Beginners PHP Tutorial
- 1. A beginners tutorial in PHP
- 2. Step 1: To use PHP you’ll need a server to work on and test your page… You may already have web space with PHP installed to work on, Or you may already have a server installed on your system, If not you’ll need to install one yourself….
- 3. Installing a server: An easy way to aquire an Apache server, along with PHP and MySQL built in (you’ll need these when using PHP), is using WAMP (Windows) or, MAMP (Mac) ( http:// www.mamp.info ) LAMP (Linux) You can download WAMP at http://www.wampserver.com/en/
- 4. Step 2: Once you have followed the online instructions for installing and configuring WAMP, you need to check it works! Open notepad (php can be added straight into your html) and type: <html> <head> <title>PHP Test</title> </head> <body> <?php echo '<p>Hello World</p>'; ?> </body> </html>
- 5. Testing: Save this as ‘hello.php’ in your ‘www’ folder located within your WAMP folder. This can be done by selecting ‘all files’ when saving rather than the default ‘.txt’ (Note: you can also just type this script straight into a new document in Dreamweaver if preferred) Now preview by opening your browser and entering http://localhost/hello.php Your page should look like this…
- 7. Step 3: Variables Variables will allow a value to be changed throughout your page without having to go through and find it every time you need it changed. A variable can be defined by using ‘$’ at the beginning of your variable name. e.g. $variable = ‘value’ A variable must start with a letter or underscore and can only contain letters, numbers or underscores, and must not use spaces
- 8. Variables: a simple example <html> <head> <title>PHP Test</title> </head> <body> <?php $weather="sunny"; echo 'Hello World it’s '; echo $weather; ?> </body> </html> Note: every line of PHP must end in ‘ ; ’
- 9. The result should look like this:
- 10. Now to experiment! For more information on PHP and the next steps in learning syntax why not try: http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/php_string.asp http://www.webmonkey.com/tutorial/PHP_Tutorial_for_Beginners#Basic_Syntax http://www.developphp.com/
- 11. The End.