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A PHP file may contain text, HTML tags and scripts. Scripts in a PHP file are executed on the server.
What You Should Already Know
Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following: If you want to study these subjects first, find the tutorials on our Home page. What is PHP? PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor is a widely-used Open Source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. - PHP is a server-side scripting language, like ASP
- PHP scripts are executed on the server
- PHP supports many databases (MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, 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"
What is MySQL? - MySQL is a database server
- MySQL is ideal for both small and large applications
- MySQL supports standard SQL
- MySQL compiles on a number of platforms
- MySQL is free to download and use
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 resource: www.php.net
- 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
If you want to see video that covering the basic of php- click here An introductory example : <html>
<head>
<title>Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
echo "Hi, Here PHP script!";
?>
</body>
</html> Notice how this is different from a script written in other languages like Perl or C -- instead of writing a program with lots of commands to output HTML, you write an HTML script with some embedded code to do something (in this case, output some text). The PHP code is enclosed in special start and end tags that allow you to jump into and out of "PHP mode". What distinguishes PHP from something like client-side JavaScript is that the code is executed on the server. If you were to have a script similar to the above on your server, the client would receive the results of running that script, with no way of determining what the underlying code may be. You can even configure your web server to process all your HTML files with PHP, and then there's really no way that users can tell what you have up your sleeve. The best things in using PHP are that it is extremely simple for a newcomer, but offers many advanced features for a professional programmer. Don't be afraid reading the long list of PHP's features. You can jump in, in a short time, and start writing simple scripts in a few hours. Although PHP's development is focused on server-side scripting, you can do much more with it. Read on, and see more in the What can PHP do? section, or go right to the introductory tutorial if you are only interested in web programming.
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