PHP Overview

The web's most deployed language. PHP powers over 75% of the web — from WordPress to Facebook's HHVM lineage. PHP 8.3 brings a mature type system, fibers, enums, and JIT compilation that make it a serious choice for APIs, CLIs, and full-stack web development.

---

🗺️ Learning Path

🌱 Foundations

15 labs from Hello World to a full REST API. OOP, PDO, Composer, namespaces, type system.

⚙️ Practitioner

Laravel / Slim REST APIs, Eloquent ORM, PHPUnit, queues, Docker, PSR standards.

🚀 Advanced

Async with Fibers, Swoole/ReactPHP, Redis, message queues, DDD, performance tuning.

🏆 Expert

PHP internals, extension authoring, JIT profiling, C FFI, opcache optimization, Zend Engine.

---

⚡ PHP 8.3 Highlights

All labs use PHP 8.3 — the latest stable release with the most powerful type system PHP has ever had. Key modern features used throughout:

Feature	Since	Description
Readonly classes	PHP 8.2	All properties readonly by default
Typed class constants	PHP 8.3	const string VERSION = '1.0';
json_validate()	PHP 8.3	Validate JSON without decoding
Fibers	PHP 8.1	Cooperative multitasking / async primitives
Enums	PHP 8.1	Native backed and pure enumerations
match expression	PHP 8.0	Strict, exhaustive switch replacement
Named arguments	PHP 8.0	array_slice(array: $a, offset: 1)
Constructor promotion	PHP 8.0	public function __construct(public string $name)
Union types	PHP 8.0	int|string type declarations
Nullsafe operator	PHP 8.0	$user?->getProfile()?->getAvatar()

---

🐳 Docker Quick Start

All labs run inside Docker — no local PHP install needed. Install Docker first, then pull the lab image.

1. Install Docker

Ubuntu/Debian

# Remove old versions
sudo apt remove docker docker-engine docker.io containerd runc 2>/dev/null

# Install via official script (quickest)
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh

# Add your user to the docker group (no sudo needed)
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

# Log out and back in, then verify
docker --version

macOS

Windows

Alpine

After adding your user to the docker group on Linux, log out and back in (or run newgrp docker) for the change to take effect.

2. Pull the PHP Lab Image

# Pull the pre-built PHP 8.3 lab image from Docker Hub
docker pull zchencow/innozverse-php:latest

# Verify the image is ready
docker run --rm zchencow/innozverse-php:latest php --version

Expected output:

PHP 8.3.x (cli) (built: ...)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.3.x

3. Run the Interactive PHP Shell

# Launch the interactive PHP REPL
docker run --rm -it zchencow/innozverse-php:latest php -a

# Run a local PHP file
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/app -w /app zchencow/innozverse-php:latest php script.php

# One-liner Hello World
docker run --rm zchencow/innozverse-php:latest php -r 'echo "Hello, PHP 8.3!\n";'

---

📚 What You'll Learn

🌱 Foundations

Start from zero. Master PHP syntax, OOP fundamentals, the type system, PDO/SQLite, Composer, and PSR-4 autoloading. Build a full REST API by Lab 15. No prior PHP experience required — just basic programming literacy.

⚙️ Practitioner

Go framework-native. Build production-quality REST APIs with Laravel or Slim, manage databases with Eloquent, write reliable tests with PHPUnit, and containerize your apps with Docker Compose.

🚀 Advanced

Unlock PHP's concurrency model. Work with Fibers for async I/O, Swoole/ReactPHP event loops, Redis caching, RabbitMQ queues, and apply Domain-Driven Design to complex PHP systems.

🏆 Expert

Dive into PHP internals. Write C extensions, profile JIT output, inspect opcache, use the C FFI, and understand the Zend Engine well enough to contribute upstream or build high-performance infrastructure.

New to PHP? Start with Foundations → Lab 01. Each lab builds on the last — don't skip ahead. The capstone (Lab 15) ties everything together into a working REST API you can deploy.

---

🔗 Resources

• PHP 8.3 Official Docs

• PHP: The Right Way

• Composer — PHP Dependency Manager

• Laravel Documentation

• PSR Standards (PHP-FIG)

• PHP Internals Book