Here we would like to show the very
basics of PHP in a short, simple tutorial. This text only
deals with dynamic webpage creation with PHP, though PHP
is not only capable of creating webpages. See the section
titled What can PHP do for more information.
PHP-enabled web pages are treated just like regular HTML
pages and you can create and edit them the same way you
normally create regular HTML pages.
What do I need?
In this tutorial we assume that your server has activated
support for PHP and that all files ending in .php are handled
by PHP. On most servers, this is the default extension for
PHP files, but ask your server administrator to be sure.
If your server supports PHP, then you do not need to do
anything. Just create your .php files, put them in your
web directory and the server will automatically parse them
for you. There is no need to compile anything nor do you
need to install any extra tools. Think of these PHP-enabled
files as simple HTML files with a whole new family of magical
tags that let you do all sorts of things. Most web hosts
offer PHP support, but if your host does not, consider reading
the PHP Links section for resources on finding PHP enabled
web hosts.
Let us say you want to save precious bandwidth and develop
locally. In this case, you will want to install a web server,
such as Apache, and of course PHP. You will most likely
want to install a database as well, such as MySQL. You can
either install these individually or choose a simpler way.
Locate a pre-configured package which automatically installs
all of these with just a few mouse clicks. It is easy to
setup a web server with PHP support on any operating system,
including Linux and Windows. On Linux, you may find rpmfind
and PBone helpful for locating RPMs. You may also want to
visit apt-get to find packages for Debian.
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