Basic PHP Programming

PHP is like a secretary.

I’m really liking these analogies I’m using (yeah, I’m weird that way). Anyway, as I was saying… PHP has the ability to interact with your file system. It means that PHP can write and reads into any file in your directories and files that are on your local hard disk (or other computers if they’re in a network). Aside from that, if a file doesn’t exist, PHP can create that file, directories, and copy files. It can also rename and/or delete files and change their attributes. If you want to create a back-up then PHP can do it for you.

The tutorial of the PHP aimed the users who have no previous experience with programming in PHP or any other programming language. But not at all there’s no guarantee to reach this goal to be reached, its very likely that there are places where the user is assumed to know things he or she wont know at this point of learning PHP.

PHP has many features that are designed particularly for Web site use. PHP interacts with HTML forms so that PHP can display on HTML and it also has the ability to process the information that users type in. PHP acts like a body-guard or bouncer of sorts and it secures Web pages. It allows the developer to create secure Web pages with features that requires users to enter a valid username and password before they can view the content. PHP also communicates with databases so they can both store and retrieve information from and to the users. Brilliant, isn’t it?

What more benefits of using PHP? Can’t the list be longer? Okay, okay… I’m getting to it.

PHP is customizable. Again, a nod to its being open source. That fact allows programmers access to core elements of the language (to the point of letting them extend the language) to modify the PHP software as needed to suit their own needs. This way, PHP softwares are always getting improvements. Imagine, a thousand of programmers working on the PHP code making the program dynamic – just perfect for the constantly changing Web.

Whew. Is that it? The last three posts are just the base, and more of the icing on the next posts.

In learning PHP and MySQL you need to understand that one of the greatest uses of these programs is in the form of Content Management System (CMS). As you can see, CMS is the main support of a dynamic web site. In fact, successful publishing sytems like Drupal and Wordpress utilize server side scripting and a database, in which the top choices are often PHP and MySQL.

But PHP and MySQL are not the only scripting languages and databases in the market. There are also others like Oracle and DB2 which sometimes offer better choice than the former. The reason why PHP and MySQL have become popular choices however is that PHP is more manageable while MySQL is a placed in a more established and secure Open Source database position.

Here are more reasons why PHP is such a dear:

PHP has a very widely available technical support, which comes along with its being open-source. There are a lot of e-mail discussion lists and groups that offer help and support on the . These lists cover a variety of topics – from PHP and databases to PHP on Windows, and of course those usual issues that beginners encounter. What else? Well, it is secure. You won’t have to worry because other users will not see the PHP code (as long as your scripts are correct, that is). See, two more reasons why you should get acquainted with PHP!

Yeah, why PHP?

For one, it’s fast on web sites. Since it is embedded in HTML code, it will only take a short time to process and load a webpage. PHP is also easy to use. The syntax is relatively simple and quite easy to understand. Even non-programmers can understand and use them. Next, it is versatile. It can run on most of the operating systems like Windows, Mac, OS, and even some varieties of Unix.

One more thing, PHP is free. It’s an open source programming language so you don’t need to buy anything. All you need is to go the .