What is PHP?
Originally it was known as Personal Home Page, later it was changed to Hypertext Preprocessor.
- PHP is a server side scripting language.
- It is used to create dynamic and interactive websites.
- It is also used in making web based software applications.
Why use PHP?
- It is easy to use.
- It is a cross – platform language i.e. Platform independent ( which can be programmed on one platform, “for ex : Windows” and can be operated on another, “for ex : Linux”)
- It is free to use scripting language.
- It is based on OOPs, which makes it popular among developers.
Websites made using PHP
Below listed some websites which has been made using PHP
- Yahoo
- WordPress
- Flickr
Setting up PHP in a system.
To setup PHP in a system we need three things: PHP, Database Software and a Server Software, after that we need to configure them.
Instead of installing these three individually a third party software can be installed which will contain all three mentioned above and these all will be pre-configured.
Examples of these software are: WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL and PHP) and XAMPP. Between the two given above, WAMP is only for windows as it contains windows in its name.
Syntax and a simple program in PHP
By default PHP can be written inside tags “<? php” and “?>”, which can be changed by changing server configuration.
Syntax:
<?php
code....
........
........
?>Program:
<html>
<head>
<title>A simple program in PHP </title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
echo “Hello world”; // Echo is used to print
?>
<body>
</html>OUTPUT
We have a comprehensive series of articles for learning Website Development. Visit How to Web category articles for up-to-date articles. We will be adding other tutorials in PHP series. Stay tuned and do not forget to provide your valuable feedback and comments.
