PHP

Rasmus Lerdorf (born 22 November 1968) is a Danish-Canadian programmer. He created the PHP scripting language, authoring the first two versions of the language and participated in the development of later versions led by a group of developers including Jim Winstead (who later created blo.gs), Stig Bakken, Shane Caraveo, Andi Gutmans, and Zeev Suraski. He continues to contribute to the project.

PHP, which stands for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor" is a widely-used Open Source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. Its syntax draws upon C, Java, and Perl, and is easy to learn. The main goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated web pages quickly, but you can do much more with PHP. 1

PHP is an Object-Oriented Programming Language.

PHP 8.1
Released: November 25, 2021
End of Support: November 25, 2024

Pure Intersection Types
Enums
The never Return Type
Fibers
New readonly Properties
Define final Class Constants
New fsync() and fdatasync() Functions
New array_is_list() Function
New Sodium XChaCha20 Functions
New IntlDatePatternGenerator Class
Support for AVIF Image Format
New $_FILES: full_path Key for Directory Uploads
Array Unpacking Support for String-Keyed Arrays
Explicit Octal Numeral Notation
MurmurHash3 and xxHash Hash Algorithms Support
DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) Support
File Uploads from Strings with CURLStringFile
New MYSQLI_REFRESH_REPLICA Constant
Performance Improvements with Inheritance Cache
First-Class Callable Syntax

PHP 8.0
Released: November 26, 2020
End of Suppprt: November 26, 2023

Constructor Property Promotion
Validation for Abstract Trait Methods
Incompatible Method Signatures
Arrays Starting With a Negative Index
Union Types 2.0
Consistent Type Errors for Internal Functions
throw Expression
Weak Maps
Trailing Comma in Parameter List
Allow ::class syntax on objects
Attributes v2
Named Arguments
Nullsafe Operator
Saner String to Number Comparisons
Saner Numeric Strings
Match Expression v2
Stricter Type Checks for Arithmetic/Bitwise Operators

PHP 7.4
Released: November 28, 2019
End of Support: November 28, 2022

Arrow functions for cleaner one-liner functions
Preloading to improve performance
Support for typed properties
Custom object serialization
Unpacking inside arrays
Weak references
Improved type variance

PHP 7.3
Released: December 6, 2018
End of Support: December 6, 2021

Multibyte string functions
Argon2 password hash enhancements
More flexible heredoc and nowdoc syntaxes

Training / Documentation

PHP Manual - This manual consists primarily of a function reference, but also contains a language reference, explanations of some of PHP's major features, and other supplemental information.
PHP The Right Way - There’s a lot of outdated information on the Web that leads new PHP users astray, propagating bad practices and insecure code. PHP: The Right Way is an easy-to-read, quick reference for PHP popular coding standards, links to authoritative tutorials around the Web and what the contributors consider to be best practices at the present time.
10 tools for Modern PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor Development - A simple list of tools for modern PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor development. There are alternatives to most of the tools, but I'll list native PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor tools wherever possible.
The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code
30+ PHP Best Practices for Beginners
Managing LAMP environments with Chef, Vagrant, and EC2 - The series covers using Chef to provision a development environment on a virtual machine with Vagrant and VirtualBox, and a production environment in the cloud with Amazon EC2.
Model View Controller(MVC) in PHP - The model view controller pattern is the most used pattern for today’s world web applications. It has been used for the first time in Smalltalk and then adopted and popularized by Java. At present there are more than a dozen PHP web frameworks based on MVC pattern.

Books

Modern PHP: New Features and Good Practices - PHP is experiencing a renaissance, though it may be difficult to tell with all of the outdated PHP tutorials online. With this practical guide, you'll learn how PHP has become a full-featured, mature language with object-orientation, namespaces, and a growing collection of reusable component libraries. Author Josh Lockhart - creator of PHP The Right Way, a popular initiative to encourage PHP best practices--reveals these new language features in action. You'll learn best practices for application architecture and planning, databases, security, testing, debugging, and deployment. If you have a basic understanding of PHP and want to bolster your skills, this is your book.
PHP Web Services: APIs for the Modern Web - Whether you’re sharing data between two internal systems or building an API so users can access their data, this practical book provides everything you need to build web service APIs with PHP. Author Lorna Jane Mitchell uses code samples, real-world examples, and advice based on her extensive experience to guide you through the process - from the underlying theory to methods for making your service robust. PHP is ideally suited for both consuming and creating web services. You’ll learn how to use this language with JSON, XML, and other web service technologies.
Learning PHP Design Patterns - Build server-side applications more efficiently—and improve your PHP programming skills in the process—by learning how to use design patterns in your code. This book shows you how to apply several object-oriented patterns through simple examples, and demonstrates many of them in full-fledged working applications. Learn how these reusable patterns help you solve complex problems, organize object-oriented code, and revise a big project by only changing small parts. With Learning PHP Design Patterns, you’ll learn how to adopt a more sophisticated programming style and dramatically reduce development time.
Programming PHP - This updated edition teaches everything you need to know to create effective web applications with the latest features in PHP 5.x. You'll start with the big picture and then dive into language syntax, programming techniques, and other details, using examples that illustrate both correct usage and common idioms.
Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript - If you know HTML, this guide will have you building interactive websites quickly. You'll learn how to create responsive, data-driven websites with PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript, regardless of whether you already know how to program. Discover how the powerful combination of PHP and MySQL provides an easy way to build modern websites complete with dynamic data and user interaction. You'll also learn how to add JavaScript to create rich Internet applications and websites.