02 PHP.net Home

02 PHP.net Home

Downloads and Release Notes

This page on PHP's website is dedicated to downloading three versions of PHP: 8.1, 8.0, and 7.4, as well as GnuPG keys from the PHP Git repository. There are also the changelog release notes provided for each version which goes over the additions, subtractions, and changes to the source code and functions of the PHP version. The changelog includes all updates to each addition of the version, dating back to the 2015 updates of PHP 7.0.

PHP Documentation

In the documentation section is the entire manual for PHP. Listed in the manual is a plethora of vital information to the function, use, and guide on PHP, as well as security features, configuration guides, and other important parts to help the user further understand and implement PHP into their own web server. The most important sections for a beginner are the installation, langauge reference, and FAQ section which all have key info on how to get PHP to work as intended and answer questions a beginner may have on the language.

Get Involved

Get involved is a section explaining how to contribute to the PHP community. The page states that simply using PHP means contributing to the development community. The page lists four ways to contribute: Running test suites, help finding failed tests, filing bug reports and resolving them, and maintaining and translating doc files in the git repository. Anyone can also help develop the source for PHP, so long as they have experience with contributing previously as well as a firm grasp of the C langauge.

To Summarize

PHP.net is a great place to get started with understanding and deploying PHP on a web page. Of course, PHP may not be the strongest language, but it is the most popular and commonly used on the web. With the help of PHP.net as well as the many developers world wide, any user can get to work with PHP right away and have all the help they need anytime they need it.