Script Recipes: Introduction to PHP

PHP is open source scripting language widely used for the web development. It was introduced in 1995 and is influenced by other scripting languages such as Perl, Java, C, C++.
PHP stands for 'Preprocessor Home Page'.
PHP scripts are executed on the web-server.

As, PHP is open source language it is free to download and use.
PHP is a server side scripting language which is used embedded with HTML for managing content, databases, session tracking etc.
PHP can be integrated with number of popular databases, like MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and Microsoft SQL Server.
PHP is well known for its fast execution, especially when compiled as an Apache Server module on Unix side.
PHP also supports large number protocols such as POP3, IMAP, and LDAP and PHP4 added the support for Java and distributed object architectures (COM and CORBA), which makes n-tier development possible for the first time.
PHP is forgiving i.e. it has a very gentle learning curve and is the first web language of choice for many budding developers. PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side.
PHP used to performs system functions, i.e. from files on a system it can create, open, read, write, and close them. PHP can handle forms, i.e. gather data from files, save data to a file, thru email you can send data, return data to the user. Insert, delete, alter elements within your database thru PHP also getting and setting cookie variables. Enable developers to handle websites dynamically.

Example of a PHP program integrated within in HTML:

<html>
  <body>
    <?php
       echo 'Hello World! This is a sample program of a PHP';
    ?>
 </body>
</html>

Script Recipes