When it comes to web development, even most neophytes will have heard of the term “PHP” at least once. Regardless of whether you’re deeply involved in the development process of your company’s website, or have delegated all the work to its own department, it’s important to understand what services a PHP programmer renders – and how these services affect your website and total IT infrastructure.

We’ll start with a quick history overview, as per the PHP website itself: PHP programming began back in the mid-90s, when Rasmus Lerdorf built it to track visitors to his online page. According to NorthWebStudio, it used to be called “Personal Home Page” because of this, but has since been appropriated to mean “hyperlink preprocessor”. Since then, it’s essentially become a necessity in web development due to its ease-of-use, utilization of free tools, and fluidity besides HTML.

So What Can It Do?

PHP programming can do a lot of things for you. Specifically, it can run scripted functions from the server-side – meaning, it can perform a lot of tasks (from solving mathematical equations and encrypting data to authenticating user access to parts of your website) from the server-side of your website, so the source code behind the PHP functions of your website cannot be viewed by an outsider.

Because it works so well besides HTML, it’s a go-to choice for many – including us – as a simple, easy-to-work-with way to implement all-important scripts on your website without using more dedicated programming languages like C, Java, and Perl.

What Sets PHP Apart?

The simplest distinction between PHP and other common programming languages is that PHP isn’t actually a programming language. Programming languages can be used to write and develop stand-alone applications and programs – from corporate software to viruses and video games.

PHP is a scripting language, which means a PHP programmer can use it to build functions that trigger after a user does something on a website, such as input a CAPTCHA or convert on-page text into a generated file of your choice.

PHP can also access and interact with MySQL databases, which are the core of a website that utilizes user identification and memberships.

On most of the websites you use, PHP is part of a permeating backbone – including sites like WordPress and Facebook. Here at White Sunrise, our experienced PHP programmers have years under their belts with the language, and can help your business make the most of it without retorting to more complex web development languages, ensuring a swift development process and a clean outcome.