PHP and MySQL Support at JTAN

JTAN ProWeb accounts come with full support for The PHP Hypertext Preprocessor, as well as for the MySQL relational database manager.

PHP

PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. At JTAN, we always have a recent version of PHP installed on our ProWeb machines for general use on our customer's web sites. You don't need to do anything to add PHP support; it's already there. To see what version of PHP we have on the server, and to check what features are enabled, you can look at the PHP Info Page on zeus.

You don't really need to know much about PHP to use it. There are many turnkey web applications that you can install on your site that will "just work" because of our fine PHP support. Examples of Free, Open Source PHP applications that work "out of the box" on a ProWeb account are the webmail program SquirrelMail, and the discussion board phpBB.

If you are new to PHP and want to get some idea of how it works as a developer's tool, try the introductory tutorial at the PHP.net web site. After that, check out their online manual, and the example archive sites and some of the other resources available in their links section.

MySQL

The MySQL database server is the world's most popular open source database. Millions of installations use MySQL to power high-volume Web sites and other critical business systems, including industry-leaders like The Associated Press, Google, NASA, Sabre Holdings and Suzuki.

Under JTAN ProWeb, you can add MySQL databases to your account through the JTAN members page with a few clicks for a few dollars per month. JTAN's shared MySQL server is mysql.jtan.com, and is kept up to date with the latest stable production version of MySQL. If you need to interact with the database directly, you should read the Documentation at the MySQL web site.

But you can use MySQL indirectly without being an expert in it. Many off the shelf web applications work with MySQL. Often these apps use PHP in conjunction with MySQL. For example, Web Logs or "blogs" are popular applications, and bBlog is a blog-like publishing system written in PHP that uses a MySQL database.

Another PHP+MySQL application that you should be aware of is phpMyAdmin. This application allows you to manage your MySQL database directly. It should be noted that most people who run canned softwware never need to mess with their database directly. However, if you are developing your own database driven website, phpMyAdmin can be an invaluable tool. For convenience, JTAN has a copy of phpMyAdmin installed here for general use.