Almost all of the web servers nowadays are using PHP for web page development or dynamic web pages, HTML alone cannot do it since hypertext machine language (HTML) interprets only basic tags the web has to offer. Since a lot of business people wants their records encoded in the web for record safe keeping and easy access whenever or wherever, PHP offers an answer for this journey. PHP has a lot of functions and techniques that are useful for web business.
As an aspiring web developer, I have collected simple steps for you to lit the candle on your web development path using PHP combined with MySQL -the back - end database you will be using, Apache -your web’s interpreter, and the PHP -the one that delivers and processes tags and commands/instructions for web pages). We will be using XAMPP -a package for Windows that has all you need for web development, in short, an installer for the above mentioned softwares, it is a free package and is downloadable from the internet. The following procedures discusses step by step on how to install PHP+MySQL and Apache using XAMPP. Let us assume, we are using Windows operating system.
* First off, you will be needing to download a copy XAMPP from
here - XAMPP is an open source package that lets you use the software under GPL Agreement.
* In a little while, there will be a window that would pop-up letting you choose to save the file or not. Please click “Save” button and wait until the file has finished downloading.
* What’s next after the downloading is finished? Since this file is an installer, all you need to do is to double-click the file from the location where you have saved it and follow on screen instructions.
* Specify the location where you want your XAMPP installed, as a beginner, it should be in C:\, you might get into trouble if you experiment installing it on to another location on the first time you try to do it and you don’t know how to configure it later on.
* Select the services you want from the choice presented in front of you by the installer. If possible, select all of the checkbox, or you may want to leave default choices to avoid later conflicts on the configurations.
* Wait for the package to fully install your XAMPP, windows might pop-up from time to auto-configure your system and getting ready for use, on this process, don’t click anything on the installtion XAMPP window in front of you, be sure to understand everything before you go clicking on the buttons while installation is on going.
* A window will let you know that the installation is finished and will asks you to either launch XAMPP Control Panel or not, well, of course, you have to click “Yes” on it, to start Control Panel for XAMPP.
* Last thing, to test if your installation is successful, launch your browser, then at the address bar, type the following:
cPanel®. If your browser brings you to screen like this
The default language is French, but of course, you have to click on the Language options at the lower left of the screen to fit your language preferences.
Installing PHP locally for Web Development
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