PHP Embedding

• PHP code works on Web pages by embedding itself within HTML code. While HTML tags can be inserted anywhere on a page, PHP code has to be surrounded with the tags "<?php" at the beginning of the PHP code segment and "?>" at the end. Web designers can replace the normal static settings for HTML, such as buttons or link addresses, with PHP code, which can supply those values.
  
  

Remotely Manage Button Image

• Without supplemental PHP code, a Web designer has to set the appearance of the HTML button statically when he codes the Web page. This can be the default HTML button image, or a graphic the designer supplies. With PHP, the designer can slip a PHP code segment into the area where he normally would put the name of the button graphic; this code pulls a graphic from a database slot. The designer can make a separate client that can change the graphic this database slot holds, thus automatically changing the button graphic without having to touch the page's source code.
  
  

Random Button Graphic

• Another trick to play with a button's appearance in PHP is to use PHP's random function to randomize what appearance a button will take when the end user loads a Web page. The user can do this with a series of "if" statements that are each linked to a different file name for a different graphic. This script runs each time the page loads to display a random graphic from a set of graphics.
  
  

Random Link Path

• Web page designers also can use PHP's random function to change the function a button on a Web page performs. This could take the form of making a button point to a URL that a PHP script randomly selects from a list. To do this, a Web designer slips the randomizing PHP code into the link value of a button's HTML code rather than its display parameter. The "if" statements then echo different link values rather than the names of graphical files.