Pros/Cons of php?

[HoneyFlower]

I'm more of a graphics person and really like art. However, soon I think I will try my hand (or if I can't get the hang of it, join up with a team that includes coders) at html, css, java and php.

In regard to php, can anyone tell me the pros and cons of the language?

One of my friends told me you 'have to be careful' with php as if you make a shopping cart for a client and don't keep an eye on the code, hackers can make their way in and the designer who made the code is liable.

Is this true? And does designing a shopping cart for a client(s) mean you are on risky territory?

Is it better to just sign up with a mainstream web host and let them handle the shopping cart?

Thanks.

[chris_17]

I'm more of a graphics person and really like art. However, soon I think I will try my hand (or if I can't get the hang of it, join up with a team that includes coders) at html, css, java and php.

In regard to php, can anyone tell me the pros and cons of the language?

One of my friends told me you 'have to be careful' with php as if you make a shopping cart for a client and don't keep an eye on the code, hackers can make their way in and the designer who made the code is liable.

Is this true? And does designing a shopping cart for a client(s) mean you are on risky territory?

Is it better to just sign up with a mainstream web host and let them handle the shopping cart?

Thanks.

Hi, tbh you're far better off using a system thats already out there, there are loads of PHP solutions things like osCommerce etc.

You are correct in that hackers can make there way in through things like SQL injections, if you've never touched a piece of PHP then I would strongly recommend you not to develop a cart system, they require a lot of knowledge of the language to be able to develop a robust and secure system.

I'm a big fan of Shopify and there's also Active Merchant both of which are written in Ruby, if you browse GitHub there should be a few PHP solutions on there where you can build on top of.

[MatJohnson]

Have a go at PHP for simple email forms first (although, stick codes in to prevent spam), generally there is already code out there to use, so don't reinvent the wheel.

A lot of php attacks are SQL injection, but if you never have a sql backend then this isn't an issue. I would start with HTML, CSS and javascript. If you get them mastered, move onto basic PHP before leaping into the harder stuff.

Ruby appears to be attracting a good following as well, so maybe a future project. The amount of languages to learn is amazing, but picking the right one is difficult. Each has pro's and con's, just depends on how you code around them.

[jimm1984]

Hello there Honey Flower and everyone. I'm similar in the sense, I work as an online designer and have started to dabble into light PHP, form processors, info, tinkerring with zoom searches.

I have known an old wordpress in my former company to be hacked which i believe is PHP based.

Zencart is supposed to be stable but i have never used it myself.

P.S great thread and can php.form processors be easily compromised?

Regards,

Jimm