1 | Introduction to PHP Programming for Beginners | 2023 | Learn PHP Full Course for Beginners

Summary

This PHP course introduction targets beginners, aiming to demystify PHP's basics and its application in web development. The instructor emphasizes a gradual learning curve, starting with foundational PHP concepts before advancing to databases and security. Despite PHP's reputation as a server-side language, it remains dominant in web development, with 78% of websites using it. The course will avoid overwhelming beginners with security details early on, focusing on PHP fundamentals first. It will not cover frameworks like Laravel, prioritizing core PHP knowledge.

Takeaways

• 😀 The course is designed to be beginner-friendly, aiming to make PHP accessible to those new to programming.
• 🎓 PHP, which stands for 'PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor', is a recursive acronym and is primarily used for web development.
• 🌐 PHP is a server-side language, meaning the code runs on the server and is not visible to the client's browser.
• 🔍 Despite myths of PHP being 'dead', it powers over 78% of websites, indicating its dominance in the backend language space.
• 🚀 The course will start with basic PHP concepts and gradually introduce more complex topics like databases and security.
• 🛠 Learning PHP is recommended for anyone looking to specialize in web development, and it's particularly useful for those planning to use WordPress.
• 📚 Documentation for each lesson will be provided to allow for deeper understanding and reference.
• 🔑 The course will initially focus on procedural PHP programming before delving into object-oriented programming.
• 🏗️ Frameworks like Laravel will not be covered in this beginner course to avoid overwhelming new learners with too much information at once.
• 💻 The next step in the course is setting up PHP and installing a local server, a common practice for web developers.

Q & A

What is the main goal of the PHP course mentioned in the script?

The main goal of the PHP course is to make it beginner-friendly, ensuring that people who have never done PHP before, and might find programming languages intimidating, can get into the course without feeling overwhelmed.

Why might PHP be intimidating for beginners?

PHP might be intimidating for beginners because it is their first programming language, and it's quite normal to find any programming language intimidating when starting out.

What does PHP stand for and what is its primary use?

PHP stands for hypertext preprocessor, and it is primarily used for making websites. However, it can also be used for other purposes such as creating desktop applications.

How does PHP differ from HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in terms of where it runs?

PHP is a server-side language, meaning it runs on the server of a website and not inside the client, which is the browser. In contrast, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript run inside the browser.

What percentage of websites use PHP as their backend language as of 2023?

As of 2023, more than 78% of websites use PHP as their backend language.

Why do some people consider PHP to be a 'dead' language?

Some people consider PHP to be a 'dead' language because it is mainly used for web development, whereas other languages like Python can be used for a broader range of applications. However, PHP is still dominant in web development.

Which popular websites and platforms use PHP?

Popular websites and platforms that use PHP include Facebook, Wikipedia, and WordPress, which is a content management system.

How does the course approach the learning of PHP?

The course starts with beginner-friendly, procedural PHP programming and gradually becomes more advanced. It also emphasizes the importance of learning theory before moving on to practical examples.

What are the three categories the course divides PHP learning into?

The course divides PHP learning into three categories: the actual PHP language, learning about databases and how to manipulate them, and security.

Why does the course choose to focus on PHP before diving into security?

The course focuses on PHP before security to prevent beginners from becoming overwhelmed. Security is a crucial aspect of PHP, but it is introduced later in the course to allow for easier digestion of the material.

Will the course cover any PHP frameworks like Laravel?

The course will not cover any PHP frameworks like Laravel, as it is designed for beginners and focuses on the basics of PHP. The instructor suggests learning the basics before considering frameworks.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Introduction to PHP Course

This paragraph introduces a new PHP course aimed at beginners. The instructor emphasizes the course's beginner-friendly nature, promising to make PHP accessible to those new to programming. The course will start simple and gradually increase in complexity, focusing on making PHP understandable for novices. PHP is described as a server-side language primarily used for web development, which can be embedded into HTML. The instructor dispels the myth that PHP is dead, citing its widespread use in 78% of known websites as of 2023. PHP's versatility is contrasted with languages like Python, which are used for a broader range of applications. The paragraph concludes with mentions of popular websites using PHP, such as Facebook, Wikipedia, and WordPress, and a recommendation for those interested in web development to learn PHP.

05:01

📚 Balancing Theory and Practice in PHP Learning

The second paragraph discusses the importance of balancing theoretical knowledge with practical application when learning PHP. The instructor plans to include many examples throughout the course to illustrate how theoretical concepts are applied in real-world web development. The course will initially focus on the fundamentals of PHP programming before delving into databases and security. The approach to teaching PHP is broken down into three categories: PHP language basics, database manipulation, and security. The instructor argues against teaching security from the outset, as it can overwhelm beginners, and prefers to introduce it later in the course. The paragraph also addresses frequently asked questions, such as the inclusion of documentation, the choice between procedural and object-oriented programming, and the decision not to cover frameworks like Laravel in this beginner course.

10:03

🛠️ Setting Up for PHP Learning

The final paragraph serves as a conclusion to the introduction, with the instructor expressing hope that the viewers enjoyed the video. It teases the next episode, which will cover the setup of PHP and the installation of a local server on the viewer's computer. The necessity of a local server for PHP, a server-side language, is explained, and reassurance is given that the process is straightforward and won't harm the user's computer. The paragraph ends with a thank you and a musical outro, signaling the end of the introduction and anticipation for the next part of the course.

Keywords

💡PHP

PHP, which stands for 'Hypertext Preprocessor', is a recursive acronym for the programming language discussed in the video. It is primarily used for web development and is known for being a server-side scripting language. The video emphasizes PHP's role in creating dynamic web pages and its ease of embedding within HTML. It is also noted for being beginner-friendly, which is central to the course's aim to teach PHP to individuals new to programming.

💡Server-side language

A server-side language is one that executes on the server rather than the client's browser. PHP is highlighted as a server-side language, meaning the code runs on the web server and is not visible to the end user in their browser. This is a fundamental concept in the video, as it differentiates PHP from client-side languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

💡Web development

Web development refers to the process of creating websites and web applications. The video focuses on PHP's application in web development, making it a central theme. It mentions that PHP is commonly used for this purpose and is particularly suited for embedding within HTML and CSS to create dynamic websites.

💡Beginner-friendly

The term 'beginner-friendly' is used to describe the approach of the PHP course, which is designed to be accessible to those new to programming. The video assures viewers that the course will be structured in a way that does not overwhelm beginners, emphasizing the importance of making PHP approachable for newcomers.

💡Frameworks

Frameworks are software structures that provide a standard way to build applications. In the context of PHP, frameworks like Laravel can be used to simplify and speed up web development. The video mentions that while frameworks are important, they will not be covered in this beginner course, which focuses on the fundamentals of PHP.

💡Procedural programming

Procedural programming is a programming paradigm where the program is thought of as a sequence of steps to be executed. The video clarifies that the course will initially focus on procedural PHP programming, which is considered more straightforward for beginners to grasp before moving on to object-oriented programming.

💡Object-oriented programming

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is another paradigm that uses objects and classes to design applications and is more complex than procedural programming. The video notes that while OOP will be introduced later in the course, the initial focus will be on procedural programming to ensure a gentler learning curve for beginners.

💡Security

Security in the context of PHP programming refers to the measures taken to protect data and prevent unauthorized access. The video emphasizes the importance of learning about security when dealing with user data, which is often sensitive. It mentions that while security will be covered, it will be introduced later in the course to avoid overwhelming beginners.

💡Content management system (CMS)

A content management system is a software application used to manage the creation and modification of digital content. WordPress, mentioned in the video, is an example of a CMS that uses PHP for its plugins and system operations. Learning PHP is recommended for those planning to use WordPress, illustrating the practical application of PHP in the video.

💡Local server

A local server is a server running on one's own computer for development purposes. The video mentions the need to set up a local server for PHP development, which is a practical step for learners to test and run PHP scripts without deploying them on a live server. It reassures beginners that setting up a local server is a straightforward process.

Highlights

Introduction to the course as a beginner-friendly PHP tutorial.

Focus on making PHP accessible for complete beginners who have never programmed before.

PHP is a server-side language, meaning the code runs on the server and not in the browser.

Comparison between PHP and Python, highlighting PHP's dominance in web development with over 78% of websites using PHP.

Explanation of PHP's usage in major websites such as Facebook, Wikipedia, and WordPress.

Discussion of the common misconception that PHP is 'dead' due to its specificity to web development, unlike Python's broader use cases.

Recommendation for PHP as the primary language for those interested in web development, emphasizing its popularity and ease of learning.

Introduction to PHP as a recursive acronym, 'PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.'

PHP is easy to integrate into HTML and works well with CSS for web development.

Distinction between client-side languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) and server-side languages like PHP.

Outline of the course structure: starting with procedural PHP and gradually advancing to more complex topics.

Introduction of databases and how they interact with PHP for storing and retrieving information.

Emphasis on the importance of security in PHP, but security concepts will be introduced gradually to avoid overwhelming beginners.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section addressing common beginner concerns like documentation, procedural vs. object-oriented PHP, and the use of frameworks.

Promise of future topics like Laravel, but the focus of this course will remain on core PHP programming.

Transcripts

so welcome to a new version of my PHP

course now in this video we're going to

talk a bit about what exactly PHP is and

what you're going to learn in this

course here and why it's going to be a

little bit better structure than the

previous one I have in the channel so

let's go and talk a bit about what

exactly this course is and who it is

made for now here at the beginning it is

going to be a beginner friendly course

so to speak my main goal is to make sure

the people has never done PHP before and

might find a little bit intimidating

because they've never done a programming

language before we'll be able to get

into this course here and don't find it

overwhelming so that is going to be my

main priority as for going on with these

lessons here it is quite normal to find

PHP intimidating if this is your first

programming language so don't be scared

that this is going to be overwhelming

because I will try to make it as

understandable as possible for people

who has never done any sort of

programming before with that said of

course this course is going to get more

and more complicated and more and more

advanced as we go on but here in the

beginning it is going to be very

beginner friendly so with that said

let's go and talk a bit about what

exactly PHP is and what you can use it

for now PHP stands for hypertext

preprocessor actually it stands for PHP

hypertext preprocessor it is what you

call a recursive acronym when you have

the word itself inside its own spelling

now PHP is a language that I use mainly

for making websites but it can be used

for other things as well like for

example creating a desktop application

if you know how to do it but it is

something that is more commonly used for

web development one of the reasons it's

so easy to use for web development is

because you can very easily embed it

into the HTML when you start creating a

website using HTML and CSS and it is

also a very easy language to learn

compared to many other programmer

languages out there and one of the

things about PHP you may not know is

that it's actually considered a

server-side language meaning that the

PHP you're going to program is going to

run on the server of your website but

not actually inside the client which is

inside the browser so languages such as

HTML CSS and JavaScript which actually

runs inside the browser these languages

run differently than PHP which is

actually running on the server instead

this means that when you're writing PHP

inside your website you can't actually

see the code inside the browser which

you can when it comes to for example

HTML CSS and JavaScript so PHP is

completely hidden since it runs in the

server instead so with all that said

let's go and talk about the elephant in

a room is PHP dead because when it comes

to websites on the internet right now

currently in 2023 we have more than 78

of websites out there that we know of

that are using PHP as their backend

language this means that PHP is

currently massively dominating when it

comes to the back end languages that we

use for websites out there today but one

of the reasons I do often hear that PHP

is a dead language and you shouldn't use

it anymore has a lot to do with the fact

that PHP is only used mainly for web

development whereas other languages such

as python is used for all sorts of

things including you can also use Python

4 web development so if you were to take

the Python programming language and say

okay how many people are using python

nowadays versus people who are using PHP

then python is going to have much higher

numbers however these are actually not

the numbers you should look at since we

need to look at how many people are

using python for when it comes to web

development versus people who use PHP

for web development and when it comes to

this PHP is much much higher numbers

than when it comes to python it pretty

much boils down to the fact that some

people on the internet don't like PHP

because it's more specifically suited

towards web development whereas a

language like python can be used for

many other things besides web

development so if you're sitting there

and you want to learn specifically web

development then PHP is by far the

language that I would recommend using

when it comes to web development of

course python is also an amazing

language to use for web development if

you want to use Django as a framework

but PHP is just more the more popular

use language when it comes to

specifically web development so just to

mention couple of websites that do

actually use PHP we do have Facebook

which uses a version of PSP we do also

have Wikipedia canvas is also a very

popular website that uses PHP and then

we do also have WordPress which is not

really a website but more of a Content

management system which is also the most

popular content management system out

there today so if you plan on using

Wordpress at some point in the future I

do recommend that you learn PHP since it

is what they use when it comes to

plugins and just the WordPress CMS

system in itself learning PHP is

definitely something that I highly

recommend if you're just planning on

going into web development as a web

developer but now let's go and talk a

bit about Theory versus practice when it

comes to implementing PHP inside your

website because when it comes to

learning any sort of programming

language like for example PHP then

things will be a little bit slow in the

beginning it is just a very typical

thing when you learn a new programming

language that you have to learn all the

theory first and then later on you start

getting into some more practical

examples so you can actually see see oh

okay so that's how we use it inside for

example our website I will try to

include as many examples as I can as we

go throughout this series but it is

important to know that there will be a

lot of theory here in the beginning so

you don't need to worry too much about

it if you're looking at these lessons at

the beginning and thinking to yourself

okay so I can't really see how this code

that we're learning has to be used

inside a real website just keep

following the lessons at some point you

will get to a point where you get a

realization of oh so this is how we need

to use everything that we learned inside

a real website but now let's go and talk

a bit about how I am going to approach

this course here it is my experience

that people become very easily

overwhelmed when it comes to teaching a

back-end programming language like PHP

so it's important to split things up

into multiple lessons to make sure that

people can digest it a lot easier that

being said when it comes to teaching PHP

you can roughly divide PHP into three

different categories when it comes to

learning PHP as a language you have the

actual PHP language which is just

learning PHP and how to write it and how

to Output things inside your website you

know just plain PHP programming and how

to actually write things that do

something inside your website then after

learning PHP you're going to start

learning about databases and how to

actually manipulate databases by pulling

out data or inserting data inside the

database a database is a place where we

store information for example if you

want your website to remember things

about your users and then the last thing

you need to learn about is security Now

security is a huge thing when it comes

to PHP since you are essentially

manipulating data from the user and a

lot of that data is going to be

sensitive data so it is important to

take security very serious when it comes

to PHP because it is something that is

crucial to learning PHP and you can't

learn PHP and just go into it with the

mindset of okay so security is just kind

of like like an off side thing security

is something you need to do and it is

something you need to look into at some

point and it is something that we will

start looking into a little bit further

into the course later near the end I do

want to point out here that I do know a

lot of people think it's very important

that you teach all security at the

beginning when a person starts learning

PHP but in my experience a lot of people

will get overwhelmed if you teach

everything when it comes to security at

the same time as you also try to teach a

complete beginner the basics of PHP so

in order to digest things a lot easier

we're just going to focus on PHP then

later on we're going to start learning

how you need to implement security into

the PHP you already learned of course

there is going to be moments where we

can't avoid talking about security and

when those moments come we will of

course talk about some security but any

security that isn't directly related to

any sort of lesson that we're learning

about is not something we're going to

talk about until later on so with that

said let's talk about some frequently

asked questions since I do want to

answer some of the questions I have

received in the past in my comment

section will I include documentation for

each lesson yes there will be

documentation for each of the lessons

that I teach inside the description of

the video so if you want to Deep dive a

little bit further into the lesson that

we're learning about then you can of

course look into that documentation and

learn a little bit further about what

we're learning will we do procedural or

object-oriented PHP programming now here

at the beginning we will focus on doing

procedural PHP programming since I do

know that it's easier to get people into

PHP when it comes to procedural

programming later on in the course it

will of course Deep dive a little bit

further into object oriented PHP

programming but when it comes to just

PHP here at the beginning like I said

it's going to be procedural and just to

mention it for any beginners watching

this you don't need to look up object

oriented PHP just focus on procedural

PHP and learning that and then later on

we will get to do object oriented PHP

and talk a bit about what exactly it is

will I cover a framework like larawell

now something people may not know about

especially if you are a beginner when it

comes to learning any sort of language

like HTML CSS JavaScript PHP python

whatever you're trying to learn there

will always be Frameworks now Frameworks

is a way for us to follow a well

framework in order to build things much

easier much faster and just kind of like

to automate some things for us and a lot

of things when it comes to especially

PHP and Security will actually be

automated when it comes to doing

something using larawell for building

PSP applications however since this is

going to be a PHP beginner course and I

do think it's important that people

shouldn't even look at a framework until

they learned the basics of PHP we will

not cover any sort of Frameworks in this

course here at most it is going to be a

separate course at some point in the

future but for now it is not going to be

part of this course here so with that

said I hope you enjoyed this little

introduction here in the next episode

we'll talk about how to set up PHP and

how to install a local server on your

computer since we did talk about PHP

being a server-side language so we do

need to have a server in order to

actually write PHP inside a website and

again just to mention this for the

beginners here you don't need to freak

out when I say you need to install a

local server on your computer it is

something that takes literally a minute

to do and it's not something that's

going to break your computer anything it

is something that everyone that does web

development at some point will have to

do when they start learning how to make

websites so with that said I hope you

enjoyed this little video and I'll see

you guys in the next one

[Music]

[Music]

thank you

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