What is PHP?

  • PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
  • PHP is a server-side scripting language, like ASP
  • PHP scripts are executed on the server
  • PHP supports many databases (MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC, etc.)
  • PHP is an open source software
  • PHP is free to download and use

What is a PHP File?

  • PHP files can contain text, HTML tags and scripts
  • PHP files are returned to the browser as plain HTML
  • PHP files have a file extension of “.php”, “.php3″, or “.phtml”

Why PHP?

  • PHP runs on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, etc.)
  • PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.)
  • PHP is FREE to download from the official PHP resource: www.php.net
  • PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side