LESSON 6: WHAT IS PHP?

LESSON 6




PHP Hypertext Preprocessor




What is PHP?


PHP stands for "PHP Hypertext Preprocessor". Like jQuery, PHP is open source and is free to use and modify. PHP is widely used because of its flexibility, power, and because it is open source code. PHP code is executed on the server, as opposed to within the browser on the local computer. These PHP files can contain HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, or even plain text. PHP can do many things some of these things include:

  • Collecting form data
  • Generating dynamic page content
  • Encrypting data
  • Sending and receiving cookies
  • Modifying data in your database
  • Creating, opening, reading, writing, deleting, and closing files on the server
  • Restricting users access

PHP is compatible with most of todays servers and their software and is cross platform compatible.

Next we will show a practical use for some PHP.

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