Hi all - I'm a complete php newbie. I was looking around for in person classes in my area (Boston) and they are all either not convenient schedule-wise (ie: can't take 4 days off from work to do them) or a little out of my price-range. I was hoping to find some really good online tutorials - either free or pay - that are effective, convenient, etc. Does anyone have any suggestions? Any ones that you really love? TIA!

Try lynda.com - I believe they have some video tutorials for a monthly fee.

I second Lynda.com. Great tutorials..very helpful to actually watch someone do the programming and then follow along.

I also picked up a book for about $35 on Amazon called PHP Solutions. A good portion of it is here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=EjC...=title#PPR5,M1

Thanks guys - I checked out the site and it looks very cool!

Can I ask a newbie question - I don't understand "installing php" - isn't it just a programming language? What/why do you need to install anything?

here is a link to a user group in your area http://www.bostonphp.org/ they encourage newbies to come as well.

You need to install a web server like Apache and configure that with PHP. A quick way to do it is with: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

If you have hosting that supports PHP, you probably won't need to do any installing.

Originally Posted by trk247

You need to install a web server like Apache and configure that with PHP. A quick way to do it is with: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

If you have hosting that supports PHP, you probably won't need to do any installing.

I do indeed - so that's one less thing. Yay!

its good pratice especially when learning to use local dev (ie have it installed on your pc) i use XAMPP and its VERY easy and simple comes with everything

this way you dont have to keep uplaoding to your server on every change, which (especially when learning) you do a hell of alot! and end up wasting alot of time waiting for it to uplaod

Dan

You can download a free PHP guide at http://www.newbiesphp.com as well.

When I 1st started learning PHP I found it difficult using the online tutorials I found.

I then bought a PHP book wrote by Larry Ullman and I found the book very easy to understand and I started learning pretty fast.

The book is on most sites IE amazon etc if you can't find it let me know and I will have a look.

I also found (as mentioned above) that setting up your own local server saves loads of time in the long run when learning or even just basic stuff like fixing errors on your sites miles faster to do it all localy then upload when finished.