PHP is an open-source back-end scripting language used for creating dynamic and interactive web pages and applications. It is one of the oldest and most widely-used programming languages for web development, with around 80% of all websites running on PHP, including major platforms like Facebook, WordPress, Upwork, and Spotify.

Though highly technical in nature, with a bit of online guidance and dedication, PHP skills can be acquired in no time. Many online sources can help you become fluent in PHP, whether you are a total beginner or want to advance your PHP skills. 

Online tutorials can be an excellent learning tool. Choosing the best to learn PHP can be the first step toward this profitable career. Here is our choice of top five tutorials that will help you to learn PHP more effectively and become a better PHP developer.

Before we move on to the list of the best tutorials, let’s first clarify why you should learn PHP in 2022.

Why Learn PHP?

Even though its popularity has declined over the years, PHP is still extensively used in web development. Efficient, flexible, simple, and easy to learn, you can create anything from a simple website to a complex web application with PHP. It’s free and open-source, supports most web browsers, and has many additional tools to assist it. Additionally, it has a large and active community of developers to learn and get help for your web development projects. 

And since there are still millions of sites built using PHP, PHP developers are always in demand, and there are many job opportunities available, both in freelancing and full-time jobs. 

1. Learn PHP by Codecademy

Learn PHP is a free 25-hour course that will teach you the fundamental programming concepts of PHP through interactive exercises, quizzes, articles, and freeform projects. This course covers everything from PHP variables and functions to PHP arrays, form validation using HTML forms, conditionals, logic, and loops, as well as more advanced lessons like classes and objects in PHP. It is suitable for beginners, though some basic HTML knowledge will be helpful before taking the course. Taking Learn PHP is an excellent opportunity for those who prefer getting directly into the code because it teaches you by actively doing coding exercises rather than just video or text tutorials. 

2. PHP for Beginners – Become a PHP Master – CMS Project by Udemy

PHP for Beginners is a great course that will take you from scratch to PHP mastery and teach you real-world PHP skills. With over 70,000 enrolled students, this is one of the most popular beginner-level PHP courses on Udemy. It’s also one of the most comprehensive PHP courses on the platform, with 38 hours of video lectures that teach you almost everything you need to know about PHP. 

PHP for Beginners is taught by an experienced engineer and mainly focuses on practical lessons instead of theory and covers various topics such as code editors and PHP basics, PHP data types, control structures, and functions. You will also learn how to create a Content Management System (CMS) and use MySQL and Object-Oriented Programming. 

Note that this course puts a lot of emphasis on using PHP in the context of CMS, so If you don’t intend to use CMS in your work, maybe this is not the right course for you. Otherwise, this is a perfect course to start learning PHP in 2022. 

3. Building Web Applications in PHP by Coursera

This PHP course by the University of Michigan on Coursera is aimed at intermediate-level students with some previous knowledge of PHP. It is instructed by Dr. Charles R. Severance, a Clinical Professor, and has very positive reviews and ratings. You can freely examine the course content, but to get full access, you need to subscribe. 

It is an excellent course for those who are interested not only in PHP but in web development as a whole. In addition to PHP, it teaches basic lessons in HTML and CSS. You will also learn the basic structure of a web app, request and response cycles, PHP syntax and data structures, and how a web browser interacts with a web server. The course also covers PHP arrays, functions, error handling, and superglobal variables. 

This course is a good mix of theoretical and practical assignments, and you’ll get weekly practical assignments.

4. Laravel PHP Framework Tutorial by FreeCodeCamp

Laravel is an open-source, back-end PHP-based framework for creating simple to complex web applications. It is free and easy to use and is one of the most popular PHP frameworks nowadays, used by thousands of developers.

Laravel PHP Framework Tutorial is a great tutorial for beginners who want to develop both PHP and Laravel skills. It was created by freeCodeCamp.org, a nonprofit organization helping people learn to code for free, and is instructed by Victor Gonzalez. You can find it on YouTube. 

During the 4.5 hours-long video tutorial, you will have an intro about Laravel and lessons on getting started with PHP coding. Then you will move on to an in-depth explanation of how to build an Instagram clone from scratch with all its built-in functionalities. The best thing about this tutorial is that you learn from a real-world project.  

Keep in mind that this tutorial can have some outdated info because it is based on Laravel 5.8. But you can quickly fix this if you go to the comment section, get help from the community members, and use Laravel 8.0 while completing the course. 

5. Object-Oriented PHP Learning by Eduonix

Eduonix Learning Solutions is an online learning and training platform and a Udemy instructor. Among many other topics, it offers online web development courses, one of which is Object-Oriented PHP Learning. This course is aimed at intermediate students with some basic knowledge of PHP. It is a great choice to get the fundamentals of both PHP and object-oriented programming and learn to build a website using both. 

Although relatively short, only 4.5 hours, this course includes understanding the concepts behind object-oriented PHP, building a complete website using classes and objects in PHP, learning about abstraction and Inheritance, and learning how to deal with RDBMS within the OOPS framework.

After finishing the course, you will get a certification of completion and free full lifetime access to all the course resources.

Summary

These tutorials offer a good starting point if you are new to the PHP world. If you are an intermediate-level PHP developer, you can use these tutorials to develop your skills further and stay ahead of the rest. 

Many great PHP courses and tutorials are available for coders of all experience levels, so choose those that best suit your needs and learning style. Just remember, learning doesn’t stop once you finish the tutorial. The best way to learn PHP is to use your skills and build something on your own. Web development technologies constantly evolve, and there’s always more to master. Never stop learning and exploring. 

Put your skills into practice at Cosmic Development.

If you are looking for a place to put your PHP knowledge into practice and work with the newest technology in the field, visit Cosmic Development’s career page. We offer free courses and training programs for our employees and a fun and stimulating work environment. Currently, we have a job opening for a Senior Software Engineer with 5+ years of experience with object-oriented PHP. Go ahead and apply. 

The post 5 Best Online PHP Courses and Tutorials to Learn PHP in 2022 appeared first on Cosmic Development.

Developing a high-quality code while staying productive can be quite challenging. Here are some valuable tips that can help you boost your productivity without compromising on work-life balance. 

Completing tasks quickly and efficiently without sacrificing quality is what it means to be productive. Being productive is an essential aspect of any industry or area of expertise. Still, it can be a real game-changer in a complex and tech-centric industry like software development. A developer’s job is one of the most complicated and mentally demanding professions, and staying productive is not an easy task. They work with complex algorithms and juggle multiple tasks. Adopting a healthy work ethic and habits and making minor adjustments will lead to lasting changes and increase their productivity. 

This article shares some handy productivity tips to help developers enhance their efficiency while boosting productivity levels.

1. Put a schedule in your flexible schedule  

Flexible working hours or work from home can be incredible, but it comes with its own set of challenges. It can be difficult to focus, especially if other family members or distractions are present during your working hours. To stay organized, you need to set some rules and have a productivity plan that will allow you to get the best out of your day. Scheduling daily tasks will measure your progress and manage your time effectively. The best results always come with proper planning.

Find your most productive hours and decide when to start and finish your workday. Be consistent. Set realistic goals and prioritize your most critical task first thing in the morning (or whenever you start your workday), when your energy and willpower are at their highest.

Take planned breaks away from the screen. They are essential to your productivity and well-being and boost your creativity and motivation. Analyze your workspace and make adjustments to help you work better and quicker. Finally, don’t forget the good old eating and sleeping right, staying physically active, and making time to socialize.

All these habits will help you maintain a healthy work-life balance and allow you to have more time for personal activities.

2. Keep away distractions and stop wasting time

A focused developer is a productive developer.

Another way to describe productivity is getting complex tasks done with minimal distractions or interruptions. Developing software is a demanding job, and it’s not easy to maintain focus and concentration when there are so many distractions around you. Every distraction affects the quality of your work and can result in a mistake.

It takes only a few seconds to get out of the flow, but you will need over 23 minutes on average to get back on task after an interruption and into the flow again. Moreover, a Georgia Institute of Technology study states that a software developer will need between 10-15 minutes to recover from distractions and resume work. That is why learning to deal with distraction and decide what is essential and non-essential is a must for every developer.

Your typical distractions could be answering emails, browsing through social media, phone calls, being in a busy work office, etc. It may not be easy to let go, but think of all the time you can save.

Some of the ways to help you cope with interruptions include:

• Put your phone in silent mode during working hours
• Turn off social media notifications
• Turn off email alerts
• Create an auto-response to text messages
• Learn to say NO
• Don’t multitask. Focus on one task at a time
• Set a social media blocker on your computer browser
• Have specified times for answering emails, messages

These changes will not only increase your productivity but will also prevent you from getting mentally exhausted.

3. Use the right platforms and tools

Team collaboration tools, project management, time tracking, automation, or tools that help you avoid distractions. Developers can use various tools and platforms to speed up their work and maximize productivity and efficiency. Here are some that you can check out:

• Distraction canceling software tools: Escape, Cold Turkey, Dewo, or Freedom.
• Bug tracking tools: BackLog and MantisBT
• Code searching tools such as The Silver Searcher
• Time tracking tools like Hubstaff or Jibble
• Project management tools like Monday.com, Trello, Jira, Asana, Wrike
• Team collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, Trello, ClickUp
• Code management tools: GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket

Additionally, you can try Habitica, a habit-building and productivity app that allows you to treat your work or tasks as a role-playing game, and ZType, a game that helps you practice your typing speed and accuracy. Finally, you can relax with some music and visit the website musicforProgramming intended for listening to ambient music while programming.

This is only a fraction of the productivity options available. Do your research and choose based on your individual needs and preferences.

4. Take breaks and get some rest

Studies have shown that taking breaks and brief rests throughout the day leads to higher productivity, job satisfaction and improves your overall well-being. It can also:

• Boost creativity
• Help you focus
• Improve mental health
• Process and retain information better
• Reduce stress

The Pomodoro Technique is a straightforward way to remind yourself to take regular breaks. This technique, popular among the developer community, is a time management method that breaks down your work at intervals – 25 minutes sessions, followed by short 5-minute breaks. Every four 25-minute sessions take a more extended 20-30 minutes’ break. Will it work for you? Go ahead and try.

So, go on, give your eyes a break from the screen. Stand up, stretch, get some water, walk around, and chat with your friends or colleagues. When you return to your work mentally and physically refreshed, you can stay focused on your task and do better work.

5. Automate repetitive tasks

Another excellent productivity hack is to take full advantage of automation. Automating time-consuming and monotonous tasks will save you hours of coding and will simplify your job in a way that significantly improves productivity.

6. Keep learning 

If you want to stay productive, you must constantly update your skills. As you gain more experience and expand your knowledge, you become a better problem solver, faster and more efficient. Plus, you learn how to be more productive and what methods and practices are best for you.

Invest in yourself and your knowledge. Explore new tools that will help ease and speed up your workflow.

An excellent way for professional growth is to work on hobby projects or participate in the development of open-source projects. You will learn many new tricks, keep your mind fresh and grow as a programmer. Listen to podcasts or audiobooks while exercising, commuting, cooking, or cleaning. Read books and blogs, complete courses, or talk to mentors. There are more than enough options available to keep up to date in the fast-moving world of programming and development.

7. Final thoughts

Implementing the strategies above will take time. Developing a healthy productivity plan is a long process that requires consistency, resilience, commitment, and patience. Once it becomes your habit, you will see a significant difference.

But there is no one-size-fits-all approach to time management and productivity. Everyone has a unique personality and working style. What works for one developer could be a total failure for another. Hopefully, this article will spur you to find an approach that works the best for you and will help you boost your productivity and efficiency. The benefits are manifold – being qualified for new job opportunities, higher pay for delivering quality work with less effort, better work-life balance, and internal satisfaction.

The post Productivity Tips for Developers in 2022 appeared first on Cosmic Development.

Being a Senior PHP developer with over eight years of experience as a software engineer is not the only Riste Risafov is one of the best programmers in Cosmic Development who has become an important family member throughout the years. As a Senior PHP developer, Riste is primarily writing and reviewing code, but he also participates in the regular company’s R&D meetings where the implementation of new technologies is discussed.

We wanted to discover more about his success at Cosmic Development, so we decided to ask him about his personal experience with the company and to share his Cosmic journey. Moreover, we were curious about what it takes to be a Senior PHP Developer and what are the key steps in such a career. Read the interview below if you are also interested in discovering more about Riste’s professional and personal accomplishments.

When did you join the Cosmic Development family and what was for you the biggest challenge at the very beginning?

My Cosmic experience began in 2015 when I joined the family as a PHP developer. But first, let me give you a little background about my previous position which I held for four and a half years. It required building a programming department from zero mostly. That refers to buying hardware, setting up the servers, programming, etc. So the biggest challenge when I joined Cosmic Development, almost five years ago, was the teamwork, or in other words: changing my mindset to get used to working as part of a team instead of doing everything on my own like with the previous job. Furthermore, another important challenge was the social aspect, the period until I got to know all of my new colleagues, the company’s culture, the time needed until I built new friendships and so on.

Being a part of a team of developers can be demanding but also very rewarding. Could you tell us how do you manage to overcome stressful situations?

To overcome every situation, taking a small break is essential for me. The next step is to explain the problem step by step in detail, like a scheme, and the resolution shows by itself. It’s similar to the “rubber duck debugging” when you try to explain the problem to someone who doesn’t have any programming experience. You must have a deep understanding of the problem so you can explain it with simple words. This insight may help anyone to avoid stress and to contribute to the team.

If you were to offer a piece of advice to your less-experienced colleagues, what would it be?

According to my personal opinion, there are three things that younger and less-experienced colleagues should know and those are the following:

• Always be informed of the new things in your field of expertise. Make sure to read, follow, share trending news in your sector
• Do not be afraid to ask your colleagues if you get stuck with some tasks.
• Always leave your work at your desk. Home is the place where you should not bring your work, no matter what task you have and how important it is.

As a Senior PHP Developer, you probably have several websites you read on a daily basis. What would be the top five websites of your choice?

The most important website for PHP developers is probably php.net. When working as a beginner or even as a Senior PHP developer, I believe that this is a must website for reference. It’s impossible to remember everything. Then there is developer.wordpress.org which I used mostly in the time when I worked for LittleThings and AFV, two websites that are built on WordPress.

For the times when you are in a hurry and don’t want to reinvent the wheel, stackoverflow.com is a lifesaver. But be careful and make sure you don’t fall for the copy/paste trap because it can create a lot of problems later on.

Then there are laravel.com for the Laravel framework, freek.dev covers general PHP, Laravel, and JavaScript. Another website that has a lot of good posts on various topics and not only about programming subjects is dev.to.

What is your greatest professional accomplishment so far?

When working on a project to which you are so dedicated and pay so much attention it is hard to name just one. Each project demands a different skill set to build new things. To name some of them: LittleThings, AFV, and the current one, Rumble.

What is your greatest achievement in your personal life outside of work?

That’s easy, my baby boy. It is just amazing how he sees the world and gets happy even to the smallest and ordinary things. So, I can proudly say that he is my greatest achievement in life.

Can you give our readers advice on how to be more productive at work?

Make sure to develop a work routine, rank your tasks according to their level of priority, and most importantly make sure to create a task schedule for the day and stick to it. But remember to take regular breaks (something I’m not doing well ) and stay hydrated. In other words, learn how to create work-life balance and you notice a great change in your level of productivity.

What do you like to do for fun?

I love traveling to new places around the world. That is my definition of fun. I wish I could have time to travel every month to places I have never been to before. In the meantime, I have a “to-do” list of all the beautiful places in Macedonia that I never visited in my life. The list for exploring the beauties that Macedonia has to offer is getting shorter, so I will have to start making new plans and “to-do” lists.

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