If you’re a familier with the word ‘PHP’ then here is some useful creative uses for it.

E-Commerce

E-commerce is one of the major uses for PHP. From a small business level to an enterprise level, businesses are always looking to create additional streams of revenue online. If you know how to integrate existing e-commerce solutions or build your own from scratch, this gives you a distinct advantage with your clients.

Beginners

• Magento
• Zen Cart
• Shopify

Advanced Coders

· CodeIgniter

· CakePHP.

Graphical User Interface

If PHP is your favorite programming language, then you can use some of these PHP extensions to get you started creating GUI applications.

• PHP GTK – This extension is a popular open source that implements the GIMP toolkit
• ZZEE PHP GUI – A paid solution that allows you to turn your PHP scripts into Windows applications

Image Processing and Generation

Using the GD library with PHP, you can do more than just output HTML to the browser! You can output images in different file types including jpeg, png, and gif. This feature of PHP is useful because it allows you to create thumbnail pictures, add watermarks, resize and crop images, and even create a photo gallery!

Mailing Lists

You can write your own script to send e-mail newsletters to your client, or use a ready-made script. The PHP online documentation explains PHP mailing functions in more detail. There are also scripts you can download and install on your website:

• PHP list

Developing Facebook Applications

You can integrate Facebook with your website using PHP. If you have developed Facebook applications using another language or you would like to get started with PHP, the Facebook developer’s wiki can help you to get started.

Create Graphs and Charts

Do you need visual representations of numbers on your site? PHP can create graphs and charts too! Using Image_Graph, you can create up to fourteen different types of charts including pie charts, bar graphs,.

Generating PDF Files

The PDF format is Adobe’s proprietary file type for document exchange. Using a library called PDFLib, you can generate PDF files with PHP. This library is already included with PHP5; to access it, you need to uncomment the appropriate lines in your PHP configuration file. An example of why creating PDF files might come in useful is, if you were building an online invoicing application and you wanted to output an HTML-generated invoice in PDF format.

Parsing XML Files

PHP allows you to parse XML files. Parsing XML is an important feature of PHP 5 because not all browsers can output the contents of an XML file; so you can create a parser in PHP to facilitate this process. Using XML is important for RSS feeds, and also for data storage and rendering data on different devices – for example, cell phones use an implementation of XML called WML (Wireless Markup Language). Working with XML files in PHP is similar to handling the opening, closing, and reading of a file.

Content Management Systems

One of the most popular uses of PHP is creating or using Content Management System. A good CMS allows your clients to update their website and add content without any in-depth knowledge of HTML and CSS. You can use one of the widely available free or commercial solutions listed below:

• Drupal
• Wordpress
• Joomla

Create Dynamic Website Templates

Using PHP, you can make it easier to add pages and elements to your websites dynamically. You begin by creating the HTML page and splitting it into the header, main content, and footer sections. Add the .php extension to your subsequent pages and use server-side Includes for the header and footer for each new page. You can also have dynamic sidebars and top navigation sections. As a matter of fact, the more “templated” your site is, the easier it is to update the content.

Building an Online Community

You can build your own PHP-driven online community, or choose from widely available scripts that you can implement into your website. Some popular ones include:

• php BB
• vBulletin
• Pun BB

from kiran vadariya