Introduction to PHP for Website Developers

What is PHP? I could just have you visit php.net and find out for yourself, but although you would find out a lot of information about PHP you probably wouldn't really understand its use/purpose.

When you create a website using just HTML and CSS, it's "static". This means that no matter who accesses each page, all of the pages will look the same.

The reason for this is that with static web pages, the server simply regurgitates the same page (code) to each viewer. In most cases, you are going to want something better: a dynamic web page.

Setting up Tables in a MySQL Database

When you're about to include a MySQL database in a project you're working on, you're going to want to plan ahead and figure out what kind of layout this database should use. After all, you can't use a database without first creating it!

You could start by creating this database's structure using PHP code, but it would be incredibly hard to get everything right the first time! My recommendation is to do what I always do: start out by using Adminer or PHPMyAdmin to view the database and structure it manually. Adminer and PHPMyAdmin are two of the most common PHP scripts that you can use to access your database without needing to write code. One or both of them are usually included somewhere in your CPanel - if you're using a CMS like WordPress, you should be able to find a plugin for one of them or something.