PHP intro

What is PHP?

PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
PHP is a widely-used, open source scripting language
PHP scripts are executed on the server
PHP is free to download and use
PHP is simple for beginners.
PHP also offers many advanced features for professional programmers.
 
What is a PHP File?

PHP files can contain text, HTML, JavaScript code, and PHP code
PHP code are executed on the server, and the result is returned to the browser as plain HTML
PHP files have a default file extension of ".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, modify data in your database
PHP can restrict users to access some pages on your website
PHP can encrypt data

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

Why PHP?

PHP runs on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, etc.)
PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.)
PHP has support for a wide range of databases
PHP is free. Download it from the official PHP resource: www.php.net
PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side