This section includes information for advanced developers.

PHP( http://www.php.net/) is a popular, freely available web applications development tool. The newest version, called PHP3, includes an HTML-embedded scripting language and a server-side preprocessor that interprets the HTML- embedded code in order to create dynamically generated web pages. PHP3 includes support for various databases, including mSQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. Thus, PHP is commonly used for the development of database enabled web sites.

Like other preprocessed, html-embedded scripting languages, PHP has many of the more useful features of Perl but is designed for HTML development in mind. It eliminates the need for numerous small Perl CGI programs by allowing you to place simple scripts directly in your HTML files. This speeds up the overall performance of your web pages since the overhead of forking Perl several times has been eliminated. It also makes it easier to manage large web sites by placing all components of a web page in a single html file. Similar tools commercially available include Miva, Aestiva HTML/OS, and Meta-HTML PRO.

If you are a Web Hosting customer, contact for more information on accessing PHP functionality from your account. For more information, visit the PHP website at http://www.php.net/

Installing PHP3 on your Virtual Server

There are two different ways to install PHP3 on a Virtual Server. The best way is to install it as a dynamically loaded Apache module. It can also be installed as a CGI to which PHP3 files are redirected by the web server. If required A Better Server will set up PHP for your account for a one time fee of $150.00. We will not provide support for your scripting.

PHP3 Apache Module Installation

Preprocess your HTML documents with PHP3 code and load the PHP3 module on to the server into a newly created directory (httpd.conf).

1. Add the following to the top of your web server configuration file (httpd.conf) to dynamically load the PHP3 module:

No Database Support
LoadModule php3_module modules/mod_php3-module.so

2. Add the following line to either the httpd.conf or srm.conf file so that all files with .php3 extensions will be redirected to the PHP3 module:

AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .php3

PHP3 CGI Redirect Installation

Install the PHP3 CGI software to redirect your HTML documents with PHP3 code to the CGI.

1. Telnet to your root. You must obtain special permission to telenet to A Better Server from the administrator.

2. Change to your home directory:

% cd ~
3. Untar PHP3 software. Use ONE of the commands below, depending upon the database support you want:

No Database Support
% tar xvf /usr/local/contrib/php-3.0.6-redirect.tar
mSQL Database Support
% tar xvf /usr/local/contrib/php-3.0.6-redirect-msql.tar
MySQL Database Support
% tar xvf /usr/local/contrib/php-3.0.6-redirect-mysql.tar
PostgreSQL Database Support
% tar xvf /usr/local/contrib/php-3.0.6-redirect-pgsql.tar
IMAP Support
% tar xvf /usr/local/contrib/php-3.0.6-redirect-imap.tar

4. Add the following lines to either the httpd.conf or srm.conf file so that all files with .php3 extensions will be redirected to the PHP3 CGI executable:

AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .php3
Action application/x-httpd-php3 /cgi-bin/php

For more information, visit the PHP website at http://www.php.net/

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