PHP Introduction

What is PHP?

• PHP is an acronym for "PHP Hypertext Preprocessor"
• PHP is a widely-used, open source scripting language
• PHP scripts are executed on the server
• PHP costs nothing, it is free to download and use

What is a PHP File?

• PHP files can contain text, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP code
• PHP code are executed on the server, and the result is returned to the browser as plain HTML
• PHP files have extension ".php"

Why PHP?

• PHP runs on various platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, etc.)
• PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.)
• PHP supports a wide range of databases
• PHP is free. Download it from the official PHP resource: www.php.net
• PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side