If you want to build a dynamic website which has the ability to communicate with databases and servers to ensure that it is both functional and efficient, then you will need to have knowledge of a programming language to ensure that these tasks can be easily achieved; there are many different programming languages, each of which have been designed for use in specific server environments, and although most possess more or less the same basic features at heart, some do contain more advanced and complicated features that others may not have. When choosing a programming language to learn, you should always consider how easy it will be to learn and ask others who have a good deal of knowledge about the language you are wanting to learn just how long it took them to learn it, and how easy they find it to use within a complicated server environment; you should also take into consideration the server environment in which the code that you produce will be hosted - for example you don’t want to go and learn a language which you then can’t use effectively since it hasn’t been designed to work in a server environment such as the one which you want to host it in. You should also take into consideration the external factors of a programming language which can affect your ability to code in it as well as the dynamic functionality that it is able to achieve; for example you should always consider the external database programs that you are able to use with your chosen programming language - this is because some database programs might not be able to function in the same environment as that in which the programming language that you have chosen to use does, this means that you should consider a database program that it is able to function with both the programming language that you have chosen to use as well as within the same environment as that in which the programming language that you have chosen to learn. Other factors you should consider when choosing a programming language to learn is the amount of support that is available for it; this is because if you are new to programming then you might need some support to help send you in the right direction if you happen to come across a problem or are unable to figure something out when you are in the middle of learning that language that you have chosen to learn. If you are new to programming, and have not learnt any server side scripting language previously, then you will open your website to a whole new set of opportunities which you most likely did not know about previously; this is because with the use of a server side scripting language, you can allow the pages of your website to interact with the server and also configure your pages to work with a database which means that your visitors can have much more interaction with your website if you use these opportunities to add new features to your website such as a password protected area or a forum where people can discuss certain topics with each other.

Features

You should always consider the features that a programming language has when you are looking to learning a language to aid you in the process of a building a dynamic server side script based website; this is because that although more or less every server side scripting language has the core features such as interaction with databases and the server, the more advanced features can settings can easily differ from language to language meaning that some are better suited to one use than another might be. Some languages are starting to incorporate new features that will help them stay up to date with the latest internet trends as they start to grow; for example Microsoft has started to release an AJAX toolkit for its ASP.NET server side scripting language to ensure that developers who use the language for their websites are able to keep their websites up to date in terms of the technology which is used to enable their scripts and web pages to interact with the server on which they are hosted. Most programming languages are able to work with a wide range of database programs which means that you are given a selection of database programs meaning that you can choose one which suits your requirements perfectly, both in terms of specification and the languages that it is able to function with; with the use of a database and a dynamic server side scripting language, you are able to store data which can be accessed by any dynamic script or web page which as the necessary database login details - this means that you could setup a private area on your website which requires a user name and password to gain access, or you could build a content management system to base your website on which will store all the content for your website in a centralized database. Another thing that should you take into consideration is the libraries that are available for the scripting language which you wish to learn; libraries are normally ‘add-ons’ for scripting languages that allow you to expand the capability of the programming language that you have chosen to learn since they are normally made for one purpose which expands on an existing function of the scripting language, or adds a completely new set of functions entirely. You should also consider the operating environment in which the programming language has been designed to run; for example PHP has been designed to allow it to run in both Linux and Windows environments, which means that you can easily install the necessary files in both operating systems to ensure that it can run effectively - on the other hand, ASP.NET has been designed by Microsoft which means that it can only be run on a server which is running Microsoft Windows Server. You should also consider the language’s ability to run alongside other web pages which have been written in different programming languages; for example PHP pages might interfere with the running of ASP.NET scripts and pages within the context of a Windows based web hosting environment.

Environment

One of the main factors that you should consider when choosing a programming language to learn is the environment for which the language you have chosen is able to operate in; this is because some programming languages have been written to allow them to run in a certain operating system only, meaning that you have to be using that operating system in order for you to be able to host and view the files that you have written in the dynamic server side scripting language concerned. For example, if you want others on the internet to be able to view the files or web pages that you have written in either the classic ASP or ASP.NET programming languages, you have to be running a server or computer which has either Microsoft Windows Server installed on it, or Microsoft Windows XP Professional - although it is recommended that you use Windows XP Professional to view server side scripts if you are wanting to test them, since it isn’t as suited to the position as Windows Server is; this is because that Microsoft has designed both programming languages to be run on Microsoft operating systems only and to only be executed through Microsoft’s web server, IIS (Internet Information Services) - this means that you might have to fork out extra for Windows based web hosting in order for you to have the ability to execute and view the classic ASP and ASP.NET web pages and scripts that you have written. On the other hand, programming language such as Ruby on Rails (RoR) and PHP will run on most operating systems, and are open source meaning that they are free; the fact that they are open source means that you can pick up a cheap cPanel and Linux based website hosting account that in most cases should have the ability to run Ruby and PHP based website applications. Although ASP.NET and classic ASP are both free to use programming languages, they are still classed as commercial since the running of them is only possible through the purchase of a Windows Server license, this means that their cores cannot be accessed by the likes of you and me which means that the cores can’t be customized to the way that we want them in order to make the engines behind both languages run more efficiently and faster; however, the source code for both Ruby and PHP can be downloaded which means that any developer with a sufficient amount of knowledge can easily modify the source to the way that they want it to be and then rebuild for use within their own server environment. Other environmental factors for the running of the programming language that you have chosen to learn can include the necessary file permissions which might be required to ensure that the language which you have chosen to learn can run effectively without any problem, which is a must when you are wanting to use the language within your own dedicated server environment; if the correct file permissions are not set then the core of the language might be restricted from accessing the resources that it needs to ensure that it can run effectively and fast.

Support

If you are new to the world of server side programming languages, then you should always take into consideration the support that is available to you if you find that you need help with a certain feature of the programming language that you have chosen to use; this is important because the best known languages have many forums that are dedicated to them which should more than meet your needs, but on the other hand the lesser known languages don’t have such a good amount of support available for them - or the case may be that there is enough support available for them, but the support just isn’t informative enough which isn’t what you need when you’re starting out with something new. For example, Microsoft’s ASP.NET language may be a commercial one, but the company itself doesn’t provide any official support past the regular documentation that you should be able to find with any programming language that you want to learn, especially the best ones; in this case you should be able to rely on internet based communities to help you out in the learning process, since these communities are normally full of many knowledgable members who can give you tips on how best to learn the language as well, since everyone had to learn the language at some point in their development career. You will never find any source of official support for any open source scripting languages beyond the documentation that you should be able to find for almost any scripting language, regardless of whether you choose to learn it or not since everyone needs some sort of official source which they can refer back to; however, you should be able to find more internet based communities which can help you out with the language that you would for an commercial server side scripting language, this is because that people are able to view the source code of the actual language which in turn means that they should be able to tell you exactly what to do if you happen to run into a problem with the language that you have chosen to learn. If this is your first time learning a programming language, then it is important that you try and learn a language which has lots of support available to you; this is because it is inevitable that you will get stuck during the learning process at some stage or another since programming languages are very complicated things to learn. One thing to note is that the documentation that is provided by the makers of the scripting languages for their products are in most cases very complicated; this means that you should try and gain a good amount of knowledge before attempting to read one of the documentation manuals since you should then be able to solve your problem much more efficiently, and at the same time will be gaining knowledge on the language which you have chosen to learn. If you gain a good amount of knowledge of your chosen language, you might end up becoming a programmer - which in most cases is highly paid job because of the skill that is involved.

Commercial and Open Source

Commercial programming languages are ones which require you to purchase something in order for you to have the ability to run them so that visitors to your website are able to view the finished article, and so that the server which is hosted the script or web page concerned is able to process the file in a correct manner so that it can output it to the visitor’s browser in the correct format. Commercial languages are generally made for use on one operating system only, which restricts you from how and where you are able to use your skills if you choose to learn a commercial server side scripting language; an example of a commercial server side scripting language would be Microsoft’s ASP.NET, this is because you can only use it under Microsoft’s web server, IIS, which itself will only run on a Microsoft operating system such as Windows XP Professional or Windows Server 2003 - their more modern counterparts being Windows Vista Business and Ultimate, as well as Windows Server 2008. On the other hand, open source programming languages generally allow you to run them on any operating system, which means that you are able to apply your knowledge and skills across a wide range of operating systems if you do choose to learn and open source server side scripting/programming language; you can also expand open source scripting languages more easily than their commercial counter parts, this is because many developers have spent their time developing free add-ons for the open source languages to help make them much more feature filled, and in tun allowing people who develop using them to build more feature filled and efficient web based applications and websites. You will also find that the support for open source programming languages is much greater than that of commercial programming languages; the main reason for this is that people and developers tend to go more with open source languages for the simple reason that they are free, and because there is a large number of experienced developers who decide to use open source languages, there is a large amount of people who are willing to help out those who are new to the world of server side programming. The amount of support that is available for commercial server side programming languages is very little when compare to that which is available for open source languages; this is because that most developers don’t have the money to invest in the needed technologies to ensure that their scripts and web pages, which means that they normally take up open source programming languages because of the fact that there is little to no cost of getting started with these - you will also find that larger corporations with money will be utilizing commercial scripting languages, and they will be unwilling to provide any outsiders with any sense of support if they have just started out with a new programming language - if you do want to start with a commercial programming language then you should try and pick up a cheap book from your nearest book store.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you are new to the world of developing with server side scripting languages then you should take up an open source programming language to learn since there are far more helpful resources available for you than there are with commercial programming languages; this means that you might find it easier to learn your chosen language, and might even be able to get your dynamic website built much quicker than you would with a commercial programming language which has far less resources available regarding information about it. If you start coding in a language, and you fill that your set up might need expanding so that you are able to use many more functions when you code, then you should choose an open source language to learn since you can easily expand these through the use of freely available function libraries which are in most cases open source as well; this means that if you want to expand the interactivity that your website is able to have with the server on which it is hosted, then you can by simply expanding the base of the language in which you are coding with some simple yet effective function libraries. If you do choose to code in a commercial scripting language, then you might find yourself paying high web hosting costs since the cost of the software which is required to enable commercial scripting languages to run is high, and web hosts have to past the costs on to customers; you might also find yourself paying large amounts of money for resources such as books to aid you in the development process because there is a lack of online resources - if you were to code using an open source language then you would be able to use the vast range of free online resources to help you, and would not have to pay large amount of money for thick and complicated and in some cases almost useless books. With the use of this article, you should have been able to discover the power that programming languages have, and how the use of them can help boost your website in terms of how you manage it, and how much interactivity your visitors are able to have with it since you can use the features of programming languages to help add more features to your website. Also, with the use of a programming language, you might be able to get a job in IT since programmers are very skilled people, and positions for them normally accompany high salaries.

cPanel provides you with a number of integrated software and service features to help you improve your website as well as to aid you along in the process of creating your website; this section of the popular control panel can aid you a lot if you are new to the concept of website design and hosting. There are several different features that can help you along with the installation of certain programs that can help you get your website started; this is perfect for those novices who don’t yet have any professional desktop website building software such as Adobe Dreamweaver to aid them in the development of their websites, there are also smaller features that you can add to your existing website to help spruce if up if you feel that it needs it since the design it is using might be starting to get quite old and outdated. Other features allow you to setup different modules and packages within your web space that are applicable to certain server side scripting languages such as Perl and PHP; this can be helpful for you if you need a custom configuration but are only able to afford a shared website hosting package, and not a more higher level package such as a VPS server or a dedicated server at this point in time. A third party application that helps with the installation of programs that you can use to get your site started will also be discussed; although cPanel provides it’s own solution to aid you with the installation of scripts, the third party one that is used by many web hosts is more powerful than the one that comes packaged with cPanel. It is important to know how to use these tools; this is because you may not have the necessary knowledge to help you build your own website by using a desktop website building program. You can also utilize the features to install a forum or blog for your website so you can expand its possabilties, as well as enable visitors to communicate with each other as well as allow them to comment on the content of your website.

With the use of this article you will be able to expand on your current website by being able to install many different open source programs that can help you create a community in which all of your website visitors can communicate with each, and in the example of a blog, can comment on the contents of your website. You can also set your account up to enable additional modules and packages for your shared website hosting account that you would only be able to set up in the case of a dedicated environment such as VPS server or a dedicated server; these packages can cover server side scripting languages such as Perl and PHP to ensure that your applications are able to function the way you want them to within your shared hosting environment. If you are able to get your applications to work the way you want them to within a shared hosting environment, then it can prevent you from having to dish out more money to upgrade to a higher level package at some time in the future. The use of a third party application which is known as a Fantastico will also be discussed; the main purpose of Fantastico is to allow you to install third party scripts and programs into your web space - the main technical work such as the setting up of the database and the setting of file permissions is done by the program to ensure that you are able to focus on the main purpose which is to get your website up and running as fast as possible - that is unless you have bought your hosting account to help get yourself launched into the website hosting market. You will also learn about how you should apply the features that are included within the software/services section of cPanel to your website in an effective way; this might even help boost the number of visitors your website receives, since it will be more feature packed than it has been previously.

CGI Centre

The CGI centre within cPanel contains many different features that you can easily add to your website to increase its attraction as well as the interactivity that visitors can have with it. There are certain programs that are included within this cPanel feature that can allow you to add a search engine to your site, which visitors can then use to find content within your website; this can be helpful for both you and your website’s visitors if you have a particularly large website which contains many pages, that can’t be gotten to easily - one thing to note is that if you have a dynamic website where the information displayed is retrieved from a database, then this solution won’t work for you since it only bases itself upon the files that are physically contained within your cPanel website hosting space, in your case you would have to build your own searching system that queried the database where the content is stored with the keywords that the the person conducting the search has entered. Other types of programs that are included are guestbooks that you can allow visitors to your website to sign; this can be helpful for you if you want your visitors to comment on your website in general, as well as if you want to get a general idea of where your visitors come from and why they come to your website, as well as why they might find it interesting. You also have the ability to setup a banner rotating system for your website; you can use this feature if you want to display banners/adverts on your website but want them to be rotated over time so that the same one isn’t always displayed. The banner system that is built into cPanel has some disadvantages though; you can only administrate the system through cPanel which means if you want others to control their banners then you have to give the your cPanel password, which means that this isn’t the ideal system for you if you want to sell advertising space on your website - if you do want to sell advertising space on your website then you should decide to take up a PHP based adverts system that will allow users to administrate and add new banners.

Site Software

The site software section of cPanel contains many programs that cPanel will auto-install for you into your web space, dependent upon the options that you choose during the setup; this is a good feature for novices since all the technical work such as the setting up of databases and setting of file permissions is all done automatically by cPanel. You can use the programs that are included within this feature to get your website started; this is because you could use a CMS system that is included in this feature to help get the main part of your site started, since it will allow to add, edit and delete the content of the system as you need to. You can also use the site software feature to install programs on your website that your visitors can use to communicate with each other; these programs include forums that visitors can sign up to so that they are able to create new topics and to also respond to existing ones - other software included within this feature also allows you to install a chat room onto your website so that visitors can talk to each other in real time about any topics that they wish, although you can moderate the chat rooms to ensure that only certain topics are discussed; also, if you want to add a shop to your website then you can quite easily since an PHP/MySQL based shopping cart is included to allow you to install it into your web space so that you can start selling yours or others products through your website with ease. If you feel that you no longer need certain applications on your website that you have installed through the site software feature, then they can be easily removed; this means that you can easily test software that is contained within the site software feature on your website, and if you feel that you don’t need it then you can easily remove it through the site software feature since it acts as a manger.

Perl Module Manager

You can use the Perl module manager section of cPanel to view the Perl modules that are installed server wide for all users to use, as well as to view and install the Perl modules that are relevant to your shared cPanel website hosting account only. This feature is great for you if you require special Perl modules to be installed within the context of your shared cPanel hosting account to allow your applications to function correctly; custom modules are only usually installable within a dedicated hosting environment such as that provided by a VPS server and a dedicated server - although both come at a much higher cost than a standard shared cPanel website hosting account. You are able to install any kind of Perl modules that you want to within your hosting account; this is because all you have to do is type in the name of the module that you want to install, and as long as it exists cPanel will automatically install it into your hosting environment so that you can use it for any applications and website that are Perl based which you might want to host within your shared cPanel website hosting account. Although most web hosts provide a lot of Perl modules that are already install system wide, there are some that they might miss out which you can easily install yourself; they might be missed out since they might interfere with applications that people want to host in their shared website hosting account - but although others want to use it, it can’t be removed if it is installed system wide - therefore, if the people who want to use it install it within their own accounts, then it doesn’t affect the websites and applications of those who don’t want to use it for the reason that it might interfere with their websites and applications that they have hosted on the server.

PHP Pear Packages

PHP Pear packages are collections of functions that allow you to carry out different tasks via the use of PHP. Most web hosts provide you with a large selection of pear packages that are installed server wide so that any website that resides on that hosting sever can make use of the pear packages to carry out different tasks with the use of PHP; if you require a pear package that your web host has not installed server wide then you can easily install it by using the package manager that is included with cPanel. There are certain packages that your web host might not have installed server wide for many reasons including the fact that they might have corrupted the running of some applications or websites that are run by people with their shared cPanel website hosting accounts on the same server as you; in this case, if you require the use of these certain packages then you can make use of the package manager to ensure that you can install them within your shared cPanel website hosting account. Since you are installing the packages within the surroundings of the web space that has been assigned to you, they do not effect the running of other websites and applications that might be hosted on the same server as your website is; this also means that the actions of the packages are exclusive to your account meaning that they do not have any influence on pear packages that other users might have installed on their shared cPanel website hosting account. Pear packages have many different uses within the context of PHP; this is because there are many different developers who develop using PHP and have developed their own pear packages which they have decided to share with the general public - this also means that you can extend the possibilities of your website or application since there are many more features that you can add to it if you are using PHP because of the many different pear packages that are available.

PHP Configuration

The PHP configuration that is assigned to your web hosting account is only editable by the server administrator, since it is usually applied to every account that is hosted on the web hosting server - in other words the PHP configuration. The PHP configuration option that is available within cPanel allows you to see the PHP configuration for the web hosting server that your shared cPanel website hosting account is hosted on, and can be very helpful to reference to when you are building a PHP based application for hosting with your cPanel website hosting account; this is because that in some cases the final PHP application that you build might not work on the server that you are hosted on because the PHP configuration has put certain restrictions on how PHP applications are able to run within the server. However, via the use of .htaccess, you can create your own PHP configuration file (also known as php.ini) which you can then assign to your own website hosting space, and will not have any effect on other websites that are hosted on the same server that you are; this can be helpful is you need to enable or disable certain PHP options since they are conflicting with the operation of your PHP based website or application - you can also use this option to change the settings of certain PHP components to ensure that your PHP website or application is able to run without any interuption within your shared cPanel website hosting account. One thing to note is that you should always be careful when using a custom PHP configuration within the context of your shared cPanel website hosting account; this is because if you disable certain PHP options or components then you could restrict the running of any PHP based website or application within your hosting account.

Fantastico De Luxe

Fantastico is an auto-installer program that will automatically install certain PHP/MySQL based website applications for you, and works in a similar way to the site software feature that is also part of cPanel; however, unlike the site software feature of cPanel, Fantastico is a third party application that needs to be purchased by your web host in order for them to be able to install on your web hosting server - but many cPanel web hosts provide Fantastico these days as it is seen as one of the most popular cPanel add-ons. Also, Fantastico’s program directory is much larger than that of cPanel’s site software feature. You can use Fantastico to help get your website started, or to even help improve it; this is because it contains a number of programs that can help you form a basic website - for example you could install a blog or a CMS (content management system) to help you to start building up the contents of your website via the means of producing it through the administration area that most programs that fall under either of these categories posess, you can then come back to edit and delete the content if needed at a better date. You could also install a forum or bulletin board through Fantastico; you can then use the forum or bulletin board to help expand your website by allow your visitors to communicate with each other - this can be done via the creation of topics, if your visitors then sign up to either the forum or bulletin board they can then reply to the topics or create new topics - and as more topics get created, more people will sign up and reply to these topics which means that both your website and either forum or bulletin board will expand - you can then cash in on this expansion by putting adverts on your website, if you haven’t already so that you can earn money from the visitors that you receive. One thing to note is that Fantastico is perfect for beginners since the technical work such as the setting up of the database and the setting of file permissions to ensure that the application can run correctly are all done automatically by it.
Conclusion

In conclusion, cPanel provides you with many features that you can take advantage of to ensure that you can get your website kick started without the need for any technical knowledge; it also provides tool which you can utilize to help expand your website and to allow the visitors of your website to communicate with each other. Other tools provided within cPanel allow you to setup custom configurations to ensure that PHP and Perl based websites and applications that you wish to host within the surroundings of your cPanel website hosting account are able to run correctly; this is because you are given the ability to setup and configure additional modules that you might require for your PHP and Perl based websites and applications, since they might need them to ensure that they can be run reliably. You can also use the PHP configuration feature of cPanel to find out details of certain PHP options and components that might be installed on your hosting server; this information might be able to aid you in the development of PHP based websites and applications that will be one day deployed within the environment of your shared cPanel hosting account - this is because your code might require some tweaking to an extent to make sure that it can be run reliably within your shared cPanel website hosting account. You can also use the CGI program feature of cPanel to extend the interaction that visitors can have with your website; for example you can install a search engine to help your visitors find information within your website when they need to, without having to troll through many pages just to find the information that they want to find, you could also install a banner program to enable you to rotate different banners and adverts within the content that you have on your website.

Since cPanel is made to run on the Linux operating system, it’s main database features are based around the hugely popular open source MySQL database system; MySQL is best known for being used with the open source programming language (PHP). cPanel provides you with many tools to aid you in the creation of MySQL databases, as well as the management and editing of them which allows you to ensure that the data that they contain will not be stale which means that the database won’t be using up any unneeded disk space that you have assigned to your web hosting package. Most people uses databases in web hosting to allow them to build dynamic websites so that people are able to do activities on their site that require dynamic database interaction; these kind of activities include signing up as a member, as well as writing on a forum and commenting on a blog post. Others might also use a dynamic in the form of a CMS (content management system) to allow them to edit and change the contents of their website quickly and easily from any internet connection computer in any part of the world. Databases allow you to store information and allow you to access it at any time; most of the actions mentioned previously will make use of the MySQL database system within the context of a shared cPanel hosting environment where the Linux operating system is used, and will make use of a scripting language such as PHP or Perl to ensure that the data can be retrieved from the database and manipulated as needed into the context that will allow it to be displayed on an ordinary website. In some cases other programming languages such as Ruby on Rails (RoR) can be used in conjunction with MySQL to provide a better coded website solution; other database systems might also be deployed in conjunction with other programming languages, for example PostgreSQL has been deployed in some cPanel shared website hosting environments.

With this article you will be given the ability to create and manage MySQL databases within the environment that has been provided for you by your shared cPanel website hosting account. You will be able to deploy MySQL databases which you can then use in conjunction with the applications that you might choose to host within your web hosting account; these applications might be based on open source programming solutions such as PHP and Perl that can both be easily integrated and used with MySQL databases. The ability to manage your MySQL databases via the web based PhpMyAdmin solution that is incorporated with cPanel will also be taught; this includes the ability to execute MySQL queries on the database itself to ensure that tables can be easily setup with scripts that might be provided by programs that have been bought from third party developers, and which you want to use on your website to either help your visitors communicate with each other or to allow you to manage the content that you publish on your website with ease. If you have your own MySQL server or if you want to use the services of a third party MySQL hosting provider, then you will also be able to setup and configure the connection to a remote MySQL server from within the surroundings of your cPanel shared website hosting account; this means that any MySQL databases you setup within your hosting account will actually be setup on a remote server, if you want them to be, and will not be hosted locally on the server that your shared cPanel website hosting account is on - you can also use this feature to configure a backup MySQL server to be used in the event that the local MySQL server fails for some reason or another.

MySQL Databases

The MySQL database section of cPanel allows you to setup and configure MySQL databases as well as the users to go with them to ensure that they can be accessed successfully within your cPanel shared website hosting environment. MySQL databases allow you to store data in a centralized location that can then be accessed by applications that you might have installed on your website; applications that utilize MySQL databases might include bulletin boards, CMSs (content management systems) as well as blogs - basically any type of application that is written in a dynamic server side scripting language such as PHP that needs information to be stored in one centralized location so that it can be called on multiple web pages within the same application. Like most database programs, MySQL allows for the information that is stored in it to be encrypted (normally using the MD5 aglorathim) to ensure that if the database is accessed by a malicious attacker such as a hacker for whatever reason, the important data is encrypted meaning that it will be of no use to the attacker unless they have a method which they can utilize to decrypt the information. As mentioned previously, server side scripting languages such as PHP or Perl can be used to access and display the data that is stored within a MySQL database, as long as the correct MySQL login details are used. One thing to note when using MySQL databases is that you should always ensure that the important data that they store such as credit card details or the names and addresses of customers or members of your websites, then encryption should be used to ensure that this data is unreadable and useless to a malicious attacker such as a hacker if they some how manage to gain access to the database.

MySQL Wizard

The MySQL wizard allows you to easily create and manage both MySQL databases and the users that are required to access them by third party scripts; the wizard is for people who might find the actual MySQL database creation to confusing and in a sense ‘intimidating’. Unlike the main MySQL management panel, it takes you through the creation of a MySQL database and it’s users in steps, and instructions are included with each step to ensure that you are not confused by the process of the creation of a MySQL database. MySQL is utilized by many web based applications that are based on open source programming languages such as Perl and PHP to ensure that they have a centralized location where they can store all their necessary data and configuration settings. Like the programming languages that are used to access it, MySQL is an open source application; open source means ‘free’ and most open source products are ones that are maintained by a community of developers at no cost in most cases. Unfortunately for those of you who might find the actual MySQL panel a little daunting, then the bad news is that you can only use the MySQL wizard for the creation of MySQL databases and the users needed to go with them - you cannot utilize it to manage, edit and delete databases that you have already created using it. One thing to note about the MySQL wizard is that you can only use it for the creation of MySQL databases and the users that access it; you cannot utilize the wizard to manage databases and users that you have already created - that includes the editing and deletion of them.

PHPMyAdmin

PHPMyAdmin is a program that is based on the PHP server side scripting language and is included within cPanel to allow you to manage and administrate the databases that you have created within your cPanel shared website hosting account through your browser. PHPMyAdmin can be run if several different languages which is dependent on yourself, and gives you much needed information about MySQL server on the web hosting server in which you account resides; this information includes facts such as the MySQL version number that your web host has running on the server as well as the PHP extensions that it is utilizing. When a MySQL database is selected for editing or management, PHPMyAdmin allows you to carry out many different actions on the database so that you can manage it effectively; these include the running of SQL queries to create new tables within the database or to clean the database up if you believe that the information it contains may be stale to an extent. If you want to move your database or table to another server, or wish to take a backup of it, then you can easily use the backup tab that is displayed when you look at an individual database within PHPMyAdmin; this option creates a ‘dump’ of the database or table which is infact a t simple text fie that contains the MySQL query that can be used to recreate the database or table on another MySQL server. PHPMyAdmin also gives you many different actions that you can carry out on individual tables that you have hosted within the database; information about the individual tables is also displayed such as the coolation that has been used on it as well as the type of table it is, how many records it contains and its actual size. One thing to note is that when using PHPMyAdmin, you should always be careful as to which options you choose; this is because it is almost a ‘warren’ of many different pages that you could easily muck a database up because you have chosen an incorrect option.

Remote MySQL Server

The remote MySQL server option within cPanel allows you to setup a second custom MySQL server within cPanel that you can use to either create your MySQL databases on, or to backup the MySQL databases that you currently have hosted within your shared cPanel website hosting account to. You can also use the feature to allow other MySQL database servers or regular web servers that you might have you gain access to your databases by adding their IP address or subnet with the use of wildcards. You should only use this feature of cPanel if you have the required technical knowledge to enable you to configure the two servers to ensure that any type of data transfer is done successfully and securely; another reason for this is because you could easily mess up the other MySQL server if you do it incorrectly, and might even end up reinstalling the other MySQL server if you do not set the access rights and permissions in the correct way. The advantages of using this feature are high though; if you backup your MySQL databases to another server then you can set your scripts up to use the other server to retrieve and store the data if for some reason the local MySQL server that is on the hosting node on which you shared website hosting account resides on fails. One thing to note is that you should always be careful when transferring databases over since the data could be easily intercepted by a malicious attacker such as a hacker, who then might be able to use it for harmful purposes such as identity fraud.

Conclusion

In conclusion, cPanel provides you with a number of features which you can use to allow you to create and manage any MySQL databases that you want to have hosted under your shared cPanel website hosting account. You can also use other features to ensure that you can back your databases up to an external database server to ensure that they are safe; you can then use this other server as a database server if needs be - this might be because that the main MySQL database server that is hosted on the hosting server in which your cPanel shared website hosting account resides has failed for whatever reason. With the use of a third party application such as PHPMyAdmin which is incorporated into cPanel, you are able to view and manage all the MySQL databases that you have hosted under your hosting account on the fly; this can be helpful for you if you need to see if any new information has been added to your database via the means of your website, or to check if records that you have stored in your database are beginning to become stale. The use of open source scripting languages to interact with MySQL databases from a website has also been discussed; you can use server side scripting languages such as PHP, Ruby on Rails and Perl to interact with your databases from your website to ensure that your website is dynamic in a sense and to also make sure that the information that is displayed is up to date.

Like any type of web hosting, shared cPanel hosting accounts come with many features. Whether you are a novice or an expert, you might have trouble working out what these features do or what their meanings are in general. Knowing the meanings of different features is really important, especially when looking around for a new web host or website hosting package since you could end up choosing a package with features that you want but don’t have, or with features that you have or don’t particularly want. If you know about certain features, then you could benefit yourself in the future when trying to carry out a task; for example you might be having trouble installing a certain script - in that case, if you know of a script auto-installer which is available within your control panel, then you could apply your knowledge and skills to using that for installing the desired script. The names of some features are abbreviated, for example File Transfer Protocol is shortened down to FTP; knowing these different abbreviations can also help when trying to fix a certain problem or when searching around for a web hosting package since you are able to apply your knowledge without the need for a search engine. By the end of this article you will have extended your technical knowledge of hosting related features since you will be introduced to the main features of cPanel based shared website hosting and the basic features provided by most web hosts.

cPanel

cPanel is the web hosting control panel which is used by many website hosting providers, including eUKhost, to provide Linux based (Windows support coming soon) hosting to customers. cPanel also has a reseller client built called WHM (Web Host Manager) which allows reseller clients to host multiple domains which have their own dedicated client account; reseller clients are also able to allocate their specified resources amongst their clients in the form of web hosting packages. Both cPanel and WHM boast many features which helps to make them superior amongst their rivals; developers are also able to build their own extensions and plugins for both control panels to allow customization to an extent, as well as to extend the functionality of both control panels.

Add-On Domain

This is the name given to the action of attaching another domain to your existing website hosting package. By using the add-on domain feature, you are able to maximize the use of your website hosting package by attaching a number of domains to it; this also means that you can use your allocated resources effectively by spreading them across several websites. If you host several different websites on the same shared hosting package, you can cut down costs since you won’t have to buy a new hosting package every time you want to host or start another website. One thing to note with add-on domains is that you can’t create separate client accounts for each domain - they will all fall under the same account; if you want a separate client account for each domain then you should opt for a reseller hosting package.

Sub Domain

A sub domain is a domain which is created under an existing domain; an example of which would be ’sub.domain.com’ - the main domain in this case being ‘domain.com’, and the sub created being ’sub’. Sub domains are a good way of giving different sections of your website their own identity since they have their own top level address; the company or personal identity of the website is still kept however since the address created will still contain the TLD domain of the main business or personal website.

Fantastico

Fantastico is an auto-script installer which allows you to install certain scripts within your website without the need for any technical knowledge since the technical actions such as the setup and configuring of the database are taken care of by the program. It is an optional premium plugin for both cPanel and WHM which is made by a company called Netenberg. Some hosting companies provide it with their shared and reseller website hosting packages; others also provide it with their dedicated and VPS server packages for free, although some companies do charge for it.

Server Side Scripting Languages

Server side scripting languages are languages which require a certain program to be installed on the server to allow them to run; they normally carry out complex tasks such as adding, removing and updating database data as well as sending emails automatically and displaying the current time and date on a website. There are many different languages out there which can be used, although the most commonly used ones and ones which are supported by most website hosts on shared cPanel Linux web hosting include the following:

• PHP - Some hosts run PHP 4 and PHP 5 side by side on their servers, so that you can make use of both versions.
• Perl
• RoR (Ruby on Rails)

MySQL Databases

MySQL is an open source database program which is normally used in conjunction with the PHP scripting language. It is supported on nearly any shared cPanel web hosting plan since it is normally installed by default; most web hosts are currently running version 5 of the MySQL server, however there are the odd few who are still stuck using version 4 of the software. Since it is open source (free), there are quite a few PHP based applications which utilize it, meaning that you can make the most of it by choosing an open source application which is based on it. There are also quite a few free tools which you can utilize to manage your MySQL databases. One thing to note that the MySQL server is available for other operating systems as well as Linux, including Windows and BSD based systems.

POP3/SMTP Email Accounts

Email accounts are what you use to send and receive email. You are able to create email accounts within your shared hosting package such as ‘you@yourdomain.com’; you can create email accounts with any name under your domain. POP3 stands for ‘Post Office Protocol Version 3′ and is the technology which is used by most email servers and clients to retrieve email; SMTP stands for ‘Simple Mail Transfer Protocol’ and is the technology which is used by email servers and clients to send email, email servers also use it to receive email from other email servers.

Mailing List

A mailing list is used to send an email or message to a group of people, small or large, regularly without the need to enter all their email addresses into the ‘To, CC or BCC’ sections of the compose pane contained within most email clients. If you use a web page frontend mailing list such as PHPList then you can let your clients or members of the general public subscribe to your mailing list, this can be helpful if you are aiming to message a large customer base or if you want your mailing list to grow.

Spam Assassin

Spam Assassin is a spam filtering server which is built in most Linux email server installs. With cPanel installs, it has a web age frontend within the cPanel client for each email account so that clients can customize the Spam Assassin settings, for example a client might want to change the required spam score for incoming emails on a certain email account, but might want a different score than that which is used by other email accounts within their account.

Auto Responders

Within any shared cPanel hosting package you are able to setup auto responders for any email address. An auto responder is a message which you can choose to be sent on receipt of an email; the message can be whatever you want and is sent to the original sender of the email. Auto responders can be helpful, for example you might want to setup an out-of-office one which can be sent to anyone who sends you an email whilst you are on a business trip or are away from a computer meaning that you can’t check your emails.

Email Forwarder

An email forwarder (sometimes known as an alias) is an email account which doesn’t physically exist since any email messages which are sent to it’s address are always forwarded to another specified email address. Email forwarders can be helpful if you don’t want the hassle of having multiple email inboxes to check, or if you are running multiple companies within the same industry and want certain issues such as billing and support to be centralized to one or two email inboxes.

IMAP

IMAP is another technology which is used by email clients to retrieve email from email servers. IMAP stands for ‘Internet Message Access Protocol’ - the current version being IMAP 4; it is different to POP3 since the message is actually still held on the email server when being read at first, once you have read the message you can then choose to download the email or not. Unlike POP3, IMAP requires a continuous connection to the server to allow you to read your emails.

File Manager

cPanel’s web frontend comes with a file manager to allow you to manage the files in your website remotely without the need for direct FTP access. It can be useful to use if you are in an internet cafe or using a computer where you are unable to access your website for a reason such as port 21 (the port used by FTP) being blocked by the router or firewall on the connection that you are using.

FTP Access

FTP stands for ‘File Transfer Protocol’ and is the standard which is used by website designers and developers to transfer files to and from their assigned website space. In most cases you require a user name and password to be able to gain access to the space which is normally protected, however some servers allow anonymous FTP access to files. FTP servers normally run on port 21, however this can vary between servers. In shared cPanel web hosting you are able to create and managed multiple FTP accounts and restrain their access to a certain part of your web space or FTP space.

PHPMyAdmin

PHPMyAdmin is a web frontend for the management of MySQL databases which are contained within your shared cPanel website hosting account. This utility can be helpful if you travel alot and need instant or quick access to the administration of your database. Since it is a web based application, you can access it from any internet connected computer.

SSL Certificates

SSL stands for ‘Secure Socket Layer’ and are certificates which encrypt the data which is transferred between your website and the client which is browsing your website. SSL certificates are most commonly used with websites such as online shops where the data transferred is highly confidential, and should not be viewed by third parties. With shared hosting packages, SSL certificates come in two forms - shared and dedicated. Shared SSL certificates are applied to one address, which is normally the host name of the server; the full address for your shared SSL space is normally something such as ‘https://server.company.com/~accountname/’. Dedicated SSL certificates are completely different since they can be applied to your own domain, and should be used if you want to keep your corporate identity when having visitors buy products off your website, for example; a dedicated SSL certificate would allow you to keep your own domain, an example would be: ‘https://yourdomain.com/’. Notice the ‘https://’ in both examples - the ’s’ signifies that the connection being used is a secure one and has an SSL certificate applied to it.

Server Side Includes

Server Side Includes, which are better known as SSI, are pages which are included into other pages within a website; the code is processed on the server meaning that the website visitor is unaware that there might be other pages merged into the one which they are viewing. This technology can be helpful, for example if you want to use one header and footer around your whole website, all you have to do is create 2 files (one for the header, one for the footer) and then ‘include’ them in the chosen places on the main pages on your website. If you want to change the header or footer at a later date, then you can - the changes will be applied to every page on your website since they will still be getting the header and the footer from the same location.

GD Image Library

The GD image library is one which can generate images on the fly. It is best known for it’s compability with PHP, however there it can be used with Perl in some cases. The core application is written in C, and is mainly used for the generation of image thumbnails, graphs as well as other types of graphics - for example it is regularly used for the generation of images in captcha solutions.

Custom Error Pages

cPanel allows you to create your own error pages which will be shown when an error occurs with your website. Although you don’t really want there to be an error with your website, they can happen without any warning and so it is important that if there is a problem with your website, a page which still boasts your website’s graphical identity is displayed. The most common errors are numbers 404 and 500; a 404 error happens when a user tries to navigate to a page within your website which doesn’t exist, a 500 error occurs when there is a problem with either the hosting server or your scripts. cPanel can be configured to show custom error pages for most errors.

Zend Optimizer

Zend Optimizer is a program which is installed on the hosting server to decode Zend encrypted PHP files. This is required to allow some applications, most notably ones which have been bought, to run; they have been encoded so that their source code can’t be rebranded and sold on - it also ensures that items such as licensing routines aren’t cracked which would allow people to run the application without a license key. Another application which is similar to the Zend system is Ioncube which encrypts and decrypts PHP files in a similar way.

Password Protected Directories

cPanel is able to create password protected directories for you via the use of the .hta and .htpassword files; the .hta file is used to store the user names of people who are allowed you access the protected area of the website, and the .htpassword file is used to store the password of those users who are authorized to enter the protected area. This type of password protection is pretty weak when compared to other types of website protection; for example more scalable and automatic applications built using PHP are much more secure since they encrypt all data that is stored to a MySQL database.

JSP Support / Apache Tomcat

JSP stands for ‘Java Server Pages’ and is a type of server side scripting; Tomcat is the engine which most shared cPanel web hosts use to provide and process JSP pages through Apache - it can also be used within dedicated server environments. Most web hosts do not host JSP pages for the simple reason that they can be very resource intensive, and many hosts would rather loose a customer after JSP hosting than loose a whole server full because the server is too slow to load their websites; it is also for this reason that many web hosts advise people wanting to host JSP web pages or Java based applications to go with either VPS or dedicated servers, as this can benefit both them and their website since it will most certainly load their website quicker.

Multimedia Support

Most websites contain some sort of multimedia content these days - whether i be a short audio clip or an entire film; multimedia can come in many different formats so it is important when looking for hosting that you take into consideration whether any type of multimedia that you use is supported, in some cases it may not be because it could either put a strain on bandwidth or server resources. The most common type of multimedia that is used on websites is known as ‘Flash’; support of this is not normally dependent of the server specification but those of the client machine which is accessing your website; since Adobe flash player is free, and available for most operating systems, it is a good choice since it will work for most of your visitors - since it isn’t dependent on the hosting server, any web host should support it. Other websites make use of Microsoft Windows Media technology which should be supported by any web host since it is again, dependent on the client rather than the server. Other types of website media used include Real Media and Microsoft Silverlight technology.

Site Builder

Site builder is a web based application which you can use to build your website if you are unable to afford the high costs of desktop website design software or if you have little to no experience of building a website; the application comes in the form of a wizard which leads you through the difference steps of building a website from choosing a layout to entering in the text that you want to be displayed, it then takes all the collected and builds a website out of it all and leaves you with something that you can enjoy or use to market your business.  Most hosts provide some type of web based site building application for both Linux and Windows; the Linux program that is used by eUKhost and many other web hosts is called RV SiteBuilder, and its Windows variant is called SiteBuilder and is made by SWSoft.

FTP Manager

The FTP manager that is built into cPanel allows you as the web hosting customer to control all the FTP accounts that have access to your FTP / web space. This utility can be handy if you have multiple FTP accounts accessing your website space.

Before proceeding for this you need to create a database with available Control Panels. Once you have created a database, there are a few ways you can connect to it :

- At a shell prompt you type all one 1 single line:

mysql -u DBUSERNAME -h DBSERVER -p DBNAME

with the following replacements of the bolded terms above:

~ Replace DBSERVER with the correct database servername for your site.

~ Replace DBUSERNAME with your own mysql username.

~ Replace DBNAME with your own mysql databasename.

Example:

mysql -u mike -h db.joesmith.com -p mikedb

If you don’t know your MySQL Username or MySQL Databasename, go here.

You will then be prompted for your MySQL password. If you don’t know what that is, go here to set it to something that you will remember.

If you use preferences set in a .my.cnf file, the connection command would be much shorter, just:

mysql

Once at the MySQL prompt, you can then issue SQL commands directly to the MySQL server. For correct SQL syntax, see the MySQL Manual.

- To connect from a PHP script, just put this in your file:

using the same substitutions for the bold terms as above, plus substituting DBPASSWORD with your own mysql password.

Example:

mysql_connect(”db.joesmith.com”, “mike”, “secret”);
mysql_select_db(”mikedb”);

- To connect from a perl script, put this in your file:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use DBI;

$database = “DBNAME”;
$hostname = “db.YOURDOMAIN”;
$port = “3306″;
$username = “DBUSERNAME”;
$password = ‘DBPASSWORD’;

$dsn = “DBI:mysql:database=$database;host=$hostname;port=$port”;

$dbh = DBI->connect($dsn, $username, $password) or die(”Could not connect!”);

$sql = “SELECT * FROM mytable”;

$sth = $dbh->prepare($sql);
$sth->execute;

while(($column1, $column2) = $sth->fetchrow_array)
{
print “C1 = $column1, C2 = $column2n”;
}

$dbh->disconnect;

where DBNAME, DBUSERNAME, and DBPASSWORD are your database name, database username and database password, and where YOURDOMAIN is your website’s domain name with no “www.” in front, for example, “mysite.com”, or if you are not hosting your own domain name with us, then “mysite.modwest.com”.