PHP Programming 101

Google recently announced the addition of PHP to the Google App Engine; a move that makes sense with PHP being one of the most popular programming language nowadays. However, according to Google, the PHP runtime environment for App Engine “is an Experimental feature in Limited Preview.” This means that while anyone who wants to can develop and test applications locally, “only whitelisted applications may be deployed on App Engine if they use the PHP runtime”. Of course, this restriction will be lifted eventually, although when that will be exactly is yet to be announced. Google is accepting applications from developers who wish to be able to deploy their programs on App Engine, although sending in your application is not an insurance that you will indeed be whitelisted.

If you want to know more about using PHP to develop programs on Google’s App Engine, you can read the PHP Getting Started Guide.

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Programmers have varying tasks and responsibilities which depend on one’s chosen workplace and pursued specialization. There are programmers tasked to make new websites and programs that will be of benefit. These are often used for business and sales purposes which usually involve the company’s list of products and services, costs, and others. On the other hand, there are those programmers that are tasked to debugged issues and problems found in a device, in a form of technology, and even in the Internet. This kind of programmers are believed to be more experienced mainly because it takes a lot of knowledge and time to learn how to fix random arising problems in a given amount of time. Programmers could as well focus on inventions such as that of new software and new form of technology. In conclusion, it can definitely be said that the roles and responsibilities of programmers lead to convenience and undeniable benefits that almost every online user enjoys.

Programming skills, attention to detail, and capability of working under pressure are three of the most important requirements of becoming a programmer. Definitely, no one can be a programmer without enough knowledge and skills on Programming. This is why it is usually a requirement that one finishes a degree related to such profession and better yet, took extra classes related to Programming. Another, programmers must have that long attention span especially attention to details. Knowing that a program wouldn’t work even if one code is missing, then it is a must that programmers understand every aspect of the project, what needs to be done, and more importantly, which codes are needed to make a program or system work. Programmers can’t afford to miss out or even forget even the simplest detail of a code. Lastly, it is a must that one is capable of working under pressure mainly because programmers are most of the time given deadlines that strictly need to be followed.

Courses that usually result to a career in Programming are those focused on Information Technology, Computer Applications, and Software Engineering. It is actually a fact that these courses and related ones are the most sought after courses by incoming college students. The reason behind this are two namely the convenience and contentment brought by a programming career. Firstly, the convenience that it is known for includes the time required to work and the workplace involved. Usually, programmers’ tasks are considered to be convenient mainly because though they are always on-call, they can work in a place they find most comfortable. They are not always obliged to report to office if these problems become prevalent. Another is on the aspect of contentment. It is never easy to be a programmer knowing that it requires much skills and experience to successfully handle tasks and responsibilities but every work done by a programmer is worth it thus making one feel contented.

Programmer is one of the highest paid professions and as well as one of those that remain in demand. The reason behind this is simple. As long as the Internet and the online community as a whole remain progressive and needed and so is the need for programmers remain because behind the success of the online world are programmers that work toward making every aspect of it possible, visible, and beneficial to every user. Programmers are responsible for social networking sites such as the most popular Facebook. They are as well the ones that invent billions of websites that users benefit from until today. There are more to these contributions that make programmers even more needed. As long as those social networking sites, websites, blogs, and the totality of the web are being used as source of information and entertainment, the demand for programmers will always be inevitable in a society and with this; more and more people will strive to be one.

We have already discussed how important it is to test your code. This is true whether you use manual testing or automated testing.

Before you test for logic bugs in your program though, basic syntax errors that will prevent your code from even running need to be checked. While these testing for these errors can be easily done on your own computer, there may be situations wherein you need to compile and run your code via online testing apps/sites. For example, you might be on the go and have to use a public computer where you cannot install a program. So instead of writing the code all in your head, you can just use notepad and check for your code’s accuracy online. It’s like having credit card when you run out of cash!

The good news is that there are several good websites you can use just for that purpose. You can try phpcodechecker, which as the name implies is a free dedicated Php code checker. You can also try Code Run, which can run a good number of different languages including PHP.

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Any programmer knows that you need to test your code before it is declared ready. And while the coding part can wring your brains out, it is during the testing and debugging phase that things can really get frustrating. However, unless you want to be known for buggy programs, there’s nothing you can do but go through the testing phase.

One way to make your life easier is to automate the testing instead of doing it manually. This is especially true if you need to do exhaustive time-consuming test runs to run repetitive scenarios. Using automated testing will help you get more reliable results at a faster rate, usually meaning savings in terms of human capital and financial resources.

However, automated testing does require you to spend time and resources initially for the test programs are written. The more sophisticated the test program you need, the more resources you will need to spend on it. You can say that you need more than just basic programming skills for this. So before you do jump on the automated testing bandwagon though, you need to weigh the scope of your project to see whether you will really benefit much from automated testing or if manual testing will do.

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High education costs have discouraged many a would-be student from taking up college courses, afraid that tuition fees will land them in deep financial debt. While taking up a computer-related major may not be as expensive as pursuing a medical degree, expenses can still be too steep for many. However, if you wish to learn to program but do not have the budget to get enroll full-time in college, you can start by learning just one program at a time and see where it takes you.

Learning PHP is a good place to start since it is one of the most in demand programming languages in the IT industry these days. There are lots of free tutorials and budget-friendly courses for those who are tight on finances as well. Once you are well-versed with the language, you can then take certification tests to prove your expertise and use that as your credentials as a PHP programmers. You can then take your programming career from there, by getting more experience, attending trainings, and maybe even getting a full-blown degree eventually going beyond PHP to other programming languages.

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The popularity of PHP as a solution for websites with dynamic contents has created a huge market for people skilled enough in writing complex applications in PHP, covering a wide range of solutions. If you think you’ve got enough experience under your belt, you’ve probably already considered the idea at least once. However, simply knowing how to write good PHP scripts won’t be enough to make it as a successful freelance programmer. This post is a bit more abstract as it doesn’t cover programming specifically, but more general ideas that can help you get a better exposure for your skillset.

First, consider your weak points – this is crucial when aiming to be a successful freelancer. With a highly competitive market like the one we have, you simply can’t afford to lack in any qualification when it comes to writing PHP scripts. If your knowledge of database interaction is weak, you’d better grab a book on databases and dig in for the next few weeks – otherwise, that other guy who doesn’t write scripts quite as well as you, but knows MySQL by heart will keep getting the good jobs and you’ll keep treading in the same place.

Also, figure out what exactly you want to offer as a service – the applications of PHP are quite varied and this allows you to specialize in a particular type of design. Figure out what you do best and market yourself to that crowd – it’s always better to offer the type of service you’re best at (something which really shouldn’t even need mentioning, but somehow keeps getting ignored by many people).

So you know the basics of PHP coding, and you’re really keen on trying out your new-found knowledge and skills; that’s all and good, but who said that you always have to build everything from scratch.

One of the best things about PHP is that its popularity means that there’s a plethora of ready-made scripts and programs that you can get on the Internet (both free and paid), which you can use for your particular need. Take the smart route when programming with PHP and save yourself the trouble of coding everything so that you can focus on problems and/or apps that really need to be coded from scratch.

Just make sure that the PHP scripts you get online have a license that will allow you to make modifications or can be embedded as part of your bigger code if you need to use it that way. A lot of PHP scripts like financial tools scripts are copyrighted so make sure you don’t get in trouble just for overlooking legalities.

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