Project implementation on the web and test automation, where to start?

Question

PHP

I know that now they will throw tomatoes, the question has already been considered a hundred times on the toaster. But my situation is unique , you know. I'll be the first one :)
Initial setting:
1) I want to implement several small projects on the web, for example, a site that collects data from other sites (parses) and stores the whole thing in the database, then shows it to the user.
2) I work in the field of manual QA, I want to move towards automation of testing and load, I need to learn something cooler than html / xml to work with automation tools.
Task:
What to start learning to achieve these 2 tasks? Is it possible to think of something to kill two birds with one stone? Or tasks do not intersect with each other?
Along the way questions:
1) So far, of all the known languages ​​for the web, I only know about the PHP + SQL bundle to implement my first idea. In addition, I already partially know SQL and yuzal, and php has a much lower entry threshold than, for example, starting with C ++ or Java. Does this mean it's worth starting with PHP? If you start with it, then what guides and guides will help me? I went to the rutreker - there are tons of literature. What book do you recommend? Do not offer manuals on php.net and Popov's courses :)
2) I have not heard that PHP is used for testing automation. Everyone is mostly talking about Python / Java. But for the realization of my first goal, they are not suitable? I was a miracle of Java, somehow covered it for a week and could not leave further than objects and classes. I don’t understand much there ...
Please pay special attention to the literature on training. It is desirable, of course, in Russian, I read in English, but not everything is clear with a swoop.
Backpack of knowledge - html + css / cross-browser layout. SQL was read to us at the university, I remember basic queries, if I remember, I remember joins, concatenations, and so on. Law degree (smiley), 8 months of programming training (did not finish), 3 years of work as a system administrator in the Windows sect and a year in Linux, 1 year of work as an iron integrator (integration engineer), a year of work in manual QA (web frontend / data storage systems / IPtv). Freelancing, writing down sites on all sorts of different CMS clients (about 30 pieces done).

Answer 1

www.tdd-django-tutorial.com/tutorial/1
Here's one for you. Basic knowledge about Selenium, the main integration testing tool for the web, is given, along with some information about developing a site on Django and unit testing. This is as a start.
Then... Either continue learning how to make websites, or dig into testing methods and tools. Which is more of a priority.

Answer 2

Grab Python, it's great for both.
For developing your own solutions, Python is good because:
1) Low entry threshold - simple and understandable syntax, a lot of learning material.
2) A thousand implemented libraries that will be useful in their web projects.
3) Django as a web framework.
There is also enough literature and all sorts of tutorials on automation in python.
Naturally, developing on Python and writing autotests on it are completely different things, however, a common base in the form of a programming language and the use of shared libraries may well help in mastering both aspects at once.
Regarding the literature on learning. For the basics of python, I would recommend codecademy, and then books and / or video guides to taste. In any case, there is a lot of this goodness on the Internet, just use Google.