Do you really need to migrate your application from PHP to some other?

Introduction

PHP is an acronym for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor". PHP is an object-oriented, open-source, interpreted scripting language that can be run on the server.

PHP is an excellent web development language. As a result, it is used to build web applications that execute on the server and generate the dynamic page. Rasmus Lerdorf developed PHP in 1994, but it didn't hit the market until 1995. PHP 8.0.6, which was released on 6th May, is the most recent version of PHP.

It is an HTML-enabled server-side scripting language. It's used to handle dynamic content, databases, and session monitoring, as well as to create entire e-commerce websites.

MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and Microsoft SQL Server are only a few of the databases it supports. It runs extremely quickly, particularly when compiled as an Apache module on the Unix side. When started, the MySQL server executes even the most complex queries with large result sets in record time.

POP3, IMAP, and LDAP are only a few of the major protocols that PHP supports. PHP4 introduced support for Java and distributed object architectures (COM and CORBA), allowing for the first time n-tier growth. It is free to download and use.
PHP is supported by prominent social networking sites like Facebook and reputable organizations like Harvard University, which enhances PHP's popularity and reputation.

The PHP coding language is one of the easiest and most common programming tools for web creation, thanks to its numerous advantages. It is regarded as a highly successful technology that facilitates the production process by providing numerous additional resources. Learn More About PHP

What is a PHP file?

Files that have an extension .php are referred to as PHP files. They can contain text, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP code. The PHP code is run on the server and the result is returned to the browser as plain HTML.

Capabilities of PHP -

• PHP can create interactive content for web pages.
• On the server, PHP can build, open, read, write, delete, and close files.
• PHP has the ability to obtain data from forms.
• PHP has the ability to send and receive cookies.
• PHP has the ability to add, remove, and change data in your database.
• PHP can be used to monitor who has access to what information.
• PHP has the ability to encrypt data.

Applications of PHP

• E-commerce websites and applications.
• Content Management System.
• Data Analytics and Representation.
• Graphical interface design based applications.
• Developing the features of Flash.

Is it really necessary to move from PHP to other languages?

Well, the answer to it depends on your purpose of learning and using PHP.

If you are a fresher and just making your entry into the world of web development, you can consider learning PHP as a starting point to back-end development. You can then consider learning MERN ( MongoDB, Express.js, React.js, Node.js) / MEAN (MongoDB, Express.js, Angular.js, Node.js) stack.

The reason is simple. If you keep up with all of the libraries and technology available, it's simply no longer relevant for new websites.

The MEAN/MERN stack is becoming more popular in website development. This is because people tend to use SPAs (Single Page Apps). In the real world of websites, this is a challenge for the design of conventional server-client applications.

The majority of websites have a static client page that receives dynamic information from the server based on the state of your session. The server stores where you are in the application and much of the data associated with your session.

The server handles everything, including page rendering. This made a lot of sense before personal computers and wireless devices gained the computing power and memory to do this on their own.

Now that they have the ability to do it all themselves, it's no longer practical to build applications like this. The application's rendering and state are now entirely offloaded to the client, with only the data being sent from the client to a restful service on the server and then back to the client to be rendered.

This was done to conserve bandwidth, improve response time, and simplify website programming.

There aren't many PHP frameworks that are built to function in this manner, and they can't do it on their own. PHP is unable to run on the client. Almost all HTTP client programming requires JavaScript.

As a result of JSON's widespread use and acceptance as a method of transmitting and storing data from websites, as well as Nodejs' simplicity and ease of developing restful services, JavaScript is rapidly becoming the new standard server language.

AngularJS, one of the first client-side libraries to help with client-side SPA management, was also a major help in this transition.

Node.js over PHP

Why Node.js? Node.js because to compare PHP with one of the modern server-side scripting languages. Node.js it will be appropriate to consider a modern language while debating on whether PHP should be used or not.

Advantages of Node.js

Coding style -
On the surface, Node.js appears to take more lines of code to perform the same tasks as PHP.

Since the entire programming environment is written in Javascript, you won't have to remember the syntax of various languages when coding.

To use PHP, you must be familiar with the operation of operators and generators in Linux, Apache HTTP Server, MySQL.

Speed -
While PHP is synchronous, some APIs act asynchronously in addition to the synchronous ones. A simple example demonstrates the difficulty of being synchronous.

Let's say the first line of code contains a feature that takes a long time to run. Due to the synchronous nature of the code, the lines below must now wait their turn and can only execute once the feature has completed.

The JavaScript engine in Node.js is asynchronous, which means it runs through the entire code in one go and does not wait for a feature to return. The lines of code below the function will run, as will the function itself, and will return the output when it is finished, making Node.js quick.

Context Switches -
When writing PHP backend code, the user is constantly switching between languages and syntax. This is due to PHP's widespread use as part of the LAMP stack, which also includes MySQL (for databases), PHP (for server-side code), and Linux. They all have different syntax.

Since Node.js is written in JavaScript, it can be used on both the server and client sides, eliminating the need to switch between languages.

Modules -
PHP makes use of module installation technologies such as PEAR (a long-standing package system) and Composer, which is relatively recent.

Node.js includes a package management framework named NPM (Node Package Manager) as well as a registry that is simple to use and publish.

Database Support -
PHP is mainly used in conjunction with relational databases such as MySQL, MariaDB, and PostgreSQL.

Node.js is compatible with NoSQL (not just SQL) databases such as MongoDB and CouchDB, as well as graph database systems such as Neo4j.

SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other attacks are particularly vulnerable to MySQL database systems. Injection attacks against NoSQL databases have been documented.

However, as opposed to SQL injection, they are insignificant. The main explanation for this is that they are brand new, and their code is designed to be inherently resistant to such attacks.

Application Domains -
Because of its non-blocking I/O and event-driven architecture, Nodejs is perfect for designing highly scalable server-side solutions. It is used extensively in real-time applications such as chat apps, websites, and video streaming apps. It is also used to build single-page applications such as resume portfolios and personal websites.

PHP, on the other hand, is used in the development of CPU-intensive applications such as meteorology and science applications.

Since today mostly all the web pages are user interactive, which requires communication between the server and client, Node.js is ideal to use.

Do you already have the application created in PHP up and running?

Many organizations which have their web pages based on PHP are still using PHP. The codebase of an organization is usually very large and it is not practical to shift the code base and rebuild it using a new language. It is not worth the cost of doing so.

Organisations like Facebook, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Flickr, Tumblr still use PHP in their web applications. Also, new versions of PHP are being continuously released which improves the speed and reliability.

When comparing PHP 5 to PHP 7, it's worth noting that efficiency (speed) has improved by two or three times. As a result, most of the objections to PHP have become outdated over time. That means the PHP developer community behind it takes criticism seriously and uses it to improve.

PHP is simple to learn, has many useful libraries, extensive documentation, and, most importantly, a large community. Some may consider this language to be ancient, but then it can be considered as one of the classics.

Conclusion -

While new languages are being developed and used extensively in today’s modern web applications, we cannot ignore the fact that PHP is still dominant when it comes to server-side scripting. 8 out of 10 web pages still use PHP and so we can be assured that PHP will not lose its existence at least for a decade.

However, as web pages are becoming more and more complex and user interactive, it becomes much easier and more secure to create those applications with the help of modern server-side scripting language - Node.js.

And, looking at the total number of hirings happening for PHP, it definitely seems to be a competitive language in the current scenario. And, if you are preparing for a PHP interview, it is important for one to understand the core concepts.

On the whole, PHP should not be completely ignored. If you are planning to have a career in web development, you should have the knowledge and a firm understanding of PHP as well since it is still being used in many organizations.

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