Technologies Used

Pizza You was built using a classic LAMP stack:

• PHP for backend programming
• MySQL for the database
• Apache as the web server
• Linux environment for deployment

This was my first real exposure to PHP and SQL, and it gave me a strong foundation in how backend systems process and handle requests. While this isn't the stack I would use for production development today, the experience was valuable for understanding how web applications were built in the early days of the internet.

Purpose and Goal

The main purpose of Pizza You was to learn how to connect a backend to a database and create a functioning, dynamic website using PHP and SQL. This was a project for my backend web development class, and the assignment emphasized understanding how things work under the hood before moving on to more modern frameworks.

As part of this project, I also built a custom login system from scratch, including user authentication and session management. This gave me practical experience in security basics and user management, providing a solid foundation that would inform my approach to authentication in future projects.

Technical Hurdles (and How They Were Solved)

One of the main challenges I faced was working directly with raw SQL queries inside PHP. It required careful attention to detail to ensure queries executed correctly, and it gave me a better understanding of how ORMs like Prisma simplify this process in modern development.

Another significant hurdle was setting up the LAMP stack itself. I had to learn how to configure Apache, PHP, and MySQL to work together seamlessly. Debugging connection errors and permissions issues taught me patience and sharpened my troubleshooting skills - experience that proved invaluable in later projects.

Working with PHP's syntax and understanding how to properly sanitize user inputs to prevent SQL injection attacks was also a learning curve that made me more security-conscious as a developer.

Lessons Learned

From this project, I gained an appreciation for how far web development has come. Writing raw SQL queries and building login systems without external libraries gave me a strong foundation, but also showed me why frameworks and modern tools like Next.js, Prisma, and NextAuth are so valuable today.

While I wouldn't choose PHP and LAMP for new projects, the experience helped me understand the fundamentals of web infrastructure and backend logic, which continues to influence how I build applications today. The project taught me to appreciate the abstractions that modern frameworks provide while understanding what's happening underneath the hood.