Best resource for learning MVC PHP and/or Magento?

June 3, 2013 6:03 PM

What's the best way to learn the techniques and patterns of modern PHP development?

I'm a self taught novice-to-intermediate level PHP programmer. I recently started a new job working with Magento and that means I need a crash course in three things:

• Object-oriented PHP
• MVC architecture specifically as it applies to PHP apps
• Magento best practices

I'm really looking for plain English introductions to the concepts, because I haven't been formally trained in them and it's like another language to me. Layers of abstraction I was never properly introduced to when I learned PHP fundamentals. I don't need beginners guides to programming or web technology, just a high-level primer on the way people are building with these tools in 2013. Book and web site recommendations would both be great.

posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

for your $$$ you can't get too much more bang for your buck than Lynda.com

lots of good PHP videos
posted by bobdow at 6:23 PM on June 3, 2013

http://www.phptherightway.com/

You will want to get an interactive debugger going for working with Magento - it's huge enough that you will wanto be able to step through the code and inspect it. xdebug+netbeans works.

For mage-specific links,

http://alanstorm.com/category/magento
http://magento.stackexchange.com/
http://info.magento.com/rs/magentocommerce/images/Magento-Extension-Developers-Guide-v1.0.pdf

There is a video course provided by Magento that I think is still free - it's a reasonable introduction. http://www.magentocommerce.com/training/on-demand . The study guide for magento developer certification is quite a good read if you want a breadth-first overview of what the system involves.
posted by xiw at 6:30 PM on June 3, 2013

There are two short PHP Object Oriented Programming courses (#9, #10) at Code Academy
posted by backwards guitar at 4:57 AM on June 4, 2013