The PHP (Laravel) track is designed to provide a comprehensive educational journey, starting from fundamental PHP concepts and progressing to advanced development within the Laravel framework. This track places significant emphasis on modern web application architecture, robust API development, and essential security practices.
Detailed Modules & Topics:
Module 1: PHP Fundamentals
This module introduces students to the core aspects of PHP, beginning with an overview of the language and setting up the necessary development environment. Key topics include variables, constants, various data types, operators, and expressions.
Objective: Students will be able to write basic PHP scripts, understand variables and constants, and perform fundamental file operations.
Module 2: Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) in PHP
Building upon the fundamentals, this module delves into Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) principles in PHP. It covers the concepts of classes, objects, and methods, along with access modifiers such as public, private, and protected. Students will learn about constructors and destructors, and grasp the core principles of encapsulation and abstraction. Advanced OOP concepts like inheritance, polymorphism, abstract classes, traits, and interfaces are also explored. Practical aspects include class autoloading, using Composer for dependency management, and understanding namespaces for code organization.
Objective: Students will gain the ability to build classes with encapsulation and inheritance, and apply advanced OOP concepts effectively for complex problem-solving.
Module 3: PHP & MySQL Database Interaction
This module focuses on the crucial aspect of database interaction using PHP and MySQL. It begins with an introduction to databases, an overview of MySQL, and an understanding of database engines. Students will learn how to connect PHP applications with MySQL databases, write test queries, and manage database connections. A significant portion of the module is dedicated to mastering CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations with MySQL.
Objective: Students will be proficient in performing database operations, writing complex SQL queries, and effectively managing data with PHP.
Module 4: Web Fundamentals (HTML, CSS, JavaScript for PHP Context)
This module ensures a strong foundation in client-side web technologies, essential for any modern web application.
HTML: Covers basic HTML tags, attributes, elements, and comments. It delves into document structure (Head, Body), semantic HTML elements (Div, Header, Footer, Section), page titles, headings, paragraphs, hyperlinks, and lists.
CSS: Introduces different types of style sheets (inline, internal, external), CSS selectors, properties, and values. It covers backgrounds, colors, text styling and formatting, borders, margins, paddings, and outlines. Concepts like box and text shadow, various units (pixels, percentages, points, em), block and inline elements, float and clear, and CSS positioning are taught.
JavaScript (Vanilla JS & jQuery): Focuses on building interactive user interfaces with vanilla JavaScript, including selecting elements using querySelector and getElementById, dynamically adding and removing elements, and handling events like click, keypress, and mouseover.
Bootstrap: Provides an introduction to the Bootstrap framework, its usage, and basic templates. Students learn about the Bootstrap Grid system, typography, tables, forms, navbars, carousels, scrollspy, cards, pagination, labels, badges, alerts, display utilities, flexbox, float, shadow, sizing, spacing, and vertical alignment.10
Objective: Students will be able to build interactive user interfaces with vanilla JavaScript, integrate front-end frameworks like Bootstrap, and understand the crucial interplay of front-end technologies with PHP.
Module 5: Laravel Fundamentals
This module introduces the Laravel framework, starting with an understanding of what a framework is and Laravel’s MVC (Model-View-Controller) design pattern. It covers installing Laravel via Composer, setting up the local development environment, and configuring essential tools like VS Code extensions. Students will learn about Laravel’s project structure, Artisan commands, and how to run their first Laravel project.
Objective: Students will be able to set up Laravel, understand its core architecture, manage routes, controllers, and views, and interact with databases using both Eloquent ORM and Query Builder.
Module 6: Laravel Authentication & Security
This module focuses on implementing secure authentication and authorization systems within Laravel applications. It begins with an introduction to Resourceful Controllers and their standard methods (index, show, store, update, destroy).
Objective: Students will be able to implement secure user authentication, authorization, and role-based access control in Laravel applications.
Module 7: Laravel API Development & Advanced Features
This advanced module focuses on building modern APIs and integrating various frontend tools. It covers the principles of REST APIs, API architecture, HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE), understanding status codes, and structuring API responses. Students will learn to create and manage resourceful routes in Laravel, configure CORS middleware for cross-origin requests, and handle JSON responses and errors.
Objective: Students will be able to build modern, secure, and scalable RESTful APIs, integrate various frontend tools, and manage advanced application features.