WordPress All-In-One For Dummies, 4th Edition

Chapter 3

Getting to Know PHP and MySQL

IN THIS CHAPTER

Working with PHP and MySQL

Creating a page with PHP

Managing a database with MySQL

In Book 6, you dig into the code necessary to create functions and features on your website. Many, if not all, of these functions and features use Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) tags. When combined with the WordPress code, these tags make things happen (such as displaying post content, categories, archives, links, and more) on your website.

One of the reasons WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) is that you don’t need to know PHP code to use it. That’s to say, you can use WordPress easily without ever looking at any of the code or template files contained within it. If, however, you want to tweak the settings of your WordPress theme (flip to Book 6) or the code of a particular plugin (see Book 7), you need to understand the basics of how PHP works. But don’t worry; you don’t need to be a PHP programmer.

This chapter introduces you to the basics of PHP and MySQL, which is the database system that stores your WordPress data. After you read this chapter, you’ll understand how PHP and MySQL work together with the WordPress ...