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🐘 PHP Foundations: Server-Side Web Development from Scratch

Learn PHP from your first script to a full CRUD application. By the end of this course, you'll understand variables, control flow, functions, arrays, forms, OOP, database integration with PDO, security best practices, and deployment.

📚 About This Course

PHP powers over 75% of websites on the internet, including WordPress, Facebook, and Wikipedia. This course teaches you PHP from the ground up — no prior PHP experience required. You'll start with the basics (variables, loops, functions), work through intermediate topics (forms, sessions, OOP), and finish by building a complete database-driven CRUD application.

Every lesson includes hands-on code examples, exercises, and quizzes. This course is the second step in a three-course learning path: MySQL Foundations teaches you the database layer, this course teaches you the server-side language, and PHP & WordPress brings it all together for real-world CMS development.

What You'll Learn

  • PHP syntax, variables, data types, operators, and type juggling
  • Control flow (if/else, switch, match), loops, and functions
  • Arrays, array functions, strings, and string manipulation
  • HTML form processing with $_GET and $_POST
  • Input validation, sanitization, and security fundamentals
  • Sessions, cookies, and user state management
  • Object-oriented PHP — classes, inheritance, interfaces, and traits
  • PDO database connections, prepared statements, and transactions
  • Building a complete CRUD application from scratch
  • Security essentials — SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, and password hashing

Who This Course Is For

  • Beginners with basic HTML knowledge who want to learn server-side programming
  • Front-end developers ready to add backend skills
  • Students who completed the MySQL Foundations course and want to connect PHP to their databases
  • Anyone who wants to understand how dynamic websites work under the hood

Learning Path

This course is Part 2 of a three-course sequence:

  1. MySQL Foundations — Database fundamentals and SQL
  2. PHP Foundations (this course) — Core PHP language + PDO database integration
  3. PHP & WordPress — Building dynamic sites with WordPress

📖 Course Modules

Module 1: Getting Started

Meet PHP, set up your LAMP stack environment, and write your first scripts.

Module 2: Core Language

Master operators, control flow, loops, and functions — the building blocks of every PHP program.

Module 3: Data Structures

Work with arrays and strings — PHP's most important data structures and their powerful built-in functions.

Module 4: Web Fundamentals

Handle HTML forms, validate and sanitize user input, and work with files — the core of server-side web development.

Module 5: State & OOP

Manage user state with sessions and cookies, then organize your code with object-oriented programming.

Module 6: Database Integration

Connect PHP to MySQL with PDO, write secure queries with prepared statements, and build a complete CRUD application.

Module 7: Real-World Skills

Handle file uploads, secure your applications against common attacks, deploy to hosting, and plan your next steps.

✅ Prerequisites

Before starting this course, you should have:

  • Basic HTML knowledge (you can write a simple HTML page with forms)
  • Comfort with the command line (typing commands, navigating directories)
  • A working LAMP stack — if you completed the MySQL Foundations course, you already have this set up
  • No prior PHP or programming experience required

Required Software

  • Ubuntu / WSL — Linux environment
  • Apache 2.x — Web server to run PHP files
  • PHP 8.x — The PHP interpreter with common extensions (Lesson 2 covers installation)
  • MySQL 8.x — Database server (already installed from the MySQL course)
  • phpMyAdmin — Visual database management (already installed from the MySQL course)
  • A text editor — VS Code recommended

📚 Additional Resources

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