What is PHP?
PHP stands for “Hypertext Preprocessor,” which basically is a scripting language used in websites that allows people who use them to make changes without having access to the actual HTML files of your website. When one visits your website, their browser sends out a request that your server receives, and the PHP code processes the data.
How does PHP work?
PHP will usually run on the server, and it looks for a code that can make changes to parts of your webpage. For example, instead of typing out every link to Facebook in HTML, you could write it once inside PHP. This means that if someone clicks the Facebook link, their browser will automatically know where to go because PHP has already told it what to do.
When you want to add PHP code to your website, you upload .php files instead of .html. Your server then reads the file and executes the code on that particular page after it has loaded all of its content.
How to learn PHP?
If you want to learn how to program using the PHP, learning HTML and CSS first will give you a better idea of what exactly is happening on your page when someone visits it. These three programming languages work together side by side with PHP to make up a webpage. A good understanding of PHP would easily land you a job with reputable companies such as Qulix.
What is the PHP tag, and how do I use it?
The PHP tag simply begins and ends your PHP code. It does not generate any page content (such as HTML and CSS); it is merely a string of characters telling the web hosting server where to begin and end the separate section of tags that will process any functions you want to run.
It is recommended that you place your PHP tags at the top of each page and directly below any HTML or CSS tags. This will ensure that everything on your webpage is run through the PHP interpreter before it gets to your page’s content (which should always be last).
Databases compatible with PHP
The best part about PHP is that it is fully compatible with all major and minor databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle. This, therefore, means that you can easily build powerful web applications (or scripts) that interact with databases and display their results on-screen.
Uses of PHP
PHP is used for various purposes, including simple HTML dynamic generation to more complicated uses like RSS feeds. One good example is the Google Maps API that renders map images for websites using CSS formatting language. The wizardry involved in doing this is terrific, but you will need some knowledge about complex programming to understand. A quick search through TechReviewer will show you some of the top PHP programmers who have provided business solutions through PHP.
Conclusion
There you have it! Now that you have gone through this reading, you must have realized that PHP is a very versatile platform and can be used to write scripts for virtually anything. You must also recognize that the potential of something as awesome as this is probably limitless.
