In the previous introductory PHP tutorial we talked about what PHP looks like and in what kind of environment it runs. To sum up, we said that we write PHP code between tags that look like this: “<?php … ?>” and we end every command line must and in semicolon (;). We use “echo” or “print” in order for PHP to show things to us. We also said that we need to have Apache server, PHP and MySQL installed in our computer or server so that PHP can run and we concluded that using a ready-made package like XAMPP, WAMP, or MAMP to achieve that would be optimal. Today we are going to learn about PHP variables, their kinds and use.

What are Variables

Here is what a variable looks like:

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<?php

// Our first variable


$cool_variable = 'This s a really cool variable';

?>

Variables are used to hold some value or data for a certain time so that you can use it when you need it later in your code. Variables start with a dollar sign ($). A variable name must start with a letter or an underscore “_” . A variable name can only contain alpha-numeric characters and underscores (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and _ ) and should not contain spaces. When a variable name is made of more than one word, it can be separated with an underscore ($cool_variable), or written in camel case ($coolVariable). Variables can hold data of different types.

PHP Variables Data Types

There are four PHP variables data types. Let’s deduce them by example:

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<?php

$first_type = 'This a cool text variable'; // Just text.


$second_type = 123; // Just a number – note the lack of quotes.


$third_type = 1.23; // Decimal number – note the lack of quotes.


$fourth_type = ' '; // Just empty  - cool, isn't it.


?>

As you can see in above examples, declaring any type of variable is very easy. Every type has a name and they are respectively called: 1. String, 2. Integer, 3. Float, 4. Boolean. We don’t need to tell PHP which data type is variable holding; PHP evaluates the data when you assign it to the variable and then stores it as the appropriate type. Let’s talk about them in detail.

• String: A series of characters, otherwise called text. There is no practical limit on the length of a string or text. A string must be written between double or single quotes, otherwise PHP will produce an error.
• Integer: A whole number (no fractions), such as –43, 0, 1, 27, or 5438. Integer numbers should not be wrapped with quotes, otherwise they will be considered as a string, not an integer i.e. text and not number.
• Float: A number (usually not a whole number) that includes decimal places, such as 5.24 or 123.456789. This is often called a real number or a float. A float should not be wrapped with quotes too.
• Boolean: A TRUE or FALSE value. Boolean data types represent two possible states — TRUE or FALSE. A FALSE boolean is declared in several ways – at the example above we saw only one of them. Here is the whole list:
  • The string FALSE (can be upper- or lowercase)
  • The integer 0
  • The float 0.0
  • An empty string (as in the example above)
  • The one-character string ’0′
  • The constant NULL

  On the other hand, any other values in a Boolean variable are considered TRUE. If you echo a Boolean variable, the value FALSE displays as a blank string; the value TRUE echoes as a 1.

Assigning data to variables

The equals sign we used in the above statements is called the assignment operator, as it is used to assign values to variables. There are a ton other PHP operators that we need to know in order to be successful PHP programmers and we will talk about them in our next tutorial PHP Operators, so stay tuned.

Further Readings:

1. Understanding PHP Data Types: http://eu.dummies.com/WileyCDA/how-to/content/understanding-php-data-types.html
2. PHP Variables: http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/php_variables.asp
3. What is a Variable: http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/php/php2p1.html
4. Learn PHP from Scratch: http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/learn-php-from-scratch-a-training-regimen/

Introduction

I’ve been involved with PHP since I got into the web design and development world. This is because since in my beginnings I chose to use WordPress as a CMS to build websites with and since that day I have been needing PHP to build WordPress themes (and plug-ins lately). I have learned a lot of PHP tips and tricks, but I have not yet been able to study it regularly and eventually an advanced programmer as I aim. Hence I would love to be fluent in PHP and I know that it would open a whole new business world in front of me. So, in order to push myself into the academical learning process, I will be writing down my learning experience into tutorials. In this way I hope to kill two birds with one stone: learn deeper PHP for myself and let others learn faster and hopefully better through these tutorials too. So, let’s get the hands dirty.

What the Heck is PHP

To get started we need to know what we are talking about. There are two different opinions as where PHP derives from. The first one tells us it stands for “Personal Home Page Tools” and the second one stands for “Hypertext Preprocessor”. No matter where it derives as a acronym, PHP is server-side programming language. It is the one responsible for taking our requests to the server and bringing to us what the server gives it. PHP can be embedded within your HTML and vice versa which is something that makes it a great language. PHP file extension end in “.php”. PHP supports a ton of databases such as: MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC, etc, but it seems to have chosen the first one, MySQL, to marry with. The last but not the least, PHP is an open source software and is free to download and use.

Why Should I Use PHP

PHP is free, open source and has a great community after it. PHP is now mature and can fulfill your every wish. Furthermore, it’s aimed for the web and it gets to work done. PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.) and almost every hosting company offers PHP enabled web hosting service. PHP is also easy and fun to learn as these tutorials will prove it. Moreover, PHP is so popular that if you’re looking for a career in the web design/web development industry then you just have to know it. Final word: it has proven itself over the years to be one of the best options for dynamic web applications.

Am I Ready to Learn PHP

Off course you are! However, you need to have a basic understanding of (X)HTML. That is all you need. However, knowing some JavaScript and CSS would make the situation a lot more fun.

How to Start with PHP

You need a developing environment to write and run PHP code. Basically you need to have Apache Server, MySQL and PHP installed on your computer. You can install them separately, but it is not a wise go. The best option to start with whether you are a Linux, Mac, Windows or even Solaris user is XAMPP. XAMPP is a compilation of Apache server, MySQL and PHP and a bunch of other applications like PHPMyAdmin, all-in-one. As I mentioned, it is cross-platform and really easy to use. I use it myself and I love it. You can download at ApacheFriends.org. However, there are other options that you can consider like : WAMP specifically for Windows found at WampServer.com. MAMP specifically for Mac found at Mamp.info. Pick and choose!

Basic PHP Syntax

A PHP file normally contains HTML tags, just like an HTML file, and some PHP scripting code. Below, we have an example of a simple PHP script which sends the text “PHP is cool, right?” to the browser:

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<html>
<body>
<?php echo "PHP is cool, right?"; ?>
</body>
</html>

Here is the result we seen in the browser form the above PHP code.

Each code line in PHP must end with a semicolon (;). The semicolon is a separator and is used to distinguish one set of instructions from another. Also, as you can see the text is wrapped with double quotes. We can use single quotes in its place too. There is a slight difference between double and single quotes that we are going to discuss in the next tutorial. Also, there are two basic statements to output text with PHP: echo and print. In the example above we have used the echo statement to output the text “My PHP Script”. Note: The file must have a .php extension. If the file has a .html extension, the PHP code will not be executed.

Comments in PHP

Commenting your code is a programming virtue. It is a practice of best programmers and one of principles of programming engineering. Commenting your code helps you to understand what you have been writing in the past as you might forget programming tricks and functions once in a while, also, it help others to expand and improve your code easily. So, always comment your code.

In PHP, we use // and # to make a single-line comment or /* and */ to make a multi-line comment block. Have a look at the example below.

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<html>
<body>
<?php
//This is a single line comment

#This is a singe line comment too

/*
This is a comment block. Works the

same way as commenting CSS code.
*/
?>
</body>
</html>

This is how PHP looks like, but this is only the first step. To learn more fun things about PHP, read the next tutorial. Note: If the tutorial name does not have an active link, it means it is not posted yet, so stay tuned.

What is next:

• PHP Introduction
• PHP Variables
• PHP Operators
• PHP Arrays
• PHP Loops
  • PHP If … Else
  • PHP While
  • PHP Foreach
  • PHP For
  • PHP Switch/Case
• PHP Functions
• PHP Forms
  • $_GET
  • $_POST
  • $_REQUEST
• PHP Cookies
• PHP Sessions

Resources:

1. PHP Introduction: http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/php_intro.asp
2. PHP Syntax: http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/php_syntax.asp
3. Learn PHP from Scratch: A Training Regimen: http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/learn-php-from-scratch-a-training-regimen/

Case

When I needed to hack a WordPress theme and I got my hands dirty with CSS code, sometimes I came across with in-line written CSS code i.e. every CSS selector occupied only one row. I found this practice very ugly and not scannable. I was used to CSS written in the classic way where every value is written in a new line. So, I would often break the single lines into multiple ones to distinguish them better. But this did not last forever. What happened?

Not very far in the past, I came across a article about single line CSS, where Steve Smith, the designer at OrderedList.Com had written of the same topic. He had gone thought the same dilemma I went and his conclusion is no different from mine. He says:

But imagine now that you have over 200 selectors, each with a laundry-list of attributes. That’s quite a mess to search through. My issue with CSS files like these is when they get large, it becomes very difficult to scan the document for a particular selector. They’re all separated by loads of attribute and value pairs. So what if we took out that separation, and put each selector, and it’s attributes and values all on the same line?

Let’s look at a live example taken from a site I have been developing lately. This is the way the code would look like if it was coded classically.

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h1{
float: left;
width: 120px;
height: 40px;
margin-top: 35px;
}
h1 span{
display: none;
}
h2 {
padding: 0 0 15px 0;
font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:18px;
line-height: 20px;
color: #159089;
font-weight:200;}
h2 a {
color: #159089
}
h3 {
padding: 0 0 15px 0;
font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:16px;
line-height: 18px;
color: #159089;
font-weight:200;
}
h4 {
font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:22px;
line-height: 24px;
color: #d21d1d;
font-weight:500;
text-align:left;
}
h5 {
padding: 10px 0 0 0;
font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:16px;
line-height: 19px;
color: #4b4141;
font-weight:500;
text-align:left;
}

And this is actual code I have coded of the site using the single line method.

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h1{ float: left; width: 120px; height: 40px; margin-top: 35px;}
h1 span{ display: none; }
h2 { padding: 0 0 15px 0; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:18px; line-height: 20px; color: #159089; font-weight:200;}
h2 a { color: #159089 }
h3 { padding: 0 0 15px 0; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:16px; line-height: 18px; color: #159089; font-weight:200;}
h4 { font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:22px; line-height: 24px; color: #d21d1d; font-weight:500; text-align:left;}
h5 { padding: 10px 0 0 0; font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:16px; line-height: 19px; color:#4b4141; font-weight:500; text-align:left;}

Note the length of the first sample and keep in mind that this is only less than 5% of all the CSS code I wrote for that site. Can you imagine how long the file would be if it weren’t in a single line and how difficult it would be to look for a certain selector to edit? You would spend more time browsing up and down thought the code rather than actually writing or editing it. That is why I chose to write all my CSS code in single line selectors method, so that I can speed up my work and spend less time looking for selectors in a super-long CSS file.

So, why not give it a try yourself? I think it is worth trying and I strongly hope you will get to love it as I do now. What do you think?

WordPress themes are being a great online resource for everybody to use, modify and share. This applies to GPL themes only though. However, in order to offer our online neighbors good themes that they will be happy using, theme developers, including me, should take care of some peculiar aspects in themes such as the use of CSS code. Along with WordPress theme evolution, some default CSS code needs to be included in very theme so that certain in-built features work well. This is mostly the case of images, but not only.

In WordPress 2.5 several classes for aligning images and block elements like DIV, P, TABLE etc. were introduced.Every theme should have these CSS classes – you can alter the style if need – in its style.css. The same classes are used to align images that have a caption, introduced in WordPress 2.6. Three additional CSS classes are needed for the captions, together the alignment and caption classes are:

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.aligncenter, div.aligncenter {
display: block;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
}
.alignleft {
float: left;
}
.alignright {
float: right;
}
.wp-caption {
border: 1px solid #ddd;
text-align: center;
background-color: #f3f3f3;
padding-top: 4px;
margin: 10px;
/* optional rounded corners for browsers that support it */
-moz-border-radius: 3px;
-khtml-border-radius: 3px;
-webkit-border-radius: 3px;
border-radius: 3px;
}
.wp-caption img {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
border: 0 none;
}
.wp-caption p.wp-caption-text {
font-size: 11px;
line-height: 17px;
padding: 0 4px 5px;
margin: 0;
}

Additionally, there are a few more WordPress CSS classes that you may optionally wish to style because WordPress generates them by default. I make use of most of them in my themes and I suggest very body uses them in their themes. There they are:

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.categories {...}
.cat-item {...}
.current-cat {...}
.current-cat-parent {...}
.pagenav {...}
.page_item {...}
.current_page_item {...}
.current_page_parent {...}
.widget {...}
.widget_text {...}
.blogroll {...}
.linkcat{...}

Did you find this information helpful? Do you have anything else to add? Your opinion is very much appreciated.

One of my many WordPress freelance projects I am working on is UKlocum. This is one of the many projects I have received from my dear client from Poland, Greg. When Greg contacted me for this project explaining what he wanted to do, he asked me if this could be done with WordPress. He had seen the potential of WordPress in other previous smaller projects we worked on. Before that, he had thought of getting it custom made from scratch, which would have cost him too much. So, I told him WordPress could handle it and we decided to go with WordPress. This site was a real challenge in terms of functionality and all this post is about is that WordPress handles perfectly CMS websites.

The Theme

UKLocum Website Preview

This project was pretty urgent and I could not afford to design a new theme from scratch, having a lot of other works in hand.  So I decided to go for a free WordPress theme and tweak it to fit my needs. I looked around and I can say that the theme community of WordPress is doing a great job. What I decided to go for is the Magazeen theme that was featured at Smashing Magazine too. Do you want to know what I tweaked? Read on…

Theme Code Cleaning

As you may already know, coders code differently. That is why getting your hands dirty with others people’s code is not a very enjoyable experience, moreover, sometimes it is a real pain. That was the case even with Magazeen which I expected to be better coded. The problem with code was that there where redundant use of DIVS and not logical cascading of CSS. This is my humble opinion – check it yourslef to be sure.

Most of code clearing was easy as it consisted in just removing functionality that the theme came prepacked with such as comments form, advanced widgets, thumbs gallery other elements that I cannot recall now, but it is quite boring and frustrating in other tasks as the drop down menu integration below.

Suckerfish drop down menu integration

The Magazeen theme did not come with a drop down menu, so I needed to integrate one as my client, Greg, required it. Not going into much trouble, I decided to use the Suckerfish Drop Down Menu which I had used several times previously. Because the code was messy, the most difficult part was fitting the theme code to the menu rather than integrating the drop down menu to the theme. However, it ended to be a success.

Custom Banner Integration

The custom banner integration consisted in removing some code from the banner section and placing the banner image there. Also, to help SEO of the site, I used a CSS image replacement techinque for the logo so that the human fisitors can see the nice image logo whereas the search engines read the given text wrapped in <h1> html tags.

Color Combination Alteration

Pawel, my client’s graphic designer, suggested that we used another color combination that would go better with the logo and banner colors. I implemented that color combination and it resulted in  another success.

Welcome Guest or User

Under the menu, I integrated a piece of PHP code from WordPress to welcome a guest visitor and to tell them to log in or to register and also to greet a registered user and to allow them to log out from front page or any other part of the site, so that not to make them to spend time and click to go to admin panel to log out.

Extended User Register

Because of the nature of the site and the needs of my client, he asked me if we could extend the register form with other fields. So  I did, using a great plugin called Register Plus. This is a very feature reach plugin which would allow you do almost anything with your register page, from having your custom logo to adding a lot of functionality and fields. I want to immensely thank the plugin’s developer for offering such a great plugin to the WordPress community.

Events Manager

The most impressing part of the UKLocum is the Events Manager. The Events Manager is a plugin developed by Davide Benini. It allows you to manage events specifying precise spatial data such as location, town, province, etc. It allows your visitors to book their participation in listed events. In my opinion it is the best plugin out there for event management.

When my client, Greg, saw it, he was enthusiastic about it. However, we had to face a challenge with the events. We needed to have people register first for the site, after that they would be able to book the events. Taking in consideration that the plugin developers have fulfilled almost any need in functionality terms, I found the solution fast enough. I employed the HidePost to accomplish that task, just another great plugin out there. I hid the booking form from not logged in visitors, telling them to log in or register, if not, to be able to book the event. That was the happy end of our next challenge.

Bottom Line

What would be the last words of this long boring post? Hmmm! As you could have already deducted from reading this post, WordPress is being more and more important in nowadays web environment. Also,  running WordPress freelance business (perhaps that’s not the right collocation) is a great way to make a living by making money online. The last but not the least, if you need a custom WordPress theme or other WordPress services and, if you are looking for a professional and reliable WordPress freelancer, look no further than my contact page.

Don’t forget that your opinion is most appreciated – please share it below.

As announced in the introductory post of Master WordPress theme, I am releasing my first ever free WordPress theme. I am very happy to have achieved this and I am very hopeful that 2009 will be a great year of success for my WordPress freelance experience. Below I have taken an two paragraphs from my introductory post for the master theme I am releasing.

Do I have to pay for the theme?

No, the theme will be available for free download and usage. The theme in fact is being released under the GPL license which is the same license that WordPress uses. The theme will also have free updates and upgrades forever. Also, I hope we guys build a great support forum for this theme and others to come which will also be free to access, ask and answer.

What do I have to pay for than?

You might never have to pay for anything. But, in case you need help to set up the theme, configure the plugins etc, you might want to buy one of the five (5) service packages that will come along with the theme. These packages vary from setup to theme enhancements and even PSD to the actual theme. More information about this topic will come along with the theme release.

Master Theme Features

• Modern and beautiful web typeface.
• Tableless design and 100% CSS-based layout.
• 2 columns of fixed width.
• Widget Ready.
• XHTML 1.0 Transitional valid.
• CSS 2.1 valid.
• Search Engine optimized coding make wise use of h1, h3, h3.

Preview and Download

• Preview Master Theme at WordPress theme directory. A better preview is to come soon.
• Download Master Theme

Support and Customization

Installation

STEP 1. Extract the files it contains. You need to preserve the directory structure in the archive when extracting these files.
STEP 2. Upload the theme to your /wp-content/themes/ directory.
STEP 3. Now go to Appearance >> Themes and activate the “Master” theme.

License

Master theme is licensed under the GPL. It may be freely modified and copied as long as the license stays GPL. This means that you may use it for your personal and commercial projects and you may also make any changes you like.

Change Log

2009-01-07: Initial 1.0 release.

Andrew Kelly contacted me for a kind of business blog project that he was working on. After I showed him some of my previous works and we agreed on the price, I began designing a WordPress theme for him. He had previously chosen to use as a theme the semilogic theme framework. Well, his decision made me suffer until I suggested him that I developed the theme for him from scratch. He agreed and on this we went on. This project took a little bit long as I was working on other projects simultaneously. However working with Andrew was a great experience.

Design

When Andrew contacted me, he showed me a couple of sites that he wanted his blog to look like. He wanted something fresh and have a web 2.0 feel. Some guys might argue that web 2.0 means nothing, however there are a lot of designers and blog writers that have listed out the features of web 2.0 – but this is not the point of this post. Let’s focus on the design process. I used an heavy blue color throughout the blog with some fresh web 2.0 effects. I did all this with Inkscape, my favorite vector graphic design application. I cannot say I am a great designer, but I can reach high quality in design if clients describe me clearly what they want.

Coding

As I said earlier, the early coding process was very painful. After we decided  to have the theme developed from scratch, it was a very nice experience as coding is the part I like most. I had to work with XTHML, CSS, PHP with WordPress flavor.

The theme is coded in tableless XHTML/CSS. At first it was pure and valid, but after my client, Andrew implemented Awaber subscription code into it, it turned to have some validation errors. It is not a situation I like to be in, as I claim I code only valid talbleless XHTML/CSS websites and WordPress themes, but I cannot interfere with my clients choices.

Layout

The theme has a  two column layout. It has a left main column where the blog content is placed and a right wide sidebar. On front page it has a big welcoming video before the fold under which four other posts queried according to categories are shown. It is a nice simple layout informative layout.

Widgets

The theme has a fully customizable, widget-ready sidebar. Widgetizing WordPress themes is a pleasurable experience for me  and I could not leave it unwidgetized even though widget are little employed by my client, Andrew.

Testimonial

After a lot of frustration working with many Web Designers it has been a real refreshing change to work with someone like Baki, his constant follow up and willingness to over deliver on all levels has made a huge difference to our productivity and our web business bottom line. Nothing is ever too much trouble for Baki which makes him a real pleasure to work with. I just wish all our team could be as reliable and project focused as Baki! Andrew Kelly of ClickSmartMarketing.com

Conclusion

This is all I could write down about my experience with Andrew Kelly. I would love to hear your thoughts about this theme. Also, please consider subscribing to my RSS Feeds to have the possibility to read and view more great articles and projects. In case you need a WordPress theme, you can drop me a line using my contact page. If you are not sure, please have a look at my portfolio to see more works of mine. Thanks for reading!

Troy Broussard is an internet marketer and independent business entrepreneur. He contacted me saying that he was looking for a WordPress freelancer to design and code a theme for his blog TroyBroussardTravel.com. This is a blog devoted to information about MOR Vacations Travel Club and discount travel in general. We we discussed the project requirements in details and, after that, we set the price and fixed the time schedule. Then I began designing and developing the his blog theme in a collaborative step-by-step process until it took the look that it has now.

Design

All the design is done with Inkscape, my favorite vector graphic design application. It is a great and easy-to-use tool at the same time. My client chose the color combination and I implemented them in the design, giving the me gradient flavor. Designing this blog was a great pleasure for me.

Coding

The theme is coded in tableless XHTML/CSS. At first it was pure and valid, but after my client, Troy implemented Awaber subscription code into it, it got full of validation errors. I is not a situation I like to be in, as I claim I code only valid talblelss XHTML/CSS websites and WordPress themes.

Widgets

The theme has two customizable, widget-ready sidebars. This sidebars are supported by CSS style any widget that require extra style, such as wp-calendar widget. My client, Troy could use any widget he needed to.

Layout

The  theme has a simple, three column layout. There are two widgetized sidebars, as I mentioned above, one on the left hand and one on the right hand. Also it has a main center column where the blog content is placed. At homepage there is a static welcome message form Troy. It is basically simple and nice.

Testimonial

Banango (Baki) has been a tremendous resource for me and my growing business allowing me to focus on what I do best and having him take care of my web development needs. He has been extremely responsive to my needs and very professional – I couldn’t be more pleased.

Conclusion

This was a short description of the experience that I had with Troy Broussard, designing and coding a WordPress theme for his blog TroyBroussardTravel.com. I would love to hear your thoughts about this theme. Also, please consider subscribing to my RSS Feeds to have the possibility to read and view more great articles and projects. In case you need a WordPress theme, please drop me a line. If you cannot decide what to do, please have a look at my portfolio to see more works of mine. Thanks for reading!