Browser is reading outside the php tags

[JoeBlood]

Hi, I'm new to php / html, and came here to find help.  I've programmed in C and VB / VBA, but want to build a web application, so am reading a couple of php books and giving myself a crash course.  But I crashed before I got going...

 

I'm using WAMP to test the tutorials, and am just setting up an order processing form.  In the output page I'm failing in what should be the simplest line of code in the world:

 

<?php echo '<p>Order Processed</p>'; ?>

But the browser literally echoes everything from the first <p> tag to the end, outputting:

 

Order Processed '; ?>

 

Is there anything obvious I'm missing or typing incorrectly?  (Gets same results using print instead of echo.)

Cheers!

[trq]

Are you accessing the file via a url like http://localhost/file.php ?

[JoeBlood]

Well hot damn, no I wasn't.

But when I do, it works fine.  I was accessing it thru the file --> open command in Firefox, but the http://method is great - thank you very much.

Mind if I ask why there is a difference in how they respond?

[trq]

PHP needs to be processed by the web server (Apache in your case). Accessing the file directly does not do this, a url on the other hand is process and served up by Apache.

[JoeBlood]

Thank you, I appreciate your help.