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 15:27
Would love to see more tutorials on the logo design process – beginning to end incl the brainstorm & thought process.
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 ! ;)
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…
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 11:57
Hi!
I would like some articles about Magento if possible. Thanks
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.
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…
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 11:25
More about CSS3 and HTML5 would be nice. But overall the site is very good and educational.
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
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
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.:)
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 01:08
Hi Saad,
good and nice give-away!
How could you get this blog even better …? For me personally that means more about SEO (you’re last post about SEO in WP was great), less about buttons in CSS3 or jQuery-posts (we’ve seen those enough!).
More about blogging, not how to code or what theme you should get, no, a bit more personal stories behind the scenes (advertizing, social media, boosting traffic, etc.). More about social networking and email marketing, etc.
Hope I could have been of some assistance? You could too, .. I want this book, hihi, LOL!
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 08:53
Regarding blogging, here on 1stwebdesigner, We have an exclusive gift for all the bloggers in upcoming days.Stay tuned.:)
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 08:35
Hello Dear Saad,
I’d like to thank you for this opportunity.
Well, what I’d like to see (or to see more), is the Java, jQuery, AJAX and so related topics, hints and tricks.!!
Hope, my luck drives me to a winner here :D
Regards..
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 00:31
Great! Apress is an excellent publishing company and Jason is an excellent developer, so I’d love to have his book!
As far as improvements, I’d love to see more concrete, real-life development tuts like the one you published on Setting Up WordPress for SEO (that was good).
Thanks for having this giveaway!
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 08:51
Thanks for your input Nick. We will try to act upon your suggestions.
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 00:21
I would like to read more about programming logic, I mean it’s cool to follow tutorials and “step-by-step” articles but in real life you encounter some out of line situations.
Thanks, I really hope I can get a copy of the book; I need it.
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 00:10
I’d like to see more articles with collections to free design resources such as CSS templates, icons and frameworks. Although you do a good job of providing these now, there’s always room for more.
Keep up the good work
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 07:20
Great site. Personally, I’d like to see more written tutorials. Keep up the good work.
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 07:09
Still working in ASP, it’s been a long time since I want to learn the PHP language. I would say that your site is going well. Maybe you could add some subdivised categories at the bottom of the pages. I’m now following the blog, good continuation !
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 06:05
today I went through the rss posts and I managed to open almost every post from 1stwebdesigner. Actually it is a well developed site with tons of usefull info.
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 05:28
It would be nice to see a section for SEO.
Overall I think this site is well developed.
I have learned many things here.
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 05:23
I’m more of a beginner, so I really like how-to articles and code snippets (jQuery, for example) that allow me to toy around and figure things out. Great site! Keep up the good work!
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 05:09
How to make 1stWebDesigner better?
In my opinion, there should be more sample of present design of web, more collections of trendy web design interfaces from Deviantart.com, more useful and pretty jquery plugins, issues of CSS in different browses, and some CSS framework.
You should also introduce some PHP & Zend Framework, But not too much, because this is a website for designer.
Thank you!
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 20:25
Just started reading yesterday, loved the post and added you to my reader… I’d love a free book for My 2 days of loyalty…. you would have me for at least 2 weeks them… maybe my whole life…. unless this book is horrible… than maybe not.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 19:41
I’ve been following this site for a month or so, and I absolutely love it.
I would like to see an overview of must-read blogs and more topics about fonts and typography (although you are doing great at the moment in that field).
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 19:45
Excuse me for the double post (I can’t edit my comments?), but I forget one important thing. It kind of annoys me that I can only click part of the logo to get back to your homepage. So maybe there is some room for improvement there..
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 20:48
You can also click breadcrumb navigation to go back to home.:)
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 03:10
Hello Saad Bassi! I would like to see more WordPress related articles on 1stwebdesigner (hackes, themes, tutorials etc). Hope that brings me a win.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 18:11
Me, me, me, pick me!
Awesome! Thanks for the great giveaway.
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 01:57
I think one direction you may think of going is to discuss the best ways to build a complicated site (such as dealing with slicing of images, image sizes, layout of information, margin issues, specialized menus, etc.) Thanks for all the hard work!
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 01:40
I really hope I can win this because I have been trying to learn PHP so I can create useful web applications and WordPress (I can learn that from a different book though). I have had a hard time because there are few to no tutorials about web applications and the ones about them are not very detailed for beginners.
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Sylvia
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 20:57
A glossary of terms downloadable ebook that can help with different terminology
Darlene Motley
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.
Sebastian
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 20:44
i want too see less lists and more tips from you :)
TJ
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 20:50
Hey, thanks for the giveaway.
I’d like to see more webhost reviews, and more book reviews.
Gonzo the Great
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 01:08
Hi Saad,
good and nice give-away!
How could you get this blog even better …? For me personally that means more about SEO (you’re last post about SEO in WP was great), less about buttons in CSS3 or jQuery-posts (we’ve seen those enough!).
More about blogging, not how to code or what theme you should get, no, a bit more personal stories behind the scenes (advertizing, social media, boosting traffic, etc.). More about social networking and email marketing, etc.
Hope I could have been of some assistance? You could too, .. I want this book, hihi, LOL!
Saad Bassi
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 08:53
Regarding blogging, here on 1stwebdesigner, We have an exclusive gift for all the bloggers in upcoming days.Stay tuned.:)
Adeline
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 07:59
How about short screencasts on coding or even designing tips (either jQuery, Photoshop or WordPress) that would be great.
Claude Sammut
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 19:21
I would say more about CSS3 & jQuery
lawrence77
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 20:08
From the beginning itself i love 1stwebdesigner, u done a good job, keep up the good job,…
And random.org, pick my number :P
i want that book :(
Ian Rogers
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 01:55
More design + SEO tips together…like your wordpress post!
Cobra Kai
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 09:07
Great Site. would love more articles on beginning PHP CMS site design and customization.
robert go
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 04:16
I’ve been waiting to see very creative ‘window displays’ on your site.
BTW, your site have been a great source of inspiration to designers.
thanks
Zak Morris
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 22:55
I’m an aspiring web designer and have been coding my sites from hand for three years. While I know a smidge of PHP ( the include function is a must ) I feel I’m at a point of understanding that I can take the next step. Many other guides / books seem to begin with an assumption that the reader is a ‘coder’ by nature, or further along than they actually are.
I would LOVE to find a resource that can show me the cause and effect and real, practical uses of beginner PHP in modern day web environment.
Mark Anderson
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 08:05
My opinions on the site:
I like the colours and the feel of the site, though I must say, i personally find sites with advertisements in the header etc to have a somewhat “distrustful” feel to them. I don’t feel like I can trust the site, cause it feels like they are out to make $$. Particularly if there are banner adds like the one I just saw on here (flashing huge text saying “bargain, only $1.40″ etc etc. Screams SCAM.
Anyway, enough of that rant. I can see what you are trying to do with the footer, though I think there is a little too much info on there myself. I find it a little distracting. The different sized links all through that paragraph of tags on the left of the footer seems a bit disorganized to me (and the right column too) – as in it looks disorganized. I don’t read any of it cause it seems a bit too full on.
Otherwise, I really like the site, and I really like your free giveaway too. I hope my comments have been of assistance to you.
Two Socks
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 00:40
I would say some Pod Casts would be interesting to listen to, I quiet like that format…but maybe it’s just me !
Mark Anderson
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 08:06
I should clarify – despite the “flashing banner” etc, I do find the site trustworthy and very helpful. I was just pointing out the feel that it can convey.
Voras
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 21:27
I’d love to see more in-depth tutorials for beginners, preferably with clear coding examples.
And I’d love to get the book :).
Mark Anderson
Monday, February 22nd, 2010 02:05
Saad, What a surprise, I won something! Thanks very much for the e-book! I’ll be reading away over the next little while. I have been wanting this book for a while.
Thanks again!
Mark
Saad Bassi
Monday, February 22nd, 2010 10:13
Congrats Mark. There are a lot of books coming soon. Stay tuned with us. Best of luck for the future.:)
Chery Gates
Monday, June 20th, 2011 16:16
jQuery is one of at least a dozen JavaScript frameworks that have exploded onto the scene during the last few years, and for good reason. The Web 2.0 era has called upon JavaScript in a big way, turning to it as the driving force behind all the gliz and glamour that defines any Web 2.0 site. This huge increase in workload for JavaScript has called out for JavaScript frameworks that do the heavy lifting of common Web 2.0 tasks for us, from common visual effects such as fading, DOM traversal/ manipulation, to of course, Ajax interaction.
zac
Thursday, October 13th, 2011 20:59
Hi, I would love to see more ideas and examples of applications that can be created with Ruby on Rails. Also, anything to do with mobile programming.
Saad Bassi
Saturday, February 20th, 2010 08:33
Thanks a lot Terri. Much appreciated. I hope that the book will help you in get started with PHP. Jason is also writing another book, Pro PHP and jQuery. We are sure that we will also have some copies of book to giveaway.
Cristhian
Friday, February 19th, 2010 17:04
Excellent book! Glad to participate :) I think it would be a great idea to focus on jquery/css tutorials for beginners in the future
Rjdsign
Friday, February 19th, 2010 10:54
Nice one, at the moment i try to learn more about PHP, this book is a must have for me to learn more.
Thanks for this giveaway
cssah
Friday, February 19th, 2010 11:17
Thanks, read more in-depth about javascript
Salman Aslam
Saturday, February 20th, 2010 08:19
I wish i could get my hand on this book =[
Saad Bassi
Saturday, February 20th, 2010 08:23
You got late boy. What can we do:)