Understanding PHP: What is It & Why Do We Need It?

[Dave Ritche]

I'm really stuck at knowing about PHP..
What will happen without using PHP on your website?
I know it's server side but why we need it?to process forms?how PF uses PHP?

 

[phinds]

If you have a static website that just displays things there is no need for PHP. If you have an interactive web site, then PHP is one of many tools you can use for code creation.

 

[rootone]

PHP also integrates well with SQL, so it's useful if your website requires some database processing.

 

[jtbell]

My site isn't interactive and doesn't use any databases, but I nevertheless use PHP. First, it let's me adjust internal links automatically so that they work properly both on the server on my home computer, and on my public web hosting provider. This let's me develop and test new pages completely on my home computer before uploading them and making them public. Second, I can use an "include file" to insert code that's the same on each page, so if I ever need to change that stuff, I don't have to edit every single page.

In practice the pages look mostly like ordinary HTML and CSS, with a little bit of PHP code sprinkled in.

 

[Silicon Waffle]

...
I know it's server side but why we need it?to process forms?how PF uses PHP?

As people explained, it is mostly for interactive web sites. For instance, on PF you will have users and their roles, all of which are defined and stored also their credentials in one or more databases; so your posts, your profiles, etc can be edited, remembered and available for search by the system and other users.
To process a form, your client will send a request that contains his intent to the server. PHP will help you to extract the sent data and process/store them for particular purpose depending on your design and make a response after everything is successfully done. Today such a request-response model is re-formed via use of RESTful web-services.