What should we already know to learn Drupal...

Before you continue, you should have a basic understanding of the following:

• HTML
• Some scripting knowledge

What is PHP?

• PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
• PHP is a server-side scripting language, like ASP
• PHP scripts are executed on the server
• PHP supports many databases (MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid,
• PostgreSQL, Generic ODBC, etc.)
• PHP is open source software
• PHP is free to download and use

What is a PHP File?

• PHP files can contain text, HTML tags and scripts
• PHP files are returned to the browser as plain HTML 
• PHP files have a file extension of ".php", ".php3", or ".phtml"

What is MySQL?

• MySQL is a database server
• MySQL is ideal for both small and large applications
• MySQL supports standard SQL
• MySQL compiles on a number of platforms
• MySQL is free to download and use

PHP + MySQL

PHP combined with MySQL are cross-platform (for examplr, you can develop in
Windows and serve on a Unix platform)

Why PHP?

• PHP runs on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, etc.)
• PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.)
• PHP is FREE to download from the official PHP resource:   www.php.net
• PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side