When you're working on a new project, sometimes it can be frustrating to spend hours working on something, only to find out the next day that someone else has already completed very similar work and made the source code available. Nobody likes wasting time re-inventing the wheel, as anyone who's ever taken advantage of a PHP framework can tell you. With that spirit in mind, here are 5 great PHP tutorials from around the web that you can incorporate into your next project to make it as robust and efficient as possible.
1. In the past, we discussed using PHP caching to decrease the load times of your site, but only briefly touched on how to actually go about it. This tutorial gives a simple example, but those of you with some inspiration will be able to expand it to do whatever you want. http://papermashup.com/caching-dynamic-php-pages-easily/
2. If you're really hoping to optimise your site's load time, then you'll want to make sure that your files are as small as possible. The best method to do so is by compressing your CSS and JS files with Gzip, which can be done easily in PHP using this simple tutorial. http://papermashup.com/use-php-to-gzip-css-files/
3. We also posted recently about security in your PHP applications, and methods of error checking, but that can become even more tricky when your users have to do more than input text. If they are uploading files for your project, check out this tutorial about secure uploads.
http://viralpatel.net/blogs/file-upload-in-php-file-upload-php-file-upload-tutorial-securing-things/
http://viralpatel.net/blogs/file-upload-in-php-file-upload-php-file-upload-tutorial-securing-things/
4. Again on the security side of things, this tutorial will help you secure your project's login system with various tips and tricks tested and proven by the wider coding community. Take the time to brush up, and protect your work from malicious users. http://hungred.com/useful-information/php-secure-login-tips-and-tricks/
5. Finally, to prevent the worst from happening in SQL database crash which could cost you all your hard-won data, use this simple tutorial to create a PHP script to output your database to an XML file which can be reparsed to restore your database. http://davidwalsh.name/backup-database-xml-php
Bonus: If that's not quite to your liking, Walsh also offers a tutorial on how to use PHP to export your tables as SQL statements here http://davidwalsh.name/backup-mysql-database-php
There you have it! These simple PHP tutorials can make a huge difference in the way your project development works, ensuring that your project be more secure and more efficient - and save you from spending time developing processes that others have already perfected.
