SMLP: Progress report 1

After 2 weeks of working through my self managed learning plan I have been finding out about PHP, and have been going through my PHP, Apache, MySQL web development book.

I was aware that PHP could be used to construct CMS systems, as I have used the Textpattern system to make websites in the past. I was however unaware of how diverse the uses of PHP could be, from creating and manipulating images to creating mailing lists.

Over the first week of conducting my PHP work, I had many problems wetting up an offline server to test my PHP work on. After much trial and error I managed to get the system working, which enabled me to start working. This loss of time due to trying to fix operational problems is something which I did not consider when making my learning plan. I have been surprised at how difficult it has been to get set up and running, and is something I would have to investigate the next time I plan to learn something new for the first time.

My initial pieces included making a simple login system (Login is Joe, PW 12345), which could then arrange a list of information. I learnt about features of PHP, including variables, constants, if/else arguments and includes. Although I have used these in my examples, I am finding it hard for the information I have learn to ‘stick’. This is one of the unknowns when undertaking planned learning, and the problem is compounded by knowing that you must create a finished piece of work within a set amount of time.

Over the past week I have started using PHP in conjunction with MySQL. This again was difficult to get working correctly, which lead to me removing the apache server I had been using and instead decided to use the excellent WAMP program. This allows me to set up all of my Apache, MySQL and PHP in one package, and even uses the PHPMyAdmin for use with databases. Once this was working I could continue my SMLP. Again, it was frustrating to lose precious time out of the 96 hours allotted to completing this part of the assignment, and I can see a lot of hard work being required to create any kind of end product.

My work with databases has also been frustrating in places. Often, a whole script of code will not function because of simple mistakes. Once space or bracket out of place will sometimes stop the code being processed, and again more time is lost through finding errors and fixing mistakes.

Over the next week I may have to try other means of learning PHP. I have ordered the Visual Quickstart guide which will look at over Easter. Although not on my original list of resources, I feel that I must try a new tactic to try and learn what is proving to be a difficult coding language.

As I have followed the early part of my learning plan, I feel that more initial research would have given me a better start. This is something I will implement in the future, by looking on forums and asking other people what resources are the best to use.

Overall a frustrating couple of weeks with the learning plan, but I aim to continue getting what I can out of the time allowed for this part of the unit.