Okay what is PHP?

someone said I should learn this.

[jpmuldoon]

I am just starting out and they said a good idea was to use PHP to dynamically build pages. But what is it?

Here is the definition from About.com:

"The PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP -- yes, the first "P" in the acronym does indeed stand for PHP!) allows web developers to create dynamic content that interacts with databases. PHP applications are normally found on Linux servers and in conjunction with MySQL databases. It provides those servers with functionality similar to that provided to the Windows platform by Active Server Pages technology."

Needless to say, this means nothing to me. Let's parse this out:

"PHP applications are normally found on Linux servers.."

Now I'm going to have to learn Linux/Unix? I know serious people think that is the way to go, but I dont even know HTML yet? What the hell...?

".....and in conjunction with MySQL databases.

Again. Whatis MySQL? Do I need it? What's going on here really?

"...functionality similar to that provided to the Windows platform by Active Server Pages technology."

Again means nothing. What is Active Server pages? WHy would I need something like that if I am just starting out?

[Leosghost]

You are trying to go the complicated way ..
From your other posts ..If you are just beginning settle for putting up a site or two in Html ..get them working ..play with them ..then worry about all the other stuff ..other wise you'll never actually get a site you'll be too busy reading how to make a site ...

[goodroi]

PHP is a good thing. But first you should master the basics - HTML and FTP. After you have a successful HTML site, you can then start on PHP if you need to make a big dynamic site.

[chrisnrae]

Yea, HTML first. I look at HTML as the alphabet. Once you know it, you can learn to spell all sorts of nifty words (PHP, CSS, XML, etc) but without knowing at least your letters, spelling words is an uphill battle.

HTML is fairly easy to learn. There are tons of online tutorials that are free and even very inexpensive online HTML classes if you learn better by being instructed. Good luck ;).

[megajam02]

jpmuldoon,
I was in your situation not too long ago, and I can vouch for the above suggestions.

Learn HTML first and PHP will make alot more sense. Here's a VERY basic answer to a couple of your questions -

What is MySQL? MySQL is a database server that you can use to make your website more dynamic. If you are familiar with Microsoft SQL Server, or Oracle, MySQL is along those same lines. I would imagine that most good web hosts out there provide some type of MySQL database for you to use.

Active Server Pages are similar to PHP, they are just Microsoft's implementation of dynamic web pages. And no, you definitely don't need to learn PHP or ASP when you are just beginning.

[mthorpe]

what exactly does php mean/do. what are dynamic web pages? also, what does cgi mean/do? I know the html and ftp, but all these different extensions like x(html?) s(html?).php .cgi and so on i hvae no ida what they mean. Anyone care to explain in short what these different things mean?

[lorax]

PHP is a script language. PHP files use a unique file extension (.php) which tells the webserver to pass the page to the PHP engine before sending it on to the Client (browser). When the page is parsed by the script engine, the engine executes the scripted code and does whatever it was designed to do - call a database and display results, open and display text files, tell you today's date and time, upload an image file, etc... That's about as simple an explanation as I can provide. ;)