Areas where PHP can be used

[psrinivas]

Hi all,

What are the different areas where PHP can be put to use.

Or is it only for Internet based applications.

Any information in this regard will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[tomda]

One of the main reason you may want to use PHP is because it enables you to use INCLUDES.

Include for the header, include for the footer, include for the right column, etc...

So that for every PHP page, you call the include... And if you need to change something in the header for example, you just have to change it ONCE (and not in every HTML pages).

[RonPK]

PHP normally runs as a module 'within' Apache (or another web server), so yes, most PHP applications are web based. There is a Command Line Interface as well, but that also requires a web server to be running, IIRC.

With an extension called PHP-GTK, you can build stand-alone GUI applications, coded in PHP.

[grandpa]

Not all web based applications are actually on the web. Our back office and administration (except accounting and most e-mail) are written in PHP and run as web applications on the localhost system.

This allows the flexibility of using tools, like ftp, without having to run a separate ftp program. Databases can be maintained without the exclusive need for phpMyAdmin or similar database management applications.