PHP - what it is and why you should use it

Are you interested in web development? Have you ever heard of PHP? If not, then this post is for you! In this post, I'll introduce you to PHP. In this post, we will cover the following:

1. What is PHP?
2. Why use PHP?
3. Getting started with PHP
4. Tools and resources for PHP development
5. Best practices for PHP development

So, let's get started.

What is PHP?

PHP is a server-side scripting language that is used to create dynamic web pages. When a user requests a page from a PHP-enabled web server, the server processes the PHP code in the page and generates HTML, which is sent to the user's browser. PHP code is executed on the server, so users cannot see it in the page source.

PHP was originally created in 1994 by Rasmus Lerdorf, and has since evolved into a popular and widely used language for web development. It is free and open-source, and is supported by a large community of developers.

Why use PHP?

There are several reasons why PHP is a popular choice for web development. Some of the reasons are:

1. Easy to learn: PHP has a relatively simple syntax, and is easy to pick up for beginners.
2. Large community: There is a large community of developers who use PHP, which means there are many resources and tools available.
3. Cross-platform compatibility: PHP can run on various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS.
4. Speed: PHP is designed to be fast and efficient, which means it can handle a large volume of web traffic.
5. Integrations: PHP can be easily integrated with other technologies, such as databases and content management systems.

Getting started with PHP

To get started with PHP, you'll need to install a web server and PHP on your computer. You can use a popular web server such as Apache or Nginx, and install PHP using a package manager or by downloading the binaries from the official PHP website. But the recommended approach to get started, if you ask me, is to install XAMPP or WAMP or LAMP server. My favourite choice is XAMPP server. 

To install XAMPP server, here are the steps to install on Windows:

1. Go to the Apache Friends website and download the XAMPP installer for Windows.
2. Once the download is complete, run the installer file and select the components you want to install. At minimum, you'll need to select Apache, MySQL, and PHP. You may also want to select additional components like phpMyAdmin or OpenSSL.
3. Choose an installation directory for XAMPP. The default directory is "C:\xampp", but you can choose a different directory if you prefer.
4. Click the "Install" button to start the installation process. The installer will extract the necessary files and install XAMPP on your computer.
5. Once the installation is complete, you can launch XAMPP by running the "xampp-control.exe" file in the XAMPP installation directory.
6. Start the Apache and MySQL services by clicking the "Start" button next to each service in the XAMPP control panel.
7. Open your web browser and go to http://localhost/ to confirm that XAMPP is working properly. You should see a welcome page with links to phpMyAdmin and other tools.

Once you have the server installed, you can start creating your first PHP script because it automatically comes loaded with PHP.  To test that you have PHP running, let's make a simple "Hello, world!":

Open your favourite text editor. By default you can use Notepad.

Click on File > New File and type the following lines of code:

Save this code as a PHP file (e.g. "hello.php") in 'c:\\xampp\\htdocs', and open it in your web browser by navigating to "http://localhost/hello.php".

Tools and resources for PHP development

There are many tools and resources available to help you with PHP development. Here are a few examples:

1. IDEs (integrated development environments) such as Visual Studio Code and PhpStorm provide powerful editing and debugging tools for PHP code.
2. Online resources such as the PHP manual and Stack Overflow can help you with common PHP programming problems.
3. PHP frameworks such as Laravel and Symfony provide a pre-built set of tools and libraries for web application development.

Best practices for PHP development

To write clean, maintainable, and secure PHP code, it is recommended you follow these best practices:

1. Use a coding standard: Adopt a coding standard such as PSR-1 or PSR-12 to ensure consistency in your code.
2. Validate user input: Always validate user input to prevent security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attacks.
3. Use prepared statements: Prepared statements can help protect against SQL injection attacks by separating SQL code from user input.
4. Avoid global variables: Global variables can make your code hard to debug and maintain. Use function arguments or class properties instead.
5. Comment your code: Add comments to your code to make it easier for others to understand what your code does.

Conclusion: