Complete Guide To Web Development with PHP

PHP is a universally accepted language as the backend language of web development. That does not mean that you cannot do backend development without PHP. Different languages are used in backend development, but web development with PHP has some top-notch websites like Facebook, Wikipedia, etc. 

If you are looking forward to building your career as a full-stack Web developer or backend developer, PHP has to be one of the best choices you can make. PHP is a must for you, even if you are a WordPress developer.  

If you have made up your mind to start a web development career with PHP, then how should you go about it? Let us help and guide you through becoming a great PHP web developer. 

Is Learning PHP Worth It?

You might want to learn PHP right now, but after doing some research, you found out many developers are not fond of this language; rather, they prefer something new like JavaScript or Python. This divisive opinion among the developer community might be discouraging for newbies. 

Despite all these opinions, PHP is still the largest back-end language. It was made from C, and it was made for the web development sector. Not only do some of the world’s largest companies run on PHP, but the world’s largest content management system, WordPress, also runs on PHP.

PHP is easy to get your hands on, so it won’t be a problem for new developers. To keep it relevant, developers are constantly working on and providing necessary upgrades to that system. 

PHP has a developer team that constantly looks for flaws in the PHP backend code and makes changes to it. One of the major changes was making PHP an object-oriented programming language. 

You should not have any problem running PHP in a common database like MySQL, so you can expect to have a flawless experience with PHP. Another great thing about PHP is that it is one of the oldest programming languages, so there are a lot of developers in the community who can help you out if you are stuck with anything. 

Do you want to start learning PHP now? Then you have a lot of options ready for you. Check out our YouTube channel and gather your knowledge of the largest server-site language!

About A PHP Developer

So, who is a PHP developer? Simply speaking, a person who works with PHP and is familiar with the various technologies that work in PHP. A PHP developer is commonly known as the backend developer, and you know PHP works with different servers. 

What skills should you be familiar with when you want to be a PHP developer? You should be familiar with all the technologies that are essential to a website server. 

• Almost all the server in the world runs on a Linux operating system, you should have a clear about the operating system. 
• One of the most common, open-source, and free web server software is Apache. You need to know what Apache does, how to use it, and its different functionalities.  
• And last but not least the most common database management system is MySQL. 

What is Your Job as a PHP Developer?

• The first thing is obvious, you must know how to create a backend system for a website and deploy them properly in the server.  
• You should have a clear concept of the frontend languages like HTML, CSS, and JS because if you get to see some PHP real-world projects then you will understand, how interconnected all of these languages are!
• A website is not useful if it does not perform equally on all platforms and browsers! So, you must test your website on different platforms. 
• Every programming language has different ways to do the same task but each one is more efficient than others. As a developer, your job will be to do the code in the most efficient way possible.
• You need to prepare what updates you want to work on next and schedule them properly. 
• PHP is constantly updating, there might be a new but more efficient way to do something now. So, you must keep yourself updated about the latest updates and bring changes to your codes according to them. 

Best Part About PHP

• Open Source: Programmers are always fond of something open source, why is that? An open source is a software that has revealed its source code to everyone. You can anytime look into its source code and do the necessary changes to it. Another best part about open source is, it is completely free. So, you don’t have to pay every time you use PHP for any purpose. 
• Platform Independent: If you write code for every platform but it does not work properly then this is a huge headache. Do not worry about this problem in PHP as it is platform-independent and works flawlessly on all platforms.
• Beginner Friendly: If you are new to programming then it will not be a problem for you to get a hold of PHP. 
• Performance and Stability: PHP is fast and reliable when it comes to connecting with the database. Even if you are having some slow internet issue, PHP can load the website better than other which make it a good choice for the backend. Often you might have to work on code by other developers and the clean structure of PHP is perfect to get used to. 
• Community: We cannot do anything alone, this statement is more accurate for coding. How many times you have looked for your answer in StackOverflow? No matter the problem, if you have a strong community in that technology then it is a blessing, you can get solutions for almost everything. 

Hiring Procedure of a PHP Developer

As we have said before, PHP is not the only server-side language anymore, newer and more popular languages have taken PHP’s place, and the popularity of this language is just not like before anymore. 

Yet some of the top companies still use PHP on their servers, and PHP’s glory will not fade away anytime soon. So, there is a great job market waiting for you if you are willing to master PHP. 

If you find a job posting looking for a backend developer, then the chances are they are looking for a PHP developer. So, if you are familiar with PHP and its latest technology and are ready to build something from scratch with PHP, then this is the job you are looking for. 

Skills That Are Expected in A PHP Developer

• You should have a clear idea about front-end languages like HTML, CSS, and JS. 
• The current job market is looking for an expert in PHP version 7.0 or newer. 
• You should be familiar with Ajax, jQuery, MySQL, and many more frameworks of PHP like Laravel, Slim, etc. 

What Is the Best way to Learn All These Skills? 

I hope you are clear about everything you should learn to become a successful PHP developer. Now, how should you learn it? Check out our articles on How to get started with programming as a beginner, or How to practice coding? 5 platforms to practice coding online. 

Both of these articles will help you to learn PHP in the best way possible! 

Conclusion 

PHP is the backbone of many of our favorite languages, and with constant updates from the dev team, web development with PHP is just getting better. If you are looking to start your career as a backend developer or WordPress developer, PHP is the best language for you.