PHP is a server-side scripting language designed for web development but also used as a general-purpose programming language. Joomla is based on PHP.



PHP (originally stood for Personal Home Page, now stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a server-side scripting language designed for web development but also used as a general-purpose programming language.

PHP code can be simply mixed with HTML code, or it can be used in combination with various templating engines and web frameworks. PHP code is usually processed by a PHP interpreter, which is usually implemented as a web server's native module or a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) executable. After the PHP code is interpreted and executed, the web server sends resulting output to its client, usually in form of a part of the generated web page – for example, PHP code can generate a web page's HTML code, an image, or some other data. PHP has also evolved to include a command-line interface (CLI) capability and can be used in standalone graphical applications.

PHP is free software released under the PHP License. PHP has been widely ported and can be deployed on most web servers on almost every operating system and platform, free of charge.

PHP Versions


Current Stable Versions: 5.5.15 // Release Date: 24 Jul 2014

Old Stable Version: 5.4.31 // Release Date: 24 Jul 2014

Development Version: 5.6.0RC2 // Release Date: 3 Jul 2014


The current versions of PHP can be downloaded from php.net

PHP and Joomla

Joomla is based on PHP and MySQL, and the minimum PHP version required varies depending on the Joomla version:

Joomla 3.x: Minimum 5.3.10 +, Recommended: 5.4 +

Joomla 2.5 *(including Joomla 1.6 and 1.7): Minimum 5.2.4 +, Recommended: 5.4 +

Joomla 1.5 *(Support ended): Minimum 4.3.10 +, Recommended: 5.2

Code Example

This script prints Hello World! on your screen.



PHP Test







Use your browser to access the file with your web server's URL, ending with the /hello.php file reference.

Online documentation

The PHP manual is the official documentation for the language syntax, featuring function search and URL shortcuts (for example http://php.net/explode). The API is well documented for native and additional extensions. Most additional extensions can be found in PECL. The PEAR repository contains a plethora of community supplied classes.

PHP Tutorials


PHP Basics


PHP security related information


PHP Security Cheat Sheet [by OWASP]



Free online tutorial


PHP-Codecademy


Free PHP Programming Books


PHP Essentials
Practical PHP Programming (wiki containing O'Reilly's PHP In a Nutshell)
Symfony2
Zend Framework: Survive the Deep End
PHP: The Right Way (is a community-driven quick reference for PHP best practices and accepted coding standards)