Course Details

PHP is a widely used, open-source server-side scripting language primarily designed for web development. It is embedded directly into HTML and generates dynamic content on web pages, making it essential for building data-driven websites. It allows developers to handle database interactions, session management, and form handling tasks.

PHP code is executed on the server, generating HTML output that is sent to the client's browser.
It is a dynamically typed language, allowing variables to change types during execution, offering flexibility in coding.
PHP is platform-independent, which means it can run on various operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and macOS.
PHP supports session management, which allows for tracking user activities across different pages on a website.

History of PHP

The full form of PHP is Hypertext Preprocessor. It was originally abbreviated as Personal Home Page but now stands for the recursive acronym PHP. Hypertext Preprocessor. It was created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 as a set of scripts for managing personal web pages.

It evolved into PHP/FI 2 in 1995, offering form handling and database integration.
In 1997, PHP 3 was released, which greatly improved performance and database support.
PHP 4 (2000) introduced the Zend Engine, while PHP 5 (2004) brought full object-oriented programming support.
PHP 7 (2015) significantly boosted speed, and PHP 8 (2020) introduced Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation and modern features.

Note: The latest version, PHP 8.4 (released in 2025), introduces new features like property hooks, asymmetric visibility support in classes, PDO driver-specific classes, lazy objects, and HTML5 support in the DOM extension, making PHP faster, more efficient, and feature-rich for modern web applications.