Monday, May 24, 2010

What are PHP files? What do they do and how do I make them?

A friend has a website and wishes to use php files to create a promotional gallery of images. Apparently php files are a possible solution but I need to know if there are alternatives which offer similar results... and if not, is there a simple program which will produce / output php files. Please keep it simple as, although I have used PC's for over 20 years... php files are new to me!

What are PHP files? What do they do and how do I make them?
Take a look at http://gallery.menalto.com/ which does pretty much anything you could want along the lines of a photo gallery.
Reply:PHP is a server-side programming langauge used for maintaining dynamic content on a website. It is used in conjunction with an SQL database on a server to store the content, with the PHP page being the avenue through which the data is parsed.





There is no php "generator" software.





To create a php file, you need to learn the php language, and at the very least, the basics of SQL.





There are PHP scripts available on the net for free all over, but you need a basic understanding of the language to implement them.





ASP is another language that produces the same results. Again, it is a programming language and to use it, you will need to know it.





Hope this helps.
Reply:PHP is a programming language .php is its format an its a server side language
Reply:Everyone else answered correctly, but didn't point you to a starting point. Start here:





http://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php
Reply:Is it a dynamic gallery that changes the displayed pictures when it is loaded? Search for "Gallery scripts", or "flash gallery" or something similiar and you will find ready made scripts/flash objects
Reply:PHP files are templates with program code embedded in them. You need to learn the PHP programming language in order to do much with the language though, http://php.net is a good starting point.
Reply:How to build your photo gallery depends very much on what you want it to do. Php is a server side scripting language that parses code on the fly, and dynamically outputs html. The output generated by a php script can be determined by user interaction (usually with forms), server and network settings, and many other types of input. PHP mimics the c programming language in syntax.





If you are looking to just simply show a few images that will pop up in a new window, you can do this with some basic html. However, if you are looking to output different images (maybe random), say, every time you visit the page, then php may be a solution. You could also use javascript, or asp, or c#, c, c++...





Start by learning html. If you want to learn php, here is a good site.





http://mrarrowhead.com/
Reply:PHP generates HTML pages dynamically as well as performing other operations. An alternative would be Microsofts ASP.Net





You do not have to create the PHP pages yourself. There are several solutions already completed for routine tasks such as galleries. There are single page Flash displays, and picture browsing PHP applications.





Flash:


http://www.airtightinteractive.com/simpl...


http://www.flashgallery.org/


http://www.coffeecup.com/photo-gallery/





PHP:


http://spgm.sourceforge.net/


http://gallery.menalto.com/


http://www.phpalbum.net/


http://www.flash-here.com/downloads/fhim...





and


http://www.bigfolio.com/drop_proof/





As far as learning PHP, just use a search engine. search for "PHP read directory" to learn how to browse a directory of pictures. You can learn "foreach" and "while( $file = fgets($dir)) " to iterate through the directory and list each file. To print to the screen you have many choices like "php echo" and "php printf()"

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