PHP

Client Side vs Server Side

If you are in my class, I have covered this to death, client machine is the machine you touch, and to access a website you:

• Type in the URL you want into a browser

• That URL gets sent to a Domain Name Server to turn it into an IP address

• The IP address gets sent back to the client

• The Client now knows the IP address of the server, so goes to request the text file

• The text file gets sent to the clients browser which then renders the webpage on the screen.

If not in my class, the above and perhaps the following links will help you

• bbc bitesize

• youtube video 1

PHP is a server side language

So unlike your year 9 HTML project, you need a webserver to make it work

You have 2 options

• download something like XAMPP, an offline editor that when switched on, turns part of your HDD into a webserver only accessible by you.

• Sign up for a free (or paid) website hosting, such as infinity free (others are available). When its free, you get what you pay for and free hosting is not without its difficulties.

Perfect world? Do both, its much quicker to test your code locally and then upload it when you are ready.