PHP as the programming language PHP is chosen for developing the web applications for many systems. There were 3 main reasons behind this. The first and the most important reason was the fact that PHP offers multi-platform support. This was especially important because many systems can operate on any server e.g. Linux operating system, windows XP etc. As a result of this, ASP.NET was ruled out from the list of options in the very beginning as it requires a windows platform to run. The second reason for using PHP was the fact that PHP is open source software which is released under the GNU GPL (General Public License). Therefore it was available for free to us. The third reason for using PHP is because it provides a web centric API. It is a widely used, general-purpose scripting language that is well suited for web development. It is a server-side HTML embedded scripting language, i.e. PHP is embedded in the HTML files and the server does the work of translating the PHP.
JSP (Java Server Pages) is another technology that can be used for creating powerful web applications. JSP is part of the J2EE package which is highly modular and comprises of the web server. However, PHP was chosen over JSP for many projects because only one server machine was available for the project. Therefore, if JSP was used, all the server components would have to be deployed on one single machine which would lead to deterioration in the system’s performance.
MySQL FOR DATABASE
MySQL has been used to develop the database for many projects. The biggest advantage that MySQL has to offer is its performance. MySQL is relatively faster than SQL server Even though performance is not a huge issue for many projects, it would still be a desirable advantage to have. The other main reason for using MySQL is that the database design is much simpler. MySQL also allows the creation of web-driven websites with much more ease Therefore MySQL would easily suffice because the database and web application requirements.
APACHE SERVER
The Apache Server is used for many systems. It acts as a web server that parses files and displays the results when a browser sends out a request for that file. The Apache server has password protected pages so that multiple users can be accommodated by the system. It offers customized error pages and error logs. The main reason for using the Apache server is that it is open source and therefore free. It is compatible with PHP and also offers multi platform support.
JAVASCRIPT FOR FORM VALIDATION AND CONFLICT DETECTION
JavaScript is a programming or script language, which can be embedded in Web pages and read by the browser. It can be used to do things such as open a separate browser window, form validation or to display a pop-up message when a certain action is performed by the user. JavaScript has been used within the PHP files and in separate JavaScript files to provide form validation and conflict detection features in the system.