Practice Projects to Improve PHP/MYSQL Skills

I suggest starting with a basic blog. Then set it off to the side. Brain storm on what you would have done to make it better.

Then start from scratch again. Improve on it. When done compare code. This for me helps prove I'm getting better.

Then start again, but add more features. Let's say comments and images for the articles, like a banner.

Then do it again with roles and permissions, your own auth code instead of using the basic auth make command. Adding more features like a user's profile page with avatars and bio etc.

Each time also try to add better ui like JavaScript interaction and Ajax calls for certain parts.

I also will start a new project just to build a new interesting feature to play with! Say a simple image gallery to play with uploads, downloads and image manipulation etc and repeat over and over with different plugins and/or ways of coding. Event site is another idea too. Where you create an event, say a party, displaying when, where and times with images and description. This is great practice for dealing with dates, days and time.

I still do that after 10 years. You have to try different things and technology to see where it fits with you.

I suggest blogs to start as it can be pretty basic or very dynamic and complicated. Plus a butt load of tutorials and examples too. Maybe the hello world for Laravel.

I would try to make an application that you want to use. My main practice project is a Japanese dictionary. I built it because I didn't like any existing ones. Ive been at it for over a year now, constantly improving it and making it more useful for myself. Ive learned tons from it and even after a year, Im still really into it and enjoy working on it. I think thats important. Working on something youre not interested in is a chore.

Thank you guys. Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated as well.

@zachleigh I'd love to take a look at your Japanese dictionary project. I've been trying to learning Japanese for a while and if I could tie that into programming too that'd be great.

@mstnorris Its here: https://nihongodera.com/

Id love to hear any feedback you have. I only released it a couple months ago but havent done anything yet to promote it so I dont get many users.

I also open sourced the backend Japanese parser: https://github.com/nihongodera/limelight

It works well, but it desperately needs a refactor. I cringe when I look at all the ugly code I wrote a year ago...

@zacleigh first impressions - it looks great. Will definitely dig into this over the next few days. Everyone writes code that soon after they think "Why did I write that?! It could have been done so much cleaner doing it this way..." - It is natural, and just part of the process.

I'm a perfectionist and everything has to be just right, however, that can (and does) hold me back from getting shit done so it is better to get it done, and get it out there, and worry about all the other stuff later on.

The question I have to keep asking myself is "does it work?" and if it does then move on. You can always come back to it later.

Konnichiwa?

I always chose video/movie library as my college project, which was useless because no one really rents movies today but it had some interesting features to learn how to build them.

For a small project, you could start your own website / blog, just for practice and maybe you will use it one day.

For a bigger project, check out Upwork and I am sure that you will find something interesting there.

@Ruffles Hey, thanks for the info. Does Upwork.com pay you on time and there's no hassle? That site is pretty cool there's actually lots of customer service jobs on there as well which is what I used to do when I was working so thanks for the info on the site. But do they pay on time with no hassle is my main question? And do you mean I can find something on there by like trying to get one of those coding jobs or just looking and finding examples?

I am working on few random projects @balistikbill you wanna join ?

@manshu Sure. What do you use for communication?

I linked it for project ideas if you need any but if you want to use it for some real work, feel free to do so :)

I haven't tried it personally but it all depends on the client you choose to work for. The ratings and payment verification should help you with the payment assurance. Reputation is very important there.

You have to ask a freelancer who works on projects there for more information about that.

I use screenhero, @balistikbill Pls give me your email i'll invite you.

@manshu Hey, it's [email protected]

@manshu hello sure, please can you invite me too, to get some practice