Hi,

I was wondering if anyone would be so kind as to point me in the right direction.

I would like to learn to use php and mysql in a practical project.

What I would like to achieve:

I would like to learn how to build a simple website for say selling cars. So I would like to learn how to design a site where a customer can sign in, upload photos and information of their cars that they want to sell, be able to receive messages from potential customers.

Also how to design the website so that people can search for cars that they are looking to buy.

I have been through the courses on w3school and codecademy but they do not show you a project like this from start to finish.

 

​I understand html, css, bootstrap for responsive web design, and the basics of php and MySQL. I would just like to know how to put it all together to design a site like I've explained above.

If someone could point me in the direction of any online courses or books that I could learn to build the above kind of website from start to finish and not just bits of information here and there.

Thanks

Edited December 9, 201510 yr by richie41

Ok, here's my 2 cents. It's not something that usually people recommend to beginners but I like hardcore (lol) and doing this right will have a lot more benefits at the end.

 

Pick a easy PHP framework, say Laravel, start your project with that. 2-3 days will just be research, searching for the right modules, learning how to setup a Laravel project and reading what a MVC design pattern is. After this, you can build any project you want.

 

Another tip would be not to pick a big project as your first project, selling cars means ecommerce which is very hard for a beginner, why not go with the default 'build your first CMS' which you can finish it up under a week including the learning curve. Stay simple and small!

I agree with start simple and small, have you tried building just a basic CMS setup with one admin user yet? There are billions of tutorials out there for that, then once you have that working you can look into adding additional features.

Sounds like a great project to learn on

 

My advice would be to start by looking at the SQL database and make sure you have planned it well, know what needs to be an int, varchar, text, date etc. Think about the key factors of a vehicle for sale too, think Colour / Price / Year etc, how long will you run an advert before you hide it (indefinite 'for sale' won't be pretty); research autotrader.co.uk as they're pretty good for standard requirements and features. You also need to ask yourself how are you going to populate this 'base' data; filters and searches would rely on knowing what a 'Ford' was and that the 'Focus' is a model by Ford.

 

With automotive sites Brand > Model is the base to it all, not just the workings of the site but for seo e.g. 'Ford Focus for Sale', and again for seo hierarchy is key here as the 'Ford' page will add weight to the 'Focus' page.

 

As to a step by step 'guide', i've not come across one. I learnt by trial and error, researching bits I wanted to cover via php.net

 

That's just my two pence worth, good luck with the project.