Take Your PHP Skills to the Next Level: A Guide to Advanced PHP

Nguyen Thi ThaoNguyen Thi Thao
5 min read

Table of contents

Are you a PHP developer looking to take your skills to the next level? Do you want to learn how to build complex, scalable, and secure web applications with PHP? Look no further! In this post, we'll guide you through the steps to become a proficient PHP developer and share some advanced PHP concepts and techniques to help you grow in your career.

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Advanced PHP Topics**

  1. MVC Frameworks: Understand the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern and how to implement it using popular PHP frameworks like Laravel, CodeIgniter, or Symfony.

  2. Object-Oriented Programming (OOP): Learn how to create complex objects, use inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation to write more maintainable code.

  3. PHP 7.x Features: Familiarize yourself with the new features introduced in PHP 7.x, such as scalar type hinting, return type declaration, and null coalescing operator.

  4. Caching and Optimizations: Learn how to use caching mechanisms like Memcached, Redis, and APC to improve performance. Also, understand how to optimize your code for faster execution.

  5. Security Best Practices: Implement secure coding practices, including input validation, sanitization, and authentication mechanisms like OAuth and JWT.

  6. Database Interactions: Learn how to use PDO (PHP Data Objects) to interact with databases, including prepared statements, transactions, and error handling.

  7. Unit Testing and Continuous Integration: Understand the importance of testing and learn how to write unit tests using PHPUnit or Codeception. Also, learn how to set up a continuous integration pipeline using tools like Jenkins or GitLab CI/CD.

  8. API Design and Development: Learn how to design and develop RESTful APIs using PHP frameworks like Laravel or Symfony. Understand how to handle requests, responses, and API security.

In this article, we'll learn how to implement MVC pattern with Laravel Framework

MVC:

MVC stands for Model-View-Controller, a widely used architectural pattern in web development. It's a design pattern that separates an application into three interconnected components:

Model: Represents the data structures and business logic of the application. It manages data storage, retrieval, and manipulation.

View: Handles the visual representation of the data and is responsible for rendering it to the user. Typically, it's an HTML template or a template engine.

Controller: Acts as an intermediary between the Model and the View. It receives and processes user input, validates data, and interacts with the Model to retrieve data.

Laravel:

A popular, object-oriented framework that provides an elegant syntax and a high level of abstraction. Laravel uses the Eloquent ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) system for data modeling and the Blade template engine for views.

Here's a simple example of implementing the MVC pattern in a Laravel application:

Step 1: Create the Model

// app/Models/Book.php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Book extends Model
{
    protected $fillable = [
        'title',
        'author',
        'year',
    ];
}

Step 2: Create the View

<!-- resources/views/books/index.blade.php -->

<div class="container">
    @foreach ($books as $book)
        <p>{{ $book->title }} ({{ $book->author }})</p>
    @endforeach
</div>

Step 3: Create the Controller

// app/Http/Controllers/BooksController.php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Models\Book;

class BooksController extends Controller
{
    public function index()
    {
        $books = Book::paginate(10);
        return view('books.index', compact('books'));
    }
}

By following these steps, we've built a simple CRUD system using Laravel.

Implementing MVC in Laravel: A More Complex Example

Scenario: A blog application with posts, comments, and categories.

1. Models

// app/Models/Post.php
namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Post extends Model
{
    public function comments()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Comment::class);   
    }

    public function category()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(Category::class);   
    }
}

// app/Models/Comment.php
namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Comment extends Model
{
    public function post()
    {
        return $this->belongsTo(Post::class);   
    }
}

// app/Models/Category.php
namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Category extends Model
{
    public function posts()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(Post::class);   
    }
}

2. Controllers

// app/Http/Controllers/PostsController.php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Models\Post;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class PostsController extends Controller
{
    public function   1. medium.com medium.com index()
    {
        $posts = Post::latest()->paginate(10);
        return view('posts.index', compact('posts'));
    }

    public function show(Post $post)
    {
        return view('posts.show', compact('post'));
    }
}

// app/Http/Controllers/CommentsController.php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Models\Comment;
use App\Models\Post;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class CommentsController extends Controller  
{
    public function store(Request $request, Post $post)
    {
        $comment = new Comment();
        $comment->body = $request->input('body');  
        $comment->post_id = $post->id;
        $comment->save();

        return redirect()->back();
    }
}

3. Views

<div class="container">
    @foreach ($posts as $post)
        <div class="card">
            <div class="card-body">
                <h5 class="card-title">{{ $post->title }}</h5>
                <p class="card-text">{{ $post->excerpt }}</p>
                <a href="{{ route('posts.show', $post) }}" class="btn btn-primary">Read more</a>
            </div>
        </div>
    @endforeach
</div>

<div class="container">
    <h1>{{ $post->title }}</h1>
    <p>{{ $post->body }}</p>
    <h3>Comments</h3>
    <ul>
        @foreach ($post->comments as $comment)
            <li>{{ $comment->body }}</li>
        @endforeach
    </ul>
    <form action="{{ route('comments.store', $post) }}" method="POST">
        @csrf
        <div class="form-group">
            <label for="body">Comment:</label>
            <textarea class="form-control" id="body" name="body" rows="3"></textarea>
        </div>
        <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>  
    </form>
</div>

Explanation:

  • Models: Define the relationships between posts, comments, and categories.

  • Controllers: Handle actions related to posts and comments, such as fetching, creating, and displaying data.

  • Views: Render the HTML templates based on the data provided by the controllers.

This example demonstrates a more complex MVC structure with relationships between models, multiple controllers, and more intricate view logic. It showcases how Laravel's MVC architecture can be used to build larger and more feature-rich applications.

Conclusion:

By mastering advanced PHP skills, you can build better, faster, and safer web applications. Learning about MVC frameworks, object-oriented programming, and new PHP features will help you write cleaner and more efficient code. Using caching, following security best practices, and handling databases effectively will improve your app's performance and security. Testing your code and setting up continuous integration will make your projects more reliable. With the resources and tips provided, you're on your way to becoming a skilled PHP developer, ready to take on any challenge.

Resources to Get You Started

1
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Written by

Nguyen Thi Thao
Nguyen Thi Thao