PHP is a scripting language used to create dynamic web pages. It was originally created in 1995 and has been developed extensively ever since. PHP is free software and is used widely throughout the web design industry. [1]
I believe it will be useful to conduct some research into what PHP can actually do, and look into its most common uses in the industry.
I have chosen two angles of research. The first is secondary research, by reading web design websites and forums to see what designers all over the world use PHP for. The other angle is to conduct primary research using Twitter to ask my contacts about their uses of PHP. This will hopefully provide me with more specific and relevant information with the contacts being local and having gone down the same training routes as me. These two angles should give me an overall understanding of how I can use PHP and highlight any particular strengths or weaknesses.
My primary research saw me receive two replies from web designers currently working in the industry. When asked for their three most common uses for PHP, both highlighted the use of the PHP ‘Include’ function. This is useful for including common sets of code on numerous pages, but only having to write the code once. I can see that this would save time when coding web pages.
Another function that both designers said was one of their most common uses of PHP was ‘Variables’. From what I understand this allows certain content on a web page to vary every time it is visited. This could be useful for content such as advertising.
I was also informed that PHP is heavily involved with CMS. Having knowledge of PHP could enable me to either create my own CMS, or at least make tweaks to suit my needs to software such as WordPress.
Finally the use of PHP in forms was mentioned. I have come across PHP forms previously. I understand that PHP could allow information entered into a form to be stored in a database or emailed to an address.
Moving onto my secondary research, reading an article gave me some more common uses of PHP. PHP is required to for shopping carts[2], to link it to a database and display the live availability of products.
The article also picked forums out as being very dependent on PHP, and the PM system linked to forums. [3]This will again be so that all posts can be kept in a database and retrieved when needed.
Other uses of PHP are in photo galleries and site counters.[4]
All of the functions seem to be based around retrieving stored information from a database, so in essence I guess this is what PHP is. I can see that it will add lots to my website, increasing functionality and the ease of managing content. From the basics of Includes that will decrease the about of code I have to enter for every page, all the way up to having a content managed shopping cart on my website. PHP is going to be a very useful skill to have for my work
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP
2. http://ezinearticles.com/?Top-Ten-PHP-Uses&id=2918388
3. http://ezinearticles.com/?Top-Ten-PHP-Uses&id=2918388
4. http://www.ozzu.com/programming-forum/php-uses-website-design-t20240.html
