[Ascendancy]

Hey guys.

I am new to PHP programming and pretty much know nothing about it. I am trying to learn it so that I can make my own forums using PHP and HTML. I know HTML alright, and I can pick stuff up fast. Can anyone help me with this?

[welsh]

Hey, welcome. PHP can be very powerfull when you know how to use it. So your bets bet would be to start making simple stuff, like a guest message script, stuff like that before you try a forum which isnt easy at all. I found this was a pretty good tutorial site to get me going: http://www.tizag.com/phpT/

[Ascendancy]

Thanks a lot dude, that site is really helpful. I am trying to study a lot about web page dev. and such, so this will really help. Thanks!

[jcortes]

i agree tizag is always a good site i would suggest taking a look at mysql as well after you get comfortable with php that is the most powerful part of the web is the use of databases and if you are making forums there is no other option than to learn mysql.

[Ascendancy]

Are these good languages to know? I'm looking into a tech career, and I was thinking that knowing these would be good because companies would hire people who know programming languages?

[jcortes]

i wouldnt really call these programming languages but they are good languages to know i know HTML, PHP, MySQL, Visual Basic. Visual basic is an actuall programing language but i really suggest learning PHP and MySQL they are some of the most useful web languages you can learn databases are extremely important in web development. to explain further PHP is the programming language that allows you to have dynamic things on your page like logins ect and the database, mysql, actually stores the info like user names and forums posts ect. all the posts on this forum are saved in a MySQL database

[Ascendancy]

That is so cool! Hah that cleared up a lotta questions I had. So MySQL is a program that stores all the information (like all the members of this forum, and their passwords and e-mails).

[jcortes]

right the html makes the look of the page. php gets the information from the database and outputs it here on the forum that you are reading now and the database stores all the actuall text, username, last post, number of posts, email, ect..

[Ascendancy]

Then what makes the layout of the forum, like how the posts look like, the reply boxes, backgrounds... That's all HTML?

[jcortes]

yes that is html (hyper text markup language) along with css (cascading style sheet)