PHP – a Platfrom that is adopted by numerous Open Source Solutions

PHP means Hypertext Preprocessor, an open source server-side scripting language that is used mainly for the development of web apps and services. PHP Web Development is pretty basic for a beginner, yet provides a lot of advanced features for a professional scriptwriter. There are three major areas where the scripts are used, including server-side scripting, command line scripting and writing applications for desktops. For those who are not familiar yet with PHP, it is good to determine what its advantages and disadvantages are to make a well-informed choice as to whether to use it or otherwise.

ADVANTAGES

1. Open source
2. Support for structural programming and object-oriented programming
3. Very easy and simple to clean
4. It could be used on all major operating systems with support for most of the web servers nowadays.
5. Has powerful built-in functionalities
6. Possesses extremely useful text processing features
7. Cost effective hosting and easy deployment

DISADVANTAGES

1. Not good for creating desktop applications
2. Flaws in security due to the unknown vulnerabilities

With PHP, one can develop dynamic web pages and sites. The platform is versatile and a capable server-side scripting language. It provides a plethora of benefits. It is not just open-source, but is feature-rich as well and has all the functions that a paid or proprietary scripting language could offer. A lot of open source or other solutions for CRMs, CMSs, eCommerce and more are built on PHP. Different shopping carts that are PHP-based offer numerous advantages for small businesses and open-source solutions could be developed to fit merchant requirements. They have a good combination of features at minimal cost. Furthermore, while the support options may be more limited than hosted or proprietary platforms, open-source standalone solutions usually have big developer communities as well as partners to help new merchants.

Whatever one’s needs may be in terms of CMS, Content Management Syste, and eCommerce, PHP offers great solutions to match. Only a few years ago, choices for open source PHP eCommerce platforms were extremely limited. Often, the only way to put together an eCommerce store on the web was to build a bespoke system. This is not the case anymore though, nowadays, there are many options.

Check out the different CRMs, CMSs and eCommerce platforms based on the PHP scripting language –

Magento

The coding is based on the current PHP 5 object-oriented coding standards as well as Zend. Undoubtedly, it is a huge success, thanks to its feature-rich admin panel, great flexibility over the layout, design, control and feel and other qualities enable handling big inventories, more complex function, a huge number of built-in features and themes and exceptional technical support. A lot of factors make Magento a truly established leader in eCommerce software, powering some of the most innovative eCommerce shops on the web. Magento has an excellent theming engine that has the ability to inherit elements from theme to theme, making variants quick and easy to make.

SugarCRM

Has become a standard bearer for open source customer relationship management solutions. Its initial selling point was its open source underpinnings, the application written in PHP and works with Microsoft SQL and MySQL Server databases. Nonetheless, recently, the messaging has been refined to become not only a competitor in the open source space but in a broader commercial CRM industry too.

X-Cart

Is one of the most affordably priced and easy to modify eCommerce platforms. The platform is commercially supported with very few bugs, using smarty templates system which a lot of programmers like to work with for website layout. However, X-Cart has licensing fees as well as some add-on modules and the price could be really steep. Nevertheless, the core open source platform is downloadable for free. X-Cart Pro or X-Cart Gold are with fee however.

OpenCart

Is an open source PHP -based internet shopping cart system that offers out-of-the-box solution with less manual configuration and intervention. It is an excellent option for those who are looking to start with selling on the web easily and quickly. It has a wide array of extensions, free and paid and plenty of opportunity to customize the store effectively to suit the business requirements. Its own website is easy to navigate, clean, concise, clear with easy to find support. One could find the same practice deployed into the eCommerce software.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is a PHP-based platform that has some extremely powerful marketing feature that allows one to see the products that customers add to their carts in real time. It is one of the most popular web shopping cart scripts. The community is robust with a lot of features such as numerous functionality enhancement plug-ins. PrestaShop has a large group of users that contribute to a good support system. The platform is popular among programmers and designers, which make modifying graphics seamless.

Drupal

Drupal is a free content management system that is written in PHP as well as distributed under the GNU General Public License. Furthermore, it is used as a back-end framework for at least 2.1 percent of all websites all over the world that range from personal blogs, political, corporate and government websites. It is also used for business collaboration and knowledge management. The standard Drupal release, known as Drupal core has basic features which are common to content management systems. These include menu management, registration and maintenance, taxonomy, RSS feeds, system administration and page layout customization.

osCommerce

It is a solution for building an online store. It is free under the GNU General Public License. It includes many opportunities in the box, enabling online shop owners to install, configure and maintain the service with less effort for free and with no restrictions. It’s the leading open source eCommerce solution with rich functionalities that enable store owners to set up, run and maintain their web shops with minimum effort, without costs, license fees or limitations. The goal of the platform is to evolve continually, drawing a community that supports ongoing project development at its core level and extensively via contributions for additional functionality t the already existing rich set of feature.

WordPress

WordPress is another powerful platform that started out as a blogging platform. It is powerful, allowing developers and users to customize and extend it. It has hundreds of thousands of pre-designed themes and more than 15,000 plug-ins. One could use it for designing almost any site for less cost compared to developing from scratch. WordPress has an open source format that enables developers to customize and reprogram the platform to do pretty much anything they require. It only takes installing the plug-in, setting up the options needed and customizing to reflect the overall design of the website.

ZenCart

It is considered as the art of eCommerce, its free and user-friendly software. The ecommerce website design program was made by a group of same-minded store owners that believe that the design and projects could and should be different. ZenCart has a very nice wide range of features that are based on osCommerce, yet has gone on its own path. It doesn’t have licensing fees; it is stable and has a lot of contributions that are already installed. Originally a PHP shopping cart program, it is built on the GPL code foundation of commerce operation system. It is considered the fastest web shop setup management system that is extremely easy and fast to set up. Moreover, it has numerous options and full capable of customization.

vTiger CRM

It refers to both open source and cloud versions of the CRM app. The app was originally forked from SugarCRM with the intent to being a fully open source customer relationship management application with comparable functionality to SugarCRM. It provides reporting, a client portal and an Outlook plug-in on its free edition. The cloud application was released in 2010 and provides added functions like advanced reporting, new interface and email campaigns. The main goal of vTiger CRM is to basically boost customer relationship. It does this through providing vital modules that manage client details, email notifications, file attachments and more. The information would help to identify which clients are lucrative and which are not. This could result in increase in sales due to better timing based on anticipating the requirements of the customers.

Hundreds and hundreds of business owners are integrating different CMSs, CRMs and eCommerce platforms based on PHP for very valid reasons. First, the platform works great with HTML, it has interactive features that enable one to interact with shop visitors in ways that HTML could not do alone. This could mean simple things such as email forms or more elaborate things such as shopping carts that save past orders and recommend the same products. PHP web development is much easier to learn and get started. By learning a few simple functions, one could do a lot of things with the website. Once one knows the basics, there are a wealth of scripts available on the web that only needs to be tweaked a bit to fit the particular requirements. For those who have not yet started, it is time to learn PHP.