Category Archives: PHP

Learn PHP basics by video

My new video course, Introducing PHP, is now available from video2brain. It’s aimed at complete beginners, and assumes no prior knowledge of PHP or any other programming language. However, the course should also be useful as a refresher for anyone … Continue reading

Posted in PHP, Video | 5 Comments

New video PHP course for complete beginners

I’m delighted to announce that my new video course, Introducing PHP, has just been published by video2brain. The course contains nearly 5 hours of video instruction, starting with the installation of a PHP testing environment on your local computer, with … Continue reading

Posted in PHP, Video | 2 Comments

New tutorial: send a link to a friend

I’ve just published a new tutorial for a script that sends a link to a friend. It’s a very simple script, but—as long as you have a basic knowledge of PHP—you should be able to adapt it to your own … Continue reading

Posted in Books, PHP | 2 Comments

Great training resource for web designers and digital artists

I’m a great fan of learning from books—that’s why I written so many. But there are times when a book just won’t do. Seeing and hearing an expert show you how to do something often has much more impact. Several … Continue reading

Posted in AJAX/JavaScript, CSS, PHP, Video | 1 Comment

Using num_rows with a MySQLi prepared statement

While refactoring some code that I had written about six years ago, I was puzzled by the MySQLi num_rows property constantly returning 0, even though I knew there were matching records in the database. It turns out that the problem … Continue reading

Posted in MySQL, PHP | 7 Comments

What’s the difference between parameters and arguments?

When writing books aimed at beginners, there’s a difficult line to tread between giving too much and too little information. Too much information overloads the mind, running the risk of losing the reader’s enthusiasm for the subject. Too little information … Continue reading

Posted in Books, PHP | 4 Comments

Accessing PHP objects’ methods and properties

A couple of participants in Boston PHP‘s self-study PHP Percolate, Jim Wright and Jared Stenquist, are confused about the use of the -> operator, which is introduced on page 44 of PHP Solutions, 2nd Edition. Since others might be in … Continue reading

Posted in Books, PHP | 23 Comments

Join others learning PHP with PHP Solutions

So far, more than 90 people have signed up to join a self-study group organized by Boston PHP to learn PHP with the help of my book, PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy, 2nd Edition. This is the third … Continue reading

Posted in Books, MySQL, PHP | 13 Comments

Corrections for my books

I hate it when I find a mistake in a technical book—particularly when it’s one of mine. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to learn a new concept and hitting a brick wall because the code doesn’t work. Mistakes creep … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Dreamweaver, Flash, PHP | 11 Comments

Missing file for PHP Solutions, Second Edition

A couple of readers have reported that download.php was missing from the ch07 folder of the download files for PHP Solutions, Second Edition. The zip file on the friends of ED download page has now been updated. If you downloaded … Continue reading

Posted in Books, PHP | 51 Comments