PHP is a scripting language that can generate HTML pages dynamically from a single PHP script. PHP scripts are embedded in HTML files using <?php ?> tags and are replaced by their output. Common uses of PHP include including header/footer files across pages using the include() function and dynamically generating pages without manually creating HTML files. More extensive PHP training is available online and in books for those wanting to learn more about its capabilities.

1. PHP Tutorial

2. • PHP is a scripting language that has the ability to output HTML.
Instead of manually writing HTML files, you can program PHP to
automatically generate them for you.
• Did you know that every page you see on this website is generated
from a single PHP script? This means that when a new page is added,
there’s no need to manually create an HTML file. The PHP script
generates it.

3. PHP and HTML
• PHP scripts are embedded inside HTML files. The start of a PHP script is indicated by <?php and the end is
indicated by ?>. When a script is run, it’s replaced in the HTML by its output. For example, the following PHP
script outputs the text ‘Hello’:
• <b><?php echo 'Hello'; ?></b>
• The above PHP script will be replaced by its output. So the resulting HTML is this:
• <b>Hello</b>
• There can be an unlimited number of PHP scripts in an HTML file, and they can be placed anywhere inside
the file.
• However, HTML files that contain PHP use the file extension .php, rather than the usual .html. This is so that
the PHP interpreters on web servers know that the file contains PHP code to be executed.

4. PHP Include
• One of the useful features of PHP is its ability to include files inside other
files.
• Many websites use the same header on every page of their site. With PHP,
they can write their header in a separate HTML file called header.html, and
have PHP ‘include’ the contents of this file on every other page. They do
this by writing the following code where they want the header to go:
• <?php include('header.html'); ?>
• This way, when they want to edit their header, they only need to edit their
header.html file once and the changes are made on every page.

5. Learn More PHP
• PHP is a very powerful language with many capabilities, most of
which are beyond the scope of this tutorial. But luckily for you, there
is more extensive PHP training available if you want to go further with
PHP.
• You can get online PHP training from providers like Treehouse. PHP is
also covered by some good books such as PHP and MySQL for
Dynamic Websites, and PHP and MySQL Web Development.