What Is PHP? Tutorial
PHP is a server side scripting language. Before PHP was an abbreviation of Personal Home Page, but now the meaning of this term has evolved to PHP Hypertext Preprocessor.
PHP is web programming language and its used for making dynamic websites. Dynamic websites usually interact with a datbase for example MySQL database.
If you have ever filled out a form on the web, the chances are it was processed by a server side programming language of some sort. PHP is currently the most popular server side language on the web (installed on over 1,000,000 web servers and 9,000,000 sites) but other popular languages include, Perl, ColdFusion, Microsoft's ASP, Java Servlets and many more.
PHP's success can be accredited to a number of reasons:
- It is free, Open Source software
- It is extremely easy to learn
- It is blazingly fast
- It has excellent integration with Apache, the world's number one web server
- It has excellent integration with mySQL, a popular open source relational database
What do I require to run PHP?
PHP is really easy to use. To start using PHP you will need following
- An Operating System for example Window or Mac or Linux etc
- Text Editor for example NotePage, Dreamweaver or ZendIDE etc
- Apache Web Server, that will run PHP Scripts
- Optional: Database Server for example MySQL etc.
How Can I start Using PHP?
Once you have all these services install and running on your computer, simply open you favourite text editor for example notepad or dreamweaver save your file with an extention of .php in your webserver.
To check your files start your browser for example internet explorer or firefox and type http://localhost. This will bring your web server's default Home page.
Download and Install PHP
Apache, MySQL and most of the PHP editors are free and open source and you can download them for free. To download Apache web Server click here. MySQL can be found here
Although it easy to download Apache and MySQL, but configuring and installing these two can be a bit difficult for beginers.
A Simple and easy way to make PHP run on your computer is to use software that will install and configure every thing for you. If you are usign Windows you can download WAMP from here. For Mac MAMP is the tool you need. Click here to download MAMP for Mac.
Once you have downloaded WAMP or MAMP. Simply Run this program. This program will install and configure PHP, APACHE SERVER, MYSQL, PHP MYADMIN for you and you will be ready to start using PHP in 10 minutes. If you are facing any problem please do not hesitate to ask us on Cramerz Forum
An easy way to start using PHP is to look for a MySQL + PHP Web hosting package. In this way you can concentrate more on learning PHP and MySQL than installation issue. Click here to Get your student Web hosting package
