PHP & MySQL
PHP and MySQL are the core of building dynamic websites. Many always says why learn PHP when you could just use content management system like Drupal, Joomla or a platform like WordPress? But the advantage of learning PHP and MySQL is when you need to do more than just use a framework. You can twist, make changes and create themes - that requires PHP and MySQL skills. So the obvious question is what do you need to learn PHP and MySQL. Well the list is not so big - here it is:
- Basic knowledge of HTML and CSS. JavaScript knowledge too is another advantage. If you didn't know these, do not worry just browse to our HTML & CSS section to learn.
- A simple text editor (Notepad in Windows, text editor in Mac etc).
- A web-server with PHP and MySQL integrated. If you plan to host your pages online consider testing first in your local computer. I'd recommend using XAMPP which is a full package of Web-server, PHP and MySQL and it is easy to install and use. Just download it from Apache Friends
After you've setup your server to work with PHP then you can start coding PHP very easily. Star learning with this piece of code here. The only difference is that you'll need to save your PHP files with a .php extension.
<?php //A PHP code to print Hello World!
echo "Hello World!";
?>After saving the above file in your Apache directory, then open your browser and enter the address http://localhost/ and see the effect. (Note: if you see any error it means you haven't configure your server properly)
