Learn how to create an interactive online store complete with an online catalog of products, allowing customers to browse the catalog to select items, place them in a shopping cart, and complete an order. In this six-week online course, you'll see how to create a commercial online store using the PHP programming language and the MySQL database server.

We'll walk through the steps for developing a complete online store Web application. During the course, you'll see step-by-step how to create all of the software and database objects used in the application. The application consists of two parts, an administrative Web application allowing a store manager to post new products, alter product information, and process customer orders, and a customer Web application allowing customers to browse the catalog of products, select products for purchase, and check out using a shopping cart. At the end of the course, you'll be able to use these code templates to create your own online store application.

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Syllabus:

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week One

Wednesday - Lesson 01

In today's fast-paced world, it's almost crucial for every type of business to have an Internet presence. In this lesson, you'll peek at behind-the-scenes components of a commercial-quality Web store application. You'll see how to use the PHP programming language to create the Web store storefront page, complete with product catalog and customer ordering system. You'll discover how Web stores use the popular MySQL database server to maintain the store inventory and track customer orders.

Friday - Lesson 02

Because of the complexity of creating a Web store, we'll need to discuss some advanced topics in PHP programming. In this lesson, you'll create functions in your PHP programming code that you can use every time you need to perform a specific feature in your applications. We'll examine the PHP code required to manage and manipulate images within your Web site.

Week Two

Wednesday - Lesson 03

Complex Web applications often require complex database structures. Today, you'll explore some of the advanced features that the MySQL database server offers. You'll discover how to use the MySQL console to enter SQL commands, and build commands to create the application database objects. You'll manually create a database, user account, and all of the tables required for the application. You'll find out about some advanced features that you'll be using, such as creating foreign table key constraints and table views.

Friday - Lesson 04

Every Web store has an administrative interface, which allows the store manager to create and manage the product catalog, as well as process customer orders. In this lesson, you'll dive into the Web store backend application, which allows the store manager to control the Web store environment. You'll examine how to force the store manager to log into the backend system, and how to restrict the system so only the logged-in manager can perform specific functions. You can use this basic backend template to create your own Web store management interfaces for other Web applications.

Week Three

Wednesday - Lesson 05

The most important feature in the Web store backend application is the ability to create the product catalog. In today's lesson, you'll learn how to incorporate images into your Web store application. You'll discover how to use the MySQL Binary Large Object (BLOB) data type to store images within the MySQL database. And you'll find out how to organize your product catalog by creating sections in the product catalog and assigning each product to a specific section.

Friday - Lesson 06

After having a store full of products, your store manager will need to know how to manipulate existing product information. In this lesson, you'll build the backend Web pages required to allow the store manager to modify information in existing product database records.

Week Four

Wednesday - Lesson 07

In this lesson, we'll turn our attention to the storefront application. The storefront lays out the basic format for the entire Web store, and gently guides customers to the correct location. You'll see how to best organize and present your products in the store without overwhelming your customers with information while providing them with an easy path to obtaining the information they're looking for.

Friday - Lesson 08

Once you have your customer in your Web store, you'll want them to purchase something. In this lesson, you'll discover how to create a shopping cart for your customers. You'll learn how to allow customers to select products to place in their shopping carts, and how to display shopping cart information for them to view and modify.

Week Five

Wednesday - Lesson 09

After allowing customers to place products in their shopping carts, the next most important feature is to allow them to check out. You'll create registration pages, to allow your customers to register as returning customers to make future checkout sessions easier. You'll also find out how to take steps to ensure that the data your customers enter in the registration process is valid, and how to protect it from prying eyes.

Friday - Lesson 10

When a customer checks out and places an order, you must be able to process the data in your application. In this lesson, we'll walk through the PHP programming and MySQL database techniques required to perform this function. We'll also look at how to use database transactions to keep the information in your database tables synchronized so your data is accurate at all times.

Week Six

Wednesday - Lesson 11

With the bulk of the Web store application finished, we'll turn our attention to a few of the finer details that'll make your Web store more professional. First, you'll learn advanced MySQL searching techniques to help your customers find just what they're looking for. Next, you'll find out how to generate reports directly from your Web store database for your store manager. You'll discover how to extract the data in your database and produce fancy spreadsheet reports that would make any manager envious.

Friday - Lesson 12

The PHP programming language allows you to incorporate object-oriented programming principles easily in your Web page code. In this lesson, we'll walk through the basic principles of object-oriented programming and how to use it in a Web environment. You'll learn how to incorporate the object-oriented database features in PHP in your Web applications. Finally, you'll create your own object-oriented programming classes to interact with your database table that you can use in any application.

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Richard Blum.

Richard Blum has been an IT industry professional for over 18 years, working mainly as a network and systems administrator. During this time, he has worked with Microsoft, Novell, Unix, and Linux servers, and has created Web sites using a variety of different programming languages. Blum is the author of several programming and systems administration books, including Professional Assembly Language, C# Network Programming, PostgreSQL 8 for Windows, Sendmail for Linux, Postfix, and Network Performance Open Source Toolkit.

Requirements:

A PHP and MySQL development environment (the first lesson in the course walks through installing the Wampserver software, which provides a full PHP and MySQL development environment in one package. You download Wampserver for free from http://www.wampserver.com/en/); Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Vista (Wampserver does not support either Windows 98 or Windows Me); Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader). ; Note: Macintosh users can't use the Wampserver software and must provide their own PHP and MySQL development environment. Prior HTML coding experience is helpful, but not required.

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