PHP脚本将不会执行，而是显示PHP脚本

Question

First of all, I’m new to web dev, and I’ve also never used PHP before, so please bear with me and my ignorance.

I’m working on a website, and part of it has an HTML form used to send an email. After some Google searching, I found that a simple PHP script would be the easiest way to do it.

Here’s what I have in my HTML file:

<form method="post" name="myemailform" action="form-to-email.php">
    <fieldset>
        <legend>Contact us</legend>
        <div>
            <label for="name">Name: </label>
            <input name="name" id="name">
        </div>
        <div>
            <label for="email">Email: </label>
            <input name="email" id="email">
        </div>
        <div>
            <label for="message">Message: </label>
            <textarea rows="10" cols="40" name="message" id="message"></textarea>
            <input type="submit" value="Send Email" /> 
        </div>
    </fieldset>
</form>

I’m testing the file locally and for some reason, when I click the submit button, instead of running the script, a new tab opens up displaying the contents of the .php file in its entirety.

Can anybody please explain to me why this is happening, and what can I do to fix it? Any help would be appreciated!

Edit: Thanks guys! I didn’t know I needed a local server, and I didn’t know that PHP was one of those things I’d need to install. This is really awkward.... Well now I know! Thanks!

Answer 1

The only way the PHP would run is if you were viewing the whole thing on a webserver.

If this is a local installation, using XAMPP might be the way to go. This is a bundle including Apache (the web server), MySQL (the database system) and PHP, the dynamic programming language.

If you are directly viewing any PHP script in your browser, it will display the raw PHP code. If you want the actual result to come up, you will need to have a webserver, like the XAMPP bundle (link above).

Also, if you are using Mac, MAMP is an alternative.