What are PHP and MySQL?

PHP was at first created as a simple scripting platform called "Personal Home Page". Nowadays PHP (the short for Hypertext Preprocessor) is an alternative of Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology.

PHP is an open source server-side language which is used for creating dynamic web pages. It can be embedded into HTML. PHP is usually used in conjunction with a MySQL database on Linux/UNIX web servers. It is probably the most popular scripting language.

PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language and interpreter that is freely available. A full explanation of all the PHP tags, complete user manual and lots of tutorials can be found on the PHP's official page.



MySQL is a freely available open source Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) that uses Structured Query Language (SQL).

SQL is the most popular language for adding, accessing and managing content in a database. It is most noted for its quick processing, proven reliability, ease and flexibility of use. MySQL is an essential part of almost every open source PHP application. Good examples for PHP/MySQL-based scripts are phpBB, osCommerce, and Joomla.