New to php

[Drewdle]

Hey, I'm new to php and I'm interested in teaching myself. I want to do this by creating my own user and cms system but I am stuck on even the most basics and would like to be pointed in the right direction to learn these basics.

 

I'm going to use the php manual to get the gist of the code but when it comes to databases I am at a loss.

 

I want the user system to have permissions (to enable different access to different things), a messageing system, a content system, a support ticket system and a forum. All built from scratch with php.

 

I understand this to be a daunting task for someone like me but I wish to try anyway, the only problem I have starting is, what tables would I need to create for this?. A user table is obviously the main priority but would each system have its own table?

 

I mean I dont understand how to go about setting up tables for such a thing and how to call/check data in different tables.

 

Would it be possible if someone could help me by pointing me towards an article or tutorial with advice on this?

 

Cheers

Drew

[japesu]

I suggest that you visit your local book store and get a book for php and mysql basics. I've been programming with php for 10 years now and those things you are planning on doing feel daunting to me too Learn some basics first, do a simple program. For example user creates an account, logs in and asks for a price of some item which is then searched from the database and returned for the user - something like that. Just a simple one form query.

 

Also if you are unfamiliar with terms like xhtml,css, javascript you will need to take a look on those too.

 

http://www.w3schools.com/ is a good place to look into if you havent already and simply googling "php mysql tutorial" will give you more sites if the Internet is what you prefer.

[EsOne]

I'm actually new to PHP too. I can't really help much in any way, but don't let something be too hard for you. I would pick one specific thing at a time, and incorporate that and get used to doing that one thing first. As japesu said, something easy. As for tutorials, if you learn better by video, the money for a subscription to lynda.com is great. They have quite a few tutorials on PHP MYSQL. That's what I learned from. I started learning PHP a few days ago. A week at most, and I have already set up my first basic page that scrapes information from a remote source, reads it, uses data from it, and echos a string based on what information it finds. I also learned how to set up a script that will log IPs. Just really basic stuff, but it was very practical for what I was wanting to do at the time. The tracking IPs lesson I did (was actually right here in these forums a few hours ago) was the first time I made and used a database. Sure, the formatting looks sloppy, but it gives you a base.

 

tl;dr

 

Stick with it, and be excited about the new stuff you learn. Just pace yourself. Good luck!