New to PHP, where to start

[fbm]

Hi,

 

Ill try to keep this short and sweet. I'm new to PHP but have 3 years programming experience with HTML/CSS. I have become reliant on PHP programmers to develop any dynamic aspects to my websites and have decided to take the plunge into PHP myself in order to offer a better service to my clients direct from myself. I have worked with many open source systems such as wordpress, drupal, oscommerce ect so i have some understanding of PHP. I'd go as far as understanding the basic syntax. The biggest thing i have written my self in PHP is a small newsletter sign up form which stores the emails submitted in a MySQL DB and then i created a page in which my client could view the emails in a list. The code for this is probably not the best or cleanest way and i am now dedicating the next 4 weeks of my time to learning some of the crucial parts of PHP.

 

My goals are big but i need to start small so firstly a few of my end goal targets are

 

G1. A bespoke CMS which i can maintain and expand on myself as my knowledge improves.

G2. A bespoke Client Area which allows my clients to login to my site and view invoices or submit a support ticket.

 

These are my 2 main goals but i have broken them down into bite size chunks for me to learn step by step and pull them all together at the end to create my first dynamic system.

 

1. DB connection, is below the correct way stored in includes/config.php file?

 

Example :

<?php
$dbhost = "localhost"; 
$dbname = "dbname"; 
$dbuser = "dbuser"; 
$dbpass = "dbpass"; 

$db = mysql_connect($dbhost,$dbuser,$dbpass); 
mysql_select_db("$dbname",$db); 

?>

 

 

2. DB structure, i need to plan my DB table structure here, any helpful guides or advice in doing this this the correct way?

 

3. Create the admin area which will allow me to add simple text data using forms to start with no WYSIWYG editors yet Any guides or advice on where to start with using an admin area to import data.

 

4. Secure the admin area, now would be a good time to secure my admin area so need to know how to secure the admin area with a Username and Password. Further down the line i would look at multiple users with different permissions but to start with just a simple login form to secure my admin area. Again any advice or guides on where to start with this.

 

5. So now i have a DB i can connect too. I have a secure admin page which allows me to add simple data into the DB, now its time to pull that data out into a page readable to visitors. any advice or guides on pulling the data back out?

 

I think that should do me for now, i don't want to try running before i can walk

 

Thank you for reading my post. I have looked at many guides and read many tutorials but at some point during the guides i have read things start to fall apart so i want to learn the basics above first and move forward from there.

 

 

All the best

 

Rick

[revraz]

1.  Yes

2.  The MySQL area has good stickies on DB setup.

3.  Not sure on your question, are you asking how to use FORMS with PHP?

4.  Use your DB to setup Users and Roles.  Define your Admins there.

5.  Look at the MySQL and PHP Tutorial here on this site in the Tutorial section.