Open Source Web Applications Using PHP

Open Source

Open source refers to a program in which the source code is available to the public for use and/or modification from its original design. Open source code is normally produced as a collaborative effort in which programmers improve upon an existing code and share the changes within the community.  Open-source software is software whose source code is published and made available to the public, empowering anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees.

Many individual programmers or community groups who start an open-source project usually end up as large companies with open-source program products. The more visible open source software products that have resulted include applications software for web browsers Mozilla Firefox and Chromium, graphic editor products Blender and GIMP, and the word publishing platform, Word Press.  They have also resulted in operating systems which include Linux and Android, as well as server software like Apache and Content Management Systems from Joomla and Drupal. Programming Languages have also been developed by the open source community including Ruby, Python, Perl and PHP.

PHP

PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page, it is now said to stand for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.

PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded in HTML. It allows developers to produce dynamic web pages. Over 21 million domains run now run on PHP including Facebook, Yahoo and Wikipedia. PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML.Clearly the days of online brochures with static web pages are a thing of the past. Today, your web presence must be interactive, dynamic, and proficient at performing on-line transactions. The Advantages of using PHP include:

Supports database connectivity. PHP can access more than 20 different databases including MS Access, Oracle and MySQL

Supports sessions. PHP can generate unique session IDs. The ID tracks the user during a single session on a web site. This streamlines creating shopping cart applications and tracking user's behaviors.

Eliminates client configuration issues. With PHP there is no need to worry if the client has the appropriate software installed, because the application is executed on the server.

Reduces development time. Even a newcomer can begin developing PHP applications in hours. At the same time, PHP contains many advanced features for professional programmers.

Maintains source code security. The user is not able to see your source code as they are able to do with JavaScript.