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• Full websites you can build, edit and manage on the fly
• Email clients, such as email marketing tools
• Databases for products, vendors, clients, or any other information you need to organize
• Blog (weblog) sites
• Forums
• Charts and Statistics
  
• Much more

PHP (which stands for "Pre-Hypertext Processor"), is an open-source web coding language built on C++ by Zend. It interacts with such database technologies as MySQL and MSSQL to fuel database-driven websites, and can perform a plethora of different operations such as date calculations, email handling, website statistics reporting, image creation, and even socket handling, which controls how information is sent and received through a computer's ports.
 
PHP is a server-side coding language, which means that it sits on the computers that host your website, invisible to the casual observer. If you go to view the source of a PHP page you're viewing (in Internet Explorer, for instance, you would click at the top on the "View" menu, then choose "Source"), you won't be able to see the PHP code. This is because the server reads it before the page is sent to you, then tells your browser what to output based on the PHP: and what reaches your browser is pure HTML.
 
PHP is compatible with most server operating systems, but is best suited for use with the Apache server on the Linux operating system. AWS recommends the Apache/Linux combination, as it is the most secure and stable server setup on the Net today, and therefore is the most widely used.


Ever wondered how server-side scripting languages work? Here's a diagram of the process. Note that sometimes the Internet user doesn't have to input anything; the website can be built dynamically and pieced together based on how the coder has designed it.
 
 

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