Foreword:We have established that PHP is a web development language that can make developers a hefty sum of money. Before we can start learning the language, we need to know a few things. What exactly is PHP, where didit come from, and what exactly does learning the language do for developers?
PHP was in development in 1994, when creator Rasmus Lerdorf wanted a better way to administer his personal homepage. It all began as a few CGI binaries that Lerdorf used to build several interesting applications. This in itself isn’t so exciting, especially since early forms of PHP couldn’t even interface with a database! Regardless, Lerdorf started what would become a very prominent web development language.
From thereon out, PHP became an open source piece of software that anyone could contribute work on. Over the years developers have added quite a bit of functionality to the language overall. Through all the changes that occurred over the years, we can now describe PHP as the following:
What is PHP? So far, we’ve established that it is a programming language designed for creating web applications. It serves up dynamic content, works on the web server in the operation, and supports new-fangled principles such as object-oriented design. That’s all great, but what can PHP do exactly?
Take a look around, and we can see the results of PHP everywhere. It is estimated that PHP is in use on over 20 million different websites, and over a million different web servers (including ours!). We use PHP in applications such as simplifying templates, using user registration systems, storing and receiving information into a database, and even other exciting such as editing images on the fly.
PHP is used in many reporting and business applications, where built-in graphing and image creation can take place. Oddly enough, one of the first PHP applications ever created was an application to track statistics and report results in a convenient manner (Think back- remember Rasmus Lerdorf? He used his Personal Home Page language to create his own statistics counter!).
Thanks to recent years of innovation, technologies such as AJAX have made it easier to offer an easier experience for users of web applications. AJAX is used to silently load and store all sorts of information- whereas it was previously required to refresh the webpage or navigate to multiple other websites. We’ll learn more on AJAX in future sections, which will be a particularly fun section and something to look forward to in learning.
Developers have a lot to benefit from PHP- and not just a surplus income. Rather, developers are able to take advantage of decreased development times, ease of use in deploying applications, and a fantastical support from a very large community.
To help further the process of developing a web application, multiple frameworks are available for usage. Frameworks reuse many repetitive tasks, such as connecting to a database or storing basic information. Frameworks should not be used until PHP itself is learned, and a learning curve for most PHP frameworks can be anywhere from a day to a week or more.
Also worthy of noting is the fact that some frameworks have support for security measures that programmers ignore on a common basis. PHP itself is not an insecure language, but it does leave holes where improper developers might leave mistakes in programming. Frameworks help cover up such holes, but regardless of the fact proper security tactics are good to learn as PHP itself is learned. (Don’t worry, we teach all the security topics you’ll need for PHP web applications.)
PHP has been in development for a long time and there are plenty of things to learn about the language overall. Rest assured, we’ll learn more about everything discussed in this introduction to PHP with the coming chapters. Next up: what you’ll learn from this course and what you can do with the knowledge obtained therein.
I’m still in the dark. PHP still means three letters on the end of a link. It is still a mystery to me. How can I get a handle on it and see the programming code that goes with it. Where ever it is. I will continue reading and see where it takes me. Brad Vigansky
sir, How can i learn this language?How can i see the programming code?
dear sir i want to learn this language perfectly so what should i do? pls help
How do i get to learn these codes?
nice source to read lets see more what its contained…
Sir, Good day there!
Well, I am an engineer and working as full time ecommerce executive with a reputed export house, apart from my current job I need to learn PHP, so please guide or help me to learn it up-to-date.
thanks, ashvin
it is very basic level and tell something in real world application such as some example programes and some syntax and give how to save the program in php what are the industry use it and how to utlilities please publish it.
hello, Is it necessary to know C or C++ to learn PHP. Please let know as soon as possible.
go to Web institute
a’m doing my final year project by php so i want to know more. so if you can help me
it is not necessary to know C or C++ in order to learn Php..:)
i wana learn this language bt, what basics are required for this?
SOmeone told me that You can Earn sufficient money after learning PHP.Comapnies offered you Online JObs and give you $500 and even $1000 for project[as per requirements and experience].So i decided to learn this language.I request all to learn this language
to work with php you need to install server software in your pc… download it and install … apache..tomcat ..are few… xampp is best for beginers..
Dear sir, i am doing a networking job in Saudi Arabia but i want to learn PHP/MYSQL from here. so please guide or help me to learn it up-to-date.
Dear sir,
Am new for php i want to learn more in this,i need some example programes and some syntax and give how to save the program in php plz help me in coding .
Give the example so its easy to unserstand.
sir The intro was good.I am a telecom engineer plus a freelance web developer.i would like to learn this language from 0 to infinite… Thanks for this page
Hi, I am a PHP developer. I couldn’t understand some of the comments above. But I want to say a few things which might help 1.PHP code cannot be seen by the user as it executes on server. 2.It is a very easy language and You are gonna love it once you reach a level. 3.It is fully compatible with HTML and its IO is also pretty good. 4.There is a huge open source community to back this language up so you don’t need to worry about your doubts.
Reading does help! But you actually need work to understand PHP/HTML and to do some experiments with what you learn. PHP isn’t hard to learn. The problem is that those jobs are getting filled up very fast and people are looking for something more like Windows Visual C+ or C++ which is way to hard and way to complexe… But keep reading and you will understand,trust me. I’m 17 right now and I have started creating Counter-Strike maps and since i was 15 and i learned compiling maps, putting them in web as a .zip or .exe file (PHP basics). Now I’m starting an RPG in 3D and I have never done game programming before but it is how i learn! Just keep doing some experiments and learn!
Wow-this was a really clear and helpful introduction to PHP. I didn’t fall asleep or get overwhelmed so that says a lot about the style of writing. I will continue to read through this site this week. Much thanks!
got here because I’m having to retool my brain after being laid off. Website I built got hit a few times with what I found to be an SQL injection; I did trace it to the likely originating IP overseas, and am now exploring PHP… Personal Home Page… as maybe something worth learning for a variety of really good reasons… most of them $tarting with dollar $ign$ and a new job… and not having to give all the $$$ away learning all over again! Thank you so much for putting this page up! Off we go…
Callum
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