Blogs, social networks, customizable homepages... In recent years, websites have gained loads of new features — and with that, they've also gotten a lot more complex.

Gone are the days of the "personal web page"! That was a time when you could get away with building a static, three page, super simple site. A bit of text, a few images — bam, your personal site was up and running. This isn't the 1990s!

People want action 😡 Things have to move!

We expect websites to be alive and constantly updated. We want the latest news right there on the homepage, we want to leave comments, chat on forums — in short, we want to be part of the site's ecosystem.

That's exactly what the PHP language was built for: creating "living" websites — what we call dynamic sites. And if you're looking to learn how to build your own dynamic web projects, you're in luck: you've just landed on the best beginner-friendly PHP course!

The most important thing is to read each chapter in order, from start to finish. After that, everything will start to click — and before you know it, you'll be surprising yourself with what you can create! :)

• Creating interactive chat rooms, comment sections or even entire forums
• Handling variables and passing them from one page to another
• Storing user information in a database, in order to provide a fully customizable member area
• And so much more that you will learn in this tutorial...

Ready to start building your first dynamic website in PHP and MySQL? Let's go!

Part 1 - Basic PHP Coding

We must all start somewhere, so we might as well begin with the basics. The fundamentals. The very simple, easy and fun. What is PHP, how to display text, creating and editing variables... Discover everything about beginner level PHP coding in this first part of the course.

• Chapter 1

  ---

  Introduction to PHP

  • What is PHP?
  • How Does a Website Work?
  • The Languages of the Web
  • What Are the Alternatives?
  • Installing PHP on your Computer
• Chapter 2

  ---

  First Steps with PHP

  • Creating a PHP Page
  • PHP Tags
  • Displaying Text
  • Comments in PHP
• Chapter 3

  ---

  Variables in PHP

  • What is a variable?
  • Assigning a value to a variable
  • Displaying and concatenating variables
  • Doing Basic Math on Variables
• Chapter 4

  ---

  PHP and Conditions

  • The Basic Structure: If... Else
  • Multiple Conditions and Elseif
  • The Switch Alternative
  • Ternary Operators, conditions on a diet

Part 2 - Advanced PHP Stuff

Now that you've got the basics down, we can dive into more practical stuff. PHP was designed to help you pass information from one page to another as a visitor browses your site. That's how you can, for example, remember their username throughout the session, or handle and process the data they submit in forms. In this part of the tutorial, you'll finally start having real interactions with your users!

• Chapter 1

  ---

  Loops in PHP

  • The Theory Behind Loops
  • A Simple Loop: while
  • Variables in Loops
  • A More "Complex" Loop: for
• Chapter 2

  ---

  PHP and Functions

  • What is a function?
  • Using Functions in PHP
  • PHP's Ready-to-Use Functions
  • Creating Your Own Functions
• Chapter 3

  ---

  Learn to Use Arrays in PHP

  • Introduction to Arrays
  • Indexed Arrays
  • Associative Arrays
  • Looping Through an Array
  • Searching in an Array
• Chapter 4

  ---

  Including Pages with PHP

  • The Concept of Inclusion
  • The include Function
  • Page Inclusion Example
  • PHP Include Best Practices

Part 3 - Using MySQL Databases

In PHP, working with a database makes everything so much easier. A database is an essential tool that lets you store data in a clean, efficient, and organized way. Everything you want to save on your site ends up in a database — member lists, forum posts, news updates, you name it.

• Chapter 1

  ---

  Introduction to Databases

  • MySQL... who's that?
  • SQL and Databases
  • The Structure of a Database
  • Where is this data actually stored?
• Chapter 2

  ---

  Reading Data from a Database

  • Connecting to the Database in PHP
  • Retrieving Data
  • Selection Criteria
  • Building Queries with Variables
• Chapter 3

  ---

  Writing Data to a Database

  • INSERT: Adding Data
  • UPDATE: Editing Data
  • DELETE: Removing Data
  • Wrapping Up on Databases
• Chapter 4

  ---

  SQL Functions

  • Scalar Functions
  • A Few Handy Scalar Functions
  • Aggregate Functions
  • A Few Useful Aggregate Functions
  • Grouping Data with SQL
• Chapter 5

  ---

  Joins Between Tables

  • Modeling a Relationship
  • What's a Join?
  • Inner Joins
  • Outer Joins

Part 4 - Going Even Further with PHP & MySQL

Think you've learned it all? Not even close... Get ready to see what PHP and MySQL are really capable of! Here you will learn about the most advanced concepts of modern dynamic website building.

• Chapter 1

  ---

  Passing Data to Another Page

  • Sending Parameters Through the URL
  • Retrieving Parameters in PHP
  • Never Trust Incoming Data
  • Handy Security Measures
• Chapter 2

  ---

  Sending Data with Forms

  • Creating the Form's Foundation
  • Form Elements
  • Never Trust User Input
  • Uploading Files
• Chapter 3

  ---

  Superglobal Variables, Sessions and Cookies

  • Superglobal Variables
  • Sessions in PHP
  • Cookies in PHP
  • More on cookies and sessions
• Chapter 4

  ---

  Reading and Writing to Files

  • Allowing File Access (chmod)
  • Opening and Closing a File
  • Reading from a File
  • Writing to a File

Part 5 - Beyond PHP Mastery

Even more advanced stuff. Only the most hardcore PHP coders ever get to here. Good luck with this part :)

• Chapter 1

  ---

  Regular Expressions (Part 1/2)

  • Where and how do you use a regex?
  • Simple regex searches
  • Character Classes
  • Regex Quantifiers
• Chapter 2

  ---

  Regular Expressions (Part 2/2)

  • A Word About Metacharacters
  • Shorthand Regex Classes
  • Building a Full-Fledged Regex
  • Capturing and Replacing in PHP
• Chapter 3

  ---

  Object-Oriented Programming in PHP (1/2)

  • What is an object in PHP?
  • Classes and objects in action
  • Creating a Class
  • Building an Object from a Class
• Chapter 4

  ---

  Object-Oriented Programming in PHP (2/2)

  • Constructor, Destructor, and Other Special Functions
  • Inheritance in PHP
  • Class Access Rights
  • Encapsulation in OOP

This is the end of this tutorial on learning how to build dynamic websites with the PHP language and MySQL databases.

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