Monday, July 28, 2008

PHP Certifications for Developers

PHP is one of the hottest scripting languages for use in dynamic web page development. Originally produced in 1995, PHP is deployed on servers that host 20 million websites. The latest version, PHP 5.2.6, was released in the spring of 2008. It is known as a pre-hypertext processor, an embedded scripting language borrowed from some of the languages you’ll learn through your college training program: Perl, Java, and C.

There are distinct benefits from learning the language as well as in becoming a certified PHP engineer. The certification, offered by Zend Technologies as the ZCE, can distinguish your skills from other job applicants in the development space.

Moreover, whenever someone passes the certification exam, Zend Technologies lists their name and career profile in Zend’s Yellow Pages that helps companies to recruit PHP developers. There currently are more than 3,000 certified Zend Certified Engineers.

Here are the main areas in the certification exam:

PHP basics, XML (including SOAP, Xpath, and REST), object-oriented programming, application theory and design, SQL,  SPL (Standard PHP Library), security, streams and network programming, Web elements, databases, control statements, classes, in-build functions, include files, and more.

If you’re preparing for certification exams, please check with your instructors. You will need to know the specific differences between PHP 4 and 5 to earn a current certification. The exam has 70 multiple choice questions with options for answers. More than one option may be part of the correct answer, or you may be required to write a free-form answer of your own. The test is taken on a configured computer and pass-fail results are delivered at the computer as soon as you complete the exam.

Zend offers test preparation training for cost, along with study materials for purchase and downloadable sample tests. The official price for the certification exam is $125, and there is a discount if you need to take the test over.

Source
Zend Technologies

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Education WriterEditor: Sasha Orman is a graduate of UCSD with a degree in writing and years of experience with various online and print publications.

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