How to start learning PHP the WordPress way?

  • Shmoo

    (@macpresss)


    12 years, 5 months ago

    Hello guys,

    I started working with WordPress years ago when the 2010 theme was a default theme and I was amazed how much I could do and change without knowing PHP because the HTML tags kinda wrapped the PHP codes. It all came down to knowing the template hierarchy. If you knew what templates where used to generate X page front-end you could also make anything with just simple HTML + CSS knowledge.

    Now I wanna go further and start learning PHP but I don’t wanna become the BEST PHP Developer on earth. Making WordPress sites is a hobby and it should stay like that. I’ve tried learning PHP before at Lynda.com but most of those sites teach you the very basics and when they get going in chapter 4 or 5 they start to teach you how to make your own CMS and functions like that. – I don’t need that I like what WordPress is doing in the Core.
    Most of those codes doesn’t look like WordPress PHP – WordPress often uses clean and simple template tags get_sidebar() – the_content() and many others easy to use functions that are often easy to change by some array by looking at the Codex.

    I wanna learn how all those functions and template tags are made, where they are made and how you can find them. And of course how you can change them.

    I don’t wanna become the best WordPress developer I just would like to learn more of the PHP side behind WordPress and I already know what PHP Variables and Array’s are and all those simple PHP stuff.

    Is there any website or book that teaches PHP based on WordPress I would really like to look at it!

    Thanks..

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Sleneau

    (@sleneau)

    12 years, 5 months ago

    A lot of what lynda.com teaches in those CMS building courses are useful, higher-level concepts that are very helpful moving forward. The CMS building project is purely to give you something to do while you learn the principles. I would encourage you to go through their courses on object oriented programming, and many others besides.

    In my own personal experience, however, I’ve found that learning PHP is a matter of building websites, trying new stuff, and gradually figuring it out. Maybe I just learn that way, but nothing stuck before I put it into practice.

    I hear that treehouse and codeschool have some interesting courses on it. Though I haven’t tried them out myself.

    Patrik

    (@pdeloughry)

    11 years, 10 months ago

    I became proficient with PHP long before I started building WordPress sites, and in my opinion, WP isn’t a great place to begin to learning PHP. No doubt it’s a great tool for building blogs and non-enterprise websites, but it’s a poor demonstration of PHPs object-oriented capabilities, and its going to make learning PHP more confusing than it has to be. WordPress uses LOTS of globals to automagically track array indices and communicate between modules, which is going to make your head spin when you start to learn the internals of WordPress. The developers utilize many of these non-standard (and often obscure) programming conventions in an attempt to simplify the coding work for theme developers… which is smart since most theme developers aren’t programmers. However, if you are serious about learning the ins-and-outs of WordPress, even if you don’t intend to become a PHP guru, you would be best served by completing one of the online courses like the one you mentioned. It will give you a foundation in good programming practices, and that will help you to navigate the WordPress internals and understand why they built it the way they did. You should also start building your own little web apps. I learned PHP by building simple tools to track my appointments and finances, and every time I ran into a wall, I would just do some research or post to a forum. Because I was actually using the answers and not just reading them, the information stuck in my head.

    Hope this helps! Sorry if you’ve passed this point months ago 😀

    respectyoda

    (@respectyoda)

    11 years, 10 months ago

    You can use CodeAcademy to strengthen your PHP skills, but I suggest using this outstanding book on PHP: PHP and MySQL Web Development by Luke Welling & Laura Thomson.

    Also, you can dive into the Codex by creating themes as this is a good way to learn how WordPress works.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

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