HTML or PHP
 

Hi,

I started building my website and have done 5 pages so far but I have done them in .html format.

Should I change over to PHP format as it seems to be more popular with scripts etc?

Thanks,

Rowan88

It totally depends on what you want to do with your web site. If it requires information from a server then go with PHP. If it is dynamic you can also go with PHP. And there are other languages you can use as well.

For example, on my web site I use PHP to determine what will appear based on the day of the week. So I can load up everything on Saturday and every day different things will appear as if I had changed it that day.

I should add that it is not a case of PHP or HTML. They work together with the PHP building the HTML dynamically for you.

I use php and see html as an old method to do pages.

jerry62704 is right:

If you have information on your website that changes periodically then it's generally more efficient to use a server side scripting language like PHP.

If your website doesn't need to change (other than when you want to update the content manually) then stick to HTML.

You don't display PHP, you display HTML. You can use PHP to build the HTML, and many of us do that. One is a tool to build the other.

If you are going to create website it is highly recommended that you choose PHP as your default file extension preference in place of HTML. Write php in place of html where prompted in the weblog config preferences section.

Use PHP if you are going to use a database like MySQL, want to dynamically add dates and times, headers, footers, manipulate strings of text, add password encryption (access control), process forms, populate pages with repeatable elements like tables and images (like image galleries), protect form data from hackers, image manipulation, implement error handling, and so on.

It's a REALLY good idea to start using PHP right away, especially if you think your site will grow a great deal.