PHP is a bit like server-side includes on steroids. Like SSI, it’s embedded in the HTML of a page, and is processed by the server before it sends the page to the browser. Unlike SSI, it is a fully-featured programming language, complete with database query capability.

PHP is most often used to create dynamic sites that pull content from a database. However, it can also be used for a variety of non-database operations—customizing the display of a page based on user input, for example, or sending email messages.

In class I’ll show you how to use PHP to build a simple menu system that allows you to avoid framesets while replicating some of their most useful functions, and how to create a PHP-driven alternative to FormMail.