All examples in this tutorial are in the PHP Basics tutorial sample site.
Just WHAT is PHP anyway?
PHP is a server side scripting language that is very useful in creating websites that behave differently based on input by the user, or web site conditions. The ability to have the page automatically change content, buttons, images, etc. based on certain conditions without having to "re-code and publish" makes the page a "dynamic" page. PHP works by having the server the page resides on recognize that PHP code exists, evaluating the code, generating the HTML from that evaluation and then sending the resulting created HTML page to the user's browser.
PHP has also very useful for creating a way to get data in and out of a database without having to reconstruct stacked pages and republishing a site to the internet
How is it most often used?
PHP is an open source (means you can rewrite the actual PHP code if you really REALLY wanted to), free software that can run on Windows 9x, Windows ME, Linux (or *nix based systems), Windows NT, XP, 2000 operating systems.
PHP is very often used to access a MySQL database (also free). but can front end many databases include Postgres, Oracle, SQLServer, Access, Informix and others.
OK OK, enough of the introductions, lets get started! You can either go lesson page by lesson page to learn PHP, or use the menu to jump ahead for quick reference
Lesson One - The Essentials
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this tutorial written and maintained by Tami Burke, Honey House Designs
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