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http://www.jevontech.com/
, and i'm posting this text because i remember the dificults i had when i wanted to do this right...Installing Apache , MySQL and PHP under Windows
Introduction
While many webservers run Linux, Unix or BSD most personals computers run on Windows.
So it would be quite comfortable if web designers and developers could develop on their home computer.So in this E-book we will focus on configuring your computer to use Apache, MySQL and PHP, so you can work on your home computer.
Step 1: Installing Apache
Apache is one of the most common webservers in the world.You can download and use it for free.
You can go to http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi and download the webserver here yourself.
Make sure you download the version for Windows (Win 32) WITH installer (MSI Installer) .
There are currently 2 branches available of Apache .
Apache2 is the new branch, Apache 1.3 is the old one.I'd recommend installing the latest version of the Apache 2 branch.
When you finished downloading the installer package(somewhere around 6MB) you can install Apache. Just execute the installer and install Apache somewhere in a logical place.
Make sure Apache is installed, but this is only possible under Windows 2000 or XP.
When you install Apache as a server, a small tool called Apache Monitor is also installed.
It is somewhere in the notification area(lower right corner, near the clock).
When you double click the icon you can start/stop and restart the Apache server.
When you change something in the configuration file of Apache (called httpd.conf ) you always have to restart Apache!
When you have installed Apache you can open your web browser and surf to http://localhost/ .
You should now see the standard website from the Apache server that Apache was successfully installed.
So, your webserver is now up and running!!!! Congratulations!
If you installed Apache in the default path, you can go to “ C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs ” and place your own HTML pages there and see them by surfing to http://localhost/. If you want to write a HTML only website, you are done now.
If you also want to create more sophisticated website, let's proceed to the next software package.
Step 2: Installing MySQL
Now on to MySQL.
MySQL is a database.You can also download this one for free.
Surf to the MySQL website : http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/ to download the latest MySQL database server.The default install path is C:\mysql .It is best to leave this default path or else you will need a whole lot of more work to get it up and running.So install MySQL in the default path.
When MySQL is installed we need to test it, right?
We need a simple way to start and stop the MySQL server.
So, let's create a .bat file to start the MySQL server.(I assume you installed the MySQL server in the directory C:\mysql)
Open Notepad.
Enter the following text:
C:\mysql\bin\mysqld –console
Save this file as mysqlstart.bat on your desktop.
Create a new file in Notepad and enter the following text:
C:\mysql\bin\mysqladmin -u root shutdown
Save this file as mysqlstop.bat on your desktop.
If everything is right you should now be able to start your MySQL server by executing(double click) the mysqlstart.bat file and stopping it by double clicking mysqlstop.bat .
What can we now do with the MySQL server?
A lot! But let's first install PHP.
Step 3: Installing PHP
PHP is one of the most popular scripting languages used on the Internet nowadays.
You can create anything from guestbooks and shopping carts to complete auction sites and webmail applications with this language. So , let's install it .
Go to http://www.php.net/downloads.php and download the latest version.
Go to “Windows binaries” and then the ZIP package, not the installer.We need the ZIP package, because we installed Apache and the ZIP package works best with the Apache server.
When you finished extract the zip package into C:/php .
Now comes the most difficult part: We need to let Apache know that PHP is installed.
Copy the following files to the main Apache folder (probably C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\ ):
C:\php\php4ts.dll
C:\php\sapi\php4apache2.dll
C:\php\php.ini-recommended
Rename php.ini-recommended to php.ini .
Open this php.ini file in Notepad.
Look for the following line:
doc_root =
Set this to the Apache htdocs directory:
doc_root = “C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs”
This let's PHP know where the PHP files should be…
Now we need to let Apache know that PHP in installed.
Go to the configuration folder of Apache( :\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf\ ) and open httpd.conf in Notepad .
Add the following lines to the file (doesn't really matter where, I'll leave that up to you):
LoadModule php4_module php4apache2.dll
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
Look for the following line:
DirectoryIndex index.html index.html.var
and add index.php to the end of the line like this:
DirectoryIndex index.html index.html.var index.php
So, now Apache knows that PHP is installed.
And now what?
Let's see what we can do with PHP :-)
Start Apache (or restart if you already have it running).
Open Notepad and enter the following:
<?php
echo phpinfo();
?>
Save this file as phpinfo.php in your htdocs directory (“C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs”).
If you now surf to http://localhost/phpinfo.php you should see a page that shows all the info about your PHP installation you ever want to know. This is the proof that PHP is properly working.
Carpe diem.
