First Encounter

n-gen

ok, here goes

ive never seen php, coded in it, made a database, dont have a clue what the syntax is like.

please please please

give me a starting point

what shall i install
what shall i learn
how do i learn the syntax
how do i write a database, and in what format?

ok, thats post 1, i hope many more to come

thanks

ClevaTreva

You need the monster install (Apache, PHP, mySQL and phpMyAdmin)

Go here for a darn good step by step tutorial. You may have to find the latest versions, but it worked for me (this is for Windows only):

http://www.webdevinfo.com/articles.php?articleId=41

Then start playing or follow some of the great tutorials online (just google for php tutorials.

I started by instaling a simple news script and hacked it to see how it worked, then did the same for a search script. You can learn a lot that way.

Trevor

laserlight

If you can get access to a site that allows PHP, you may not need to install anything other than say, an FTP client such as FileZilla

If you do wish to install, but arent familiar with your system, it might be better to use something pre-packaged.
On Windows I'm currently trying out Phperl, though mysql is giving me some trouble.
I have done the install ClevaTreva mentioned 2 years back on this computer, so those may be just some conflicts that you as a new user wont face.

You probably should get a book, or search for an online tutorial.
Of course, use http://www.php.net as a valuable resource.
The PHP Manual on php.net is especially useful, you should download it.

ClevaTreva

Originally posted by laserlight

If you can get access to a site that allows PHP, you may not need to install anything other than say, an FTP client such as FileZilla

I assumed he wanted to do his development and playing around offline.

If you do wish to install, but arent familiar with your system, it might be better to use something pre-packaged.

The trouble with these pre-packaged things is that the files are massive coz they contain all the apps you want and more you don't. By downloading the individual files yourself, each bit is saved so you can re-use it, whereas you can't extract the individual apps from the packages. Rather like buying a loaf of bread or the ingredients. But if you want to go that way, this one is good:

http://www.apachefriends.org/wampp-en.html

I'd go for the XAMPP mini win32 Version 1.2, 26mb version as a ZIP (I also tried the 7-zip version, coz I use that anyway, but it won't even open on my machine). I tried triad but it messed up big time.

Trevor

philipolson

One tip is to keep in mind that SQL != PHP but PHP has interfaces to many databases and most are SQL based (such as MySQL). Point is that learning SQL syntas is a good thing and here are three excellent resources for doing just that:

http://www.sqlcourse.com/
http://www.w3schools.com/sql/
http://www.onlamp.com/pub/q/aboutSQL

Here are some basic PHP tutorials:

* http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/2836/fid/51