Besides client-side technologies that you have seen, there are server-side technologies that is used to provide the functionality and features required of certain types of websites, especially those sites that require the use of a database and login access.
We are now getting into the realm of software development and computer science concepts.
PHP is one of the more popular server-side programming languages and is one that is good to start with. It is open-source software and is provided by many Linux-based web hosts. Unlike client-side script languages, PHP is processed and executed by the web server. The result of this execution is HTML and CSS code that is passed to the browser for rendering.
See our "Getting Started with PHP Guide" »
PHP is often run on the Apache. Apache is a type of web server that is commonly found on many Linux-based shared webhost. It is always useful to understand a few things about how the web server works and some ways it can be configured.
Often server-side applications must store data in a database. MySQL database is a popular open-source database that is found on many shared webhosts. PHP goes well together with MySQL database.
phpMyAdmin is a great tool for interactiving with a MySQL database. It is open-source software and is available on many webhost. If not, you can also install it on the webserver yourself. It can be used as a learning tool as well.
