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PHP, which stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, is an open source scripting language. Although it can be used as a general-purpose scripting language, it was designed to be a convenient language in which to write scripts that could be embedded with HTML documents.
Unlike scripts written in JavaScript, which are frequently executed by the client, PHP scripts are processed by the web server, and the resulting HTML output sent to the clients. The syntax of PHP is derived from that of other popular languages, such as Java and Perl.
To make it a convenient language in which to develop dynamic web pages, PHP provides the ability to retrieve information from databases. An extension is included with the database software that provides access to SQL Anywhere databases from PHP. You can use the PHP extension and the PHP language to write standalone scripts and create dynamic web pages that rely on information stored in databases.
The PHP extension provides a native means of accessing your databases from PHP. You might prefer it to other PHP data access techniques because it is simple, and it helps to avoid system resource leaks that can occur with other techniques.
Download prebuilt versions of the PHP extension for Windows and Linux from http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-40537
. Source code for the PHP extension is installed in the sdk\php subdirectory of your software installation.