PHP in this tutorial we assume that your server has activated support
for PHP and that all files ending in .php are handled
by PHP. On most servers, this is the default extension for PHP files, but ask
your server administrator to be sure. If your server supports PHP, then you do
not need to do anything. Just create your .php files,
put them in your web directory and the server will automatically parse them for
you. There is no need to compile anything nor do you need to install any extra
tools.
Think of these PHP-enabled files as simple HTML files with a whole new
family of magical tags that let you do all sorts of things. Most web hosts offer
PHP support, but if your host does not, consider reading the » PHP Links section for resources on
finding PHP enabled web hosts.
Let us say you want to save precious bandwidth and develop
locally. In this case, you will want to install a web server, such as » Apache, and of course » PHP. You will most likely want to
install a database as well, such as »
MySQL.
You can either install these individually or choose a simpler way.
Our manual has installation instructions for
PHP (assuming you already have some web server set up). In case you have
problems with installing PHP yourself, we would suggest you ask your questions
on our » installation mailing list. If
you choose to go on the simpler route, then »
locate a pre-configured package for your operating system, which
automatically installs all of these with just a few mouse clicks. It is easy to
setup a web server with PHP support on any operating system, including MacOSX,
Linux and Windows. On Linux, you may find »
rpmfind and » PBone helpful for locating RPMs. You may also
want to visit » apt-get to find packages for Debian.