What makes PHP Useful?

In terms of web page content we have two extremes.

At one extreme we have HTML which is completely static. There is very little that can be done with HTML to create dynamic content in a web page.

At the other extreme we have scripting languages like JavaScript. JavaScript provides a powerful mechanism for creating interactive and dynamic web pages.

When talking about JavaScript it is important to understand that it is, by design, a client side scripting language.

By this we mean that the script gets executed inside the user’s browser and not on the web server on which the web page originated.

Whilst this is fine for many situations it is often the case that by the time a script reaches the browser it is then either too late, or inefficient, to do what is needed.

A prime example of this involves displaying a web page which contains some data from a database table. Since the database resides on a server (either the same physical server which runs the web server or on the same network as the web server connected by a high speed fiber network connection) it makes sense for any script that needs to extract data from the database to be executed on the server, rather than waiting until it reaches the browser.

It is for this kind of task that PHP is perfectly suited. It is also fast and efficient (because the script is executed on the server it gets to take advantage of multi-processing, large scale memory and other such enterprise level hardware features.

In addition to the advantages of being a server side scripting language PHP is easy to learn and use. The fact that PHP works seamlessly with HTML makes it accessible to a broad community of web designers.

Perhaps one of the most significant advantages of PHP to some is the ease with which it interacts with the MySQL database to retrieve and store data.

Advantages

Open Source

PHP is open-source and free of cost, which helps developers to install it quickly and readily available for use. As it is open-source, it makes the system ready with PHP in quick time and makes the web development faster with the help of providing the tools and other features easily.

Platform Independent

PHP is supported by all the operating systems like Windows, Unix, Linux etc. The PHP based developed web applications can be easily run on any platform. It can be integrated with other programming language and database easily and there is no requirement of re-development. It helps in saving a lot of effort and cost.

Simple and Easy

This advantage of PHP is simple and easy to learn and code. It is mainly organized code and clean, which helps the new developers also. The one who knows any programming language can easily work on PHP. It is simple to learn, as its learning curve is not large. The syntax is simple and flexible to use.

Database

PHP is easily connected with a database and make the connection securely with databases. It has a built-in module that is used to connect to the database easily. There are many web applications, which require strong programming language with a good database management system.

Fast

PHP is known as the fastest Programming language. PHP applications can be easily loaded over the slow Internet and data speed. The fast speed of PHP provides the developer with an edge to develop the web applications in PHP programming language.

Maintenance

PHP framework is mainly used to make the web application development easier and maintain the code automatically. The model view controller architecture in PHP framework helps the code to be easily maintained and used.

Support

This advantage of PHP has great online support and community, which helps the new developers to help in writing the code and developing the web applications. The documentation provided at the official site helps in using the different features of PHP and its framework.

Testing

PHP based web applications can be easily tested. PHP unit uses to perform the unit testing quickly and easily. It also helps the programmers to write test cases and perform the testing smoothly.

Security

PHP frameworks built-in feature and tools make it easier to protect the web applications from the outer attacks and security threats. The security threats can be like SQL injection, data tampering, and forgery etc.

Stable

PHP is also stable as compared to other programming languages. It has been in existence for a long time. The developers have worked on PHP to make it easy for the programmers to work on developing the PHP web-based applications.