Ultimate PHP Programming Guide

PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor. PHP is a widely-used, open-source scripting language developers use for server-side web development. It is also known for its ability to create dynamic and interactive website by embedding code into HTML. From simple static websites to complex web applications, PHP provides the flexibility and power to meet all your development needs.

In today’s article, we’ll explore an introduction to PHP, highlight its key features, look at some of the most popular PHP frameworks, and uncover some fascinating facts you probably haven’t heard before. There’s a lot to cover, so stay with me!

Table of contents:

1. Introduction to PHP
2. Key features of PHP
3. Popular PHP frameworks
4. PHP syntax and various ways to write code
5. Interesting facts about PHP

1 – Introduction to PHP

PHP is a dynamic programming language that developers use to build everything from simple static websites to complex dynamic web applications. It runs on the server and the result is returned to the browser as plain HTML. Since it’s free to download and use, it is an easy enough to be a beginner’s first server side language! PHP generates dynamic content on the server and interacts with databases, forms, and sessions. PHP is available on all major operating systems, such as Linux, Microsoft Windows, and macOS. Most web servers, including Apache and IIS, also support PHP.

2 – Key features of PHP

2.1 Open Source and Free

PHP is free to use, and its source code is available for anyone to download, modify, and distribute.

2.2 Server-Side Scripting

As a server-side scripting language, PHP processes code on the server to generate dynamic web content, interact with databases, and send the output to the browser.

2.3 Interpreted Language

Being an interpreted language, PHP doesn’t require compilation, allowing it to execute code quickly and efficiently.

2.4 Simplicity and Ease of Use

Known for its straightforward syntax, PHP programming language is relatively easy to learn and use.

2.5 Cross-Platform Compatibility

As a platform-independent, you don’t have to have a particular OS to run PHP because it runs on every operating system.

2.6 Flexibility

PHP offers a high degree of flexibility, allowing developers to easily adapt and modify their code.

2.7 Object-Oriented Programming

In addition to its procedural capabilities, it supports object-oriented programming features such as classes, objects, inheritance, encapsulation, and polymorphism.

2.8 Database Integration

With built-in database connectivity, developers can work seamlessly with databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.

2.9 Session and Cookie Management

PHP supports session and cookie management, allowing tracking of user activities across different pages of a website.

2.10 Large and Active Community

The language benefits from a large and active developer community that offers extensive support, documentation, and continuous improvements.

2.11 Extensive Library Support

A vast selection of pre-built libraries and frameworks helps streamline development by providing ready-made solutions to common problems.

2.12 Performance and Scalability

Developers design PHP to be efficient and scalable, making it suitable for building high-traffic web applications.

2.13 Loosely Typed Language

PHP is a loosely typed language, meaning variables do not need to be explicitly declared with a data type.

3 – Popular PHP Frameworks

Websites have become more complex and demanding over time. PHP frameworks are the go-to creation tools that developers use to make it more attractive and easy to use. Here are some of the best PHP frameworks in use today.

3.1 Laravel

Developers refer to Laravel as ‘The PHP Framework for Web Artisans.’ Taylor Otwell developed and launched it in June 2011. Laravel includes features that CodeIgniter lacked, such as user authentication.

3.2 Symfony

Symfony framework launched in October 2005. Symfony is both a PHP framework and a collection of PHP components for building websites.

3.3 CodeIgniter

CodeIgniter framework helps you build web apps quickly, as it has minimal configuration. CodeIgniter is flexible. It encourages development with the MVC architecture, but you can code non-MVC applications too.

3.4 Zend

The Zend Framework is a long-established PHP framework that is now transitioning to the Laminas Project. Migration to Laminas is strongly recommended, as Zend is no longer updated.

3.5 Yii

This framework’s name, Yii, means “simple and evolutionary” in Chinese. It also stands for “Yes, It Is!”. You can get up and running with Yii within minutes. The Gii code generator can quickly build skeleton code for you, saving time.

3.6 CakePHP

CakePHP serves up fast and clean PHP development. Configuration is minimal. You don’t have to mess around with XML or YAML files. Once you set up your database you can begin coding.

4 – PHP syntax and various ways to write code

PHP code is written within <?php … ?> tags, allowing it to be embedded in HTML or used in standalone scripts. The default file extension for PHP files is .php. PHP statements end with a semicolon (;). PHP keywords (e.g. if, else, while, echo, etc.), classes, functions, and user-defined functions are not case-sensitive. However, all variable names are case-sensitive! [ $color, $COLOR, and $coLOR ] are treated as three different variables.

There are 3 different ways to write PHP code:

4.1 Without any HTML markups

<?php
    $a=10;
    $b=10;
    $c=$a+$b;
    echo("The addition of a and b is ". $c);
?>

4.2 Embedding HTML markups in PHP code

<?php
    echo "<html>";
    echo "<h1> welcome </h1>" ;
    echo "</html>" ;
?>

4.3 Embedding PHP code in HTML

<html> 
<body> 
<?php 
    $alt = "Bird image";
?> 
<img src="https://google.com/bird.jpg" alt="<?php echo $alt; ?>">
</body>
</html>

5 – Interesting facts about PHP

• Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf created PHP in 1993 and released in 1995.
• PHP was originally an abbreviation of Personal Home Page, but it now stands for Hypertext Preprocessor.
• According to W3Techs, around 79% of all websites use PHP.
• Many popular websites, including Facebook, Yahoo, and Wikipedia, utilize PHP for their backend development.
• According to recent research, nearly 80% of developers choose PHP as their server side scripting language.
• The world’s most popular CMS (Content Management System) WordPress, which powers over 40% of websites, is built primarily in PHP.
• PHP allows both procedural and object-oriented programming (OOP), making it flexible for beginners and advanced developers alike.
• The PHP development team planned a PHP 6 version with Unicode support, but they never released it. Instead, they made PHP 7 the next major version after PHP 5.6.
• You can call over 1000 built-in PHP functions directly from within a script to perform a specific task.

Conclusion

In this article, we explore the fundamentals of PHP — from its introduction and key features to popular frameworks and some interesting facts. In future articles, I’ll dive deeper into each PHP framework and also cover widely used PHP-based content management systems (CMS). Stay tuned for a comprehensive PHP guide covering various essential topics.