PHP Introduction
PHP is a popular scripting language like ASP of Microsoft Corp. primarily used for developing dynamic web pages and data execution from the databases
PHP is a popular scripting language like ASP of Microsoft Corp. primarily used for developing dynamic web pages and data execution from the databases1.1. What is PHP?
So, what is this whole PHP business all about?
PHP is a popular scripting language like ASP of Microsoft Corp. primarily used for developing dynamic web pages and data execution from the databases. PHP web pages can be developed by embedding PHP codes into HTML codes using the syntax of C, Java, and Perl. PHP supports many databases like MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL and Generic ODBC, and runs on most of the operating system platform including windows-XP/2000, Windows NT, Linux, Unix, Sybase and Sun Solaris.
Before scripting the code in PHP, there is a need to install the PHP software that is available at free of cost as it is an open source software and distributed under PHP Licence. PHP is a server side language which means it runs on your server, not the end user’s browser. A PHP web page is recognised from its extension which is .php.
As we have earlier mentioned that PHP is a powerful scripting language through which we can perform a wide range of tasks like:
- Display date, time, and other information in different ways
- Take information from web-based forms and use it in a multiple ways like storing database, creating conditional pages, Cookies Setting, Sending Email, etc.
- Authenticate and track users
- Run threaded discussions on your site
- Serve different pages to people using different browsers or devices
- Publish an entire website using just a single layout template (server-side includes-style)
- Serve XML pages
