PHP:Overview

What is PHP?
PHP: Hypertext Pre-processor (PHP):
 * Originally PHP meant Personal Home Page
 * is a Web development scripting language
 * can be embedded into HTML and
 * generally runs on a web server
 * was released 1995 and created by Rasmus Lerdorf ("Rasmus Lerdorf", 2009)

("PHP.", 2009)

Features of PHP
Welling and Thomson (2009, p.855-869) identify the following strength's of PHP:
 * Very fast
 * Very scalable - can be used by multiple servers
 * Connects to many databases, including MySQL, Oracle, etc and using ODBC to others including MS-Access, MS-SQL.
 * Built in web libraries, including XML, email, cookies, PDF.
 * Open Source - so effectively free development and deployment and availability of Source Code.
 * Ease of Learning - based on C and Perl, and integrates easily with HTML
 * PHP version 5 offers Object Orientation
 * Portable to other operating systems, including Windows, Unix.
 * Flexable development approaches possible including Model-View Controller (MVC)
 * Support via a mature community and
 * Documentation is extensive and available free on the web

Example
File name: phpHello.php

Description: In this example the results of the form are posted back to the form. The php if statement asks if the submit button has been pressed. If not the form is displayed, if it is "Hello World XXX here - via php!!" is displayed (where XXX is what was entered into the text box).

Resources

 * PHP Course Tutorials and Reference Guide (2011)