PHP is a leading server-side scripting language embedded in HTML that lets you build static and dynamic web applications. It stands for Hypertext Preprocessor, and its first version started as a small project and released by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994. The simplicity, practicability, and efficiency of PHP have made it a favorite among students, engineers, and researchers. You can practice PHP scripts and get familiar with all the characteristics by implementing some projects with free source code. Let us first understand the benefits of using PHP and what it can help you with. 

The best way to learn a programming languages is through projects. They allow you to try out your knowledge of the subject while challenging your creativity. So, if you are a PHP beginner, the best thing you can do is work on some real-time PHP projects.

We, here at upGrad, believe in a practical approach as theoretical knowledge alone won’t be of help in a real-time work environment. In this article, we will be exploring some interesting PHP projects on Github which you can work on to put their PHP knowledge to test. In this article, you will find  PHP project ideas on Github for beginners to get hands-on experience in PHP.

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Advantages and Common Uses of PHP

PHP has C-like syntax, which is easy to execute and master. With PHP, you can perform all the essential system functions, manage dynamic web content and databases, track sessions, and even build an entire e-commerce website. You can gather data from files, save data, email it, and return it to the user.

Further, you can encrypt data and restrict users from accessing specific pages. PHP also offers the functionality to edit and modify the elements within your database and access cookies variables. This scripting language is compatible with many accessible databases, such as MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Informix, Oracle, etc.

The following PHP project topics will acquaint you with these features. Whether you are just beginning with PHP or looking to hone your programming skills, try your hand at the open-source codes available on GitHub and discover new possibilities in the web development space! 

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Read: Exciting PHP Project Ideas

Components of GitHub PHP projects 

There are several things that are put together to complete a PHP project. Here are the main components of GitHub PHP projects –

1. PHP Language Release

Priorities first! You must study PHP to be able to work with it before getting into PHP projects GitHub. You also need to get familiar with supporting web technologies, including CSS, JavaScript, and HTML. PHP 5 and PHP 7 are the two most widely used versions of the PHP programming language at the moment. The two are nearly identical, with a few minor exceptions.

When choosing between the two PHP editions, one should take care of several specific features, such as the fact that PHP 7 does not support the MySQL extension. The first step in a normal PHP project GitHub is to create the webpage using HTML and CSS. While HTML is used to enhance a webpage’s functionality, CSS specifies how everything is tailored to the user.

The next step is PHP, which aids in linking the web page’s code with the appropriate DBMS and server in order to show or publish it online.

2. Tools for development, including editors and frameworks.

PHP scripts are needed for PHP projects GitHub. The conventional method of writing a PHP script is using Notepad. You can do it with the following steps –

• Use the text editor to create a new file.
• Write the PHP code.
• Save the file using the extension, ‘.php’.

This is the most popular method, especially when you are just starting to learn PHP. There are several tools for PHP development available to make working with PHP easier. These are programs, groups of programs, and technologies that may be used to complete a PHP project GitHub.

• PHP editors 

Text code editors offer a variety of code-assistance capabilities, such as syntax highlighting and automated code completion, that make it possible to create PHP code efficiently.

• Brackets
• Notepad++
• Atom
• Visual Studio Code
• Komodo Edit

• PHP Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

You can use one of the many available IDEs when you need a full development tool for creating PHP applications. Code editors are restricted to simply coding-related functions, but IDEs offer testing, version control, debugging, and many more features to increase the range of features that are accessible for development. Some IDEs commonly used are –

• Komodo
• Eclipse
• PhpStorm
• Zend Studio
• NetBeans

• PHP Frameworks

Frameworks, as opposed to IDEs and code editors, are collections of libraries and modules that provide a general foundation for the development of programs (for the creation of websites or web apps). An in-depth look at some of the top PHP frameworks for web development can be found in this article. A PHP development tool’s functionality might vary from one product to another.

3. Web Server

Since PHP is server-side, a web browser cannot run it which is only from the client. The PHP interpreter can only communicate with a server.  XAMPP and WAMP are the two most often used options for local servers when dealing with PHP.  You may download both of these pieces of software for free from their respective websites. Once the server has been downloaded successfully, a folder called www will be present in its directory. As the default place for saving all of your PHP projects, keep this folder in mind.

Here are the steps for running PHP GitHub projects –

• Open a favorable web browser
• Type the URL – ‘http://localhost/filename.php’
• Press Enter.

4. Database Management System

Every project may make use of certain data. Smaller projects often have minimal data volumes readily maintained as straightforward files. However, when a project grows in size, the amount and complexity of the data increases. We need to employ a database management system to store it conveniently. Several DBMSs may be used with PHP. Some popular database options available are –

• MySQL – One of the most preferred database management systems for PHP development.
• IBM Db2 – used mostly in PHP programming for ERP and eCommerce. Calls for a PECL extension.
• SAP ASE – A popular option for businesses. Given that it works very well under heavy load situations, it is the ideal choice for large database requirements.

So, here are a few PHP Project ideas on Github which you can work on:

PHP projects on GitHub

1. PHPMailer

As the name suggests, PHPMailer is meant for sending emails from PHP. The direct mail() function does not provide capabilities like authentication, encryption, attachments, and HTML messages. Moreover, it generally uses a local mail server, which is unlike PHPMailer’s SMTP implementation. PHP Mailer is a full-fledged email creation and transfer class for PHP, and you can install the entire package via Composer. Alternatively, you can check out other libraries for sending emails from your code, such as SwiftMailer and ZetaComponents. 

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2. PHPUnit

PHPUnit is a testing framework based on the xUnit architecture that allows you to grasp how unit testing works. Its “Getting Started” guide on GitHub provides all the details about installing the project and using it. 

The test-driven development approach allows programmers to detect bugs and take small steps along the way as and when changes are required. For instance, you can test each component of the code of your e-commerce site, including opening the site in a specific browser, searching for products, adding them to the cart, checking out, and so on. 

3. Symfony

Try the Symfony PHP framework to avoid repetitive coding tasks and accelerate the creation and maintenance of your web applications. Symfony has a set of reusable components that make up the standard foundation of any PHP application. Music apps like Spotify and e-commerce projects like Magento use this framework. It comes with an open-source license and comprehensive documentation to assist your learning. 

4. Panther 

If you want to practice testing, you can go for this project. Panther is a standalone library that can be applied to any PHP project for scraping web pages and running end-to-end tests in real browsers (Chrome, Firefox, etc.) It uses Symfony’s BrowserKit and DomCrawler APIs. 

Panther acts by automatically executing JavaScript codes, letting you take screenshots, and allowing you to run JS code and XPath queries. All in all, you can devote your energy to writing your test and web-scraping context, and Panther takes care of the rest. 

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5. Guzzle

Guzzle will assist you in sending HTTP requests, both synchronous and asynchronous, with the same interface. It uses PSR-7 for requests, responses, and streams and also permits you to utilize other compatible libraries. We have highlighted a few of Guzzle’s capabilities below:

• Building query strings
• POST requests
• HTTP cookies
• Uploading JSON data 
• Streaming large uploads and downloads

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6. Laravel

Laravel’s efficient syntax simplifies web development tasks, viz. authentication, routing, sessions, caching, etc. And you can undertake a project and build a robust web application using this powerful framework. We have summarized some of the attractive features and tools below. 

• Basic query builder
• Request/response handling
• An impressive inversion of control container 
• A dynamic migration system
• Integrated support for unit testing

7. Bootstrap CMS 

Created and maintained by Graham Campbell, this PHP-based CMS library uses Laravel 5.1 and Sentry. Bootstrap CMS applies the queue system to offload certain jobs (for example, sending emails) and reduce the page-loading time. It provides caching functionality, theme setting, and supports Google Analytics. You can simply download the code from GitHub and install it with Composer. 

Also Read: PHP Developer Salary in India

8.Lychee

Lychee is a developer-friendly photo-management tool that you can run on your web server with PHP 5.5 and above. Additionally, you will need a MySQL database. If you want to store, manage, and share photos securely, Lychee is an excellent option. You can find this PHP project on Github for free. 

9. PHP AI

If you want to apply an innovative approach to your PHP-based machine learning project, have a look at PHP AI on GitHub. The library by Arkadiusz Kondas has documentation on preprocessing, association rule learning, regression, and cross-validation. 

10. BotMan

This PHP framework is designed to develop bots for different messaging platforms, including the likes of Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Slack, Microsoft Bot Framework, and WeChat. The project code for the BotMan software is available for free download and enjoys a high user rating. 

11.Monolog

Monolog is a top choice for project log management among PHP web developers. It helps you in sending logs to databases, sockets, files, inboxes, and other web services. The Monolog library implements the PSR-3 interface and comes with special handlers that let you build advanced logging strategies. In 2018, it became one of the most downloaded PHP projects on GitHub. 

12. Nextcloud

The Nextcloud server presents a reliable way to store your web data. With this platform, you can sync your files, contacts, databases, and other services remotely and with ease. Nextcloud offers a two-factor authentication feature so that you can be assured about the security of your data. 

13. Phalcon

Phalcon is a full-stack PHP framework known for its high-quality web performance and low memory consumption. Written with C extension, the open-source project code can help you improve your programming and coding skills. So, clone the Phalcon repo and get started! 

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14. PHPWord

With this project, you can learn to write to and read from several document file formats, including OpenXML, Oasis, ODF, RTF, PDF, and HTML. PHPWord is a pure PHP library containing a set of classes on the following topics:

• Setting document properties (title, subject, name of the creator, etc.)
• Creating sections with varied settings (landscape/portrait, page sizing and numbering)
• Setting default font size, style, and paragraph style
• Inserting headers, footers, text breaks and page breaks
• Adding images, charts, shapes, page watermarks
• Inserting hyperlinks, footnotes, endnotes, etc.

15. Codeception

It is a modern full-stack testing project for PHP that gives you a new way of writing tests, including acceptance, functional, and unit tests. Powered by PHPUnit, the Codeception framework is capable of using PHP to write descriptions faster.  

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Conclusion 

With this, we have covered 15 top PHP projects on GitHub. Knowledge of PHP concepts is crucial if you want to get into the field of web development. According to indeed.com, entry-level PHP developers in India earn an average salary of ₹ 4,09,331 per year. And as you advance in your job, you can go on to work in positions with higher responsibility and pay. So, keep practicing and learning new skills with these free PHP projects on GitHub.

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