James Cellphone

Crivion

In this article I will speak about PHP programming language and try to make it clear for every newbie which wants to start learning php. But, for beeing able to start learning this computer programming language, you should start by understand what is this and what is doing.

Well, PHP is a server-side programming language : server-side? means that the code is interpreted at level of the PHP engine installed on the web server. PHP is open-source (free at no cost). Beeing free of charge makes it very popular and I would say easy to use.

Where can be used php? Everywhere on the web, and I think desktop application can be coded too with the GTK feature but I dont know much about it so I will stop here talking about this. On the other side, for the web application development, you can build dynamic websites, database driven websites (for example MySQL, PostreSQL, etc.), diverse web forms like a contact form which will insert the infos into database system or send details entered in the form to a specified email address, etc.

How do you start the ball rolling? Well, please start reading introductory tutorials on php official website, then get a project in mind and try finding requirements needed for this project. This is the best way to learn : by practicing, not just reading tons of borring tutorials.

Once you got a project in mind, you will definitely need a php engine to be able to execute the code. How do you make this? Simply install a webserver like apache, add php server to this and mysql database engine. You’ll find a lot of documentation to help you doing this or there are a lot of ready made packs wich includes, php, apache, phpmyadmin, mysql, etc for example easyphp web server or xampp. They’re free and easy to install.

The second thing is to register at specific forums, where you can get support and help from the php gurus, because you really need fast help when errors will occure, and by the way, trust me you’ll encounter a lot of “strange” errors at the begining, which later will become just a routine.

And lastly, do not forget to get a nice code editor with code colloring, code auto-completion feature is very important too which will make developing faster. My tip here is to use Zend IDE (the php company) which is the best and includes mentioned features. Also, Adobe Dreamweaver is not bad, you can use that too which is nice for html/css client side scripting. I assumed that you already know html at least, it is very recommended to know it to make things clear in programming.

And, for the begining this should be enough for a novice to begin to learn php programming language at the basic level. Later, with the time and projects which are mandatory for progress, you’ll get experience and will advance maybe to OOP (object oriented programming) which is another thing important.
Good luck in learning!

David Peters

Layers are a powerful feature of Photoshop that allow you to work on one part of an image without disturbing the rest of it. While the concept of layers may seem intimidating at first, once you get the hang of using layers you’ll wonder how you ever survived without them!

The transparent parts of any layer, shown by the checkered grid, allow the layers beneath that layer to show through. You can show and hide each layer in an image by clicking on its corresponding eye icon in the Layers palette.

To organize your layers, you can arrange them into layer groups by going to Layer > New > Group…. Each layer group displays in the same way as any ungrouped layers on the Layers palette. A layer group is signified by a folder icon. You can collapse or expand layer groups by clicking on the triangle to the left of the folder icon, and nest layer groups within each other by dragging one folder icon into another.

Here are 10 quick Layer Shortcuts.

1 – Rename layers by double-clicking on the layer name.

2 – Select a layer by using the keyboard shortcuts Alt-[ and Alt-] (Option-[ and Option-] on a Mac).

3 – Merge a layer into the one beneath it by pressing Ctrl- E (Command-E). If you have selected layers, this shortcut
will merge those selected layers together.

4 – Change the transparency of a layer by changing its opacity with the Opacity slider, or typing a value into the
Opacity box (which is visible when you have the Selection, Move, or Crop tools selected).

5 – Duplicate a selected layer by pressing Ctrl-J (Command-J on a Mac). You can also duplicate a layer by dragging it
while pressing the Alt (Option) key.

6 – Select multiple layers by holding down Ctrl (Command on a Mac) and clicking the layer names. This forms a temporary link between the selected layers that allows you to move them as one unit, delete them all, and so on.

7 – You can also link layers together. Select layers by clicking on them while holding down Shift or Ctrl (Command
on a Mac).

8 – To unlink all the layers, select one of the linked layers and go to Layer > Unlink Layers.

9 – To temporarily unlink a layer, hold down Shift and click on its link icon (a red “X” will appear over the link icon).

10 – Reactivate the link by holding down Shift and clicking the link icon again.