Total Followers 132,503
In today’s web development scenario, it is very necessary for a web developer to know how to code in PHP. PHP has become a major language in web development industry in last few years. From WordPress to FaceBook everything is coded in PHP language.
Recently we came to a book named PHP for Absolute Beginners which is a must read for beginners. Today we are going to review the book and guess what? We have 2 free copies of book to give you free of cost. I wish that it would have been there when I was learning PHP. Anyways After buying the book, I read it and the book was something more than awesome.
The book is written by Jason Lengstorf who is a self taught PHP developer. He is an experienced voice in PHP and web development. If you are a regular reader of some famous blogs like Smashing Magazine and CSS-Tricks then you might came to tutorials written by him. He is also co-author of the famous CSS-Tricks series “Creating a web app from scratch”. You can read his extensive interview by me here.
Jason starts the book with how to install PHP on your computer and then leads you throughout the way to building up your own blog system with user comments. Rather than wasting the first chapter on the history of programming and PHP, how it came and other theoretical stuff, he tells the readers how to install xampp on your local computer for better development. I have read about 5-6 books on PHP and it was my habit to skip the first chapter of book, first time I read the starting chapter of book.
The book is an example of a phrase, less theory, more coding. Jason teaches PHP with a lot of sample tutorials and examples. You will not read chapters and chapters of theory but you will learn best practices to do in the coding, and many pro tips which should be kept in mind when coding in PHP.
We have got two copies of PHP for absolute beginners for the giveaway. We are very thankful to Jason Lengstorf and the publishers of book APRESS Publishers for supporting this giveaway.
Pretty simple, you have to leave a comment on the post and tell us what you want to see on 1stwebdesigner, or how we can make the website better. We will use random.org to pick the winners. The giveaway is open till 11:59pm GMT+5, February 18th 2010.
If you don’t like waiting for the result of giveaway, you can buy the book here through Amazon.com service. What we can assure you that this book is definitely worth your money.
Good Luck!
*Update by Dainis Graveris
Seeing all those amazing suggestions and comments changed my mind about randomized pick! We will choose winners with the most thoughtful, interesting and best answer! I just love to see how you drop down all the weak points of 1stwebdesigner site! I love you for that, and I am definitely thinking about new design, which will be very well researched and carefully put together to fix all problems, usability bugs we have here!
Give us more feedback! Completely inspired!
Update
The Giveaway is closed now.
Winners are Terri Lockerridge and Mark Anderson.
Thanks for your feedback and suggestions.
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Saad Bassi is a 20 years old web developer from Pakistan who loves to create beautiful websites with great user experience. He is co-editor at CrispyTech and 1stWebDesigner and blogs about the next Windows at Windows8Geek. He also loves to make new friends so don't forget to say him a hello on Twitter. Last but not least, make sure that you check out my latest project, Addictive Fonts which focuses on free high quality font downloads.
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 01:11
Possibly more HTML articles and maybe some interesting web design case studies.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 23:49
I would like to see more CSS3 and html5 since they are on the up and coming! WordPress is huge too so articles on that is much appreciated
Thanks!
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 23:20
I’d like to know a little more about web programming, move towards development from my actual porfession as a designer, anything that can help during the transition would be appreciated.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 22:33
I would like to see information (tools, techniques, etc.) on helping basic web designers get to the next level. Also, some time management info for us folks who do web design on the side. Thanks!
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 22:31
Thanks for this very important giveaway. I’d like to to see tutorials about CSS3, HTML5, CSS tips, WordPress and jQuery tips.
Thank you very much.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 21:56
I would enjoy articles for developers new the browser platform(s), which includes me.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 21:52
I would like to see more and more CSS3 and HTML5 articles and preferably some articles for beginners on CSS3 who has a knowledge on CSS 2.1 and earlier versions.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 21:42
I’m always interesting in finding out best practices, how to decrease load times, usability issues, and accessibility issues.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 21:23
Having had to learn the little PHP I know the hard way (self-taught), this book will be a good send.
Always looking for tutorials, esp. customizing WordPress and other open-source packages (ie. Webcalendar, Zen Cart, etc).
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 21:13
Hi! I’d like to see more jquery-css example and easy-programming tutorials. The site is still really good anyway ;)
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 21:01
Im a novice that knows nothing about web design and wants to know something.
Like what is the difference between all these different ways to build a website like html, xml, php, css, etc. What should a person that knows nothing learn.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 20:57
A glossary of terms downloadable ebook that can help with different terminology
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 20:50
Hey, thanks for the giveaway.
I’d like to see more webhost reviews, and more book reviews.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 20:44
i want too see less lists and more tips from you :)
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 19:20
Just found the site, I’m always looking for good design sites and joomla sites. Adding more information on Joomla and designing for a dynamic site would be nice.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 19:07
I would love to see a series of articles that go over current web trends and future web trends. A series that shows how specific attributes of the web, contact forms for example, have evolved through the years.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 20:48
Thanks for the ideas. We will try to focus on them.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 19:04
First time visitor and I think your site is well laid out with some great content in my few minutes of browsing around. I would love to see the search box a little bit bigger or more apparent to a new visitor.
Thanks for the giveaway!
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 18:42
hi,
great giveaway :)
Your site is near to perfection and need no changes.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 18:37
I never knew about your site until now :O (I just so happen to find a link to your blog at Web Design Ledger) The name was attractive (cuz out of the many blogs they listed there I only clicked yours LOL), but that sorta means that maybe you can improve the site’s… uhh… hmm… I lost the word… uhh… ah! Wait. It’s you’re uhm… *I think aloud* Your popularity or something like that. Anyways, I am subscribing to it because really, I see great content here.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 17:53
If it’s free, it’s for me! The only thing I would add to this site would be more giveaways or freebies. Otherwise, this site is a great resource. Keep up the good work!
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 18:13
Yes, I agree – that’s our weak side for now on! :) Wish you good luck :)
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 17:41
I love all the WordPress articles you have. I guess I’d like to see more of that, but you guys are doing a great job.
I’m a self-taught PHP developer that got started years ago by reading a book similar to this. I have people ask me all the time how to get started and I’d love to be able to loan out this book to get them started.
Thanks for the opportunity!
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 18:13
Oh, kind words Jared! Yes, WordPress is very popular topic and if it will go as planned we will cover wordpress more and more in future! Thanks for support!
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 17:40
Hello! Your website is informative as well as very entertaining. I don’t have a blog on WordPress. I would like to see more templets and tips for Blogger, since that’s what I use. Thanks for all your hard work!
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 18:11
Hey, Anna!
We tried already Blogger related post..as well as Drupal related theme post, but it didn’t give us a whole lot attention comparing to WordPress for example. We’ll try our luck in future as well, but I cannot promise we will grow supporting Blogger in this website.! Thank you for reading us!
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 17:24
I’ve recently found 1stWebDesigner and have been immersed in the articles since. The thing I haven’t come across is a section dedicated to advice and tools on marketing a website. Also some web host reviews are always appreciated.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 18:09
Matthias thank you for great idea and since I am considering that my strongest side is internet marketing and social media, I will focus more on such related articles! Agreed about web hosts as well, we have upcoming article about it already! :)
Friday, February 19th, 2010 07:47
Definitely give us some marketing tips then :)
Another idea is a user submitted website registry that allows your users to recommend a helpful site on a certain subject (i.e. php or SEO). Then other users that found it helpful could vote yay or nay and rank them accordingly. I know many times I’ve found a great article buried in the depths of the Internet and I have no way of sharing the immense excitement to fellow developers.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 17:14
How to make 1stWebDesigner better? Hm… that’s a hard question. You cover a very wide variety of topics. Maybe you could write one kind of articles that I don’t remember seeing on 1stWD – case studies. If well written, they can be very educational :)
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 18:10
Hey, Entis!
You mean like going step by step to some problems we got, designing process, searching advertisers, creating contests -showing a little bit what’s happening behind the scenes?
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James
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 01:18
Would love a copy. As far as how to make 1stwebdesigner better? I think you guys are doing just fine as is! but if I had to say something, I would say more wordpress and jquery.
Kelsey
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 00:45
I’d like to learn more about php, just due to the fact that’s one of the main languages I didn’t learn in school and would like more information on it.
Thanks!
Eric azares
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 06:10
This is a very comprehensive website! I’d like to see more case studies for specific types of websites in different industries. This may go beyond just the ‘style’ and cover more regarding common functionalities that occur in typical ‘x’ sites. Would be great to see the workflow of designs from start to finish ! ;)
Mhaddy
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 15:27
Would love to see more tutorials on the logo design process – beginning to end incl the brainstorm & thought process.
Shyndoway
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 08:54
First of all great website as a beginner in web design I love it.
I think that more tutorials would make this website one of the most ruling websites. It already has great content that I get inspired by and to be able to learn to do what I see more would be great.
Thanks for the giveaway hope I win
Shyndoway
estherliu
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 17:34
I am a real beginner for wordpress and PHP. I could’ve used a theme and get done with my site, but the annoying thing is that that’s nothing that I wanted.
So, if there is an clear tut for customizing wordpress by coding or creating my own theme, I will be much appreciated.
Tnks
Tomas Varil
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 12:25
Hi there I would like to see more about creating a custom wordpress themes. I know there are many tuts about how to create templates, but no one covers the background of creating templates. Every tut is specific and does not offer more user customization…
Terri Lockerridge
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 09:41
Thank you for the invitation to leave a suggestion for something I would like to see more of here and everywhere else that is mainly a tutorial type learning site.
I notice that most of the time the sites that offer the how to’s on some really awesome web site “how to” tutorials. But none of you use that type of thing yourselves. This page is pretty plain you will have to agree. There are lots and lots of ads all over it. But they are not very colorful, nor do they even have the interactive hover or cursor chase to get our attentions.
I am just curious as to why? The content is top notch, the language gets a bit computerlish every once in a while .. with the photo shop tutorials.. but mostly I. and many other amateurs, who are just on the net for the fun of it all, can understand and put the information to use hands on, ourselves.
That is the most important aspect I suppose, but … what is up with the white backgrounds and the Windows blue plain headers with a single row of buttons that work.. and work very well, but are not an example of what your showing us how to accomplish ourselves.
What holds you back? Just really curious why you stick with plain when you shout out fancy stuff to the crowd?
Thanks for the contest and hopefully I might become lucky enough to have a chance at this one.. I am nothing if not random.
terri
Saad Bassi
Saturday, February 20th, 2010 08:36
Congrats on winning Terri. We are already thinking of redesigning 1stWebDesigner. We will try to roll put the interactive, jQuery enhanced design this time.:)
George Argyrakis
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 11:23
Hello,
Firstly I would like to congratulate you for your good job.
Secondly, I think that you should add some extra tutorials for designing webpages.
Good luck to everyone.
Cheers
George
Silviya
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 11:25
More about CSS3 and HTML5 would be nice. But overall the site is very good and educational.
Magentoua
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 11:57
Hi!
I would like some articles about Magento if possible. Thanks
Saad Bassi
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 12:09
That’s already in my to-do list. Most probably I will write magento articles for a whole week. E-commerce week.
idagency
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 11:45
Hi there,
Please could I get one, I am a real beginner and I am sure it can help me :) truly…
Dale Stouffer
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 09:54
Well, in terms of your give away, I’m interested in getting one of your free copies of your book. In reading through the responses above, I see some similar things touched upon that were useful. Hopefully you’ll find my suggestions helpful as well. My suggestions touch on SEO.
1. You have a fair amount of images on your site that don’t have alt tags. Get em in there.
2. Most website owners don’t SEO their contact us page – you should do this – it is a missed opportunity for another page to be found etc.
3. From what I have been taught, read, etc. you have a redundant phrase: “Graphic and Web Design Blog -Resources and Tutorials on many of your titles of your pages in the static part of your site which should be removed from all titles except one page. Most likely the front page is a good place to keep it.
That’s probably enough suggestions for now. Thanks for the opportunity to contribute.
Dale Stouffer
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 10:00
Actually a second comment, when I clicked on my name which had the link to my company’s website the link opened my site in your window. You might consider changing this link to show: target=”_blank” to that you don’t lose readers who click to other folks’ websites. Just another suggestion. TTFN.
Sunil
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 12:55
It would be nice to read any of the PHP framework from the 1stwebdesigner
thanks
Sunil
Francois
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 21:43
I would go with more wordpress articles, as I love wordpress and want to know more about it. Nice giveaway.
mary
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 21:43
just got here, so checking out your articles now
Carlos
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 00:11
I would like to see more WordPress performance enhancement tricks / tips.
Thanks
carsten
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 12:19
I really enjoy the site already, but i`d love to get inside-infos on Drupal and Concrete5 CMS maybe…
But anyways thanks for the collected tuts and stuff! a very useful and nice resource….
Cheers SNAPONE
Ward Kennes
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 20:17
Hi,
thanks for this giveaway action, well what I should like is a bit more tutorials for CMS/blog systems like, WordPress, Textpattern.
Thanks 1stewebdesigner
DesignLovr
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 11:27
I would love to participate in your giveaway.
I think you should publish more in-depth tutorials.
mdomba
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 11:47
Your site rocks…
I would like more jQuery tutorials…
webbografico
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 11:54
I would like a lot of jquery and wordpress tuts…
nice work, go on like this
Lyudmil ivanov
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 20:09
As js platforms as jquery, mootools etc. are gettin more popular i would love to read more about them as well as more illustrating tutorials for web design. cheers
Tomas
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 20:04
You want my opinion? Ok. I don’t like the footer, it’s too long and disorganized (just displaying “Tags” and “Authors” other space is empty). To display authors you could use buttons like in sidebar. Second thing that I personally don’t like is comluv plugin use, I think it adds more confusion to comments. Search field you could add on top navigation or on sidebar. Awesome giveaway, hope you’ll find my opinion useful and I win. Good luck!