PHP, which stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, is an open source scripting language. Although it can be used as a general-purpose scripting language, it was designed to be a convenient language in which to write scripts that could be embedded with HTML documents. Unlike scripts written in JavaScript, which are frequently executed by the client, PHP scripts are processed by the web server, and the resulting HTML output sent to the clients. The syntax of PHP is derived from that of other popular languages, such as Java and Perl.

To make it a convenient language in which to develop dynamic web pages, PHP provides the ability to retrieve information from many popular databases, such as SQL Anywhere. Included with SQL Anywhere is an extension that provides access to SQL Anywhere databases from PHP. You can use the SQL Anywhere PHP extension and the PHP language to write standalone scripts and create dynamic web pages that rely on information stored in SQL Anywhere databases.

The SQL Anywhere PHP extension provides a native means of accessing your databases from PHP. You might prefer it to other PHP data access techniques because it is simple, and it helps to avoid system resource leaks that can occur with other techniques.

Prebuilt versions of the PHP extension are provided for Windows, Linux, and Solaris and are installed in the binaries subdirectories of your SQL Anywhere installation. Source code for the SQL Anywhere PHP extension is installed in the sdk\php subdirectory of your SQL Anywhere installation.

For more information and the latest SQL Anywhere PHP drivers, see  http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1019698.

For information about installing the SQL Anywhere PHP extension, see PHP client deployment.