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.

CMS stores the data for building the pages in an Open Source in the MySQL database system provided by PHP. The backend database is where all systems related to page building are stored: various graphics linked to pages, text, maintaining statistics and managing user login and logout.

Usually, the content in a site is arranged while the text in each article is merely piled up, hence, if the site administrator decides to alter the look of the site, he can only update the template. The information stored on the other hand, remains as is, but the manner it is presented becomes different.

Regular expressions are a powerful programming tool, and the best way to solve many problems, but few people would call them a delight to use. Trying to tune a regex to match exactly the string you want can be a lengthy undertaking.

A new web-based tool aims to help with the process. Enter a text string into txt2re and its backend code (which seems to be antiquated PHP 3, judging by the file extension?) parses the string and proposes an array of regular expressions that match it and its various sub-elements. It recognizes certain string patterns, like state abbreviations and domain names.

You may be wondering in which files PHP code stays.

Well, PHP code may lodge in certain files, particularly those with the common extension .php, and are then furnished in same form to the browser in a URL. The server then reads the PHP code and brings a series of facts to the browser which in turn converts it as a web page.

There are unique instances though when PHP code can also be contained in a stationary HTML (XML, XHTML) location, found in a CMS. What usually takes place is that PHP offers the dynamic phase in these pages through the text part, and not actually a solo .php file for the whole page.