Qualities of a Professional PHP Programmer

The growing popularity of PHP has spawned many haphazardly designed web pages. This does not mean that the pages look bad in any way, but that the “engine” behind the page is not up to standard. The fault lies in many quarters. Free blocks of code, shortcut methods, bad training and insufficient knowledge of standards by clients are some of the reasons for this problem. This is all the more reason to look for a professional PHP programmer is you are about to embark on a web project.

The front end of the web page is designed using HTML and CSS and the back end generally uses JavaScript, DOM and AJAX. To build a cohesive site the programmer needs to know all these technologies and languages. Knowledge of open source products is also essential as they help drive down costs as well as bringing down development time. In addition to this knowledge of SEO techniques is also required as the finished product has to be visible to the world at large. Improper implementation of SEO would be akin to creating a sculpture, leaving it in your bedroom and expecting the world to know about it.

Other than the above technical qualifications, the programmer needs to have good ethics as well. Often, when a project needs further
development down the line, the original programmer may not be available. When this happens, the new programmer should be able to decipher the code without any trouble. This is achieved by providing comments next to each line of the code which explains what that line does. This is also in addition to any printed documentation that relates to the development and operation of the code. The programmer also needs to be flexible, adaptable and easily accessible to the client and their needs. Quality and timely delivery are also crucial factors.

A programmer or a team of programmers with the above qualities should be sought out for any web site related project.