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PHP Tutorial >> Introduction
PHP Tutorial - Introduction
Welcome to OpenDirectorySite.net's
PHP Tutorial. The goal of this tutorial is to teach you the basics of PHP so
that you can:
-
Customize PHP scripts that you
download, so that they better fit your needs.
-
Begin to understand the working
model of PHP, so you may begin to design your own PHP projects.
-
Give you a solid base in PHP, so
as to make you more valuable in the eyes of future employers.
PHP - What is it?
Taken directly from PHP's home,
PHP.net, "PHP is an HTML-embedded scripting language. Much of its syntax is
borrowed from C, Java and Perl with a couple of unique PHP-specific features
thrown in. The goal of the language is to allow web developers to write
dynamically generated pages quickly."
This is generally a good definition
of PHP. However, it is often easier to think of PHP in terms of what it can do
for you. PHP will allow you to:
-
Reduce the time to create large
websites.
-
Create a customized user
experience for visitors based on information that you have gathered from
them.
-
Open up thousands of
possibilities for online tools. Check out
PHP - HotScripts for examples of the great things that are possible with
PHP.
-
Allow creation of shopping carts
for e-commerce websites.
What You Should Know
Before starting this tutorial it is
important that you have a basic understanding and experience in the following:
-
HTML - Know the syntax
and especially
HTML Forms.
-
Basic programming knowledge -
This isn't required, but if you have any traditional programming experience
it will make learning PHP a great deal easier.
Tutorial Overview
This tutorial is aimed at the PHP
novice and will teach you PHP from the ground up. If you want a drive-through
PHP tutorial this probably is not the right tutorial for you.
Remember, you should not try to
plow through this tutorial in one sitting. Read a couple lessons, take a break,
then do some more after the information has had some time to sink in.
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