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                                                                                   William of Ockham (1285-1349)

PHP is a server-side scripting language.

What You Should Already Know

This tutorial assumes you have a working knowledge of: 

• HTML/XHTML
  
• JavaScript

What is PHP?

     PHP (or Personal HomePage Tools) was created by Rasmus Lerdorf over three years ago to track visitors to his homepage. PHP has since evolved into a powerful server-side markup language with syntax that resembles a mix between Perl and C.

• 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, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC, etc.)
• PHP is an open source software
• PHP is free to download and use

What is a PHP File?

• PHP files can 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 (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?

To get access to a web server with PHP support, you can:

• Install Apache (or IIS) on your own server, install PHP, and MySQL
• Or find a web hosting plan with PHP and MySQL support

         Now more than ever, the Web is a major vehicle for corporate and personal communications. Web sites carry satellite images of Earth in its entirety, search for life in outer space, and house personal photo albums, business shopping carts, and product lists. Many of those web sites are driven by PHP, an open source scripting language primarily designed for generating HTML content.

         Since its inception in 1994, PHP has swept the Web and continues its phenomenal growth with recent endorsements by IBM and ORACLE corporations (to name a few). Also, the millions of web sites powered by PHP are testament to its popularity and ease of use. It lies in the sweet spot between Perl/CGI, Active Server Pages (ASP), and HTML. Everyday people can learn PHP and can build powerful dynamic web sites with it. Marc Andreessen, chairman of Opsware Inc. and founder of Netscape Communications, recently described PHP as having replaced Java as the ideal programming language for the Web.

          The core PHP language (Version 5+) features powerful string- and array-handling facilities, as well as greatly improved support for object-oriented programming. With the use of standard and optional extension modules, a PHP application can interact with a database such as MySQL or Oracle, draw graphs, create PDF files, and parse XML files. You can write your own PHP extension modules in C for example, to provide a PHP interface to the functions in an existing code library. You can even run PHP on Windows, which lets you control other Windows applications such as Word and Excel with COM or interact with databases using ODBC.

          This tutorial is a guide to the PHP language. When you finish it, you will know how the PHP language works, how to use the many powerful extensions that come standard with PHP, and how to design and build your own PHP web applications.

Release history

    PHP INSTALL