Solved - Reading recommendations to understand Prestashop

[lucoral]

Aloha!

 

I've been working with Prestashop now for a number of months, perhaps over a couple of years. I am still not "grokking" the structure - if you've read Stranger in a Strange Land you'll know the word.

 

So my questions are for the heavy hitters here, mdekker, El Patron, rocky, bellini13, NemoPS, and so on. I apologize for missing anyone by name!

 

I'd like to understand the underlying structure. For example, I understand that php creates web pages on the fly, and that the server side file structure is opaque, and not at all like standard HTML. What can I read to get an understanding of this type of programming?

 

Is Prestashop primarily a php based program, so that if I read up on that I'll gain insights?

 

Prestashop incorporates different technologies, ajax, smarty, and so on. What can I read to understand how they fit into the program?

 

I've read through the documentation for Prestashop, and it is good as far as it goes, but it clearly does not offer an in depth understanding. The developer documentation presupposes a high level of experience in coding, and leaves it at that.

 

Individual solutions to problems posted on the forums offer a limited understanding, mostly referencing specific lines of code to change, but not much more. In fairness, the problem is what is being addressed, and that is what counts.

 

Is it the case that each of the shopping cart solutions are unique in their implementation, so that there is no overview that can be offered, that is, is Prestashop a solitary example of a type of software, and Magneto (just for example) is another unique example with no commonality?

 

Thanks for reading all this!  best regards, Tim

Edited October 31, 2016 by lucoral (see edit history)

[NemoPS]

I don't know your actual level so it's hard to tell, but I would suggest having a crash course on PHP at tutsplus, then Object Oriented Programming in PHP to understand the MVC structure. Not sure about which books might be good. Years ago I found useful PHP, object Oriented Solutions by David Powers

[lucoral]

Aloha, NemoPS,

 

strange, I thought I'd posted a reply thanking you for your response, anyhow, thanks! This gives me a place to start. I've marked this Solved, but if anyone else want to offer advice, that would be great.

 

Thanks again, Tim