PHP Web Hosting

PHP is a programming language that is very similar to the language C or C++. However, because of its immense utility as a web hosting server application, it is more commonly referred to as a scripting language. The history of PHP dates back to 1994 when it was first developed by a Danish programmer Rasmus Lerdorf. Rasmus wanted to develop a script that could provide them with a better functionality for his personal home page on his hosting server as compared with the Perl scripts which he was previously using. This is where PHP got its name from "Personal Home Page". The first PHP application was marked with the name PHP/FI which not only had a much broader implementation of C language but also had the ability to communicate with databases residing on a server. This made it possible to create dynamic pages where the content would be created on-the-fly by the hosting server.

Static HTML documents are created either by developers using direct coding or by beginners using a web development application such as Hotdog Professional or Adobe Macromedia Dreamweaver. Their main disadvantage is that firstly all the webpages need to be modified in case one element is redesigned or modified, and secondly that the output is not custom tailored to the requirements of the user. PHP files solve both of these issues. By including PHP scripts at particular points within a webpage, a hosting server supporting PHP functionality can pull the code for any common elements in a PHP file that are also used by other documents on the website. Secondly, a user interacting with a PHP webpage can specify his/her preferences and then click the submit or other similar button to get the information that satisfies the user-specified criteria.

PHP scripts are embedded into normal HTML documents and the resulting files are saved with a .php extension which enables them to be recognized by the hosting server. Not all the companies provide PHP functionality, consequently it is extremely important to locate a PHP hosting company in case you want PHP functionality. The markups <?php (or equivalently <?) and ?> specify the starting and ending points for a PHP script residing within a document. PHP files can also be used to include another HTML or PHP file using the <? include "FileName"?> tag.

All of the above mentioned functionality can be harnessed by hosting your website with a company that supports PHP technology. However, the best cited reason for using PHP on a website is its ability to communicate with MySQL databases. This gives a new dimension to the creation and maintenance of dynamic content on a site. And this is one of the major reasons why PHP web hosting has become so popular and is used by some of the mega-websites such as Yahoo, Facebook, Wikipedia, Joomla etc. According to April 2007 statistics, more than 20 million websites are making use of PHP on their websites and mod PHP has been recorded as the most popular PHP module for Apache. The most recent version of PHP is version 5 which was released in the year 2008. All the top 10 hosting companies listed at WHL support PHP functionality.