Whats Php And Mysql? What the heck????

[cartune 0]

Hi.. I'm new to making website from html and xhtml and i have a question. What is PHP and Mysql? What do they do? and where can i learn to use them?

[khalilov 0]

PHP is a programing language that is similar to HTML but with variables, you can use it to generate html pages with modifications related to variables and other things. The language is used on pretty much any game and any website. As for mysql, well you need a place to store your data wether you are running a game or a forum or a blog or anything. Databases (mysql) is a place where you create tables and store info in them. Such as username,email,password,activation code,activation,age,sex and other info. If you are gona make a website where people register and sign in then you can google for some premaid scripts or as i think is better you can learn and make them your self, it is relatively easy to learn php and mysql.
A website i learnt php and mysql from and i recommend them to you is:
http://www.tizag.com/phpT/syntax.php
http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/php_ajax_intro.asp
I assume you know CSS but just in case you don't, its needed to design your website, here is a website that helps generate and teach CSS scripts
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

[Atomic0 0]

PHP is a hypertext preprocessor. Basically, when you visit a URL (e.g. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/) that refers to a PHP script, the server uses the PHP code to generate a HTML page that is seen by the end user. It works on the same principles as other server-side processing code like ASP, CGI, Perl and ColdFusion, although PHP is more widely-used and popular as it is freely available for use and on a variety of platforms including Windows, Linux and Unix systems (ASP at the moment is limited to Windows platforms).

MySQL, on the other hand. is a database server software, and is similar to MSSQL and PostgreSQL. Generally, MySQL databases are used to store information like site content and user authentication data.

With most web servers out there, PHP and MySQL are often used together, with MySQL as a means of storing data, and PHP as a means of retrieving that data from the database and displaying it in a way that the end-user can read by generating a HTML output.

If you wish to learn how to use PHP and also MySQL, there are numerous sites out there with introductions and tutorials on how to use PHP. You part want to start with the following tutorials designed for people beginning with PHP development: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/. There are also other tutorial sites that can be found easily with a Google search of 'php tutorials'. For your information, I started learning PHP with the book 'How to Do Everything with PHP and MySQL', which taught the syntax of the PHP language while using it in examples throughout the book.

[Quatrux 4]

To add my two cents,

PHP is not similar to HTML, because those are two different things. it's much clearer on Atomic0 post above.

Also PHP isn't always used only for web development, even though it is meant for it, there are several projects which makes PHP a scripting language not just for outputting HTML content..

When using php.exe you can do a lot by writing your script files, because with the right privileges you can control a lot, as you can use system() to execute external programs, you can connect to some kind of a network and get the input and so on, you can even send output to a server.

Projects like PHP-GTK also shows us the possibilities PHP can do: http://gtk.php.net/

[al421552 0]

Just to add to what has been posted and try and explain it in a simpler way:PHP is a server side scripting language. This means that it is a programming language that does all of its processing on the server of your website (unlike javascript which is client-side). You can use it to dynamically change content of your website on the fly. MySQL is a database. It's used to store any kind of data (like a member's table or something). You can use PHP and MySQL together to create some amazing sites.HTML is just a structural markup language. It does not have variables or arrays or any other of the good things from programming languages.

[pyost 0]

MySQL is a database. It's used to store any kind of data (like a member's table or something).

If a "database" is a term not easy for a beginner to understand, I always turn to how databases are displayed - tables (what you've already mentioned). A single database would be best described as a Microsoft Office Excel file (*.xls), with multiple sheets in it, which would represent tables. Through the use of a programming language, the developer connects to the MySQL server (turns on the computer), chooses a database to work white (opens an Excel file), and then executes MySQL queries (collects, inserts and changes data inside different sheets of that Excel file).

[bobbybeeelan 0]

HiPHP is very simmalar to HTML excapt it's a server language so you can't see the script also it's generates HTML that's why you can't find A PHP to HTML. MySQL is a database that PHP works with very easily it is also the free version of Serian SQLByeP.S. Hope this helps