PHP Hosting - What Does it Involve?
PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), from the PHP Group, is an open-source scripting language used to easily create dynamic web pages and interactive features on websites. It can also be used for command-line scripting and client-side graphical user interface applications.It has similarities to Java, C and Perl, with a few unique features, and can be embedded in HTML. As well, PHP can generate HTML, and HTML can pass information to PHP.
It can be run on any platform, but is often associated with Linux because of demand from PHP users.
You will need a PHP hosting provider to ensure that the PHP code embedded in your HTML pages can be viewed by visitors to your site. A host that doesn’t support PHP will leave your website looking like it is full of gaps.
PHP comes with built-in support for MySQL, Sun's version of the SQL database language, though it isn’t enabled by default with PHP 5. MySQL must be enabled manually, but there is a new extension with PHP 5 for improved support. PHP can connect to MySQL database or SQL 2000 server using its own open source libraries, so it directly interacts with the database.
PHP recently released PHP 5.2.10, saying that it focuses on improving the stability of the PHP 5.2.x branch with over 100 bug fixes, one of which is security related.
Cookies can be set up on your website with PHP Sessions, giving visitors to your site a more personalized experience.
PHP is easy to learn but allows experienced users to perform advanced tasks, making it attractive for web designers at all levels.