First PHP Class

PHP is a powerful tool for making dynamic and interactive Web pages.

PHP is the widely-used, free, and efficient alternative to competitors such as Microsoft's ASP.

What is PHP?

    * PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
    * PHP is a server-side scripting language, like ASP
    * PHP scripts are executed on the server
    * PHP supports many databases (MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC, etc.)
    * PHP is an open source software
    * PHP is free to download and use

What is a PHP File?

    * PHP files can contain text, HTML tags and scripts
    * PHP files are returned to the browser as plain HTML
    * PHP files have a file extension of ".php", ".php3", or ".phtml"

What is MySQL?

    * MySQL is a database server
    * MySQL is ideal for both small and large applications
    * MySQL supports standard SQL
    * MySQL compiles on a number of platforms
    * MySQL is free to download and use

PHP + MySQL

    * PHP combined with MySQL are cross-platform (you can develop in Windows and serve on a Unix platform)

Why PHP?

    * PHP runs on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, etc.)
    * PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.)
    * PHP is FREE to download from the official PHP resource: www.php.net
    * PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side

Where to Start?

To get access to a web server with PHP support, you can:

    * Install Apache (or IIS) on your own server, install PHP, and MySQL
    * Or find a web hosting plan with PHP and MySQL support