I am teaching myself PhP. I understand some of the pro's / con's of PhP - and ironically already understand a lot of the language because I know some C++ and odd programming languages.... however, even with these tools I don't quite understand the implimation of how some people use PhP.

For a forum and anything with a lot of data being sent - I grasp.

However - how exactly does PhP help control data on a website? I see sites all the time posting links and news and content - and generally it's always done with php. In terms of programming and staying up to date... how does PhP help? In laymans terms.

thanks

Ok, in the simplest of terms PHP is nothing more than a way to access a database and manipulate the data into HTML. So say you have your php page that when viewed through the browser is nothing more than HTML. You write some code in this page to connect to a database, query the database using SQL (Structured Query Language), then retrieve the result into an array. You then loop over this array echoing each result to the browser in the form of html.

If you need a more indepth explanation let me know.

I would add to captainwinky's description of PHP by pointing out that it is a server sided scripting language as opposed to a client sided like Javascript and HTML.

In other words, when you go to a website with a basic .htm or .html page the server justs sends the page to your computers browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc). When you go to a .php page on the other hand the server first reads through the PHP code decides what actions it needs to take (ie connect to a database, and so on) and then sends the page to your computer. This enables webdesigners to develop pages that do things behind the scenes without interferring with what people see on the website they are visiting. The best example of this is the next time you log into your email account that is what is happening.

Kaiman

Website Design and Hosting - Glenwood Springs, CO