Once and a while, I get a question from a student about PHP and programming that I use in a blog post … here we go again:

… you mentioned that you used to use mostly Java but have switched to mostly PHP. Would you recommend learning PHP as a primary method of creating dynamic web pages or is its strength in data base manipulation. I was learning Perl form processing which led me to your site when I was having trouble with mySQL, and I noticed PHP is very similar (at least in the basics) as Perl. Do you have much experience in using Perl to help create web pages and would you recommend using it at all?

About PHP vs. PERL vs. Java:

PHP is the way to go. Perl is a good language but it was not designed initially for web development – that functionality was added later.

Whereas PHP (which borrows from Perl btw) was designed specifically for web development, and so Perl is just clunkier compared to PHP when it comes to creating dynamic web sites.

I’ve used Perl in the past, mostly creating simple string parsing scripts and other little things. But I would NOT call myself an Perl programmer – so take that into consideration.

That said, I’ve always liked a common strategy used in Perl, where they generate static pages from dynamic code. For example, in our web designers directory, I used a Perl based directory script that uses that strategy.

… What’s interesting is that it generates the directory pages as static HTML pages. The advantage of this is that the directory itself is more portable and much less resource intensive because for the most part, the directory is just of pages that people just read … no need for them to be dynamically generated every time a user request it.

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In my last post I wrote about how Ruby’s early problems around 2006-2007:

- incomplete libraries
- difficult web server integration

.. had played a role slowing its adoption. The main thrust of the piece was to point out that despite the explosion of interest, Ruby and Rails had failed to make much of a dent relative to PHP in terms of usage. In fact, PHP is still far and away a much more popular language.

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I recently had this question put to me by a web designer who was considering the idea of using PHP pages in her websites:

“Why build all your pages in PHP … Why not use standard .html pages?”

She then expanded the question to:

“What I mean is…… what’s the benefit to building ALL sites in PHP?”

Note to uber-nerds: remember that this question is being put to me by a web designer who has never written software. As such the answer is tailored those who are new to programming.

I might tackle this question from another perspective if the question was put to me by an experienced developer.

PS: If you find my answer offensive to your nerd-sensibilities, you might want to read this.

The Answer:

By making all your web pages PHP pages from the start, you are basically leaving open the possibility of using PHP in your web pages at any time.

… You don’t want to (at some later date) have to go back and change your .html pages to .php. For example:

Beginners should note, that you need to have .php extension on any web pages where you want to use PHP. Check out my basic PHP videos for details.

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PHP can do a lot more than just talk to MySQL. One very common use of PHP is to create ‘includes’ … this will allow you to insert snippets of code in your pages from separate files. This is kinda like using external CSS files. So you can use PHP includes to say create your page footers.

You can learn more about PHP includes in my free videos.

In the end, by making all your pages php pages from the start, you will just have a more flexible website to work with since you will be able to access PHP’s power.

Stefan Mischook

www.killersites.com

Hi,

I’ve just released a new beginners video tutorial that introduces people to PHP sessions:

PHP Sessions Video Tutorial

PHP sessions are one of the most important mechanisms in PHP because they solve a fundamental issue in web application development: keeping state on a user.

If what I just says confuses you, no worries, it’s explained in the video.

This is video 1 of 3 on sessions.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook

www.killerphp.com

Once and a while a get an email question put to me that I think many others are probably wondering about the same thing.

I got this email from Jordan:

Hi Stefan,

I am very interested in learning how to program, specifically with php. I went through all you videos which are excellent!

My main question is, after watching your videos and reading some tutorials I now understand the concepts such as variables, arrays,if statements etc., but have still have no idea how to put these together to create a web application.

I know exactly what I want the site to do but just have no idea where to begin. Where do I begin, is there something I can purchase that will guide me?

The simple answer to this is to just start writing code. Understanding PHP theoretically, is only the beginning of actually truly knowing it. Once you sit down and start writing code, things will seem to magically clear up as you go along.

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The following video teaches the basics of conditional statements in PHP; specifically the ‘if’ statement.

PHP conditionals video tutorial

Again, this video is for beginners to PHP and programming in general.

Note to uber-nerds:

If anyone complains to me that this video is to simple, I might hit you with a theoretical article on how aspects (as in aspect oriented programming) can be used to injects meta-data into your objects, without polluting the model.

… Good old Java.

Stefan

I recently ran into the following error when trying to launch PhpMyAdmin from the WAMP icon tray menu:

phpMyAdmin – Error
Cannot load mysql extension. Please check your PHP configuration.

What does this mean?

In a nutshell, PHP cannot find the library (mysql.dll – on Windows) it needs to connect to MySQL.

How can you fix this?

1. Use phpInfo() to find out what php.ini file PHP is using. It’s near the top.
2. Go into your php.ini and enable the extension that loads the mysql.dll library.
3. Set your Windows ‘Path’ to point to the directory where the mysql.dll is sitting.
4. Restart Windows.

The solution (and more details) can be found in this video:

Tip: Try the full-screen mode for the video .. it’s pretty nice.

I hope you find this useful.

Thanks,

Stefan Mischook (All around nerd.)

www.killerphp.com