PHP is a server-side scripting language, which means that PHP scripts are executed on the server before the resulting HTML page is sent to the user’s web browser.
Here’s a high-level overview of how a PHP script works:
- A user requests a web page by entering a URL or clicking a link in their web browser.
- The user’s request is sent to the web server.
- If the requested page contains PHP code, the web server passes the request to the PHP interpreter.
- The PHP interpreter parses the PHP code and executes it on the server.
- The PHP code may interact with databases, file systems, or other server-side resources to generate dynamic content.
- Once the PHP code has finished executing, it generates an HTML page that is sent back to the web server.
- The web server sends the HTML page back to the user’s web browser, which then renders the page and displays it to the user.
Here’s an example of a simple PHP script:
<?php
$name = "John";
$age = 30;
?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>PHP Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Welcome, <?php echo $name; ?>!</h1>
<p>You are <?php echo $age; ?> years old.</p>
</body>
</html>
In this example, the PHP code sets the values of two variables, $name and $age. These variables are then used within an HTML document to generate dynamic content. When the user requests this web page, the PHP interpreter will execute the PHP code and substitute the values of the $name and $age variables into the HTML page. The resulting HTML page will be sent back to the user’s web browser, which will render the page and display it to the user with the dynamic content.