What is PHP?
PHP acronym: Hypertext Preprocessor, is an open source server based language. It is a widley used programming language. It is developed and maintained by a large global community. The core of PHP is to enable the server to deliver information to the website or web application.
Accordingly, PHP code is executed on the server. The client web browser recives and displays regular HTML code.
PHP loads data from the server and puts it into the HTML DOM. PHP does not have full controll of the HTML code, such as JavaScript. It can be used to perform many diffrent tasks, examples are: apply scripts to HTML, connect to diffrent databases, start a session and many other tasks.
You can use PHP code to create a vast array of web applications. The main reason for its popularity is the speed a developer can perform specific tasks or build a website. Examples of tasks that can be performed quickly using PHP are:
- Data encryption
- Collect data from various forms
- Send and receive cookies
- Developing dynamic content
- Modify database information
- Output files such as PDF, XML, ZIP or other files
- Edit files on a server
