PHP is an open source software project, the most popular general-purpose scripting language crafted especially for web development. In theory, PHP is a hypertext preprocessor, but it\u2019s actually a fast, pragmatic and flexible server-side programming language that helps you create powerful websites.<\/p>\n
While a skilled web developer can easily embed PHP into HTML, it can be used as a standalone executable. Its syntax draws upon the C, Java, and Perl. It easy to learn if you previously interact with any of the aforementioned programming languages.<\/p>\n
Being designed from the offset to be a universal web programming language, PHP offers support for XML, IMAP, Java, LDAP, several major databases, various Internet protocols, and general data manipulation.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s called a server-side programming language because it integrates into a web server, such as Apache or Microsoft IIS. To add support for PHP to a web server, you can install the native web server module or a CGI executable.<\/p>\n
PHP is an Internet-aware system that can access database servers, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, LDAP and Microsoft SQL Server, as well as FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers.<\/p>\n
PHP is actively developed in multiple stable and development branches, each one supporting various features and components. It is highly extensible via its powerful APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).<\/p>\n
PHP is implemented in the C programming language, which means that it\u2019s a cross-platform software supporting GNU\/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows operating systems. It runs successfully on both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware platforms. It is freely available for download on any of the aforementioned OSes, distributed under the PHP license.<\/p>\n