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The new php.net
- kyriakos 13y agoa welcome refresh
- astrodust 13y agoLess ugly, and yet not less ugly enough. jQuery might've over-done it a bit with their most recent refresh, but that's a better example of what could be done. The search feature, for instance, is complete garbage. If I'm typing in a method name, give me that method, not this: http://ca2.php.net/results.php?q=mysql_query&l=en&p=all http://ca2.php.net/results.php?q=mysql_query&l=en&p=all Is it so hard to do something like auto-complete? Wikipedia and many other API references do this.
- stormbrew 13y agoIf you know the method you're looking for you can just go to php.net/methodname and it'll take you right there or search if it doesn't match anything. Has done for at least a decade. One of my favorite things about their site.
- aasarava 13y agoThe search does have auto-complete and shows function names. Try reloading?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- astrodust 13y agoIt wasn't there when I tried it, but now it works. Small things like this matter.
- invisible 13y agoIf you use autocomplete and press down->enter, it goes to the function page.
- Domenic_S 13y agoRead this without snark: do people use on-site search anymore? I and every dev I work with either googles function names or uses hinting in an IDE. Granted, that's a relatively small sample size.
- PavlovsCat 13y agoAt least using Opera or FF, you can just right-click any text input and create a search from it, so entering "php blah" in the address bar would search php.net for "blah". So yes, I use it on-site searches all the time. Why google for "foobar wikipedia" when I can just enter "wp foobar"? :)
- dropawaywaytogo 13y agoI was doing the same until I realized that googling or binging (let's not rely on google too much) is most of the times faster than using php.net's own search engine. Plus, you're not limited to function names and you don't have to spell them correctly to find the right result.
- PavlovsCat 13y agoFair enough, but I still think that on-site search is desirable in general and many cases. I get that it's too much hassle for small sites, but for bigger ones, I wish they'd at least offer "bingle custom search" additional to their own. Completely outsourcing that is a step back to me, but then again I don't have to pay for the servers so I'll shut up now :D
- hrktb 13y agoIMO php "documentation" is different from any other language because the comments can be as important as the official description. This is especially true when the documentation wording is misleading, or there are some traps when using a function in specific contexts, etc. Or functions only available on recent version will have comments with workarounds for older versions.
- astrodust 13y ago
- acomjean 13y agoin emacs C-c C-f opens a web browser with php.net function name that is highlighted opened.
- astrodust 13y agoThis is a feature of your editor, not the PHP site.
- philliphaydon 13y agoWould be nice if I could see it. They have this banner at the top: Step into the future! Click here to switch to the beta php.net site. Page just refreshes. Tried deleting all my cookies, didn't help. Edit: Tried in IE10, Firefox, Chrome. I've never visited php.net on this computer before. IMO site is fail since they can't even get their beta site access feature working.
- ohwp 13y agoSame here. I think it's because I don't accept third-party cookies.
- DigitalSea 13y agoThis is definitely a welcome change. Doesn't really stray too far from the previous design really, it feels cleaner and a lot more modern. I think PHP's lack of nicely designed site doesn't do them any favours in the language wars though considering PHP is viewed as an old and inferior language to others.
- ninjac0der 13y agoI get the nature of your comment, but you have to acknowledge that this does nothing to address any of the actual issues that many devs have with PHP. It's not just a problem of perception.
- jmspring 13y agoThere are problems with php? It's not the prettiest language, but people have been building insanely successful businesses on top of it for years. Think Facebook. It's coyote ugly, but it works. At least most PHP devs don't have the attitude associated with other popular web frameworks. They focus on getting things done. As a disclaimer, PHP is not my go to language, but I've done some ugly scaling experiments with it. I'm just tired of the PHP isn't cool, let's mock it with no actual valid arguments that is common.
- ninjac0der 13y agoI could do awesome stuff with cold fusion if I was still stuck in a previous era. There are much better solutions to the problems of web development.
- klearvue 13y agoFrom a developer's perspective - perhaps. But look at it from a business perspective (cost, risk management), and you'll often see it differently.
- ninjac0der 13y ago
- ineedtosleep 13y agoWow. Definitely not a fan. I don't know if it's because it's "new", but the readability on documentation pages got worse. It's like I'm better off using (e)links to handle php.net searches.
- qw 13y agoI agree. It's hard to say exactly what they should improve, but I feel that it takes more time to find what I need. Perhaps they should add some colour to give better contrast.
- ing33k 13y agoDefinitely a welcome news , design looks modern yet the old look and feel is preserved. keep aside the language wars, people who just want to get things done still use php while others keep on bashing how it sucks .
- grandpoobah 13y agoThe 'Begin Tutorial' button looks like something out of Windows 3.1.
- shire 13y agoI didn't notice that until you mentioned it, darn now I am scarred
- shire 13y agoBreath of fresh air.
- C1D 13y agoLooks very nice but isn't that responsive. It looks a little messed up on my iPad.
- harryf 13y agoLikewise on an iPhone
- RutZap 13y agoWhy would you visit it on an iPhone?! I see the website as a developer resource, and I can't seem to think of a use case when you develop something/need to visit it on an iPhone.
- ajanuary 13y agoThere have been times when I've been on the move thinking about how to solve a problem, and would look up what libs can help me.
- ziodave 13y agoI was literally surprised to see that the web site is not responsive.
- coob 13y agoNeither is apple.com
- alekseyk 13y agoThey are trying WAY too hard to be like other sites and copied a lot of elements but under no vision or creative guidance new design looks horrible. Old one was at least professional and to the point, this one is pure garbage and looks like a web site for a grape drink.
- Falling3 13y agoI thought your comment was way over the top, but I did find the "grape drink" part to be quite amusing.
- RutZap 13y agoI understand where you're coming from; the php.net website is by no means beautiful and the design does lack creativity, BUT, I think that the main purpose of this site is information and no looks. It's all about the documentation and the code examples and the comments. It's a site for a programming language, we don't need beautiful design, animations transitions or any other eye-candy. I think that even the flikr footer is superfluous and we could do without it. The most important thing is how information is structured and how easy it is to get to it; and from that point of view I am very pleased with the new website. It's a lot easier to read through than the old one and a lot easier to find what you need.
- alekseyk 13y agoI don't find it easier at all, the purple blocks / elements overwhelm the content. The old site looks way better for 'information consuming' than the new version. My two cents.
- wizzard 13y agoI have to agree. I really appreciate the effort to update the site but it seems like there is even less cohesion than before. I think there are at least 20 different combinations of font family/size/weight/color on every documentation page. The arbitrary sizing especially throws me off. And all the images could use some finessing, like the jaggy comment up/down-vote arrows. It's a really good start though. I'm heartened to see the site get some love.
- csomar 13y agoThe menu is not usable for me. It seems like my screen is too small and yet I'm on a 1920px width screen. The documentation pages are broken too. I guess the flat and typographical design is meant to improve the reading experience and not just for the sake of flatness. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2777218/Sans%20titre.png https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2777218/Sans%20titre.png
- Domenic_S 13y agoScreenshot without browser chrome and url chopped out. You must work in QA ;) I kid, I kid. Honestly that just looks like a broken page to me. Shift-reload?
- deepdog 13y agoI have the same problem too on Linux. I've found it is fixed by removing the padding-right on the logo and I've tried telling them that on the mailing list. No one will believe me though even if though I have multiple pictures documenting the fact. =/
- danbruc 13y agoDid they use PHP to build it? ^^
- skyebook 13y agoDoes anyone else think that the best way to promote PHP would be to have a home page that doesn't take 240ms of processing before it starts to download?
- kleiba 13y agoThe landing page looks pretty good I think. When I first looked at the site I had JavaScript turned off, and I think it looked even better that way.
- sas1ni69 13y agoAt least they know the previous one was fugly.
- brvs 13y agoThis new, rejuvenated website, along with PHP's sexy new language features really seal the deal for me. I have to say, PHP is officially cool again. -sp
- pavs 13y agoI just started learning php (my first programming language). I am reading Oreilly's Programming PHP 3rd Edition. Can anyone give me any tips? (please don't suggest other programming language, I have wasted countless hours trying to decide. I will eventually try to learn other languages but decided to start with php for now. My main interest is webapps, so it would seem that php is the most popular - and easy - choice.)
- bdcravens 13y agoAs someone who first picked it up in 1998 and has intermittently built apps in it, the biggest tip: use PDO. Many examples online, and what I learned to work with, target the MySQL libs directly, but PDO really saves you a lot of time, and preps you for the concepts of abstraction you find in a lot of platforms.
- vec 13y agoFirst, resist the urge to put code in your templates. Because the syntax is the same, it's very tempting to just declare a function or do a query in the middle of your HTML. You'll be happier in the long run if you don't ever get into that habit to begin with. PHP actually recognizes both .php and .phtml as valid file extensions. I personally try to follow a couple basic rules. .php files should be a single <?php ?> block with nothing outside it, and .phtml files shouldn't use anything but if, foreach, and already defined variables. You'll end up with code that's both cleaner and better structured. Second, if at all possible avoid Wordpress until you've already got a firm grasp of the language. Wordpress itself has a few decisions that made sense in PHP 4 but are terrible practice now (like using global functions instead of classes) and a few others that, while not technically wrong, were questionable even then (the loop). On top of that, the quality of code in third party themes and plugins varies wildly. If you copy the techniques you see there, you'll learn some awesome tricks, but you'll also learn every bad practice in the book. Until you've got enough experience to recognize the difference, you'll do yourself more harm than good.
- Joeboy 13y ago> First, resist the urge to put code in your templates Unless things have changed since I last looked, PHP files are all templates. Last time I used PHP, with symphony, I actually thought PHP was a pretty reasonable templating system.
- chaffneue 13y agoI like the concept. White layout with bigger, more readable blocks and less wasted space above the fold, but some of the fun they had with the footer and javascript on the page should probably be dropped to make the page load a bit smoother and yeah mobile has definitely not been considered or tested against. I also wonder if these pages are completely dynamic as they seem to load very slowly even in a logged out state. Side by side speed comparison: http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2859/9133368868_54f4a8cabb_h.jpg http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2859/9133368868_54f4a8cabb_h.j... http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3700/9131157097_923af39b1b_h.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3700/9131157097_923af39b1b_h.j... Iphone rendering: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7402/9133398088_4cd5d18661_b.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7402/9133398088_4cd5d18661_b.j... http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7288/9131186519_b00acc38a0_b.jpg http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7288/9131186519_b00acc38a0_b.j...
- bbayer 13y agoThere are still couple of UX problems. For instance once you click an item on upper menu, the section which initially has download and tutorial links is disappeared. There is no way to bring it back to original state. Also again in top menu selected color and hover color is same and confuses user. Also in some inner pages like this one http://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php http://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php left block is empty and page looks like misaligned. It might be better to borrow some ideas from Sphinx generated documentation style.
- Domenic_S 13y ago> For instance once you click an item on upper menu, the section which initially has download and tutorial links is disappeared. There is no way to bring it back to original state. Load the page, with the tutorial block showing. Look under the PHP logo. See the purple "active" indicator underneath (obviously you do, because you commented on it)? To restore the original state, click the PHP icon.
- bbayer 13y agoYes, we can definitely restore original state by clicking on logo but I guess expected behavior is not reloading page. It supposed to update section like other items do.
- TimGremalm 13y agoI checked archive.org, the previous design is from 2001. http://web.archive.org/web/20010401091809/http://php.net/ http://web.archive.org/web/20010401091809/http://php.net/
- martin-adams 13y agoAs someone who uses the PHP documentation all the time, I do wonder if the increased line spacing in the code examples and user comments are going to be a little off putting. But great to see an improvement on the whole.
- jayfolny 13y agoI love PHP, I really do. It's a blinding mess of built-in functions as well as horror due to the incredible shoestorm one needs to create with it to make decent things work. I don't however like the "new" php.net. It's been a year in the making or so, if I'm not mistaking - not only that, it's 5 years in the past, which I guess is better than the previous design, but the "future" comment is just plain wrong.
- dewiz 13y agothe new php.net... ...has not been tested on Safari (ipad2 here)
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- quchen 13y agoChanging the font size dismembers the design. It's like it's 2005 again, where everyone had the same screen resolution, and pixel-based layouts were thought to be good webdesign.
- RutZap 13y agoYeah, that's sadly true; Though, the fix would be quite simple, put a clear:both; on the #layout div.
- lartza 13y agoI wonder what http://www.php.net/?setbeta=0&beta=1 http://www.php.net/?setbeta=0&beta=1 and http://www.php.net/?setbeta=1&beta=0 http://www.php.net/?setbeta=1&beta=0 does? Oh it breaks the site so that you can't enable the beta at all anymore without resetting cookies. edit: It's just that all mirrors aren't up to date
- EGreg 13y agoSome of this is good, but in a way, PHP is going the way of C++ ... adding lambdas and the kitchen sink.
- iso8859-1 13y agoPHP was kitchen sink from the beginning. Only the kitchen sink was in the library and not the language. I'd rather have it like this.
- Nux 13y agoRight, so move from a site that can use the whole width of my frickin wide monitor (nevermind efficiency) to one that doesn't - but it's shiny!
- girvo 13y agoNew redesign is great :) Screw anyone who rags on PHP. Since 5.3, it's been one of the nicer languages I've ever used, and I'm exceedingly productive in it. The best part? I can work in Brisbane, and get paid well for it. Not too many Ruby jobs around, or anything other than .Net and a little bit of Java.
- ukandy 13y agoIt's a bit wide for my taste. I think that fixed width (max width at least) would have have been appropriate here.
- joeframbach 13y agoBad practices right from the get-go. <?php echo '<p>Hello World</p>'; ?> ought to be <p><?php echo 'Hello World'; ?></p> I swear this is the cause of so many "Too Localized" issues on StackOverflow, due to nesting quotes within quotes and getting lost in tags. Echoing html makes things too difficult for beginners.
- dylan-m 13y agoIs it weird that my first observation is that their navigation requires Javascript to function? Because it does: clicking Documentation, Community or Help doesn't get you anywhere, and there's no other way to get to those pages. Also, the website can't seem to decide if its URLs should look like php.net/conferences or php.net/downloads.php. With the negativity out of the way: MUCH nicer looking site. I look forward to using it the next time I find myself having to write PHP :)
- nachteilig 13y agoAm I missing it, or do they not have an option to see the PHP source of the website anymore? I always thought that was a neat feature to have for a language's website.