Web developers may use different web programming languages for website development. To produce a simple static web page it is enough to know the basics of the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). However, static web pages are not in demand anymore – modern websites are dynamic, efficient and interactive.
PHP web site development is one of the best ways to produce dynamic web pages and realize dynamic structure of websites. PHP is a scripting language that was created in 1994. It was initially created as a set of Perl scripts (Perl was a very popular programming language at that time). PHP web site development is a labor-consuming process, but the result is worth the efforts.
Today PHP is a popular server-side scripting language. It means, that a PHP script is executed directly on the web server. PHP program code is integrated into an HTML document, or the HTML document refers to an external PHP file. The programming language interpreter executes the code and forms the pages of a site dynamically.
Thus PHP web site development comes to writing various program codes using the PHP scripting language. PHP syntax is not complicated, and even a beginning programmer can learn it. Besides, there are a lot of manuals (“PHP for Dummies” or whatsoever) that have been developed specially for those who are willing to learn this language.
Why is PHP web site development so popular?
As it has already been mentioned, PHP is a server-side scripting language that helps to realize a lot of interactive fictions on your website: polls, guestbooks, online shopping, various calculators etc.
To write PHP codes you don't need a special editor – a common Notepad or any other similar text editors will be enough. Whereas website developers using another popular server-side scripting language – ASP.NET – requires special software – Microsoft Visual Studio.
PHP web site development provides easy work with databases – this language supports a lot of different operating systems and DBMS in contrast to ASP.NET that guarantees the most complete integration with Microsoft products only.
PHP web site development does not consider the importance of a lot of trivia such as presence of inadmissible symbols and script access rights in the code whereas coding in C++ (used for development of ASP pages) or Perl requires taking these trivia into account.
To work with PHP you don't necessarily need access to the remote server of the hosting provider; you can test your scripts on your local personal computer. For this you should install special software – a local HTTP server that supports PHP. One of the most popular web server solution stack packages is XAMPP – a must have for any web developer.
XAMPP is a free and open source cross-platform software kit that includes Apache HTTP server, MySQL database, and interpreters for server-side scripts written in PHP. XAMPP makes the process of PHP website development much easier allowing you to test your scripts on your own computer.
The popularity of the PHP programming language for web site development bears its fruit. PHP is used for development of the so-called content management systems (CMS) and individual user scripts. It means that you can take already existing scripts as a basis during development of your site, and there will be no necessity to “re-invent the wheel” yourself.
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website development,
php web site development,
php language,
server-side script,
web development |
web programming 
