Raksha Bandhan.....

Sorry friends for not making a post yesterday as I was busy in some project that had its launching today. So how are you all? Today is Raksha Bandhan... Happy Raksha Bandhan to all. Today's post is for Raksha Bandhan. 

Rakhi: The Thread of Love

In India, festivals are the celebration of togetherness, of being one of the family. Raksha Bandhan is one such festival that is all about affection, fraternity and sublime sentiments. It is also known as Raksha Bandhan which means a 'bond of protection'. This is an occasion to flourish love, care, affection and sacred feeling of brotherhood.

Not a single festival in India is complete without the typical Indian festivities, the gatherings, celebrations, exchange of sweets and gifts, lots of noise, singing and dancing. Raksha Bandhan is a regional celebration to celebrate the sacred relation between brothers and sisters. Primarily, this festival belongs to north and western region of India but soon the world has started celebrating this festival with the same verse and spirit. Rakhi has become an integral part of those customs.

An insight of Rakhi Rituals
 
On the day of Rakhi, sisters prepares the pooja thali with diya, roli, chawal, rakhi thread and sweets. The ritual begins with a prayer in front of God, then the sister ties Rakhi to her brother and wishes for his happiness and well-being. In turn, the brother acknowledge the love with a promise to stand by his sister through all the good and bad times.

Sisters tie Rakhi on the wrist of their brothers amid chanting of mantras, put roli and rice on his forehead and pray for his well-being. She bestows him with gifts and blessings. In turn, brothers also wish her a good life and pledges to take care of her. He gives her a return gift. The gift symbolizes the physical acceptance of her love, reminder of their togetherness and his pledge. The legends and the reference in history repeated, the significance of the festival is emphasized.

Unconditional Bond of Love
 
Raksha bandhan has been celebrated in the same way with the same traditions for many years. Only the means have changed with the changing lifestyle to make the celebration more elaborate and lively. This day has an inherent power that pulls the siblings together. The increasing distances evoke the desire to be together even more. All brothers and sisters try to reach out to each other on this auspicious day. The joyous meeting, the rare family get-together, that erstwhile feeling of brotherhood and sisterhood calls for a massive celebration.

For everyone, it is an opportunity to reunion and celebrate. People also share tasty dishes, wonderful sweets and exchange gifts. It is a time to share their past experiences also. For those who are not able to meet each other, rakhi cards and e-rakhis and rakhis through mails perform the part of communicating the rakhi messages. Hand made rakhis and self-made rakhi cards are just representation of the personal feelings of the siblings.

I, who have no sisters or brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends.
- James Boswell and me ;)

Essential Requirements...

So friends, how are you all today? Sorry for a late post. I had gone out of the city today for something important. I hope you all must have downloaded and installed the essential softwares by this time. Today I will tell you about some of the basic requirements you must fulfill to learn PHP effectively. Following is the list of technologies you must be familiar with:

• HTML : This is the basic language everyone who aspires to do web development or designing must be familiar with. Don't worry if you do not know anything about it as all you intelligent people reading this blog can do it in less than a day from any of the tutorials available on the net. Soon I will start with another blog for HTML too. Till then you can quench your thirst with some of the following really good tutorials:

1. Tizag: You can visit the tutorial here. This is one of the best tutorials available on the net.
2. W3Schools: You can visit the tutorial here. I rate it at number 2. Though some people prefer it, I think this is for somewhat professionals. For those who wish to learn quickly and goto PHP fast, Tizag is best as it is somewhat like a summary for W3Schools. You need not to go into a lot of detail for HTML to learn PHP as you can increase your HTML knowledge side by side as you learn PHP.
3. W3C HTML 4: You can visit the official specifications for HTML 4 here. I would recommend the beginners to go for HTML 4 rather than HTML5.
4. W3C HTML 5: You can visit the official specifications for HTML 5 here.  For those who know some of the basics for HTML, I would suggest them to upgrade to HTML 5 by spending a day on it. It would help them to work in Web2.0 and hence the later versions. Beginners do not get confused after reading this, it is important for you to learn the basics first and then later on, may be after a month when you are well versed with HTML, you can upgrade to HTML 5.

The first tutorial is enough if you want to give HTML a quick review. Here is the quick list of HTML which you can print and keep in your pocket for a quick review anytime you are working.

• Javascript: This is another language you need to know. Though not an essential to start learning PHP but it helps make your designs look good and is needed for client side verifications (Client side verifications are the verifications done by the visitor's browser on his PC before any interactions with the server. For example when you fill a form online and it gives an error message for a field which requires atleast 4 characters ).
  
  
  
  
  
  Some of the good tutorials for javascript are:
  
  
  
  1. Tizag: You can visit the tutorial here. Just a quick reading of a few pages of the tutorial is enough. You can learn javascript also slowly alongwith PHP. I intend to start a tutorial for javascript too but it would take time. Till then enjoy with any of these good tutorials on net.
  2. W3Schools: Whenever listing tutorials for anything related to web, w3schools is a must. It is one of the finest and most visited group of tutorials for web. You can visit the tutorial here.
   
• CSS: Cascading Style Sheets, I would say are one of the best things available at the disposal of a web designer. They help you keep all you code separate from the design. This means just change the CSS file and you can have a new theme for your website. A well written CSS is one that is free from all kinds of browser wars ( Browser wars are the defects that appear in the design of the website in different browsers. This occurs mainly due to different interpretation of various tags by different browsers ). 

Some of  the good tutorials for CSS are :

1. Tizag: You can visit the tutorial here.
2. W3Schools: You can visit the tutorial here. 

Tizag and W3schools are the best place for anything you don't find on this blog about web development.

The next post will be by Monday. Till then brush up the basic requirements. Those who are not familiar with any of the above given technologies, try learning them during the weekend.

It is time for me to sleep now. Have a nice weekend...........

We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other peoples' models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open

-Shakti Gawain

The First Lesson - Essential Softwares

So today we begin with the first official lesson for PHP. Today I will be telling you the softwares we will use to study.

Following is the list of softwares you will need if you like using windows:

1. Windows XP Professional or higher
2. Adobe Dreamweaver CS1 or higher (preferably CS4 or CS5)
3. XAMPP 1.7 or higher download here 
4. Some of the browsers for browser testing: Opera, Firefox, Internet Explorer (preferably the troublesome IE6), Safari and my personal favourite Google Chrome 

Above given is the list of essential softwares needed to start learning PHP. Though Adobe Dreamweaver is not really something without which you cannot learn PHP but it greatly helps in the learning process. Though there are many other open source alternatives for Dreamweaver like Eclipse, Quanta+ etc. but Dreamweaver is my favourite. You can also go for Zend Studio if you would like to have a really professional developing environment from the very beginning. We shall emphasize in this blog on learning PHP and not on the developing environment. You are free to use any environment you are comfortable in.

The other supporting softwares that may be needed are:

1. Adobe Photoshop 7.0 or higher
2. Microsoft Office Picture manager - a very good tool to crop, resize and rename images in bulk.
3. Pegtop Pixel Meter download here
4. Skype - in case you need to clarify something, I am available on Skype with the Skype name: davneet92
5. Teamviewer - if you wish me to see the problem you are facing on your desktop and want me to help you solve it.

Once you install the above softwares you are ready to roll on.........

Have a good day:

“If you would behold the spirit of death,
open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one,
even as the river and sea are one.”

~ Kahlil Gibran

Welcome You All...

Welcome to my PHP blog. I am a Software Developer and a PHP Trainer by profession. I have started this blog with a view to help the beginners in learning PHP easily and to create their interest in open source technologies. PHP in itself is a very powerful language for web development. You can have an idea of PHP's power from the fact that Facebook is developed in PHP. For the great minds who intend to learn PHP by following this blog, I promise it to them that they will find it really easy and simple to understand, learn and implement each and every thing written in this blog. We will go at a steady pace in this blog so that all the beginners can easily follow all the articles and get enough time to practice. For the eager ones who wish to learn PHP at a fast track, I advise them to follow FastTrackPHP.blogspot.com.

Its time for me to sleep now... Bbyeee... see you tomorrow....