Frequently Asked Questions

Browser saving the .php file?

When I try to preview my PHP page in my browser, it tries to save the file instead of displaying it. What could be causing this?

This may be happening if you are trying to preview the page on your own computer, without first uploading it to the server. This often happens when people press F12 to preview from programs like Dreamweaver. Most home computers don’t know how to read PHP, so they do the only thing they can: save the file. Try uploading to your web host, and viewing it there.

If this still happens even after the file is uploaded (make sure your browser’s address bar says ‘http://’ instead of ‘file://’), your host might not support PHP. Contact your host to see if they do, and if not, what kind of scripts they do support.