PHP overview

What is PHP?

PHP is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML.

What distinguishes PHP from something like client-side JavaScript is that the code is executed on the server, generating HTML which is then sent to the client. The client would receive the results of running that script, but would not know what the underlying code was. You can even configure your web server to process all your HTML files with PHP, and then there's really no way that users can tell what you have up your sleeve.

Why Use PHP?

The technical progression and technological revolution are facing a drastic hike in terms of languages, frameworks, programs, and tools every year.

Every language is trying to succeed in its own space but only some of them survive with serviceable features, and others naturally get out of the flow. Among the survived list, it is always revealed that an unnoticeable battle is progressing between PHP over ASP.NET. Even with the competent features of both the programming languages, why more people prefer PHP over ASP.NET?

Both these technologies are taking a lion’s share in the whole website development market, and hence, the selection process needs to be confirmed with your requirements.

A good benefit of using PHP is that it can interact with many different database languages including MySQL. We work with MySQL at Bluelinemedia since this is also a free language so it makes sense to use PHP. Both PHP and MySQL are compatible with an Apache server which is also free to license. PHP can also run on Windows, Linux and Unix servers.

Due to all these languages being free it is cheap and easy to setup and create a website using PHP.

PHP also has very good online documentation with a good framework of functions in place. This makes the language relatively easy to learn and very well supported online. There are countless forums and tutorials on various PHP methods and problems so it is usually very easy to find help if you need it.

Due to PHP being so accessible and cheap to setup there are a lot of people who know how to use the language which makes finding new employees proficient in this language less challenging.

Why Your Business Needs a Website?

Websites work. No matter what your business or profession, a website can generate business, promote goodwill among customers and prospects, and deliver strong marketing messages - whether your business is small, large or in-between, well-established or brand-new.

People use the Web in greater and greater numbers, more and more every day. Even if you are a completely local small business, service, contractor or consultant, odds are people have used search engines to look for your web site - and if you don't have a web site... well, you get the picture.

Perhaps the most common misconception about business websites is that they must offer products for purchase, accept credit cards and process financial transactions, and so on. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

While ecommerce websites are increasingly popular, the vast majority of business websites are still information and communication rather than purchase-oriented. If your business offers products and services appropriate for retail sale over the Internet, then by all means you should consider an ecommerce website.

But if, like most businesses, your products and services aren't intended for Internet sales, you still need a Web page of your own. And you can get one quickly and economically.

The first thing you will need is a Web hosting service - that's the address of your business Web page, and the company that actually stores your business's website on its computers and makes it available to Web users. Many Web hosting companies offer both domain and hosting services.