Beginner's Guide: Build a Session-Based PHP Shopping Cart from Scratch

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A step-by-step tutorial published on DEV Community walks beginners through building a functional shopping cart using vanilla PHP, requiring no frameworks. The project uses PHP sessions to maintain cart state across pages, since PHP is stateless by default and cannot retain user data between page loads. Developers create two core files — index.php to display products and cart.php to handle adding items, updating quantities, and clearing the cart. The tutorial uses a hardcoded product array as a stand-in for a real database, making it accessible for those just starting out. Authors recommend future improvements including MySQL database integration, input sanitization against XSS and SQL injection, and connecting a payment gateway such as Stripe or PayPal.

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