PHP.net is a website dedicated to the Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) technology. PHP is a dynamic web-programming language. This website gives a sneak peek at all the news and upcoming events concerning the PHP technology.
The website is a laid out in a very simple manner, with a brief description of what PHP is at one side, while new releases and upcoming conferences and events are mentioned on the other. The main section of the website, which is in the centre, is however allotted for detailed wordings about the new releases, the security shortcomings fixed in them, the features newly added, etc. and the scrapping out of the older release versions. The central portion of the website is presented in the form of a news archive, with newer postings appearing at the top. Since the site isn’t too flashy or is low in designs, it loads quickly and makes for an easier read. An appropriate webpage layout for a tech-site, we must say.
At the top is a simple purple coloured banner, which matches with the logo, which is displayed on the left. Several links are present on this banner, which are accessible to various other sections of the site like FAQ, the Getting Help section, Reporting Bugs, Documentation, Downloads, Conferences, etc.
The search feature on the site is very comprehensive, besides providing various options to search for content in various partner sites of www.php.net. At the very bottom of the site, there is a mention of the team involved in developing the code for PHP, in the Credits section. There is a Sitemap for people who get lost amidst so much content, and as usual with any website, there is a Contact link, the page of which takes us to 3 links – Bugs, Support and e-mail. One shortcoming here, however, is a mail form which is a very simple possibility of PHP.
PHP is designed to work on various platforms and OSes. In the Downloads section, complete source code of the currently popular versions are available. On the left side of the page, there are a few other downloads as well. There is also the very well-known Zend Optimizer and a (PHP) graphics link is placed, in order to put up on your website. Documentation of the PHP manual is available on the website. Documentation in over 19 languages is available for download as well as online learning. The Getting Help section comes off as a winner feature of the website, which features links to various helpful resources like Documentation, Books, Mailing Lists, Newsgroups, User Groups, Events & Training, Sample Code, Instant Resource Center and PHP.net webmasters. The variations of the mailing lists, which are presented in different languages, makes it a good resource for people from just about anywhere, to learn the language.
Since PHP.net is a community-like website, it functions more or less similar in a few of its sections. If you’ve happened to make a post in forums, you’ve seen the very famous “Search before you Post” as one of the Rule #1s. The bug-reporting section of the site works similarly. A look at http://in.php.net/sites.php will tell you about the various sub-sites of this “main website“. With PHP being free (open source) powerful, and a website this simple and informative, PHP sure beats many other web-scripting languages in more than one or two aspects.
The website is aimed at developers and webmasters alike. The links section features so many links you’d soon be overloaded with information on PHP. But, if you’ve got it in you to master the language, the website should be your first stop and there should be no stopping from learning. This community has a simple, no
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