PHP for Beginners: How to Build an Ecommerce Store

Define template paths using constants, create templates/front and templates/back folders, and concatenate the base directory with the chosen folder to route to front or back templates.

Define database constants for host, user, password, and name, then establish a mysqli connection for the ecommerce store. Enable output buffering and sessions, and include config and functions.

Build a dynamic category page in PHP by fetching category-specific products from the database, using a custom escape function and a while loop to render thumbnails and product links.

learn how to validate user credentials with a PHP login function, set and display session messages for wrong password or username, and redirect successful logins to admin.

Set up cart and checkout navigation, attach product IDs to a session, and plan a quantity check in phpMyAdmin to show only in-stock items.

Create a dedicated cart page and implement add-to-cart using a get parameter ad. Use a session variable product_<id> to track each added item and increment on every add.

Edwin from the future warns students to comment out session_destroy for debugging to avoid destroying cart sessions as they build a PHP ecommerce store.

Implement a dynamic shopping cart in PHP by adding, decreasing, and deleting items. Update quantities, totals, and session data, and redirect users to checkout or index as needed.

Learn to manage cart item quantities in PHP sessions by assigning and updating quantities, preventing undefined values, and unsetting items and totals when removed or reduced to zero.

Learn how to test a PayPal checkout in a sandbox environment by creating buyer and business accounts, generating app credentials, and using PayPal's developer dashboard to simulate purchases.

Learn to handle PayPal redirect parameters such as amount, currency code, transaction id, and status in a PHP thank you page, tested on a non-live server, with order database insertion.

Fix the orders page by removing duplicate wrappers and loading only the orders table, with index including everything. Move admin pages to templates and add product navigation via get requests.

Explore how to fetch the last inserted order with mysqli_insert_id, create a helper function, and insert the order id into the reports table, while managing sessions and avoiding duplicate inserts.

Enhance your php ecommerce store by adding a product title field and inserting it into reports, while using session handling to prevent duplicate orders.