01 PHP MySQL Getting Started Notes PDF
01 PHP MySQL Getting Started Notes PDF
01 PHP MySQL Getting Started Notes PDF
An XHTML/CSS website can provide a user with information, but cannot provide interaction. In
order to do this, the site must have some form of intelligence that allows it to make decisions,
based on input from the user. Javascript goes some way to doing this, but (apart from cookies,
which have certain limitations), javascript cannot provide the web developer with a way to remem-
ber information that the user provides it - which allows web developers to produce truly interac-
tive, compelling web experiences.
This remembering is most commonly done with a database, a simple storage mechanism for com-
puter data, more capable than a flat file, or a spreadsheet, due to its ability to create relationships
between different sets of data - but more about that later. We are going to be using a database
server called MySQL, which uses standard Structured Query Language (SQL) as the
In order to talk to a database, we need a programming language that can connect to and commu-
nicate with the database, we are using PHP.
PHP in Brief
PHP supports many databases (MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL, Generic
ODBC, etc.)
What is MySQL?
PHP + MySQL
PHP combined with MySQL are cross-platform (means that you can develop in Windows and
serve on a Unix platform)
Why PHP?
PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.)
Homework:
Use google to search for each of the functions shown in todays demonstration, then note what they
do and how they do it. Practice creating a few databases, and connecting to them.