PHP Introduction

Introduction to PHP

Learning Objectives

At the end of this topic, you will be able to:

Uses of PHP

PHP is used for web development and it can be easily embedded into HTML
PHP enables you to create pages to implement authentication, check details using forms, create galleries, and create surveys.
Implement authentication
Check details using forms
Create galleries
Create surveys

PHP is also used to: -

Manage databases
Manage dynamic content
Track sessions
PHP can perform system functions - It can create, open, read, write, or close files on a system
PHP can handle forms - It can gather data from files, save data to a files, send data through emails, return data to users
PHP can interact with databases - It can add, delete, or modify data from databases
PHP can set cookies and access cookie variables
PHP can implement authorization and security - It can restrict user access to certain pages and also encrypt data

Advantages of PHP

PHP is a server-side language, PHP code is executed on the server and the results are displayed on the browser
PHP can be embedded in HTML which is widely used language
PHP supports a large number of protocols such as POP3, IMAP, and LDAP
PHP4 supports Java and distributed object architectures (COM and CORBA) which enables development of n-tier applications
PHP's syntax is similar to C and is easier to learn
PHP scripts can be tested easily installing a server like wampserver
PHP can be downloaded and used for free
PHP can generate page content dynamically
PHP runs on different platforms such as Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X.
PHP is compatible with almost all servers
PHP supports a wide range of databases
PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently

Introduction to PHP