Introduction to PHP
Welcome! Let's start by answering some of the basic questions...
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What is PHP?
PHP stands for "PHP: HyperText Preprocessor". PHP is a server side scripting language for making logic driven websites. Ever wonder how they made that "contact us" form on their site, which sends out emails? Well, they used PHP. Or, how they made that image upload tool? Well, they used PHP. PHP written scripts can use databases to keep track of your customer's and visitors activities on your site, send out periodical newsletters to your subscribers, upload files or images and drive the content on your site dynamically. The possibilities are endless. Most of the social networking websites you visit are writing in PHP. Yep! PHP is that powerful.
How PHP Works?
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PHP sits between your browser and the web server. When you type in the URL of a PHP website in your browser, your browser sends out a request to the web server. The web server then calls the PHP script on that page. The PHP module executes the script, which then sends out the result in the form of HTML back to your browser, which you see on the screen. Here is a diagram which illustrate the process.
PHP Process Diagram
What are PHP benefits?
PHP is a free open source language. That means you don't have to pay thousands of dollars in licensing fee to acquire PHP. Best of all, it is easy to install. The most striking feature of it is that it is easy to learn. PHP is used by millions of people and developers around the world. There are thousands of websites on the internet which are written using PHP. One primary example is Yahoo! Bookmarks. PHP has an ever growing community. There are thousands of websites, forums and community websites dedicated on PHP. I built this site to share my PHP examples, recourses and code with you that you can use on your website easily. I will also show you how to build your own PHP website with all the bells and whistles from ground up. You will also learn the fundamentals of PHP and write your own PHP code.
What I need in order to build PHP driven sites?
You need PHP Hosting
You need PHP and MySQl hosting. Good news is, you can find an affordable php and mysql host on the web anywhere. There are tons of web hosting companies trying to compete for your business.
I recommend Netfirms Hosting. For just $9.95/mo
, you get PHP4 and PHP5 support, 30 MySQL Databases, 250GB of web space to store your files, videos and images, 2000GB of Data Transfer (plenty for even high traffic websites), 2 FREE Domains, and you can HOST UNLIMITED WEBSITES on the same account and best of all the BEST and QUICKEST customer support I have seen.
I recommend Netfirms because I use Netfirms hosting myself and have no complaints. This is the best hosting I have used so far. They also have a $4.95 plan called the PLUS hosting plan. Just go here and click on their specifications or read the review here
Setting Up PHP/MySQL on your Computer
You can easily install PHP and MySQL on your home computer easily (see PHP installation page). This will allow you to write and test code on your computer and later deploy it to your PHP web hosting account.
Is PHP easy to learn?
If you have the will and the determination, then nothing is hard. Just Follow the tutorials on my page. I will walk to you through step by step, provide you with working examples, code and tutorails to help you learn PHP. My goal is to make the learning process fun and easy for you:). If you have any question or need help, you can email me.
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