Nutshell

PHP In A Nutshell

article by Mikhail Tuknov

If you are the better part of last years spent on the internet, you may already have happened to the concept of PHP. You may have even encountered the definition: “a server-side scripting language.” But what exactly does that mean? And more importantly, what it can be for you as an aspiring Web developer or Web designer?

Let’s go back to the definition for a little while, in fact, PHP is a server-side scripting language that is typically used to create dynamic web pages. It is a relatively simple programming language that allows you to get more dynamic content on your web site function.

PHP is different from other kinds of programming languages ​​that work for use in conjunction with HTML. This compatibility is a distinct advantage of PHP and allows you to easily integrate into Web pages that are already intensely rendered with HTML. This integration is in fact so seamless that you easily switch between the two languages ​​even within the same Web document

How is this thing while basically works like this. Websites are usually a combination of PHP and HTML designed in varying proportions depending on the designer intended. If a visitor’s browser to the Web page in question points, the server will “read” and then process the PHP instructions and later send the results of the process to the browser of the visitor. The work is pretty much like other languages ​​such as ASP or ColdFusion. The main difference is that PHP, unlike the aforementioned ASP or ColdFusion, PHP, both an open source and cross-platform application. What this means is that PHP can under the Windows NT platform, and many versions of the UNIX platform to run. In addition, PHP designed to function as an Apache module and even as a binary, as the CGI.

PHP by its very nature can be carried out is to run very easily and quickly, but when running in the design as an Apache module it is even more. The lack of any process creation overhead allows PHP results fast compared to other programming yield plus has the added advantage that is not the vote of mod_perl to keep your server memory image to a manageable small size.

addition to its use as a control and change the content of your web pages using PHP can also serve to function as an HTTP header sender. It is typically used in that function to manage the cookies set in Web browsers, Web site authentication processes, and redirect users to other sites. PHP also works well with other programs and applications, unparalleled connectivity allows many different databases and ODBC, and seamless integration with many different external libraries, libraries that you will comply tasks such as publishing PDF documents and parsing XML.

The way PHP fit into your web pages is very elegant in its simplicity, so simple in fact you do not need a special development environment or IDE at all. You only need to follow in the place. PHP can also be configured to utilize ASP type tags as well be.). The PHP engine is the task of processing everything that is loaded within those tags.

If you have a large or even have had a little background in programming, you may have already noticed that PHP has a lot in common with the languages ​​C and Perl, especially in its syntax. Just as in C and Perl, you do not have before to variables, you agree with them, and it is also quite easy to create arrays and hashes (associative arrays)

So much for its properties,. Now how can you PHP?

One of the most frequently mentioned and most widely used applications of PHP is for server-side scripting. This is traditionally the area was concentrated in the PHP. The three components of PHP in this particular application: a parser (which can take the form of a CGI or server module), a web browser and a Web server. The Web server is connected with a PHP installation and the program output of the PHP program is run accessed with a Web browser. The PHP page can then be accessed via the web server.

scripts on the command line is another area where PHP is used for this application, you only need a PHP parser. Typical applications include rudimentary text processing and running scripts such as Cron or Task Scheduler.

Finally, although not the ideal solution for this particular scenario is PHP used in writing desktop applications with a graphical user interface function.

Obviously uses for PHP are varied and endless and you should explore it in depth to find out how it will work for you.

About the author

Mikhail Tuknov is a search engine optimization expert, Web site search engine optimization (SEO), Pay-per-click (PPC) Management and Web Analytics services.