Before understand Why PHP is needed we should know about What is PHP ? PHP is a server-side scripting programming language designed for building websites and web applications.What you need to pay attention to:
Server. PHP scripts are executed on the server. This is how PHP differs from HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which are executed by the browser.
We cannot just open a PHP file in a browser, as we are used to doing with HTML files. For PHP scripts to work, a special program is required – a web server.
Script. When you start programs like Excel or Photoshop, it is assumed that they can work without time constraints, expecting more and more new commands from you.
PHP works differently. PHP scripts are designed to execute a set of commands at a time. The script started, completed its task and “died”. And so on every start.
The PHP language is needed to write programs that run on the server and perform various server-side tasks such as sending mail, interacting with a database, etc.
Let’s take a closer look at examples.
On almost any site you can find a form like this:An example of a regular HTML form
Forms have very different purposes: registration and authorization, ordering, paying for something, comments on the forum and many other functions.
So that’s it. With HTML and CSS, we can define the appearance of the form. With Javascript, we can add beautiful animation effects.
However, we cannot process the data contained in this form. You cannot save information about a client in a single database, authorize a user, send a letter to him by E-mail, etc.
To solve such problems, we need a special programming language that can run on the server. PHP is one such language.
PHP is also used to automatically generate HTML pages.An example of a product catalog in an online store
Large online stores can have thousands of product names. We could of course create a separate html page for each product, but imagine how long it will take to create these pages.
Thanks to the combination of PHP and any modern DBMS (database management system), we can create just one html template, and PHP will already substitute goods from the database into it.
The PHP language is ideal for creating websites and web applications of any complexity. Blogs, online stores, landing pages (one-page sites), APIs and other web services can all be done in PHP.
PHP is also suitable for writing console scripts. You can run them both once and at regular intervals.
As far as desktop applications are concerned, PHP has a rather meager toolkit, so in practice PHP is not suitable for writing desktop and mobile applications.
These are the important points for Why PHP is needed in web development field: