Five Advanced PHP Tricks That Only Expert PHP Developers Follow

PHP is considered one of the best options for creating web applications. It is one of the most well-liked and often used programming languages used by programmers to create web applications. There are many PHP tricks available that only expert PHP developers use to build robust and scalable web applications. It used to be called Personal Home Page (PHP), but it has now surpassed its name context and become a full-blown programming language for web applications. 

It combines the strength of HTML documents and Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripting to assist developers in creating dynamic web applications. You might be surprised, but PHP is the server language used by WordPress, Magento, Joomla, and Drupal. Additionally, large platforms like Facebook, Yahoo, Wikipedia, and Canva are powered by PHP application development.   

Operating systems including IBM, Linux, Windows, Mac OS (Operating System), and everything else can execute PHP web applications. Additionally, it supports web servers like Jigsaw Server, Sun Java System, Internet Information Services (IIS), and Apache. It makes no difference if your web app developers utilize procedural or object-oriented programming because PHP also supports these two programming paradigms. Its vast compatibility makes it the first choice of developers to build web applications.   

People often ask, “How can I improve my PHP code?” The answer is practice and being able to build your confidence in doing a project and putting it out into the world. Building web apps is another way to learn PHP. Learning advanced PHP tricks and tactics can help your employees perform better and stay ahead of the curve. Here, I have mentioned a few advanced PHP tricks for Web app development so that you can easily construct your online app in PHP and enjoy your professional life.   

Importance of PHP   

PHP is the internet’s most widely used programming language and has gone through many iterations. People like it because it is stable, easy to use, and fast. PHP can also add new features to other programming languages, like Python or Ruby.   

PHP is easy to learn, and a lot of programmers use it. PHP makes your code easier to read and speeds up your web app’s performance.   

Some of the features of PHP are:   

• Static Typing   
• Object-oriented programming (OOP)   
• Composer   
• Pattern for Dependency Injection (DI)   
• A domain-specific language, or DSL, is a code written for a single application domain that is meant to be clear and short.   

Object-oriented programming (OOP), encapsulation, and OOP can all be used with PHP. Over the years, many new things have been added to it. Developers are becoming more familiar with the PHP framework as more websites and web apps are created. This has also led to many advanced PHP frameworks being used in many projects.  

Read Here To Know More: Reasons to Hire Remote PHP Developers

PHP: A Primer  

Like any other scripting language, PHP is the tool you use to connect to your database to get information and send it to your web server so it can be shown in HTML. But PHP has many things that make it different from other languages.  

In essence, PHP is:  

• A Scripting Language: Scripting languages are read by another program at runtime (no need for compilation). Scripting languages can be read on the server or the client (in the browser).  
• Server-Side: PHP is a server-side scripting language run by a PHP interpreter on a web server. The result, or output, is sent to the web browser as plain HTML.  

• PHP is free to download and use because it is open source.  
• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) uses the idea of “objects” to hold data and functions to help build more complex, reusable web applications. PHP5 was given OOP.  
• Fast: PHP uses its memory, reducing the server’s load and improving performance. PHP can be up to 382 times faster than Python and 195 times faster than Ruby.  
• Easy to learn and understand: Whether you’re starting from scratch or using existing frameworks or add-ons, PHP syntax is easy to understand and learn.  
• Well-supported: PHP works with all major databases (MySQL, SQLite, ODBC), works with most servers (Apache, IIS, etc.), is portable across all platforms (Windows, Mac OS, Linux, etc.), and can be further supported by PHP frameworks (Laravel, CodeIgniter, Symfony) and many well-stocked and tested libraries.  

PHP is a language with loose typing that uses eight data types to build variables (which store data of several types). PHP is not as strict as other programming languages regarding variables, evaluating, and guessing the kind of data. All variables start with a dollar sign ($), but they can have any name that begins with a letter.  

PHP variables are neither “strong” nor “weak” from the start, which is different from many other programming languages. On the other hand, PHP is dynamic and can use both strongly typed and weakly typed variables, which shows how strictly or loosely the conversion takes place.  

What is PHP used for?  

PHP can be used to make web pages, apps, and eCommerce platforms that are dynamic and interactive. PHP works well for many web tasks, like making dynamic web pages, sending emails, collecting data from web forms, and sending and receiving cookies. PHP can also store, delete, and change information in a database. This makes it a strong base for building web applications like content management systems (CMS), custom online databases, eCommerce websites, gaming applications, and community portals.  

PHP offers unmatched development opportunities when it comes to creating a strong digital experience that strengthens the relationship between your brand and your customers and gives you a competitive edge.  

Let’s look at how PHP is used in the real world.  

Facebook

Facebook has its own version of PHP called HipHop Virtual Machine (HHVM). As a result, updates to HHVM have slowly made their way into PHP. 2.45 billion people use Facebook every month. What a way to put it!  

Wikipedia

When it comes to changes, nothing changes more than Wikipedia. Wikipedia is built on the stability and scalability of — you guessed it — PHP. There are 1.9 changes per second, and 594 new articles are added every day.  

Mailchimp

Mailchimp has a massive 60.51 percent of the email business and helps more than 12 million customers. It does all of this on a PHP backbone.  

Yahoo!

Yahoo’s search engine and news site switched from a proprietary C/C++ system to an open-source PHP in 2002. This was done to save money and make it easier to scale. Yahoo still helps about 700 million people each month.  

Canva

 Canva has grown a lot in the past few years. It has an easy-to-use photo editor and templates for making web or print graphics. Ten million people in 179 countries use the design platform.  

Slack

Slack has clarified that its server-side application logic is written in PHP. And Slack is much more than just a website; it is a full communication platform that Salesforce just bought for $27.7 billion.  

Also Read: Node.js Vs PHP: Which is Better for Your Project?

Why Pick PHP? 

There have been articles asking, “Is PHP dead?” for more than a decade, with competitors like JavaScript hoping to take its place. Over the years, PHP has remained the backbone of about approx 80% of websites, give or take a few percentage points. This shows that PHP is here to stay. There is a good reason for that.  

Even though PHP is an older programming language that does not have as many features as newer ones, it has continued to change. Because PHP has grown and changed over time, it is now well-documented, well-supported, and easy to use.  

PHP developers can use a wide range of frameworks, databases, and libraries to help them do their work, and they can set up on any Linux, Windows, or Unix operating system. Most web hosting companies offer PHP, and when it comes to cost, PHP usually comes out on top, both in terms of how long it takes to develop and how much it costs to run and keep up. PHP is an efficient language that can meet the high-performance times that customers want today.  

PHP often comes out on top when you plan how to make a product because its APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are well documented. Your PHP-based website can easily connect to all CMS programs and add-ons to create dynamic, interactive, feature-rich experiences.  

If you want a language that is: flexible, compatible, scalable, secure, high-performing, affordable, well-supported, easy to maintain, and easy to find developers, you should use PHP for your website, eCommerce marketplace, or application.  

Every time PHP is updated, it gets faster. The most recent version of PHP, PHP 8.0, has a just-in-time (JIT) compiler that is already faster than any of the 7.x versions.    

Five Advanced PHP Tricks that Only Expert Developers Follow  

Here are five advanced PHP tricks that only expert developers use:   

1. Learn object-oriented programming

Most people new to PHP learn how to write procedural code that does not have any structure or organization. Of course, procedural code is excellent, but as your skills develop, you will find that you need to split better and organize your code to build a better web app. Object-oriented programming lets the developer break the code into classes and calls to objects. Before working on an actual project, be sure to understand OOPs properly.   

2. Write self-documented code

Regardless of whether they utilize PHP or another server-side scripting language, this is the most important advice for any developer. Sadly, novices often forget variable names, class names, and even entire code sections when starting. Because of this, you should always write self-scripting code with variables, functions, and classes with names that are easy to remember. You can also tell the various parts of the code apart by adding comments.   

3. Learn how to use a PHP framework

When developers use frameworks, they can do a lot of work more efficiently, and the process of making software is faster and better. Developers think that Laravel is one of the best PHP frameworks out there right now. So, you should try Laravel or one of the other frameworks.   

4. Get the size of the specified URL and File

With the file size () function, you can find out how big a file is. It is useful because it can be used for many different things. With the echo command, we can make a text string and then repeat it while adding information to the beginning or end. It lets us have more than one output in PHP. You can use echo to find out the size of a URL or file you know. Remember to use “echo file size (“test.txt”);” whenever you need to make your work easier.    

5. Build your own structure

Once you know how to use a PHP framework, you can make your own to learn from or use in your projects. Imitating how these frameworks work is a wonderful way for developers to improve their skills. When building your framework, you will also come across several new advanced PHP methods. If you tried them, it would help.   

Also Read: Top 10 Frontend & Backend Web Development Frameworks in 2022-23

Conclusion  

In this blog, we have explored five advanced PHP tricks that only expert PHP developers follow. These tips will help you take your PHP skills to the next level! PHP is a powerful programming language that can do a lot of amazing things. People have used it to make websites, web apps, and software systems.

Companies use PHP in their projects for many varied reasons. One reason is that it’s easy to learn and has many built-in features. It also gives developers a lot of freedom when coding since they can effortlessly use various methodologies and environments. But because PHP is so old and well-known, a huge community of developers often helps you along the way.

All programmers don’t know all the PHP tricks, so hire a dedicated PHP programmer who can have sufficient knowledge and can help you in forming your project in the right way.