History of PHP, Apache Web Server, MySQL and Open Source

Open Source
 In general, open source refers to any program whose source code is made available
for use or modification.
 Open source software is usually developed as a public collaboration and made freely
available. It means can be used without purchasing any license.
 Open Source is a certification mark owned by the Open Source Initiative (OSI).
Developers of software that is intended to be freely shared and possibly improved and
redistributed by others can use the Open Source trademark if their distribution terms
conform to the OSI's Open Source Definition. To summarize, the Definition model of
distribution terms require that:
o The software being distributed must be redistributed to anyone else without
any restriction.
o The source code must be made available (so that the receiving party will be
able to improve or modify it).

 Example of Open Source: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP.

PHP
 PHP is a general‐purpose server‐side scripting language originally designed for web
development to produce dynamic websites.
 PHP scripts execute on web server and serve WebPages to user on request.
 PHP was originally created by RasmusLerdorf in 1994. Programmer RasmusLerdorf
initially created a set of C scripts he called "Personal Home Page Tools" to maintain
his personal homepage. The scripts performed tasks such as displaying his résumé
and recording his web‐page traffic.
 These were released and extended to include a package called the Form Interpreter
(PHP/FI). While PHP originally stood for "Personal Home Page", it is now said to
stand for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor", a recursive acronym.
 PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web
server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document. It also
has evolved to include a command‐line interface capability and can be used in
standalone graphical applications.PHP can be deployed on most web servers and as a
standalone interpreter, on almost every operating system and platform free of charge.
 In 1997 ZeevSuraski and AndiGutmans along with Rasmus rewrite PHP and released
PHP version 3.0 in June 1998.After this release PHP becomes so much popular.
 The PHP version 4.0 was launched in May 2000.This version includes session
handling, output buffering, a richer cire language and support for wide variety of web
server platforms.
 The PHP 5.0 version released in 2004 with object oriented programming concept.
Web Server
 A Web Server is computer and the program installed on it. Web Server interacts with
the client through the browser. It delivers the web pages to the client and to an
application by using the web browser and HTTP protocol respectively.
 We can also define the web server as the package of larger number of programs
installed on a computer connected to internet or intranet for downloading the
requested files using File Transfer Protocol, serving e‐ mail and building and
publishing web pages.
 A web server works on client server model. A computer connected to internet or
intranet must have a server program.
 A computer connected to the internet for providing the services to a small company or
a department store may contain the HTTP server to access and store WebPages and
files, SMTP server to support mail services, FTP server for files downloading and
NNTP server for newsgroup.
 The computer containing all the above servers is called the web server.

Apache Web Server

 The Apache web Server, commonly referred to as Apache is web server software
notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web.
 The first version of Apache, based on the NCSA httpd Web server, was developed in
1995. The Apache server has been developed by an open source community ‐ Apache
Software Foundation, whose members are constantly adding new useful
functionalities, with the sole purpose of providing a secure and extensible server
platform that ensures HTTP service delivery in accordance with the current HTTP
standards.
 The original version of Apache was written for UNIX, but there are now versions that
run under OS/2, Windows and other platforms.
 The Apache Server provides full range of Web Server features, including CGI, SSL
and virtual domains. Apache also supports plug‐in modules for extensibility.
 It was called Apache because it was developed from existing NCSA code plus various
patches, hence the name a patchy server, or Apache server.
 Apache is open source free software distributed by the Apache Software Foundation.
 Apache is reliable, free and relatively easy to configure.
MySQL
 MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS) that runs as a server
providing multi‐user access to a number of databases.
 It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My. The SQL phrase stands
for Structured Query Language.
 The data in MySQL is stored in database objects called tables. A table is a collection
of related data entries and it consists of columns and rows.
 The MySQL development project has made its source code available under the terms
of the License. The license can require improved versions of the software to carry a
different name or version from the original software.
  First released in January,1998, MySQL was owned and sponsored by the Swedish
company MySQL AB, now owned by Oracle Corporation.
 MySQL is fully multithreaded using kernel threads, and provides application
programming interfaces (APIs) for many programming languages, including C,C++,
Java, Perl, PHP, Python.
 MySQL is used in a wide range of applications, including data warehousing, e‐
commerce, Web databases, logging applications and distributed applications.

Relationship between Apache, MySQL and PHP (AMP Module)

 AMP stands for Apache MySQL PHP
PHP
 PHP is a server side scripting that was designed for creating dynamic websites. It slots
into your Apache web server and processes instructions contained in a web page
before that page is sent through to your web browser.
 PHP is a powerful scripting language that can be run in the command line of any
computer with PHP installed. However, PHP alone isn't enough in order to build
dynamic web sites.
Apache
 To use PHP on a web site, you need a server that can process PHP scripts. Apache is a
free web Server that, once installed on a computer, allows developers to test PHP
scripts locally; this makes it an invaluable piece of your local development
environment.
 Like all web servers, Apache accepts an HTTP request and serves an HTTP response.
MySQL
 Additionally, dynamic websites are dependent on stored information that can be
modified quickly and easily; this is the main difference between a dynamic site and a
static HTML site. However, PHP doesn’t provide a simple, efficient way to store data.
This is where a relational database management system like MySQL comes into play.
PHP provides native support for it and the database is free, open‐source project.
 MySQL is a relational database management system (DBMS). Essentially, this means
that MySQL allows users to store information in a table‐based structure, using rows
and columns to organize different pieces of data.