For new and veteran PHP programmers alike, it’s often difficult to find the right place to ask questions and find the best answers and solutions to programming challenges. This month, Ben Ramsey takes us on a journey through the PHP Community to discover the websites the experts use to get PHP news and information and the places they go to ask for help (because even experts need help). He’ll wrap up the talk with a brief who’s who in the PHP Community, introducing you to some of the core developers and familiar faces around the community.

1. around the
Ben Ramsey
8 Jan 2009 • Atlanta PHP

2. The PHP Projects

3. php.net

4. pear.php.net

5. pecl.php.net

6. gtk.php.net

7. qa.php.net

8. Getting Help

9. phpfreaks.com

10. codewalkers.com

11. phpbuilder.com

12. devshed.com/c/b/PHP/

13. devnetwork.net

14. pear-forum.org

15. sitepoint.com

16. atlantaphp.org

17. RTFM!
http://php.net/manual

18. Mailing Lists

19. Mailing Lists
• php-general@lists.php.net
news://news.php.net/php.general
• php-windows@lists.php.net
news://news.php.net/php.windows
• pear-general@lists.php.net
news://news.php.net/php.pear.general
• http://news.php.net

20. Internet Relay Chat

21. IRC
• ##php on Freenode
• #pear on EFNet
• #mysql on Freenode
• #apache on Freenode
• #phpc on Freenode
• #atlantaphp on Freenode

22. Getting on IRC
• XChat -- http://www.xchat.org
• XChat Aqua --
http://xchataqua.sourceforge.net
• Colloquy -- http://colloquy.info
• mIRC -- http://www.mirc.com
• irssi -- http://irssi.org

23. Getting on IRC
• Freenode: http://freenode.net
• EFNet: http://efnet.org
• Join a channel:
/join ##php

24. Must-Read Books

25. Beginning PHP5,
Apache, MySQL
Web Development
by Elizabeth Naramore, Jason Gerner,
Yann Le Scouarnec, Jeremy Stolz,
Michael K. Glass

26. PHP and
MySQL Web
Development
by Luke Welling and
Laura Thomson

27. Learning
PHP 5
by David Sklar

28. PHP
Cookbook
by David Sklar and Adam Trachtenberg

29. Advanced PHP
Programming
by George Schlossnagle

30. Essential
PHP Security
by Chris Shiflett

31. Zend PHP 5
Certification
Study Guide
by Davey Shafik
and Ben Ramsey

32. News & Information

33. phpdeveloper.org

34. phparch.com

35. c7y.phparch.com

36. devzone.zend.com

37. phpinfo.com

38. The PHP
Blogosphere

39. planet-php.net

40. Andrei
Zmievski
http://gravitonic.com
@a on twitter
PHP core developer
Unicode/PHP 6
PHP-GTK
Smarty

41. Brett Bieber
http://saltybeagle.com
@saltybeagle on Twitter
PEAR developer

42. Cal Evans
http://blog.calevans.com
@CalEvans on Twitter
Director of the PHP Center of
Expertise at IBuildings
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Zend DevZone

43. Chris Shiflett
http://shiflett.org
@shiflett on Twitter
PHP security expert
CTO at OmniTI

44. Chris Jones
http://blogs.oracle.com/opal
@ghrd on Twitter
Works for Oracle
oci8 & PDO_OCI

45. Davey Shafik
http://www.pixelated-dreams.com
@dshafik on Twitter
Author and speaker

46. David Sklar
http://www.sklar.com/blog
Author and speaker
Software Architect at Ning

47. Derick
Rethans
http://derickrethans.nl
@derickrethans on Twitter
PHP core developer
DateTime

48. Ed Finkler
http://funkatron.com
@funkatron on Twitter
Author and speaker
RIA expert
Creator of Spaz

49. Eli White
http://eliw.wordpress.com
@EliW on Twitter
Author and speaker
Zendʼs new Community Guy

50. Elizabeth
Marie Smith
http://elizabethmariesmith.com
@auroraeosrose on Twitter
PHP core dev
PHP Windows geek
PHP-GTK
Co-founder of PHPWomen.org

51. Elizabeth
Naramore
http://www.naramore.net/blog
@ElizabethN on Twitter
Co-founder of PHPWomen.org
Editor at php|architect
php|tek & php|works Conference Chair

52. Gopal
Vijayaraghavan
http://t3.dotgnu.info/blog
@t3rmin4t0r on Twitter
PHP core developer
pecl/apc

53. Greg Beaver
http://greg.chiaraquartet.net
PEAR developer
PHAR
Cello player

54. Iʼm running over time.
Check out my personal
blogroll for more!

55. benramsey.com

56. Q&A