If you want to learn the basics of PHP, then you've come to
the right place. The goal of this tutorial is to teach you the basics of PHP so
that you can:
- Customize PHP scripts that you download, so that they better fit your needs.
- Begin to understand the working model of PHP, so you may begin to design your own PHP projects.
- Give you a solid base in PHP, so as to make you more valuable in the eyes of future employers.
PHP - What is it?
Taken directly from PHP's home, PHP.net, "PHP is an
HTML-embedded scripting language. Much of its syntax is borrowed from C, Java
and Perl with a couple of unique PHP-specific features thrown in. The goal of
the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated pages
quickly."
This is generally a good definition
of PHP. However, it does contain a lot of terms you may not be used to. Another
way to think of PHP is a powerful, behind the scenes scripting language that
your visitors won't see!
When someone visits your PHP
webpage, your web server processes the PHP code. It then sees which parts it
needs to show to visitors(content and pictures) and hides the other stuff(file
operations, math calculations, etc.) then translates your PHP into HTML. After
the translation into HTML, it sends the webpage to your visitor's web browser.
PHP - What's it do?
It is also helpful to think of PHP
in terms of what it can do for you. PHP will allow you to:
- Reduce the time to create large websites.
- Create a customized user experience for visitors based on information that you have gathered from them.
- Open up thousands of possibilities for online tools. Check out PHP - HotScripts for examples of the great things that are possible with PHP.
- Allow creation of shopping carts for e-commerce websites.
What You Should Know
Before starting this tutorial it is
important that you have a basic understanding and experience in the following:
- HTML - Know the syntax and especially HTML Forms.
- Basic programming knowledge - This isn't required, but if you have any traditional programming experience it will make learning PHP a great deal easier.
Tutorial Overview
This tutorial is aimed at the PHP
novice and will teach you PHP from the ground up. If you want a drive-through
PHP tutorial this probably is not the right tutorial for you.
Remember, you should not try to plow
through this tutorial in one sitting. Read a couple lessons, take a break, then
do some more after the information has had some time to sink in.
PHP - Necessary Setup
To begin working with PHP you must first have access to either of the following:- A web hosting account that supports the use of PHP web pages and grants you access to MySQL databases. If you do not have a host, but are interested in signing up for one, we recommend that you first read our Web Host Guide to educate yourself about web hosting and avoid getting ripped off.
- Have PHP and MySQL installed on your own computer. Read this lesson thorougly for more information on installing PHP.
Although MySQL is not absolutely
necessary to use PHP, MySQL and PHP are wonderful complements to one another
and some topics covered in this tutorial will require that you have MySQL
access.
Installing PHP
For those who are experienced enough
to do this yourself, simply head over to PHP.net - Downloads
and download the most recent version of PHP.
However, if you are like most of us,
you will most likely want to follow a guide to installing PHP onto your
computer. These guides are kindly provided by PHP.net based on the operating
system that you are using.
- PHP - Windows - Windows Installation Guide
- PHP - Mac - Mac Installation Guide
- PHP - Linux - Linux Installation Guide
Installing MySQL
As we mentioned before, MySQL is not
a requirement to use PHP, however they often go hand in hand.
PHP - Syntax
Before we talk about PHP's syntax, let us first define what syntax is referring to.- Syntax - The rules that must be followed to write properly structured code.
PHP Code:
<?php
?>
or the shorthand PHP tag that requires shorthand support to be enabled
on your server...
<?
?>If you are writing PHP scripts and plan on distributing them, we suggest that you use the standard form (which includes the ?php) rather than the shorthand form. This will ensure that your scripts will work, even when running on other servers with different settings.
How to Save Your PHP Pages
If you have PHP inserted into your HTML and want the web browser to interpret it correctly, then you must save the file with a .php extension, instead of the standard .html extension. So be sure to check that you are saving your files correctly. Instead of index.html, it should be index.php if there is PHP code in the file.Example Simple HTML & PHP Page
Below is an example of one of the easiest PHP and HTML page that you can create and still follow web standards.PHP and HTML Code:
<html>
<head>
<title>My First PHP Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
echo "Hello World!";
?>
</body>
</html>
Display:
Hello World!
If you save this file (e.g. helloworld.php) and place it on PHP enabled
server and load it up in your web browser, then you should see "Hello
World!" displayed. If not, please check that you followed our example
correctly.We used the PHP command echo to write "Hello World!" and we will be talking in greater depth about how echo is special later on in this tutorial.
The Semicolon!
As you may or may not have noticed in the above example, there was a semicolon after the line of PHP code. The semicolon signifies the end of a PHP statement and should never be forgotten. For example, if we repeated our "Hello World!" code several times, then we would need to place a semicolon at the end of each statement.PHP and HTML Code:
<html>
<head>
<title>My First PHP Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
echo "Hello World! ";
echo "Hello World! ";
echo "Hello World! ";
echo "Hello World! ";
echo "Hello World! ";
?>
</body>
</html>
Display:
Hello World! Hello World! Hello World! Hello World! Hello
World!
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