Introduction
- PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. PHP is free and efficient alternative to competitors such as Microsoft’s ASP.
- PHP is a powerful server-side scripting language for creating dynamic and interactive websites.
- The PHP syntax is very similar to Perl and C. PHP is often used together with Apache (web server) on various operating systems.
What is PHP?
- PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
- PHP is a server-side scripting language, like ASP
- PHP scripts are executed on the server
- PHP supports many databases (MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL,Generic ODBC, etc.)
- PHP is an open source software (OSS)
- PHP is free to download and use
What is a PHP File?
- PHP files may contain text, HTML tags and scripts
- PHP files are returned to the browser as plain HTML
- PHP files have a file extension of “.php”, “.php3”, or “.phtml”.
PHP + MySQL
PHP combined with MySQL are cross-platform (means that you can develop in Windows and serve on a Unix platform).
Why PHP?
- PHP runs on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, etc.)
- PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.)
- PHP is FREE to download from the official PHP website.
- PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side.
Where to Start?
- Install an Apache server on a Windows or Linux machine
- Install PHP on a Windows or Linux machine
- Install MySQL on a Windows or Linux machine