PHP Basics Workshop

Developed by: Paul Burney

 
 
 

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Introduction

PHP is short for PHP Hypertext Preprocessor. What it does is to process hypertext (i.e., HTML web pages) before they leave the web server. This allows you to add dynamic content to pages while at the same time making that content available to users with all types of browsers. PHP is an interpreted programming language, like Perl.

With PHP you can do almost anything. Really. You can connect to any thing that you would want to on the command line, create interactive pages, PDF files, and images, and connect to database, LDAP, and email servers.

This workshop will serve as an introduction to the most basic elements of PHP and how to use them to create dynamic pages.

To participate in this workshop you need:

  • A computer
  • A text editor (Mac: SimpleText, Windows: Note Pad)
  • A web browser (Netscape Navigator/Communicator, MS Internet Explorer, iCab, etc.)
  • A web server that supports PHP (such as the GSE&IS web server).
  • An FTP program (Mac: Fetch, Windows: WS_FTP)
  • An internet connection

If you don't have one or more of these programs installed on your computer, much of it can be downloaded for free, at least for a limited demonstration period. Check the vendor's web site for more information, or perform a search on a site such as Download.com.

If you would like, you can print this entire workshop.