Beginner PHP Tutorial - 1 - Introduction to PHP

Introduction to PHP <br />PHP is a server scripting language, and a powerful tool for making dynamic and interactive Web pages <br />PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. <br /> <br />PHP is a widely-used, free, and efficient alternative to competitors such as Microsoft's ASP. <br /> <br />PHP is an acronym for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor" <br />PHP is a widely-used, open source scripting language <br />PHP scripts are executed on the server <br />PHP is free to download and use <br />PHP files can contain text, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP code <br />PHP code are executed on the server, and the result is returned to the browser as plain HTML <br />PHP files have extension ".php" <br />PHP can generate dynamic page content <br />PHP can create, open, read, write, delete, and close files on the server <br />PHP can collect form data <br />PHP can send and receive cookies <br />PHP can add, delete, modify data in your database <br />PHP can be used to control user-access <br />PHP can encrypt data <br />Use a Web Host With PHP Support <br />If your server has activated support for PHP you do not need to do anything. <br /> <br />Just create some .php files, place them in your web directory, and the server will automatically parse them for you. <br />You do not need to compile anything or install any extra tools. <br />Because PHP is free, most web hosts offer PHP support. <br />What distinguishes PHP from something like client-side JavaScript is that the code is executed on the server, generating HTML which is then sent to the client. The client would receive the results of running that script, but would not know what the underlying code was. You can even configure your web server to process all your HTML files with PHP, and then there's really no way that users can tell what you have up your sleeve. <br /> <br />The best things in using PHP are that it is extremely simple for a newcomer, but offers many advanced features for a professional programmer. Don't be afraid reading the long list of PHP's features. You can jump in, in a short time, and start writing simple scripts in a few hours.