The guide mentioned in the previous post is pretty straight forward. It is not a study guide for people who are new to PHP but it is a good reference for long-time PHP programmers.
It is a good memory support and it provides a clear list of what concepts you need to know before taking the ZCE examination.
Learning this book by heart will not make you pass the test as it only brushes each concept briefly. It is advised to get more clarification at php.net to refresh some of the concepts you don't often use.
But what about PDO and SPL?
To clarify for the non PHP programmer that may be reading this blog: PDO = PHP Data Objects and SPL = Standard PHP Library.
The guide shows very little interest in both PDO and SPL, but as I leared from this article, the exam does show interest in them.
Best place to start as always is the php.net website:
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Step one: Zend.com
For 30 euro I bought the 'Zend PHP 5 Certification Study Guide' and started reading.
In a nutshell, here's the focus of the document:
In a nutshell, here's the focus of the document:
PHP basics
- Syntax
- Anatomy of a PHP script
- Data types
- Variables
- Constants
- Operators
- Control structures
- Errors an error management
Functions
- Basic syntax
- Returning values
- Variable scope
Arrays
- Array basics
- Array operations
- Array iteration
- Sorting arrays
- Arrays as stacks, queues and sets
Strings and patterns
- String basics
- Comparing, searching and replacing strings
- Formatting strings
- Perl-compatible regular expressions
Web programming
- Anatomy of a web page
- Forms and URLs
- HTTP headers
- Sessions
Object oriented programming in PHP
- OOP fundamentals
- Class methods and properties
- Constants, static methods and properties
- Interfaces and abstract classes
- Exceptions
- Lazy loading
- Reflection
Database programming
- An introduction to relational databases and SQL
- SQL joins
- Advanced database topics
- Working with databases
Elements of object oriented design
- Design pattern theory
- The Standard PHP Library (SPL)
XML and web services
- The Extensible Markup Language (XML)
- SimpleXML
- DOM
- Web services
Security
- Concepts and practices
- Website security
- Database security
- Session security
- Filesystem security
- Shared hosting
Streams and network programming
- Accessing files
- Accessing network resources
Differences between PHP 4 and 5
- Language features
- Objects
- Selected new extensions
- Error management
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Introduction
Maybe a small introduction is in order.
I am a PHP developer and I have been so for approximately the past 7 years.
Like most PHP developers I started out through self-study as PHP was (is) not the kind of language they taught (teach) at school.
How I got in touch with PHP... I love linux and unix systems and when one of my employers needed an in-house web server they could use to deploy an intranet stock-management system I downloaded a redhat linux and started installing.
Since I was considered the computer 'nerd' of the company I was given the tedious task of writing the stock management system. Working on redhat I soon stumbled on MySQL and naturally one would stumble on PHP too... Before I had been dabbling in VB and Java using ODBC on MS Access databases (I know... the shame of it) but now I find this tool, so easy to use and so much faster to implement! MySQL socket integrated into PHP... Easy user interface with html... Well you know how it goes... I was sold!
After finding the love of my life (in a matter of speech) I kept working on my skills. Became an independent developer at one stage and did the website programming of numerous clients during 4 years.
I got to a point where I can truly say I find myself to be a PHP expert and naturally came the need to prove this... So in between projects I started studying for Zend certification.
...
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