Want to learn PHP? This beginner level session will introduce you to PHP and its syntax. Learn how to make a 'Hello World' PHP page, create a class, build a method, declare and use variables, and write control structures (if, else, foreach, switch, etc.). Get excited to start developing in PHP and leave with a foundation to go and build amazing PHP applications on.

1. Starting Out With PHP
Mark Niebergall
https://joind.in/talk/fa612

3. Starting Out With PHP
• PHP is a useless language to learn
• PHP is hated by all developers
• PHP is insecure, slow, and not modern
• PHP is bad

4. Starting Out With PHP
• Lets developers make mistakes
- $password = md5(‘password123’);
- eval($userInput);

5. Starting Out With PHP
• Lets developers make mistakes
- echo $$variable . $$$variable;
- if (‘true’ == false) {…}

6. Starting Out With PHP
• Lets developers make mistakes
- $sql = “DELETE FROM users WHERE id =
{$_GET[‘id’]}”;
- “INSERT INTO some_data VALUES (NULL,
‘{$_POST[‘name’]}’);

7. Starting Out With PHP
• Lets developers make mistakes
- file_get_contents($randomUrl);
- $GLOBALS[‘everything’] = $everything;

8. Starting Out With PHP
• Lets developers make mistakes
- $oneCase + $two_case + $ThreeCase_More
- if (empty($allTheThings)) {…}

9. Starting Out With PHP
• Lets developers make mistakes
- if ($a < $b) {
if ($test == true) {
if ($number < 100) {
if (strpos($string, ‘abc’) != 0) {
if ($nestMore == ‘Yes’) {
echo ‘Nesting if statements is great!’;
}
}
}
}
}

10. Starting Out With PHP
• Lets developers make mistakes
- Works on my box!

12. Starting Out With PHP
• PHP runs over 83% of the web
• PHP has an active community
• PHP is secure, fast, and constantly being updated
• PHP is good

13. About Mark Niebergall
• PHP since 2005
• Masters degree in MIS
• Senior Software Engineer
• Drug screening project
• UPHPU President
• CSSLP, SSCP Certified and SME
• Drones, fishing, skiing, father of 5 boys

14. Starting Out With PHP
• What is PHP
• Basic Syntax
• Language Features
• PHP Ecosystem

15. What is PHP

16. What is PHP
<?php

17. What is PHP
<?php
echo ‘Hello world!’;
echo “Hello $name”;

18. What is PHP
<?php
class HelloWorld
{
public function sayHello($name)
{
echo ‘Hello ‘ . $name;
}
}
$helloWorld = new HelloWorld;
$helloWorld->sayHello(‘OpenWest Attendees’);

19. What is PHP
• Personal Home Page
• Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994
• PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor

20. What is PHP
• Programming language designed for the Internet
• Server-side scripting language
• General-purpose programming language

21. What is PHP
• Facebook
• Slack
• Tumblr
• Wikipedia
• News sites
• Blogs

22. What is PHP
• Open source
- Free to use
- Anyone can contribute
- Source is public

23. What is PHP
• Written in C
• Compiled at run-time

24. What is PHP

25. What is PHP

26. What is PHP
• Runs with web servers
- Apache
- Nginx

27. What is PHP
• Interacts with databases
- PostgreSQL
- MySQL
- MSSQL
- Mongo
- Many more

28. What is PHP
• APIs
• Server
• Mail
• Files

29. Starting Out With PHP
• What is PHP
• Basic Syntax
• Language Features
• PHP Ecosystem

30. Basic Syntax
<?php
$variable = ‘something’;
$isSomething = true;
$someInput = $_GET[‘get_key’];

31. Basic Syntax
<?php
$variable = ‘something’;
$isSomething = true;
$someInput = $_GET[‘get_key’];
if ($isSomething) {
echo $variable;
}

32. Basic Syntax
<?php
$variable = ‘something’;
$isSomething = true;
$someInput = $_GET[‘get_key’];
if ($isSomething === true || $someInput == ‘Yes’) {
echo $variable;
}

33. Basic Syntax
<?php
$string = ‘Abc 123’;
$integer = 123;
$float = 123.456;
$bool = true;
$null = null;
$array = [123, 456];
$resource = fopen(‘SomeFile.txt’, ‘r’);
$object = new SomeClass;

34. Basic Syntax
<?php
$oldArray = array(‘alligator’, ‘bear’, ‘camel’, ‘deer’);
$data = [‘apple’, ‘banana’, ‘carrot’];
$withKeys = [‘test’ => 123, ‘other’ => 456];
foreach ($data as $food) {
echo ‘Eat a ‘ . $food . PHP_EOL;
}

35. Basic Syntax
<?php
$whatAmI = ‘Drone’;
switch ($whatAmI) {
case ‘Airplane’:
echo ‘Fly far away’;
break;
case ‘Drone’:
case ‘Helicopter’:
echo ‘Fly close by’;
break;
}

36. Basic Syntax
<?php
$number = 0;
while ($number < 7) {
$number += 1;
}
return $number;

37. Basic Syntax
<?php
for ($i = 0; $i < 100; $i++) {
…
}

38. Basic Syntax
<?php
$variable = ‘something’;
$isSomething = true;
$someInput = $_GET[‘get_key’];
function doSomething($variable, $isSomething)
{
if ($isSomething) {
return $variable;
}
return ‘Not something: ‘ . $something;
}

39. Basic Syntax
<?php
class Cat{}

40. Basic Syntax
<?php
class Cat {
protected $name;
public function __construct($name) {
$this->name = $name;
}
public function pet() {
return ‘purr’;
}
}

41. Basic Syntax
<?php
class Cat
{
// Anything can use public
public function pet() {…}
// Cat class and anything inheriting can use protected
protected function speak() {…}
/* only Cat class can use private */
private function _ignoreHuman() {…}
}

42. Basic Syntax
<?php
abstract class Pet {
protected $name;
abstract public function feed(Food $food);
}
class Cat extend Pet {
public function feed(Food $food) {
return $this->stare($food);
}
protected function stare($thing) {}
}

43. Basic Syntax
<?php
namespace AnimalPet;
use AnimalHuman;
class Cat
{
public function pet() {…}
protected function speak() {…}
private function _ignoreHuman(Human $human) {…}
}

44. Basic Syntax
<?php
include(‘Cat.php’);
include_once(‘Dog.php’);
require(‘/../Pet.php’);
require_once(‘/../../Animal.php’);

45. Basic Syntax
<?php
class AutloadClass
{
public function loadMethod($className)
{
require_once(__DIR__ . ‘/../src/‘ . $className);
}
}
spl_autoload_register([AutoloadClass::class, ‘loadMethod’]);

46. Basic Syntax
<?php
class Db
{
protected $connection;
public function connect($db, $host, $port, $user, $pwd)
{
$this->connection = new PDO(
‘mysql:dbname=‘ . $db . ‘;host=‘ . $host .
‘;port=‘ . $port’,
$user,
$pwd
);
}
}

47. Basic Syntax
<?php
// use frameworks for database
$query = $this->getDb()->select()
->from([‘tn’ => ‘table_name’], [‘id’, ‘name’])
->join([‘ot’ => ‘other_table’], ‘ot.id = tn.other_id’,
[‘other_thing’])
->where(‘tn.some_date > ?’, $date)
->where(‘ot.other_number = ?’, $number);
$rows = $this->getDb()->fetchAll($query);

48. Basic Syntax
<?php
$hashed = password_hash($password,
PASSWORD_DEFAULT);
$isValid = password_verify($userEntered, $hashed);

49. Starting Out With PHP
• What is PHP
• Basic Syntax
• Language Features
• PHP Ecosystem

50. Language Features
• Functional
• Object-oriented

51. Language Features
• Data types
• Type juggling

52. Language Features
• Method parameter type hinting
• Method return type

53. Language Features
• Class
• Abstract
• Interface
• Trait

54. Language Features
• Class
- Constants
- Properties
- Methods
- Magic methods

55. Language Features
• Class
- class Cat extends Pet implements HousePet {
use MouseCatcherTrait;
const FAMILY = ‘Feline’;
protected $name;
public function __construct($dependencies) {…}
public static function independentAction() {…}
protected function eatFood(Food $food) : Food {…}
private function _controlHuman(Human $human) {…}
}

56. Language Features
• Abstract
- Class can extend one abstract at a time
- Can have parent, grandparent, etc.
- Mixed functions filled in and others not
- abstract class Pet {
abstract protected function eatFood(Food $food) :
Food {};
}

57. Language Features
• Interfaces
- Contract
- Class can implement many interfaces
- interface Port {
public function connect(Connection $connection);
}

58. Language Features
• Trait
- Common characteristics
- trait SomeCharacteristic {
public function doSomething() {…}
}
- class Thing {
use SomeCharacteristic;
}

59. Language Features
• Exceptions
- try {
…
throw new Exception(‘Error message’);
…
throw new CustomException(‘Failed’);
} catch (Exception | CustomException $e) {
echo $e->getMessage();
}

60. Language Features
• Magic methods
- Called automatically
- __construct when instantiated
- __set, __get
- __destruct, __call, __callStatic, __isset, __unset,
__sleep, __wakup, __toString, __invoke, __set_state,
__clone, __debugInfo

61. Language Features
• Namespaces
- namespace AnimalMammalFeline;
use AnimalFish;
class Cat
{
public function eat(Fish $fish) {…}
}
…
new AnimalMammalFelineCat;

62. Language Features
• Libsodium
- First programming language with modern security
library built-in
- Hash
- Encrypt
- Keys
- Random

63. PHP Ecosystem
• Frameworks
• Tools
• Community
• Career

64. PHP Ecosystem
• CMS Frameworks
- Wordpress
- Drupal
- Joomla

65. PHP Ecosystem
• Frameworks
- larvel
- Symfony
- CakePHP
- Zend
- Slim

66. PHP Ecosystem
• Frameworks
- Framework Interop Group (PHP-FIG)
‣ Coding standard recommendations
‣ Common interfaces

67. PHP Ecosystem
• Tools
- composer package manager
‣ packagist repositories
- PECL extension manager

68. PHP Ecosystem

69. PHP Ecosystem
• Tools
- PhpStorm
- Zend Studio
- Many other IDEs to choose from
- Any text editor

70. PHP Ecosystem
• Tools
- PHPUnit
- behat
- phpspec
- Faker

71. PHP Ecosystem
• Tools
- Xdebug
‣ Step-into debugging
‣ Stacktrace
‣ Performance

72. PHP Ecosystem
• Tools
- Guzzle
- Apigility

73. PHP Ecosystem
• Tools
- git
- Mercurial
- Others

74. PHP Ecosystem
• Community
- User groups
‣ https://www.meetup.com/Utah-PHP-User-Group/
- Conferences
- Magazine

75. PHP Ecosystem
• Community
- Slack channels
‣ utos.slack.com
‣ phpcommunity.slack.com
‣ phpchat.slack.com
‣ phpug.slack.com

76. PHP Ecosystem
• Community
- Open source
- Diversity
- Elephpants

77. PHP Ecosystem
• Community
- Welcoming
- Open to other technologies, languages

78. PHP Ecosystem
• Career
- Experience
- Education

79. PHP Ecosystem
• Career
- Lots of jobs
‣ Recruiters
‣ Job boards
‣ Contracts
‣ Who you know

80. PHP Ecosystem
• Career
- Good pay
‣ $40k-$60k starting
‣ $60k-$80k mid
‣ $80k+ advanced and lead

81. PHP Ecosystem
• Career
- Local
- Remote

82. Starting Out With PHP
• What is PHP
• Basic Syntax
• Language Features
• PHP Ecosystem

83. Questions?
• https://joind.in/talk/fa612

84. References
• php.net