PHP Forum

**millwalll** · 06-03-2005, 06:12 AM

hi i want to develope my web design skill to do this i fill i need to learn php mysql asp but im really confussed as where to start whats best to learn first ect ect as i have no knolage of any of these i fill the starting point is very inportant ive been told to try this website

http://www.w3schools.com/

also been told to buy a book called learn php and sql in 24 hours is this any good

also what is php sql and asp used for i understand they are very powerful website tools just not to sure what you can and cant do

any help be great as im lost a the moment

**mtishetsky** · 06-03-2005, 06:31 AM

Are you drunk or just non-English?

**millwalll** · 06-03-2005, 06:40 AM

lol neither im at work and was typing fast as my boss was behind me

**mvd** · 06-03-2005, 09:03 AM

do you know HTML?

you should probably start with the basics and work from that, and learn how everything works. Servers, programming, etc etc.

Once you get a grasp of the basics, start off with PHP, its free. Get a book on it, and start from the beginning.

**millwalll** · 06-03-2005, 09:15 AM

yeah i know html i have started learning php the basic from the above website but i dont really understand the firest bit code i am looking at is

</head>

<body>
<?php echo "Hello World"; ?>
</body>
</html>

the question i got is what the point of using php for text if i used php to write all my txt on my website what does this do does it make the page load quicker or does it not matter at all

**mtishetsky** · 06-03-2005, 10:13 AM

Server side scripting (including PHP) is generally used for templates- and database-driven websites. This means that using PHP or other server side scripts you are able to create templates that are common for all pages of your site and then only change the main part with contents. Or even you can grab this contents from DB instead of from text files. Also server side scripting allows you to interact with the user, somehow process the data he inputs. Also through PHP or whatever else you can make your server communicate with outer world, e.g. grab news, weather reports, stock market info and so on.

**millwalll** · 06-03-2005, 10:23 AM

oh i see mtishetsky so let say i used php to buld a template then i would jsut have to change the contents in the php file that would then update the rest of the site to this template so i guess this is really good if you building a big site with 50 pages and u want change your logo for example

**0beron** · 06-03-2005, 11:58 AM

OK a summary is needed:

HTML
You seem to know already. Used for specifying the content of your webpages and a limited amount of layout. Not a programming language, but a Markup Language.

CSS
Used for specifying more advanced layout and appearance info for HTML based content. Also not aprogramming language.

Javascript and VBscript etc
Client Side scripting language. This means code is sent to the browser and is executed by the browser, meaning you can do things like take mouse and keyboard input and influence the page displayed without refreshing. Has some limits placed on it to provide some level of security (eg you can't modify the local filesystem).

MySQL
MySQL is a database management system (DBMS). The databases themselves are just files that MySQL manages. SQL is the query language used to interact with MySQL.

PHP and ASP
These are both server side scripting languages, PHP is open source and ASP is from Microsoft. They do the same thing in slightly different ways but that's not important. A php script is run before the page requested leaves the server, and controls what is sent to the browser. This means you can't do the client side stuff from javascript and the like, but it is ideal for (and in fact was designed for) serving dynamic webpages. Dynamic means you as the coder have control over how each requested page looks every time it gets served. Serverside languages can dynamically generate all of the above languages and send it all to the browser/MySQL system as appropriate. This lets you do templates and automatic layout. They can also accept form input, which allows users to interact with the site. A good example of a PHP based application of this type is VBulletin, the forum software for WT.

The example you give of

<?php echo "Hello World"; ?>

is pretty useless - but hey it's only an example. Consider what would hapen if it were to be:

<?php echo $stuff; ?>

where $stuff came out of your database?
That's exactly what PHP does (among a lot of other things).