WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF PHP the ultimate (Hypertext
Preprocessor)
Overview
Definition
History
Uses
Advantages/Disadvantages
Advantages of
PHP over ASP
Differences between PHP and Cold-fusion
Difference between JSP and PHP
Basic Syntax
Complex Syntax
Similarities between ASP and PHP
Definition
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Programming Language
Server-side scripting language
Html Embedded Scripting Language
primary purpose of which to generate
HTML
It focuses on the logic of how a page
responds to user input, not how the page
looks
History
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PHP is a language for creating interactive web sites
over 3.3 million web sites around the world.
Originally name: "Personal Home Page Tools" when it was created in
1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf to keep track of who was looking at his
online resume
Uses of PHP
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Helps in reading and writing files
Can do basic file and directory maintenance
Take content, use in generation of files in various formats i.e. HTML
and PDF
Manages graphic content
Read, write info in database.
Advantages of PHP and
Disadvantages

Cost –free
Cross-platform compatibility (Windows, Macintosh, or a version of
Unix, ): Compiled and built on 25 platforms

Error handling is not as sophisticated as ASP
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Advantages of PHP over ASP
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PHP runs faster than ASP
PHP is Free .
PHP is more efficient with memory
PHP can be run on any system with no performance issues
PHP is tightly integrated with MySQL ASP commonly uses Microsoft
Access which is much slower than MySQL
More object oriented than ASP
Database connections in PHP > 200% (higher)
Differences between PHP and ColdFusion
Cold-Fusion: Web application development tool that allows developers to build dynamic data-driven applications for use
on the Internet and intranets

Cold Fusion
(Platform) Relatively limited platform selection.
ieWindows, Solaris, Linux or HP/UX.
(Language) Really fast and easy for display pages and database interaction

(Database Support):Abstracts database connections, making them simple to use,
Not as easy for the easy stuff, but much
easier for the hard stuff.
Has extremely strong native DB support
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(File System Support):Adequate file support, but is quirky and not feature-rich
Comprehensive file system support
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(Error-handling):good try/catch functionality, making formal error handling possible
has no formal error handling
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PHP
If compiled, runs
Basic/General Syntax
<?php ... ?>
<html>
<head>
<title>My first PHP page</title>
</head>
<body>
This is normal HTML code
<?php
// PHP code goes here
?>
Back into normal HTML
</body>
</html>
Variables in PHP

loosely “typed language” i.e given variable can be an integer, floating-point
number, string, object, or an array
Integer: mathematical data type and represents any whole number and usually
can be any value from a negative value to a positive value.
floating-point number represents
any value that contains a decimal point.
EXAMPLE OF AN INTEGER VARIABLE
<?php
// Both of the following are equivalent to 1.234
$myfloat = 1.234; // Standard decimal notation
EXAMPLE OF AN INTEGER VARIABLE
$myfloat = .001234e3; // Scientific notation
<?php
?>
// All of the following are numerically equivalent
$myint = 83;// Normal decimal notation
$myint = O123; // Octal notation for the # 83
$myint = 0x53; // Hexadecimal notation for # 83
?>
Condition-code in PHP
<html>
<?
$var = date("H");
if ($var <= 11) {
echo "good morning";
}
else {
if ($var > 11 and $var < 18) {
echo "good afternoon";
}
else {
echo "good evening";
}
}
?>
</html>
Functions in PHP code
SAMPLE CODE
<? function show_form($value="") { ?>
<form action="submit.php3" method="post">
<input type=text name=value
value="<?echo $value?>">
<input type=submit>
</form>
<? }
PHP EMAIL
Built-in function called mail(), that helps sends email.
mail($receiver, $subject,
$message, "From: $sender");
NOTE: The mail() function
-return a variable
-true or false, with regard to whether the mail was sent
- echo information to your user, as to the email status.
$sent = mail($receiver, $subject, $message, "From: $sender");
if ($sent) {
echo "your message was sent";
}else {
echo "your message was not sent";
}
ASP EMAIL CODE(An idea
with respect to ASP)
<%
Dim MyBody
Dim MyCDONTSMail
%>
<%
Set MyCDONTSMail = CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
MyCDONTSMail.From= "somebody@nowhere.com"
MyCDONTSMail.To= "nobody@nowhere.com"
MyCDONTSMail.Subject="This is a Test"
MyBody = "Thank you for ordering that stuff" & vbCrLf
MyBody = MyBody & "We appretiate your business" & vbCrLf
MyBody = MyBody & "Your stuff will arrive within 7 business days"
MyCDONTSMail.Body= MyBody
MyCDONTSMail.Send
set MyCDONTSMail=nothing
%>
Similaritites betweeen ASP and
PHP
Similarities between PHP and ASP
Positive Aspect
 Easy to develop.
 Easy database connection/configuration.
The presentation is separate from processing.
Negative Aspects
 They are scripting languages that has a narrow scope.
They are scalability.
Differences between JSP and PHP
JSP
PHP
JSP uses Java as its scripting language
defines its own scripting language,
which looks and feels a lot like Perl.
Uses VBScript
JSP is much more powerful, since it has
access to all the Java libraries
Object-Oriented, so leads to cleaner
code that's easier to debug, maintain,
and improve.
access to PHP libraries
Also allows objects, but the object
model is more primitive, and most
scripted pages ignore PHP objects and
just use normal variables.