What is short_open_tag?

Well short_open_tag allows you to use <? and <?= in addition to <?php while writing the code. All that you have to do for this setting is

1. Open your php.ini file
2. Search for ‘short_open_tag’ directive
3. The default value of ‘short_open_tag’ directive usually Off, now you can change it to On
4. Save the php.ini
5. Restart your PHP stacks to reflect the changes

Now you can write PHP code starts with <? … ?>. This is not recommended but you may need it if don’t want to make changes in your code.