After completing chapter two of our book and completing the lab I became more interested in the specifics of PHP; when to use it and what it can do. I've never used it in the past and began to wonder when it would be most advantageous to use versus other scripting languages. First, PHP is a recursive acronym which stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. Originally PHP stood for Personal HomePage. It is defined as a "general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML" (php.net). While PHP is a scripting language it is different from client side Java in that it is executed on the server. It's also a very easy language to learn from what I understand. PHP.net provides a basic tutorial.
What is PHP capable of doing? Well, as we learned from our book and lab, php is capable of server-side scripting. It can take a static web page and make it dynamic. It can also be used for command line scripting for text processing. The best known feature about this language is its compatability with many databases and ODBC.
Why use PHP? Probably one of the best reasons is that it's a simple language to learn compared to other languages such as ASP. This allows for one to quickly enable an interactive web site. This is the second best thing about PHP, it's interactive with website visitors.
I also learned that PHP is commonly used as the online shopping carts. Here is a list of five more useful examples found from a "Top Ten" on php.about.com:
1) Send E-mail From a Form
2) Host a Web Forum
3) Add a Poll
4) Create a Calendar
5) Count Visitors
PHP provides more functionality than I imagined. Now that I'm aware of the many uses, I plan to take advantage of this scripting language on the job.
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Diane, I didn't really know what PHP stood for and I haven't looked at its uses. This in a good overview and if I want more information you have a couple good links. I always thought PHP had more to do with security.
ReplyDeleteYes, PHP is an interesting language. I wonder how complicated is it because i looked at Drake's code and it seemed really simple. I hope we get into it a little bit more when the class progresses.
ReplyDeleteHey, thanks for the post. I used to work with PHP and an Oracle DB for two semesters. At first I thought its easy...Looks like a programming language, lateron it got difficult. In the end, I must admit that its a mighty language and I like that you can realize a lot of things.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment I try to get back in to realize some parts of the project with PHP.
I didn't really realize that PHP is used when creating a poll or calendar on a website, but the more I think about it I realize that it is better for applications like these to be rendered by the server and then sent to the browser instead of sending all of the code to the browser. Thanks for the info Diane.
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