I suppose I'm experiencing programmers block. I've gone through many PHP tutorials, taken a few classes, I've learned the basics, but when I download and look at other people's PHP code, it seems to go far beyond my capabilities and I'd like to take my programming to that level. The best way to learn (for me) is to just DO it... but I'm having issues with coming up with ideas of WHAT to do.

Can you suggest a project that will test the bounds of the basic PHP programmer? Something beyond CMS and dynamic websites (those have been my primary focus).

Thanks!

How about some Community Code Projects?

It took time for me to learn, and I'm still learning. I've been working with PHP for 10+ years. The best learning tool for me was to take a job as a webmaster for an ecommerce site. I learned more studying the existing cart system than I learned anywhere else!

Thanks for those ideas! It seems to me that most tutorials fall short and don't get into advanced programming techniques. They cover the basic stuff, and say "good luck" and so I look at other code and am left scratching my head as to HOW these things were learned.

I know I need to dive in and just do it, but what seems to be a hurdle for me is the lack of knowledge of what is a possibility. There are TONS of built in functions, but I don't have enough experience to say "oh, I can use this function to accomplish that". So is the answer just reading through the massive amount of php documentation out there to learn?

Learn as you go. If you never try anything for yourself, than you'll never come across one of those situations where you need to look something up. But if you have something in your mind that you want to make, don't stop at anything.

For example, if you're wondering why your variables aren't working, where your class sets variable '$hello', and your script outside the class 'echo $hello;'-s, and nothing is showing up, you'd need to know about scope. To find this out, you can simply type the question in on Google (ex). The second link down is 'variable scope' which is exactly what you need.

Google is very, very vast. You can type almost anything into it and it will give you the resources to get your answer from.

Of course, if you really have a question that bugs you, we're here for you! TycoonTalk is a webmaster forum, aimed directly at answering questions like the ones you may have. NO questions are stupid.

I hope I helped!

-PG

One danger of taking on a large project is that you merely repeat the errors of smaller projects, just more liberally. Have a look round for threads like http://tycoontalk.freelancer.com/php...lanations.html , pages on good practice and especially on design of software.

Learning any language and understanding any existing code are two different thing,it doesn't matter how good your are in programming it take time to understand other's code.Not sure what's you need, but I would recommend you to pick any framework and practice it and get into the project which are using those framework. Incase if you planning/working on existing CMS then stick to one. There is no shortcut learning, it's not always that other people do right coding that's why it become more challenging if the earlier developed did a dirty coding .