PHP

 PHP is a widely used open source general purpose Server side scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. PHP  that earlier stood for Personal Home Pages is a widely used open source general purpose scripting language and so, now known as Hypertext Preprocessor. PHP is typically used as a server side language(as opposed to a language like JavaScript that's generally executed on the client side). 

                         

  PHP is used to develop dynamic websites or web applications. PHP scripts can only be interpreted on a server that has PHP installed. The client computers accessing the PHP scripts require a web browser only. A PHP file contains PHP tags and ends with the extensions ".php".

PHP is known as a server sided language. That's because the PHP doesn't get executed on your computer, but on the computer you requested the page from. The results are then handed over to you, and displayed in your browser. 

            Typically PHP is used for Server Side Scripting, Command Line Scripting and even for creating desktop applications.

    PHP is compatible with all major Operating Systems including Linux, Windows and MAC OS. It is also compatible with most popular web servers such as Apache and LiteSpeed. PHP can be used to create dynamic content such as PDF's, images and is compatible with the most popular types of database tools such as MySQL.

PHP can aslo be used to add extra functionality to your website by integrating applications built for 3rd party websites such as facebook or by creating PHP based mailing lists or you can even create Wordpress Plugins for commercial use.

PHP is an HTML embedded Web scripting language. This means PHP code can be inserted into the HTML of a web page. When a PHP page is accessed, the PHP code is read or "parsed" by the server the page reside on. The output from the PHP functions on the page are typically returned as HTML code, which can be read by the browser. Because the PHP code is transformed into HTML before the page is loaded, users cannot view the PHP code on a page. This makes PHP pages secure enough to access databases and other secure information. 

The Uses for PHP are :

• It is utilized to make a dynamic site.
• To interact with a web server.
• To collaborate with any back-end.
• To communicate with the local record arrangement of the OS.
•  To actualize the business sensible layers.
• It can Encrypt Data.
• Access Cookies variable and set treats.
• Utilizing PHP you can limit the client to get to explicit page.
• PHP typically used to yield HTML code to the program.
• It is utilized for interface web application with Database.
• It is utilized to send and get Emails.
• You can utilize PHP to discover the present date, and afterward assemble a schedule for the month.
• It can encode information.

Features of PHP 

1. Simple

It is very simple and easy to use, compare to other scripting language, it is very simple and easy.

2. Interpreted 

It is an interpreted language, i.e., there is no need for compilation.

3. Faster

It is faster than other scripting language e.g. asp and jsp.

4. Open source

PHP is an interpreted scripting language(actually precompiled opcodes), free, open source and distributed under a license authorizing the modification and redistribution.

5. Platform Independent

PHP code will be run on every platform, Linux, UNIX, Mac OS, and Windows.

6. Case Sensitive

PHP is case sensitive scripting language at time of variable declaration. In PHP, all keywords, classes, functions, and user defined functions are NOT case sensitive.

7. Error Reporting

PHP have some predefined error reporting constants to generate a warning or error notice.

8. Real Time Access Monitoring 

PHP provides access logging by creating the summary of recent accesses for the user.

9. Loosely Typed Language

PHP supports variable usuage without declaring its data type. It will be taken at the time of the execution based on the type of data it has on its value.

Advantages of PHP

The following are the advantages of PHP:

1. PHP is free : You don't have to pay anyone to use PHP. Whether you run the PHP engine on a beatup 10 year old PC in your basement or in a room full of million dollar :enterprise class" servers, there are no licensing fees, support fees, maintenance fees, upgrade fees, or any other kind of charge.

2. PHP is Cross Platform :PHP can be used with a web server computer that runs Windows, Mac OS, Linux and many other version of UNIX.

3. PHP is widely used : PHP is used on different websites from countless tiny personal homepage to giant's websites.

4. PHP hides its complexity : Powerful ecommerce websites can be built using PHP as well as simple sites. Simpler and complex features can be used simultaneously which doesn't get in the way with each other's. 

5. PHP is built for web programming : Unlike other programming languages, PHP was created for generating webpages.