PHP Development Bootcamp: Zero to Mastery

PHP is one of the most approachable and versatile programming languages available, making it an excellent choice for anyone interested in a career in web development.

Its user-friendly nature for beginners combined with robust capabilities for creating complex applications positions it as a highly desirable skill in the tech industry.

Diving into PHP will unlock a variety of opportunities in web development, freelance work, and beyond. Additionally, it lays a solid foundation for mastering other web technologies and frameworks.

By enrolling today, you'll gain access to our vibrant online community classroom on Discord, where you can connect and learn with thousands of peers, past students, mentors, TAs, and instructors.

What is PHP and Why Should You Care?

PHP is a popular open-source scripting language. What sets it apart is that unlike client-side languages like JavaScript, PHP runs on the server, making it essential for backend web development. You can leverage PHP to handle form submissions, create dynamic web pages, or manage cookies. It's particularly friendly to beginners, yet powerful enough to tackle complex projects.

Reasons to Master PHP

PHP plays a vital role in web development, paving the way for various job opportunities, especially in the digital realm. Web developers use PHP to build and manage websites, emphasizing server-side logic, database interaction, and the integration of frontend elements created by other developers. PHP is also the driving force behind popular content management systems like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla, allowing developers to create themes, plugins, and custom solutions. Furthermore, as a widely recognized language in freelance markets, PHP opens doors to numerous freelancing opportunities.

Here’s What You’ll Explore in This PHP Bootcamp:

Let’s break down everything you’ll dive into during this PHP course:

Section 1: IntroductionWe'll kick things off by exploring what PHP is and why it’s worth your time. By the end of this section, you'll be ready to set up your environment in Repl.it to start coding in PHP.

Section 2: Data HandlingHere, we’ll focus on variables and how to manipulate them. We’ll cover basic data types like numbers, strings, and booleans. After that, we’ll delve into various operators and the significance of operator precedence.

Section 3: Implementing LogicLearn how to steer program flow with conditional statements, match expressions, and switch statements. You’ll also explore loops and functions, enabling you to write your own functions with parameters and return values.

Section 4: PHP Challenges for BeginnersTo reinforce what you've learned, you’ll tackle several exercises complete with explanations.

Section 5: Bridging GapsWe’ll wrap up some essential topics before diving into advanced concepts like variadic functions, constants, and file inclusions. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to navigate PHP's documentation to discover new functions post-course. We’ll finish up discussing file system interactions.

Section 6: More PHP ChallengesYou'll tackle additional challenges designed to sharpen your PHP abilities, pushing you to research online for solutions and acquaint yourself with unfamiliar functions.

Section 7: Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)Dive into object-oriented programming by examining its core principles: encapsulation, abstraction, inheritance, and polymorphism. PHP has numerous features to work with classes, including traits, namespaces, method overriding, interfaces, and anonymous classes. While crafting your own PHP classes, we will also look into some of PHP's built-in classes, like DateTime.

Section 8: OOP ChallengesEngage with challenges that require you to employ OOP strategies for solutions.

Section 9: Master Project: Framework FoundationEmbark on creating the master project for this course focused on building an expense tracking application. During the setup phase, you’ll install PHP on your machine alongside a database, Composer, and Git.

Section 10: Master Project: RoutingDevelop a custom router within our framework to handle requests and deliver the correct response based on the path. This will involve using regular expressions to address dynamic paths and instantiate classes dynamically.

Section 11: Master Project: Template EngineCraft a custom template engine that separates templates and renders HTML using PHP. We’ll also ensure data security by escaping it and utilizing an output buffer to hold the HTML until PHP completes execution.

Section 12: Master Project: Containers and Dependency InjectionUnderstand how to supply dependencies to controllers. We’ll build a custom container capable of identifying and locating dependencies. By leveraging PHP's reflection API feature, we’ll analyze a class’s dependencies and apply this logic to middleware to improve code organization.

Section 13: Master Project: Form ValidationDesign a class for custom validation. You’ll tackle validating various fields, from emails to numeric inputs, and establish a system to display error messages for later requests. Importantly, you'll learn about the PRG (Post-Redirect-Get) technique for effective form handling.

Section 14: Introduction to MySQLWe’ll momentarily step away from the master project to explore MySQL, learning how to correctly perform queries, sanitize inputs, and delve into data modeling before deciding on a database design.

Section 15: Master Project: User Registration and AuthenticationReturn to the Master Project and focus on inserting users into our database and authenticating them in the system. You'll learn critical security practices like hashing, encryption, session management, CSRF handling, and route protection, all while integrating these features into your template for dynamic content rendering based on user authentication status.

Section 16: Master Project: CRUD OperationsDiscover how to create relationships between data by enabling transaction management. Users will have the ability to create, read, update, and delete data while having the option to sort and filter information from a dashboard, complete with pagination. Additionally, we’ll adjust our router to allow HTTP method overrides for form submissions.

Section 17: Handling File UploadsLearn the ins and outs of file uploads. On the server side, you’ll validate uploads by checking file types, size, and names. We’ll implement extra precautions to guarantee that users can only access their own files.

Section 18: Master Project: Additional TopicsWe’ll address further considerations or topics applicable to our master project. You’ll learn about making development smoother with magic numbers, clearing session cookies, and crafting 404 pages for non-existent routes.

Section 19: Master Project: DeploymentIt’s time to showcase your project to the world! You’ll learn how to use SSH to connect to a server, execute commands to install packages, and upload your project using Git.

Bonus: Like all Zero To Mastery courses, this one is a dynamic, continuously evolving resource. It will always be updated and expanded, ensuring you have a reliable guide to the latest PHP best practices as you progress in your career.

What’s the Final Takeaway?

This course isn’t about mindlessly following along, leaving you uncertain about your next steps after completion.

Instead, you’ll be challenged and motivated to transform from a novice to a top-tier PHP developer 💪.

And you have absolutely nothing to lose.

Start your learning journey now, and if this course doesn’t meet your expectations, we offer a 100% refund within 30 days—no strings attached.