FAQ About
PHP Programming
- What is the best reference for PHP?
- The best reference for PHP is the PHP Manual. http://www.php.net/docs.php . You will however want to check out google.com and search exactly for what you want.
- How are PERL and PHP similar?
- Both PERL and PHP are server side scripting languages. This means that the website server generates the webpage on the fly. PERL is an older language but has some features that are not as good as PHP. The vice versa can be said about PHP. Both are relatively easy if you have ever programmed in C or Java.
- Should I choose PERL of PHP for my website?
- It really depends on if your hosting company supports either technology. I find that if you are going to be displaying more dynamic data from a database than PHP is a little easier to deal with since you can just pop in php code where ever you want. PERL on the other hand is a little more difficult to pick up however its string manipulation is one of the best. PERL I use more for scraping data off webpages and displaying little tidbits of information for myself.
- Why when I view the source of a PHP from a webpage there is no PHP code?
- The reason why there is no PHP code is that PHP is dynamically generated and all the PHP code is removed on the final output. However PHP code can print HTML elements to make your website more dynamic. If you are trying to view the source of your own PHP code you must download it through a FTP program since all HTTP requests will cause the page to be rendered.
- Ok now I see the source what can I do now?
- Anything your imagination tells you. Always remember to use your ; on the end of each line of code. If you have a static webpage try and code that into php using the print() function. Although not recomended the print command is used alot in dynamically generated websites so make sure you get familiar with it.
- What function do you like the most?
- I really like the include(filename); function. The lets me not have to write the links navigation bar on every page when I feel like I want to have a new link. All I have to do is create a document lets say called \
- How do you generate a dynamic webpage?
- A dynamic webpage means that it generates data on the fly. In the old days with HTML you would have to download your page undate the data then reupload it. Dynamic webpages rely mostly on a database. this way you can have a webpage that inserts your updated content into the database and you dont have to download or upload anything. A lot of the databases that are used are SQL based(MySQL, MSSQL, PostgreSQL, etc). This database driven type webpages allow multiple users to easily update a front page without any problems. You probably visit many dynamic webpages everyday including this one.
- You mentioned SQL what version of SQL do you use?
- I use MySQL since its free and its very flexible.
- Is MySQL hard to learn and use with PHP?
- Yes it can be a very scary process trying to jump into both PHP and MySQL at the same time. MySQL queries need to be very exact or you will get tons of errors and can be hard to diagnose if doing a query from PHP.
- Is the source code availible for your webpage?
- At the time being no. In the future I may release the code. If you like the design I did use a template from Dreamweaver.
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