There are a number of ways to profile and monitor the performance of PHP code in a development environment, but once it’s been let loose on a production server its extremely difficult to know what’s going on when your app is getting accessed by your users.
In March 2009, Facebook released XHProf, a function level profiler that allows you to identify bottlenecks in your application. And it runs on a production server with little overhead.
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We all have our bad habits. In this article, we’ll go over a list of bad practices that are worth examining, reevaluating, and correcting immediately.
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Many PHP programmers learned how to access databases by using either the MySQL or MySQLi extensions. As of PHP 5.1, there’s a better way. PHP Data Objects (PDO) provide methods for prepared statements and working with objects that will make you far more productive!
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You know it; I know it. We should be testing our code more than we do. Part of the reason we don’t, I think, is that we don’t know exactly how. Well, I’m getting rid of that excuse today: I’m teaching you to test your PHP with the EnhancePHP framework.
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In 2012, we plan to take our quizzes to a whole new level with ones aimed at all languages and catering to all competencies and tastes. But what better language to start off the new year than PHP, the darling of the masses?
In this test, aimed at beginners, your knowledge of the absolute basics of PHP will be tested. Yes, we know PHP is a bit old school but it still powers a massive portion of the web and is a force to be reckoned with. And don’t get complacent with the difficulty level of this test either! More difficult ones are on the way — we just like to take it nice and slow. Or maybe we like lulling you into a false sense of security…
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Twice a month, we revisit some of our readers’ favorite posts from through out the history of Nettuts+. This tutorial was first published in July, 2010.
For many PHP programmers, object-oriented programming is a frightening concept, full of complicated syntax and other roadblocks. As detailed in my book, Pro PHP and jQuery, you’ll learn the concepts behind object-oriented programming (OOP), a style of coding in which related actions are grouped into classes to aid in creating more-compact, effective code.
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Twice a month, we revisit some of our readers’ favorite posts from through out the history of Nettuts+. This tutorial was first published in January, 2011.
There’s an old adage – dating back to the 1700s – which, in English, says: “A kitten dies each time a PHP programmer doesn’t follow best practices.” Okay, not really; but just go with it!
Getting started in PHP can be a daunting experience. With that in mind, these 20 tips will teach you how to follow best practices, and save lives…kitty lives.
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Learning something from scratch is almost always an arduous affair — you simply have no idea as to where to start, or not to start, to kick things off. I loathed learning about the idiosyncrasies of C++’s syntax when all I wanted to learn were some darn programming concepts. As I’m sure you can agree, this is a less than ideal situation.
This is where the Nettuts+ “The Best Way to Learn” series comes into the picture. This series is intended to be your blueprint, your road map, your plan of action for learning your topic of choice! You don’t have to worry about finding the best resources, sorting out the bad ones, and figuring out what to learn next. It’s all here. Just follow it, step by step.
Today, we’re going to figure out the best way to learn PHP.
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Twice a month, we revisit some of our readers’ favorite posts from throughout the history of Nettuts+. This tutorial was first published in August, 2010.
Testing your code is annoying, but the impact of not doing so can be orders of magnitude more annoying! In this article, we’ll use test-driven development to write and test our code more effectively.
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