At the most basic level, PHP can do anything any other CGI
program can do, such as collect form data, generate dynamic
page content, or send and receive cookies.
Perhaps the strongest and most significant feature in PHP is its
support for a wide range of databases. Writing a database-enabled
web page is incredibly simple. The following databases are currently
supported:
| Adabas D | InterBase | PostgreSQL |
| dBase | FrontBase | Solid |
| Empress | mSQL | Sybase |
| FilePro (read-only) | Direct MS-SQL | Velocis |
| IBM DB2 | MySQL | Unix dbm |
| Informix | ODBC | |
| Ingres | Oracle (OCI7 and OCI8) | |
PHP also has support for talking to other services using protocols
such as IMAP, SNMP, NNTP, POP3, HTTP and countless others. You can also
open raw network sockets and interact using other protocols.
