Using PHP and MySQL Databases
PHP is a software program useful to web page development and designers. PHP provides a scripting language used by the server. MySQL is a software program that operates at a multithread level and with multiple users to function as a SQL database management system. PHP is owned by The PHP Group. MySQL is owned by the Oracle Corporation. Both are available for free from their respective web portals. The two programs work together to create a dynamic website and provide users network services.
PHP and MySQL are components of the LAMP software bundle. The other two programs most frequently used with PHP and MySQL are Linux and Apache. Each program was developed with shared concepts and tool sets to work well together. However, a web designer need not feel constrained to these four programs when using PHP and MySQL. PHP and MySQL are flexible and work well with other operating systems and web servers.
Examples of operating systems that integrate with PHP and MySQL include but are not limited to Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, Solaris, FreeBSD, iAMP and Linux. Other web server programs that can be used in place of Apache include IIS and Nginx.
Each program can also be easily customized to suit web site and designer's needs. Together these two programs allow a web designer to present a unique and appealing web site which adheres to innovative and creative specifications. Whether the web site being designed is for personal or business purposes, the extensions and program modifications found in each program's respective library are varied and easy to use.
Because PHP and MySQL are common components adopted easily into web development projects and processes there is a wide degree of support offered to users of the programs. Communities abound online in many different forums. Help is easily found via online training courses, video tutorials and in user forums. Forums across the Internet can consist of other more practiced users offering assistance or developer commentary and professional product assistance.
The MySQL programming code consists of C and C++. The parser for MySQL is coded in YACC, which means Yet Another Compiler Compiler, and was originally designed in 1970 by Stephen C. Johnson for the company AT&T. More modern techniques are widely available now if the web designer prefers a different approach. The MySQL program utilizes its own unique lexical analyzer.
Because MySQL is so widely in use many other programming languages are developed with the intent to work in synch with the database. The other programming languages frequently have built in libraries for the purpose of this integration. For example, Microsoft programs like Visual Studio and other programs like Java have no difficulties when paired with MySQL.
Between the hundreds of functions that PHP can offer web developers with its simple yet effective scripting abilities and the practical efficiency of the MySQL database, web development of dynamic site design is readily obtainable at minimal cost. Any security issues associated with the implementation of using freeware to build a web site and manage a customer data base can be overcome by using best practice programming rules. Such rules include security checks on software installed as well as downloading the appropriate patches and content provided by the source websites.
Both programs receive regular updates and information pertinent to future project developments on their source pages. Over 20 million domains on the Internet had web sites hosted on PHP installed servers. Network services presented on the client side and managed server side show a strong preference for PHP programming when a statistical analysis is consulted.
As for MySQL, even though controversy exists in the industry today over Oracle's management of the software there is clear evidence that MySQL remains a standard in the industry for the development and implementation of its database capabilities. Monty Widenius, an original developer of the MySQL program, has moved to a fork in the development of the open source freeware by continuing with the MariaDB. MariaDB uses the MySQL database software and is becoming the next industry standard under a different use name so that the software developers can continue with the innovative technology and programming that brought MySQL into the public spotlight.
Even though MariaDB goes by a different label than MySQL, it functions with the same code and thus mirrors the same compatibility with PHP and other operating platforms as the original MySQL. Web designers who use both PHP and MySQL will find that future changes in design and presentation can continue without losing any prior efforts to projected changes.
The combination of PHP and MySQL remains one of the most optimal pairings between program scripting and database management with today's technology.