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PHP

troy beckett
troy beckett
12,035 Points
Posted by troy beckett
troy beckett
12,035 Points

is it hard learning php on treehouse??

I've started following the php development track on treehouse at first I was really optimistic as php looked great. But I've found the video and the content awful. I'm half through the track and still haven't been shown how to put php on computer but I'm learning about slim framework.

I'm by no means quick learner and so I know I will have to work hard. But in all honesty I'm getting nothing from the videos that I couldn't get from randomly searching round the internet. Lots in being said but nothing is explained in context so I can go away and actually use it.

This is a big problem for me as I find the whole product of treehouse really good. But I've found beyond css and html I get no value from the videos anymore.

Does anyone else feel the same????

8 Answers

Sergey Podgornyy
Sergey Podgornyy
20,660 Points
Sergey Podgornyy
Sergey Podgornyy
20,660 Points

Hi Troy!

I have the same opinion about PHP course. I hope this course is old and will be changed in near future. But for now I do not recommend PHP. Better start learning Node.js ;)

Best regards, Sergey

troy beckett
troy beckett
12,035 Points
troy beckett
troy beckett
12,035 Points

It's good to hear, because sometimes I'm thinking stop being lazy, rewatch the video it will be there. However today when I re watched it honestly felt like there was nothing to learn.

There are courses on php on treehouse from 2010 which I think are a lot better than the php track. For me to learn something properly I like to be shown what something can do, why it's needed and then how. The CSS course on treehouse does exactly that. However with all the other videos I find it's more oh it can do this by the way. So instead of learning a process, I'm just learning words from a video.

Sergey Podgornyy
Sergey Podgornyy
20,660 Points
Sergey Podgornyy
Sergey Podgornyy
20,660 Points

Absolutely agree with you. That's why I stopped programming on PHP and begin with JS.

Shafeeq Ahmed
Shafeeq Ahmed
6,058 Points
Shafeeq Ahmed
Shafeeq Ahmed
6,058 Points

Feeling is same I really think this track needs an upgrade. I need an advice from someone who follows the java track. Is Java also as same as the PHP track. or that is better?

Fernando Paredes
Fernando Paredes
15,425 Points
Fernando Paredes
Fernando Paredes
15,425 Points

I had that problem too. The PHP track is really bad. But, browsing through the library, you can watch 3 PHP courses (starting with "Build a simple PHP application") by Randy Hoyt which are actually very good and easy to understand. https://teamtreehouse.com/library/build-a-simple-php-application

Rohit Poonia
PLUS
Rohit Poonia
Courses Plus Student 1,698 Points
Rohit Poonia
Rohit Poonia
Courses Plus Student 1,698 Points

The Worst Part is when you complete whole slim framework part and moved to the next PDO :P ... Totally different isn't it. I am totally confused what to do or where to start so, i skip that part and move to wordpress. It's far better to learn in w3schools.

Konrad Pilch
Konrad Pilch
2,435 Points
Konrad Pilch
Konrad Pilch
2,435 Points

I watched some of the PHP, I think its a good beginning how to include header, footer and that, but otherwise, I feel pretty much the same.

I think they are working on it.

It takes me 3-5 times to learn something and do it on my own, so re-watching it 2 times, and do your own stuff 3 times, no matter how good or bad is, with little help of google, io think you could learn.

I will suggest to go into codeacademy into PHP if you haven't done it, and PHP Academy, and treehouse, just mix them up and ud get good. Also Brad Hussey on PHP , search for him, and you will be done.

After that you just have OOP PHP, or rather functions, but in these days, I believe , you should know OOP. Object Oriented Programming, its not necessary, but its good to know.

I feel the functions and objects with Hampton is a bit of rubbish , or rather, not worked till the end, and not very practical .

troy beckett
troy beckett
12,035 Points
troy beckett
troy beckett
12,035 Points

thanks for you message. I was starting to think I was being lazy as trying to rewatch videos. But I rewatch a video today and honestly felt like there was nothing to be learnt. Which really upsets me because treehouse is amazing product in my opinion.

Konrad Pilch
Konrad Pilch
2,435 Points
Konrad Pilch
Konrad Pilch
2,435 Points

I think if you learn laraver 5 heh not 4 what they have here, with the basics of PHP, you can understand even more abotut PHP and then look insdie the framework of how its build.

I found it hard in PHP here. Build application was okay. And i havent looked at others too much and laraver was outdated.

Plus my focus is just on WP and jQuery now , and later one id probably go into more back-end.

BTW, what a beatuiful sky is here, all pink-ish purple :D UK

Rohit Poonia
Rohit Poonia
Courses Plus Student 1,698 Points
Rohit Poonia
Rohit Poonia
Courses Plus Student 1,698 Points

I think as per my view they skip main important parts of PHP in small videos like 0:40 s or smaller than that i.e functions, array ......

I am a learner of PHP and very my interested in learning OOPS but after spending my 89$ . I guess i got a bunch of code of slim framework :) that's the funny part.

So, i am now waiting for angular to come .. i hope they didn't repeat this kind of stuff in that too.

Sergey Podgornyy
Sergey Podgornyy
20,660 Points
Sergey Podgornyy
Sergey Podgornyy
20,660 Points

Rohit, I recommend you to learn AngularJS here - https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-angularjs - very good source for learning Angular.

You can see result of my learning on my GitHub

Manav Misra
Manav Misra
11,778 Points
Manav Misra
Manav Misra
11,778 Points

Code School is launching their PHP courses soon - they are still in development for now. So, this means they will be 'brand spankin' new' upon release. As profile indicates, I've done a handful of courses and will continue until annual subscription runs out, but it's time to move on.

razmig pulurian
PLUS
razmig pulurian
Courses Plus Student 23,889 Points
razmig pulurian
razmig pulurian
Courses Plus Student 23,889 Points

I have only tried the PHP courses on Treehouse, so I can't compare them against courses offered by other websites. That said, I've finished a lot of courses on Treehouse itself, and (in my opinion) I think the PHP courses lack structure in comparison to other courses like JavaScript, HTML, etc.

For example, other courses do a good job introducing a problem, teaching a new skill to overcome that problem, and showing the result before moving on to the next problem or skill.

I feel like the PHP course tries to explain too much at once:

  • "We want to solve Problem X"
  • "We can solve Problem X with this function"
  • "But if we do it like that, it creates a Problem Y"
  • "But we can fix Problem Y with this other function"
  • "Also, we need to think about this completely different Problem Z..."
  • (this continues for some time)
  • "Ok, let's run the code and the result... and it works!"

As a beginner, I feel the PHP course would have been more effective if they took it in smaller steps:

  • "We want to solve Problem X"
  • "Let's try this solution"
  • "Ok, let's run the code... We can see there's a new Problem Y..."
  • etc.