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What is PHP? PHP; Hypertext Preprocessor is a highly in demand scripting language for web development. PHP developers get attracted to learn this language because it can be embedded to HTML and makes easy management. Basic knowledge of HTML can help you to learn the language and become a PHP developer. It enables the collection, processing, and usage of data and extends interactions with all the pages.
PHP is a very easy language to learn for beginners and gain expertise while working with all the advanced features. To become a PHP developer from a novice to expert doesn’t require much time because of its ease to learn.
Let’s learn in detail, what is PHP and how to become a PHP developer. Basically, it is a guide that helps beginners or learners to understand what they need to focus upon and how they can beat the competition to become a PHP developer. Apart from that we will discuss what are the required skills for a PHP developer and their salary structure.
What is PHP?
PHP is a scripting language used to foster static and dynamic site pages and web applications. Here are a couple of significant things you should know about PHP:
- PHP is an Interpreted language, thus it doesn’t require a compiler.
- To run and execute PHP code, a web server is required on which PHP should be installed.
- PHP is a server side scripting language, which implies that PHP is executed on the server and the outcome is sent to the browser in plain HTML format.
- PHP is an open source and free programming language.
What is a PHP Developer?
PHP developers are specialists in creating applications, websites, and programs by using a dynamic scripting language called PHP. The PHP developers are here and there alluded to by more normal titles, for example, “web developer” or “software developer”. Notwithstanding, PHP developers are only an exceptional subset of the designer’s position.
PHP is universal in site improvement, and PHP Developers for the most part work in the background or make UIs. PHP is ideal for contract developers or freelancers too.
Roles and Responsibilities of a PHP Developer
Role and Responsibilities of a PHP Developer usually varies from one organization to another. However, it also relies upon the seniority of the engineer. Fundamentally, there are three rank levels: junior, intermediate, and senior. We will define all the three levels with a real job description of a PHP developer, so you can understand the difference.
Roles and Responsibilities of a Junior level PHP Developer
- Planning and carrying out new functionalities and features.
- Overseeing site hosting, email hosting, installation, and configuration, purchase domain, name renewal of domain, and maintain website security.
- Setting up and directing the website architecture.
- Defining a powerful, responsive plan and transforming it into a functioning theme and plugin.
- Continuous improvement and maintenance of a website (e-commerce site).
- Guaranteeing superior performance and availability, and dealing with all technical aspects of CMS.
- Fixing bugs and errors, troubleshooting plugin issues, assisting team members and graphic designers.
- Standard openness to business stakeholders and executive management, just as the authority and scope to apply your ability to many fascinating technical issues.
- Website’s regular backup, site maintenance, and migration.
- Making reports and insights for websites, facebook pages, and mobile applications if required.
Roles and Responsibilities of an Intermediate PHP Developer
- Multi-site WordPress builds installation.
- Working together with strategy, design, and SEO team to discover solutions for client’s website.
- Third-party APIs integration.
- Customized web development.
- Shopping cart integration.
- WordPress Customization to support specific functionalities.
- Build responsive layouts.
- Help web designers to match visual design plans.
- Front-end web development.
- Design and develop application building plans by setting targets and prioritize features throughout the development life cycle.
- Incorporates applications by a database architecture and server scripting design; and setting up connectivity with network systems, search engine tools, and information servers.
Roles and Responsibilities of a Senior PHP Developer
- Focus on software development projects, set deadlines and assign tasks to team members.
- Recognize user and system requirements for new applications and websites.
- Write or rewrite code for different applications.
- Make wireframes to settle on layout.
- Run functionality testing and code debugging.
- Liaise with designers to finalize UI/UX components (like navigation buttons and graphics).
- Administer junior developers and evaluate their performance.
- Collaborate with mobile developers to build mobile responsive websites (if client demands).
- Make sure the software development process is up-to-date.
Web Development Tools for a PHP Developer
The market is overwhelmed with PHP development tools to enhance programming effectiveness, represent an ideal IDE (Integrated Development Environment), and permit a PHP Developer to work on rich-featured projects.
The web development tools permit developers to test and debug their code and collaborate with a large number of web development tools processed by web browsers. However, these can be add-ons or used as features built in the web browser.
Therefore, some of the popular and mainstream internet browsers, like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera, are available with their own set of additional features and add-ons. Therefore, to meet the increasing expectations for internet browsers, web developers need to persistently upgrade their skills with better and more versatile web development tools.
Following are some of the well known PHP development tools:
- Zend Studio
- PhpStorm
- Cloud9
- NuSphere PhpED
- Sublime Text
- NetBeans
- Aptana Studio
- CodeLobster
- Eclipse
- PHP Debug Bar
Skills Required to Become a PHP Developer
To fulfil all the roles and responsibilities of a PHP developer, one must possess good skills as well to become a PHP developer. Therefore, s/he must be able to derive from a strong set of skills. Below is the list of expertise skills and talent a web developer needs the most;
- First and foremost, the most obvious skill is hands-on knowledge of PHP development.
- Knowledge of Ajax, jQuery, and MySQL.
- To be a Full Stack developer, you need to know JavaScript, CSS, and HTML.
- API, Unix/Linux, and MVC framework architecture.
- Understand CakePHP (an open source PHP web framework) and PHPUnit (a unit testing framework).
- Knowledge of Photoshop or similar design tools.
- Good communication skills.
- Problem-solving ability.
- Ability to think critically.
Salary Structure of a PHP Developer
The salary relies completely upon the experience and job roles, along with some other factors. So, the yearly average salary in India, earned by PHP Developers is ₹278,716.
However, an entry level PHP Developer with under 1 year of experience can earn an average of ₹172,073 annually. PHP Developers with 1–4 years of experience can expect about ₹264,742 annually.
PHP Developers with 5–9 years of experience can expect about ₹543,053 annually, whereas a PHP Developer with 10–19 years of experience can earn about ₹885,098 per annum.
On the other hand, as per Glassdoor, a PHP Developer in the United States acquires a normal of US$ 81,796 every year. An entry level PHP Developer acquires US$63,375 each year, while most experienced specialists can procure up to US$130,000 yearly.
What is the Future Scope of PHP Developer?
Looking to become a PHP developer in 2021, then you must learn about its future scopes and these are as follows;
1. PHP for Web Development
A profession in PHP has a promising future as it is preferred among top players like Yahoo, Facebook, IBM, and so on as the primary language for Web Development.
2. Simple-to-Master Scripting Language
PHP is extremely simple to get as a language as its syntax is based on C and Java. Also, there are many resources available online to learn PHP.
3. Open Source
PHP is 100% free as it is an open-source language. However, the programming, like Apache, SQL, and so on, to construct web applications are also open source tools.
4. OOPS Support
PHP upholds OOP like Java and C++ through inheritance, polymorphism, and data encapsulation. Thus, if you learned Java and C++, then it will be extremely helpful and simple to learn PHP.
5. Compatibility with all OS
There is no requirement for adding additional code lines in PHP for introducing compatibility with all OS, such as Windows, Mac, LINUX, and UNIX.
6. Framework
One of the explanations behind PHP being well known is the framework accessibility like Laravel, Zend, Symfony, and so on that help code reusability, which permits one to rapidly build applications with minimum errors.
7. Dynamic and Flexible
PHP applications can customize and arrange according to the requirements of client’s. As PHP is an open-source platform and supports code-reusability, thus developers can easily introduce graphic design elements in the existing applications.
8. Compiler-based Applications
Applications that are assembled using different programming languages can be translated into PHP language effectively with the help of extensions. Compiler-based applications, for example, HTML and JavaScript make PHP a versatile programming language.
9. Resources
There is no shortage of resources that cover a wide range of tools and frameworks that are PHP-supported. So, in this respect, PHP is a well documented programming tool.
10. CMS Development
Content Management System or CMS; its deployment is extremely simple in PHP because of the customization support in PHP for applications.
11. Job Opportunities
PHP Developers are exceptionally in demand as most organizations these days are online or like to take their business online.
How to Become a PHP Developer?
Developers generally enter the field with a college level learning – the degree might be in software engineering, computer science, information science, or some other related field to become a PHP developer.
The prerequisites for a web developer are sometimes less than for a software developer. Having extra skills can help a developer to move ahead. Those intrigued by web development might need a few courses in designing.
A few developers pursue certification to approve their insight into specific advances. The test incorporates the nuts and bolts of PHP and object oriented programming, string patterns, and arrays. Competitors should be familiar with data types and databases. The test likewise incorporates security – a vital issue for the individuals who code in PHP.
Eventually, certifications are less significant than real world learnings and experiences. A PHP developer can start getting experience as a student through senior design projects, internship, or involvement in open source projects.
Therefore, to be on the right side of the product development and choosing the right PHP developer. To make it possible, you need to hire expert PHP developers or top PHP web development companies. Thus, to make your search easier and faster, Supersourcing is here to assist you in finding the right agency that fulfills your business needs. On the Supersourcing platform, you can find verified and expert agencies and developers. Hence, find out the right and expert business partner for your quality business solution.
FAQs
1. How long does it take to become a PHP Developer?
PHP is an easy language to learn, so it requires about 3 to 6 months of time to learn, basically time variation is based on how committed you are to learning. It’s easy syntax makes it a great starting point for any enthusiast interested in learning back-end web development.
2. What are the skills required for PHP Developers?
A PHP developer requires soft skills and hard skills both to excel in web development. So, skills are as follows;
- Good communication skills.
- Problem-solving ability.
- Ability to think critically.
- Understand CakePHP and PHPUnit.
- Knowledge of Photoshop or similar design tools.
- JavaScript, CSS, HTML, Ajax, jQuery, MySQL, and UNIX/LINUX.
*Details are mentioned above in a section, refer it.
3. How much does a PHP Developer earn?
The average salary of a PHP Developer in India, is ₹278,716 annually. On the other hand, the average salary of a PHP Developer in the United States, is US$ 81,796 annually.
* The salary varies based on the expertise and experience of the developer. Therefore, the detailed analysis is mentioned in the above section.
