Creating PHP Pages
Chapter 5
PHP Structure and Syntax
Basic PHP Scripts
• Embedded language refers to code that is
embedded within a Web page (HTML/XHTML
document)
• PHP code is typed directly into a Web page as
a separate section
• Server recognizes embedded script and
executes
• A Web page containing PHP code must be
saved with an extension of .php to be
processed by the scripting engine
• PHP code is never sent to a client’s Web
browser; only the output of the processing is
sent to the browser
Basic PHP Scripts
• The Web page generated from the PHP
code, and XHTML elements found
within the PHP file, is returned to the
client
• A PHP file that does not contain any
PHP code should be saved with an .html
extension
• .php is the default extension that most
Web servers use to process PHP scripts
Creating PHP Code Blocks
• Code declaration blocks are separate
sections on a Web page that are
interpreted by the scripting engine
• There are four types of code declaration
blocks:
• Standard PHP script delimiters
• The <script> element
• Short PHP script delimiters
• ASP-style script delimiters
Standard PHP Script Delimiters
• All scripts start with <?php and end with
?>
• Program lines end in ";" or you get an
error
• Code block: { //code here } (brace
brackets)
• White space is generally ignored (not in
strings)
• Comments are created using:
• // single line quote
• /* Multiple line block quote */
The <script> Element
• The <script> element identifies a script
section in a Web page document
• Assign a value of "php" to the language
attribute of the <script> element to
identify the code block as PHP
Short PHP Script Delimiters
• The syntax for the short PHP script
delimiters is
<? statements; ?>
• Short delimiters can be disabled in a Web
server’s php.ini configuration file
• PHP scripts will not work if your Web site
ISP does not support short PHP script
delimiters
• Short delimiters can be used in XHTML
documents, but not in XML documents
ASP-Style Script Delimiters
• The syntax for the ASP-style script delimiters is
<% statements; %>
• ASP-style script delimiters can be used in
XHTML documents, but not in XML documents
• ASP-style script delimiters can be enabled or
disabled in the php.ini configuration file
• To enable or disable ASP-style script delimiters,
assign a value of “On” or “Off ” to the
asp_tags directive in the php.ini
configuration file
Parsing
• How the browser can read a text file and process it, that's a basic
parsing method.
• Browsers parse web pages as they load
• Web servers with server side technologies like PHP parse web pages as
they are being passed out to the browser
• You can embed sections of PHP inside html :
<BODY>
<p>
<?php $test = "Hello World!";
echo $test;
</p>
</BODY>
• Or you can call html from PHP :
<?php
echo "<html><head><title>Howdy</title>
…
?>
References
References :
1. Anonymous.(n.d.). Apache HTTP Server Documentation
Version 2.2. Retrieved from
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/.
2. Achour, M., Betz, F. (n.d.), PHP Manual. Retrieved from
http://www.php.net/download-docs.php.
3. Anonymous. (n.d.). MySQL Reference Manual. Retrieved
from http://downloads.mysql.com/docs/.
4. Naramore, E., Gerner, J., Le Scouarnec, Y., Stolz, J., Glass, M.
K. (2005). Beginning PHP5, Apache, and MySQL® Web
Development. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing, Inc.
