PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor. This may cause confusion among many people since the first word of the acronym is the acronym. Such kind of acronym is known as recursive acronym.
PHP is a server side scripting language. Do you know the term "server side scripting"?. No! Don't Worry. In fact there are two type of scripts or codes or programs while we talk about web pages. The two types of scripts are:-
- Server Side Script
- Client Side Script
In server side script the whole action takes place on the server while in client side script the whole action takes place on the client. Simple to say , in server side scripting language, the user sends the request (of a
webpage for example) to the server and in response the server sends an html page. The user is unable to view the real processing behind the page.
In client side scripting language , the user is nothing to do with the server, the user requests are processed at the user computer by the web browser being used by the user.
So far as PHP is concerned , it is a server side language, so it provides security. Nothing can be done if the back end server is not doing its part. On the other side, the scripting languages such as javascript is a client side language.
Web pages developed through server side scripting languages are also referred to as Dynamic web pages since the content is often changing on the pages. That is the reason, such scripts are suitable for websites concerning the business world. In short, e-commerce activities are best accomplished through dynamic web sites. Dynamic Web sites are regarded as flexible applications than normal web sites being created with simple HTML or javascript.
Other features of PHP include as it is an open source language that is compatible with all the major web servers like Apache as well as databases.
