Now, it goes without saying that you must first grasp the fundamentals of PHP in order to be a good PHP developer. This obviously entails having a firm grasp of the PHP language and its processes, but after you've achieved that, you can boost your worth by becoming familiar with a variety of PHP apps and frameworks (such as Laravel, Zend, and Symfony). As even experienced PHP developers might not be as proficient with the most recent technology, it's also critical to stay up to date on upgrades and features. Due to a lack of resources, smaller firms and organisations frequently look for developers with a broad range of skills. As a result, it's always a good idea, even though you might desire to be an expert at some advanced PHP chores.

Skills of PHP Developer:

Understanding of additional programming languages

To succeed as a PHP developer in a cutthroat employment market, you'll need more than just a working knowledge of PHP code. To identify and fix any mistakes in the site design, a strong command of front-end programming languages like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML is required. Knowing these languages well will also enable you to comprehend how they impact user experience (UX), which is the aim of the majority of programming projects. Additionally, it's crucial to be familiar with databases (mainly MySQL but also common alternatives such as PostgreSQL and Oracle). The bottom line is that one key method to become a productive member of any development team is to build and maintain a broad range of technical skills.

Learn PHP design patterns and best practises.

All forms of software development, including PHP, benefit from design patterns. They can hasten development by providing reusable answers to frequent issues. As other developers will be able to recognise the patterns being utilised, they also help to improve code readability. There are many other design patterns to learn, but some of the most popular ones in PHP applications are Factory, Strategy, and Singleton. More broadly, you can save time by being familiar with the best practises for using several PHP frameworks. Take advantage of the language's long history and large user base to prevent repeating the mistakes made by those who came before you.

Be familiar with PHPUnit, PSR, and Composer

These are a few of the tools that will improve your PHP development skills. Your libraries, classes, and functions will be taken care of by Composer, a dependency management that makes it simple to install various iterations of each for each project. These libraries, also known as "packages," will be checked for new updates by Composer, which will then update them as necessary. A list of pre-made Composer-compatible packages is also available here. A PHP specification called the PHP Standard Recommendation (PSR) aims to standardise PHP programming principles and enhance the compatibility of PHP components and frameworks. The PHP Framework Interoperability Group (PHP-FIG) publishes it, and at the moment there are 13 recognised standards, each with its unique purpose, with more to come.

While PHPUnit is a well-liked framework for unit testing tiny pieces of code against expected outcomes. Any PHP developer would benefit from unit testing, which may be used in a Test Driven Development (TDD) methodology where tests are built up even before the code is created.

Solving issues

Being able to learn the "hard" technical skills is one requirement for becoming a high-level PHP developer, but without the appropriate complement of "soft" talents, success is doubtful. Problem-solving is one of these and is essential to any web development. You'll encounter unforeseen problems as a PHP developer, and how you handle them will greatly influence how valuable you are.

Excellent Interaction

Even if you are an expert at writing PHP code, you could find it difficult to collaborate effectively on a team project if you lack interpersonal skills. You must be able to communicate with customers, coworkers, and superiors in order to comprehend project or business goals, raise concerns, and explain how your job fits into the overall product. And keep in mind that effective communication requires conversing on the phone, via a video conference, in person, as well as through email and messaging applications, even if you feel most at ease doing so.

Adaptability

Finally, it's critical to remain flexible and open to learning. Like all coding languages, PHP is always evolving, therefore businesses are more inclined to recruit developers who are up to date with most recent software and language changes. There will always be things you can learn from others, even if you are confident in your PHP skills. Stay humble, stay curious, and you’ll keep moving forward.

Conclusion:

PHP is not just for usage by experts in web development. Additionally, IT administration expertise is not required. Like any other scripting language, PHP may appear challenging at first. But if you stick with it, you'll discover that this is a fascinating and approachable technology. It's also a useful approach to learn about the server-side world.

We can all access PHP thanks to tools like EasyPHP. The EasyPHP programme is a good place to start if you don't already have a PHP-enabled Web server, which is the essential first step in getting started with the technology. The Apache Web server and MySQL are both included in EasyPHP, so you won't have to spend much time getting them ready to use.