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"PHP" stands for "hypertext preprocessor " or is sometimes reffered to as "personal home page". It is a coding language much like html or java that execute certain functions. Put plainly: pretty much the coolest, easiest thing ever created for webdesign! These tiny snippets of code will literally save you hours of work and will allow you to update your site with simplicity and ease like you never thought possible. Knowledge of php is probably the most important thing you can learn when creating a website. If you dont know how to do anything else, knowing php is the single difference between a dynamic, easy to manage website from a website that is frustrating and impossible to maintane. Read on, and prepare for awesomeness... The Basics: There are many different codes and functions for php, but the one that is most important to know is called "php includes" . The code looks like this:
What does this do? By looking at the code, you can see that it "links" to a certain file of your choice. When the code is put into your webpage between the <body> and </body> tags in your html page, it will show the contents of that file! For example. Lets say you have a sidebar (like mine you see to the side) and this is something that is repeated on all of your webpages. Instead of repeating the html code for my sidebar on every single webpage, what the php include allows me to do is create a single seperate file with all my sidebar info on it, and then "link" to it on all my webpages with this one code! So what does this mean? Imagine having an html code for your sidebar contents that is repeated on every page...but then one day I want to add another link to my sidebar! I would have to manually go through every webpage to change the code for my sidebar to add this one link! Having to do this anytime you update your site is really time consuming, not to mention boring and creates loss of interest in your site (why bother when it takes hours to change something so simple?) Thats where the heaven of php comes in! There is only one page to edit, and whatever you update is automatically changed on every single page! Yes. It's just that easy! And get this, php includes can be used for anything. Oh yes, i said anything! Anything repeated such as website headers, footers, sidebars, navigation links....or anything you want to be updatable or easily rewritten. Things like: your site update feed, blog entries, articles, images, stories...if you can think it, you can make it into a php include. want to know how to get php includes to work? Read on in.... |