Webupon

Introduction

Have you ever visited a website and that an element of dynamic interactiveness about it, or perhaps you have come across something that you wouldn’t see on an ordinary website? This is probably down the the fact that it has been manipulated by the PHP programming language.

PHP is a dynamic scripting language which is used widely, and even more commonly now than before on the Internet for designing interesting and dynamic web pages that will entice your reader to stay on the website longer, and even return on a regular basis. The majority of modern web servers come equipped with PHP as standard with no additional costs and can more than certainly add a severe punch to your website.

The Purposes of PHP

PHP has many uses for a webmaster, but mainly it comes down to allowing your end user to be able to interact with your website with a very hands on approach. The beauty of PHP to the majority of users is you don’t have to be an an excellent programmer, you just have to be creative and the rest is left up to a highly intuitive programming language that understands what you want to do.

One of the most important reasons why webmasters favour PHP like other scripting languages is because they allow them to be creative without worrying whether or not the end user has the correct software to run their applications. PHP, unlike Javascript or Flash does not need to be installed, everything is handled from the server and not the end users browser.

Uses of PHP

PHP is used to create a lot of content on a modern website, whether you are aware of it or not. Most people are oblivious and this is the interesting quality that PHP possesses.

General uses are:

• Processing mail from contact forms.
• Printing out a dynamic date and time.
• Interacting with a database platform (MySQL, Oracle etc).
• Tying in with HTML forms for more advanced use.
• Creating interactive calenders.
• Producing ever changing and dynamic content (News etc).

These are but a few uses of PHP on both a commercial scale and a non-commercial one. If there is anything you want to do on the Internet, PHP will allow you to do it in some form or another. Whilst it may not be the most favourable programming language for some tasks, by and large, it is one of the best equipped for a range of jobs.

Examples of PHP

Like most programming languages, I will give a small example that involves printing out the line ‘Hello World’ to the end user without them knowing how exactly it happened. This is so simple, you could even type it in your sleep!