Server-Side Scripting Language - PHP

Server-side scripting is invisible to the user. Pity the poor server-side scripters, toiling away in utter obscurity, trapped in the no-man’s land between the web server and the database while their arty brethren brazenly flash their wares before the public gaze.

Server-side web scripting is mostly about connecting web sites to backend servers, processing data and controlling the behavior of higher layers such as HTML and CSS. This enables the following types of two-way communication:

• Server to client: Web pages can be assembled from backend-server output.
• Client to server: Customer-entered information can be acted upon.

Server-side scripting products consist of two main parts: the scripting language and the scripting engine (which may or may not be built into the web server). The engine parses and interprets pages written in the language.

Common examples of client-to-server interaction are online forms with some drop-down lists (usually the ones that require you to click a button) that the script assembles dynamically on the server.