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PHP (Hypertext Pre-Processor) is a server-side programming language that allows your website to execute tasks.

Without a programming language telling your website what to do, your website would sit idle and do nothing. The content will still display, and the user may navigate to other pages, but the user can not interact with your site, and your site will be incapable of responding in any way.

If you want your website to do something like...

• Manage items in a shopping cart
• Display your top 5 facebook friends
• Calculate Driving directions
• Dynamically present content
• Post a message on a forum or blog

You will need a programming language to instruct the various tasks your website will do and under what conditions it will do them. For more information, consult the PHP Wikiepedia entry.

By now you should be familiar with the principles of web development, organization and separation, and have coded a basic content page using HTML and CSS.

I know it seems like the long way around, but PHP is the last stop, and I absolutely guarantee that after a day of learning basic PHP, you will be LIGHTYEARS ahead of most casual web developers.

Since PHP is a server-side programming language, your normal client-side web browser will not be able to understand server-side code. You need a way to emulate a server environment so that this environment can understand and process all the code you feed it.

This development environment is necessary as it acts as a means to follow along during the PHP tutorials and test out the PHP code for yourself.

So before you jump into the PHP tutorial, you will need to setup your Web Development Environment. It takes only a couple minutes so don't worry! Once you have this up and running, you can send gifts to thank me later.

You should have successfully installed the XAMPP software package that emulates a web server on your own computer and contains all the necessary tools for LAMP development. If you haven't done this please do this now!

My recommended beginner PHP tutorial has everything you need to establish your PHP knowledge foundation. Please note that learning any language is not an overnight effort. You will likely be learning PHP for the rest of your life! Do not get scared of that last sentence, all I mean is that there will always be something new to learn and a better way to accomplish tasks, but during this time, you will be able to code usable websites to your heart's content!

Zend Developer Zone - PHP 101: PHP for the absolute beginner

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Creating Your Development Environment

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