PHP stands for PHP Hypertext Preprocessor, it is a server-side scripting language (Server-side scripts that connect the web page with a database or application) like ASP or JSP.
Anyone with a website and familiar with HTML can step into PHP, as PHP and HTML are both interchangeable within a page.PHP can be placed outside or inside the HTML.
PHP adds new features to your website but the basic appearance of the website is created using HTML.
So, if you are familiar with the basics of PHP, then you can apply many creative features to make your website more appealing.
Here are few creative uses of PHP Language:
Building Online Community
The internet users need to feel connected to the product or message, be it a website of a business, entertainment or products and services.
If a user has any query or needs support, then a hotline or an e-mail form is often insufficient, but with the online community, users can help solve each other’s product related issues.
A community can effectively decrease the workload and provides useful feedback.
Users can build their own PHP driven online community or can choose from the largely available scripts that can implement onto their website.
Generating PDF files
By using a library called PDFLib, the users can generate the PDF files with PHP.
The PDF format is generally the Adobe’s proprietary file type for the document exchange.
An instance for why creating the PDF files come into the picture is, if you are building an online invoicing application and you need to output an HTML generated invoice in the PDF format, then you can send the invoice through an e-mail or print a copy of it to the client.
Developing Facebook Applications
Using PHP, you can integrate Facebook with your website.
This step is certainly worth looking if the user is interested in programming for the Facebook platform.
For all the Facebook users out there, who are interested in the back-end of the platform, this would be a natural step.
Also, Read PHP Interview Questions
Image Processing and Generation
The user can do more than just output HTML to the browser by using GD Library with PHP and can also get the output of images in different file types including jpeg, gif, and png.
This feature is useful because it allows the creation of thumbnail pictures, resizing and cropping of images, adding watermarks and even creating a photo gallery.
Create Dynamic Website Templates
The user can make it easier to add pages and elements to your website dynamically using PHP.
Users can begin with the creation of HTML page and split it into the header, footer sections, and the main content.
The users can also have dynamic sidebars and top navigation sections.
You can also add the .php extension to your subsequent pages and use server-side including the header and footer for each new page.
The more templates your site has, the easier it is to update the content.