHP Speedy, your site now makes less HTTP requests and serve a smaller compressed version of the file to your reader. I have used it on my site together with the SuperCache plugin. The result has been impressive. I am able to shave three seconds off the loading time, and that is a whopping 40% improvement.

Installing and configuring PHP Speedy

The PHP Speedy plugin is not found in the WordPress plugins repository, so you have to download it from the developer’s site.

Install the plugin just like any other plugins.

On the plugin setting page, there are several options that you can configure.

Javascript libraries

This is the part where it lists down all the Javascript libraries used by the WordPress software. Although it is unchecked by default, it is wise to check them all and let PHP Speedy handle them.

Ignore list

If you have javascript or CSS files that you don’t want PHP Speedy to handle, here is where you list them all down.

Minify Options

This is the part where you specify whether PHP Speedy should minify your file. As before, it is better to choose Yes for all.

Compression

I would strongly recommend you to use the htaccess or the WP-SuperCache plugin to activate the compression function for your server.

Expires header

The Expires header informs the server that the content is still fresh and the clients (browsers) should load the files directly from the cache. There is no need to retrieve the files again from the database.

Some limitations

While PHP Speedy is very useful, there are some issues that it cannot solve:

• If you are using external javascript of CSS files, there is no way that PHP Speedy can handle them.
• It does not support javascripts that use the document.write feature. In such cases, it is better to include that particular javascript in the ignore list.
• PHP Speedy only sets the expiration for your CSS and JS files. It doesn’t (yet) handle the images, which would further reduce the site’s loading time.
• If you are using @import syntax in your CSS file, PHP Speedy won’t be able to support it.

If you can live with the above limitations, then I am sure PHP Speedy will be very handy to you.

What other plugins do you use to improve the performance and speed up WordPress blog?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Wordpress Exploit Scanner Helps Administrators Scan Their Database For Malicious Files (10)
• How To Install Wordpress Blog Locally On Your PC (23)
• Wordpress.tv – The Best Wordpress Tutorials Ever! (9)
• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows XP Computer (Part 1) (21)
• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows Computer (Part 2) (14)

It is a tried and tested trio which works phenomenally well. Usually to gain access to this trifecta, you need to purchase hosting, and this hosting is usually run in a far away datacenter running on a Linux server. However, not many people know that it is available locally, and for Windows as well. You can use these services for running your own applications, and also for locally testing software you are writing, before uploading code to a production server.

WAMP stands for Windows Apache, MySQL and PHP. Compare this to LAMP, which is Apache, MySQL and PHP on Linux.

There are several ways to get these services running locally. Each service, by itself, has Windows installers. That being said – once the programs are installed, you need to know how to configure the services. That may not be simple unless you happen to be a system administrator.

We are going to focus on WampServer. In my experience, using WampServer is the fastest way to get up and running. Wikipedia has a nice list of all Wamp servers.

Step 1

Download the latest WampServer. As of the writing of this article, it includes Apache 2.2, PHP 5.2 and MySQL 5.0.

Step 2

Run the installer. It will warn you to uninstall WAMP5 1.x if you have installed that already. You can use the defaults and it should install without problem.

Step 3

Start the services. You will see a small icon in your taskbar. Left click on it (right clicking does not display the right menu) and select “go online”. The icon will then make a little animation, and your services will be online. You can view your homepage by going to http://localhost/.

Thats it! Wamp is now running. You are ready to install your application, or start learning some PHP! The public website directory is ‘c:\wamp\www\‘.

Any directory you create in this directory, shows up as a ‘project’ on the main index page.

Advanced Settings

PHP Customization

Depending on which type of program you want to install onto your server, you may require additional extensions that are not loaded by default. There are a whole variety of PHP extensions you can load that come built in, but disabled. Left-click on the Wamp menu, go to PHP->PHP Extensions and click off the extension you would like to reload.

You can also edit the configuration file, php.ini through the menu. Edit anything you need, and save this file. The most common edit is the memory_size, but there are many options you can tweak to your liking.

After making any changes to php, make sure you reload apache. I’ve learned the hard way that changes aren’t automatically pushed to the server, until it is reloaded.

Apache Customization

For you advanced tinkerers out there, you can tweak the apache configuration files to your heart’s content. Make sure after making any changes, to reload apache.

MySQL Customization

Depending on your project, you may need to create a database in MySQL. This can be done through phpMyAdmin, which is handily included within the WAMPServer install. By default they include no password on the root MySQL user, which is not the best thing for security reasons. I would recommend changing this password. phpMyAdmin can be reached via the Wamp Menu, or via the url http://localhost/phpmyadmin/

In Summary:

Don’t let the fun stop there. Install a blog and start experimenting with PHP and templates. Run your own Wiki. Run your own music server. The howtos on how to install some neat programs are coming in some future articles.

One of the greatest things about running a home apache server, is that you can use it in combination with a VPN (Hamachi) to access your server anywhere in the world, securely. You can even change your setup to host pages to the outside world, if you so desire.

There is no limit to what you can do! OK, maybe it won’t cook you breakfast in the morning – not yet anyway!

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or need help with the install!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Set Up An Instant Private Network With Remobo (20)
• How To Install Wordpress Blog Locally On Your PC (23)
• Speed Up Your WordPress Blog With PHP Speedy (18)
• [Quick Tip] Stop Pidgin Spam in Its Tracks with Bot Sentry (26)
• WinHack – How to Change the Windows Start Button (Win XP) (20)