Maharashtra Board Class 12 Information Technology Chapter 5 Server Side Scripting PDF Download

Server-Side Scripting (PHP)

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Features of PHP

PHP variables, datatypes

PHP Array, String function and user-defined functions

PHP form handling

PHP connectivity with database server

5.1 Introduction To PHP

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language. It is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML.

PHP runs on various platforms (Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows etc.).

PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (For eg. XAMMP, Apache, NGINX, lighttpd).

PHP supports a wide range of databases.

PHP is free and one can download it from the official PHP resource: www.php.net.

PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side.

5.2 Server Side Scripting

A server is a computer system that serves as a central repository of data and programs and is shared by the clients. The server-side environment that runs a scripting language is termed web server. A user's request is fulfilled by running a script directly on the web server to generate dynamic HTML pages. This HTML is then sent to the client browser. It is usually used to provide interactive web sites that interfaces with databases or other data stores on the server.

Few Programming languages for server-side programming are:

1) PHP

2) Java and JSP

3) Python

PHP mainly focuses on server-side scripting, which is used to collect form data, generate dynamic page content, or send and receive cookies. There are three things to make this work: the PHP parser a web server and a web browser. You need to run the web server, with a connected PHP installation. You can access the PHP program output with a web browser, viewing the PHP page through the server. Note: PHP hides the code from the user.

5.3 Features Of PHP

PHP is most popular and frequently used world wide server-side scripting language and the main reason of popularity is:

Simple: It is very simple and easy to use, as compared to other scripting languages.

Interpreted: It is an interpreted language, i.e. there is no need for compilation.

Faster: It is faster than other scripting language e.g. JSP and ASP.

Open Source: Open source means you need not pay for use of PHP. You can freely download and use.

Platform Independent: PHP code will be run on every platform, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows.

Case Sensitive: PHP is case sensitive scripting language while declaration of variables and its use in the program. In PHP, all keywords (e.g. if, else, while, echo, etc.) classes, functions, and user-defined functions are NOT case-sensitive.

Error Reporting: PHP have some predefined error reporting constants to generate a warning or error notice.

Real-Time Access Monitoring: PHP provides access logging by creating the summary of recent accesses for the user.

Loosely Typed Language: PHP supports variable usage without declaring its data type. It will be taken at the time of execution Based on the type, data has its value. Since the data types are not set in a strict sense, we can do things like adding a string to an integer without causing an error.

Teacher's Note

PHP is like a cook working in the kitchen of a restaurant. The cook prepares the food (HTML) and gives it to the waiter. The waiter gives the food to the customer. Like this, PHP makes the website work on the server side.

Exam Trick

Remember: PHP = server side. The code runs on server. The user cannot see the PHP code. Only HTML comes to the user's browser.

Points to Remember

PHP is a server-side scripting language that runs on the server.
PHP code is hidden from users and only HTML is sent to the browser.
PHP is free, open source, and works on many platforms.
PHP can connect to databases to store and get data.
PHP code is written between <?php and ?> tags.

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