PHP
Introduction
Up until recently, scripting
on the internet was something
which very few people even attempted,
let alone mastered. Recently
though, more and more people
have been building their own
websites and scripting languages
have become more important.
Because of this, scripting languages
are becomming easier to learn
and PHP is one of the easiest
and most powerful yet.
What Is PHP?
PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor
and is a server-side language.
This means that the script is
run on your web server, not
on the user's browser, so you
do not need to worry about compatibility
issues. PHP is relatively new
(compared to languages such
as Perl (CGI) and Java) but
is quickly becomming one of
the most popular scripting languages
on the internet.
Why PHP?
You may be wondering why you
should choose PHP over other
languages such as Perl or even
why you should learn a scripting
language at all. I will deal
with learning scripting languages
first. Learning a scripting
language, or even understanding
one, can open up huge new possibilities
for your website. Although you
can download pre-made scripts
from sites like Hotscripts,
these will often contain advertising
for the author or will not do
exactly what you want. With
an understanding of a scripting
language you can easily edit
these scripts to do what you
want, or even create your own
scripts.
Using scripts on your website
allows you to add many new 'interactive'
features like feedback forms,
guestbooks, message boards,
counters and even more advanced
features like portal systems,
content management, advertising
managers etc. With these sort
of things on your website you
will find that it gives a more
professional image. As well
as this, anyone wanting to work
in the site development industry
will find that it is much easier
to get a job if they know a
scripting language.
What Do I Need?
As mentioned earlier, PHP is
a server-side scripting language.
This means that, although your
users will not need to install
new software, you web host will
need to have PHP set up on their
server. It should be listed
as part of your package but
if you don't know if it is installed
you can find out using the first
script in this tutorial. If
you server does not support
PHP you can ask your web host
to install it for you as it
is free to download and install.
If you need a low cost web host
which supports PHP I would recommmend
HostRocket.
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