PHP Introduction

PHP is a server-side scripting language.

Prerequisites

Before continuing, you should have a basic understanding of the following:

  • HTML
  • CSS

If you wish to learn these items first, please visit these tutorials on ourhomepage

What is PHP?

  • PHP (full form: PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a general-purpose open-source scripting language.
  • PHP scripts are executed on the server.
  • PHP is free to download and use.
lamp PHP is easy to learn for beginners.

PHP also provides many advanced features for professional programmers.

What is a PHP File?

  • PHP files can contain text, HTML, JavaScript code, and PHP code
  • PHP code is executed on the server, and the result is returned to the browser as plain HTML
  • The default file extension for PHP files is.php。

What Can PHP Do?

  • PHP can generate dynamic page content
  • PHP can create, open, read, write, and close files on the server
  • PHP can collect form data
  • PHP can send and receive cookies
  • PHP can add, delete, and modify data in your database
  • PHP can restrict users from accessing certain pages on your website
  • PHP can encrypt data

Through PHP, you are not limited to outputting HTML. You can output images, PDF files, and even Flash movies. You can also output arbitrary text, such as XHTML and XML.

Why Use PHP?

  • PHP can run on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, etc.)
  • PHP is compatible with almost all servers currently in use (Apache, IIS, etc.)
  • PHP provides extensive database support
  • PHP is free and can be downloaded from the official PHP resource: www.php.net
  • PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side
Other Extensions