If you are a blogger, chances are, you are using PHP to run your blog website. Many blog software are built using the PHP programming language. PHP is very popular among open source web based applications because it is very easy to integrate into the Apache webserver and connect to MySQL database.

PHP is used in blogs, heldesk, CRM, CMS, Web Based Admin software and a lot more. IT students need to develop proficiency in PHP so they can confidently use open source software and even customize them for specific needs.

PHP is one of the easier computer languages to learn. It has a lot of functions that allows the developer to write software that can do a lot in a few lines. The website www.php.net is the official website for PHP and it has all the news, updates, documentation and links to various resources and useful information.

There is a set of standard libraries that extend PHP’s capabilities called Pear. Libraries such as MDB2, XML and HTML increase developer productivity by providing a standard and consistent way of integrating other protocols, standards and software. MDB2 for example allows the developer to write code that interfaces with various databases. The developer only has to specify the database and the MDB2 library takes care of the details specific to each database software.

PHP is among the software languages that is used as the ‘P’ in the LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) architecture. But aside from being a web programming language, PHP can also be used for general programming tasks like data processing. In fact, it is ideal to use PHP for both the web application and the supporting programs that do data processing. That way, libraries can be shared and the developers do not need to use another programming language for data processing.