What is PHPPHP is basically used in creating 'dynamic websites'. A Dynamic website is one where a database is connected to the website, where you can store limitless data and retrieve it in any format you like. For instance in a school we have information of hundreds of students, teachers and other staff members or a store with a whole lot of products++. We take all this information store in a database and retrieve it beautifully on our website, accessible through the internet anywhere and anytime.
The official PHP website is
http://www.php.net. Download PHP from
1.
http://www.php.net/downloads.php 2. Or let us download PHP 5.2 for you (pssttt.. choose this option as believe me downloading and configuring PHP can be a mess at times)
Back to What is PHP. Once you have PHP installed and configured you enter the magical world of programming (ok! not magical but frustrating but also fruitful and satisfactory in the end)
Once again PHP is a server-side scripting language for creating dynamic Web pages. Here you create normal webpages using HTML but add PHP programming features anywhere anytime by just using
<? ?> these tags. When a visitor opens the page, the server processes the PHP commands and then sends the results to the visitor's browser, just as with ASP or ColdFusion. Unlike ASP or ColdFusion, however, PHP is Open Source and cross-platform.
PHP runs on Windows NT and many Unix versions, and it can be built as an Apache module and as a binary that can run as a CGI. When built as an Apache module, PHP is especially lightweight and speedy. Without any process creation overhead, it can return results quickly, but it doesn't require the tuning of mod_perl to keep your server's memory image small.
For Unix systems, you'll need basic Unix skills, such as using make and a C compiler, an ANSI C compiler on your system, and a Web server. For Windows 95/NT, you'll need one of the following servers: Microsoft Personal Web Server, Microsoft Internet Information Server 3 or 4, Apache 1.3.x, or Omni HTTPd 2.0b1. If you are running a website on your local computer (
http://localhost) you need to install PHP on your PC but if your hosting the website on the internet (which is what you have to do ultimately) you have to make sure your hosting company supports PHP.
