Chapter 7: Writing Applications Using PHP

Overview

Many developers have learned to use PHP over the years because it's a good solution for creating Web pages and the price is right. The PHP acronym is like many other new acronyms for the Internet ”the acronym is recursive (refers back to itself). PHP stands for PHP Hypertext Processor . This general-purpose HTML scripting language works much like Active Server Pages (ASP) (see Chapter 6) or other page description languages you might have used. Essentially, you mix HTML with scripting information. When the PHP process sees HyperText Markup Language (HTML), it sends the text directly to the user . It processes any scripting information, and passes the resulting HTML to the user as well.

This chapter helps you discover how PHP works with Google Web Services. I'm assuming that you already know something about PHP, but the first two sections suggest how to learn more about PHP. Because PHP runs on so many platforms, you'll also find suggested resources for getting and installing PHP for your particular server. These instructions require a little technical knowledge on your part, so make sure you understand the instructions before you perform them.

The examples in this chapter show how to use PHP to create a Google Web Services application. The first example provides simple instructions for accessing the Web service without any fancy application features. You'll also find an application that shows how to use PHP with MySQL, an open source database. In fact, you can download every piece of software in this chapter free and try out all of the examples without spending a penny ”that's one of the benefits of using open source.

I've also provided a number of tips to help you with your PHP applications. You'll find that the open source support system is adequate, but you won't get the same level of hand-holding that you do with paid products such as Visual Studio. Open source solutions tend to require a motivated developer, so it might not be the right solution if you need a packaged approach that doesn't require a lot of fiddling on your part. With this in mind, the chapter also provides some ideas on where you can get help when you need it.

Note  

I'm using the Apache 2.0.47 Windows and PHP 4.3.3 versions for this chapter. You might notice some differences between these product versions and other versions available on the download sites. Because of the way PHP works, the example code should work fine on any newer version of Apache and PHP you choose to use. Older versions of both Apache and PHP could encounter problems when they don't support the features found in the current products.