PHP and MySQL® For Dummies®, 4th Edition

Chapter 2. Setting Up Your Work Environment

In This Chapter

• Accessing PHP and MySQL through company Web sites and Web hosting companies

• Building your own Web site from scratch

• Testing PHP and MySQL

Now that you've decided to use PHP and MySQL to build your interactive Web site, you can begin working on the site. Your first task is to set up the environment in which you're going to build the site. This chapter describes how to set up your Web site environment with all the tools you need to build your Web database application.

Anatomy of a Web Site

Because you most likely have created simple Web sites before, you know what a Web site is. It's a collection of text files that contain the HTML code that the browser reads to display the Web pages. The computer space where the files are stored is the physical location of your Web site.

Web users often talk about Web site visitors, but the term visitors is technically misleading. Visitors don't actually visit a Web site. When a person types the address (called a URL or Uniform Resource Locator) of a Web site into a Web browser, the browser sends a request over the Internet, asking to view the Web page at that address. Software at the Web site, called a Web server, receives the request and responds by sending the requested Web page. The browser receives the Web page file and displays the Web page in the browser window.

To make your Web site available to the public, you place the text files containing HTML code on the Web site where users can access ...