Web design blog

Thinking about novice webmasters I will show you today how to start a www server of www with PHP language and MySQL datas. Such platform is necessary both to testing or modifying well-known CMS systems (Content Management System – the System of content management) or also to work on personal PHP promissory notes it can be of use as a fully functional www server connected to the net (I however would recommend larger sinking in the subject for safety reasons – here however we will stick to the basics). There are ready-made packets under the windows system of ‘dwarf’ type, but as time goes by it can come out that they will bring us more problems than benefits, for example MySQL built-in in the well-known packet WebServ has great problems when we want to administer it from under the windows console, while the console itself in a standard configuration does not connect with the remote hostem. These are the reasons why I recommend applying original packets, what is more they are free and one can download them without any problems from the manufacturer’s site.

The installation of the Apache server will be the first step, this is the most popular www server and its installation in Windows is probably even simpler than the installation of a popular communication programme which is gadu-gadu. One can download the packets from the manufacturer’s site httpd.apache.org we choose the package for Windows according to the requirements for novice, I recommend choosing the package with msi extension (no mod_ssl) and we begin the installation as in the case of every other programme in Windows, during the installation the programme will ask us about some details, so we fill in:

the programme will ask us also about assumed locations, so C:\ the Programme Files \ Apache SoftwareFoundation in order to make our life easier I recommend personally to choose C:\ apache After finishing the installation we can manage our Apache as every other programme in windows choosing Start -> all programmes -> Apache HTTP Server from the menu Control Apache Server we can run our server, if the server starts an additional icon in tray should show up. We should check now if everything works, in order to do it in our browser we call out the address http://localhost/ if the text “It works!” appears in your eyesight it means that everything works Now when we checked the working we can enter the catalogue in which the file index.html that is htdocs (if you have installed it just like me it will be C:\apache\htdocs) is situated and remove it, in this catalogue we also publish our files. As one can easily notice it possesses a lot of options, however I will not describe it here.

I will add as a curiosity that I use Apache to make my life easier: when you send something to friends, for example pictures and movies from yesterdays party, which often have 500 Mb and sending it via e-mail is out of the question from known reasons, sending such files on services like rapidshare is connected with the necessity of dividing it on parts and from the downloader’s side with problems resulting from the necessity of awaiting. The solution is simple, we create next catalogue in the htdocs catalogu e.g. files and we place in it the package which we want to make accessible for others, for example this will be the package called img.zip the target address to this package will be http://localhost/the files/img.zip but as that localhost as the name itself tells is a local host we have to give the address of our computer to our recepients the address of our computer in the net, which is our IP. In case when you do not know your IP you can simply check it on ip-adress.com then we put this address in the local host place that is http://your_IP/files/img.zip. Now you have to send this link to all you want to send a file to and do not switch the computer off. Obviously “sensitive” in this place claim that such practices are dangerous as the file is accesible to all in the net and one should really not publish important data this way, but let’s think logically: who will be smart enough to write this address in the browser? If someone strange will even see our files then what will happen as we place these pictures on sides, blogs, social portals, everything depends on what we want to send via such method. You should also pay attention to the fact that with standard apache configuration giving the address of a concrete catalogue e.g. http://your_IP/the files/ will cause enlisting the catalogue files . To prevent it from happening one should put empty file index.html or turn off the catalogue enlisting option in Apache options.

WARNING: to make our server visible in the internet the possession of a public IP address is necessary, otherwise only an alternative which is a NO- IP type server remains.

The installation of a MySQL server similarly to the instalation of an Apache server should not cause any problems, because one only has to download the programe statement [Windows (x86] from the site http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/
I recommand using stable packets, because beta versions are published for advanced users and unexpected problems can happen. The installation process can practically boil to clicking next, however I recommend exact reading of the options of the programme statement, I for example install MySQL in the catalogue C:\ mysql to maintain an order in my files. MySQL system should be added to autostart and run everytime while starting Windows. There is a few versions of mysql as well as the ways of managing the datas, however in order not to prolong I will not be plunged into the subject. For me personally the console for creating new bases and management is enough, but if someone wants, he or she can always install the newest phpMyAdmin

Our next step which we will make is to install the PHP language. There are 2 ways to do it: the first is with the help of an instaler (I do not recommend) and the second way is so called manual all necessary files and practically ready zip package we can download from the manufacturer’s site http://www.php.net/downloads.php.We unpack the files to any catalogue e.g. we create on the disc C the php catalogue, so now we unpack the content of the package to C:\php. We find the file php5st.dll in our catalogue (I will mark that in the moment of writing this post the stable version is 5.2.x-x) and we load it to the system catalogue system32 (for Windows XP this will be C:\WINDOWS\system32),we similarly find the file php.ini-dist and copy it to the catalogue C:\WINDOWS and we change its name to php.ini. The next step that we will have to execute is the edition of this file. I do not recommend the system notebook because editing in it often finishes with problems, (I recommend Notepad++ to editing all files). We define the path to the catalogue of extensions, we find the option extension_dir and attribute the path to the ext catalogue that is extension_dir = “C:\php\ext” . If we have installed MySQL we have to define the additional extension so that this language could communicate with the PHP language and namely the matter is simple – we have to find the lines which define additional extensions that is ;extension = and exactly this will be ;extension = php_mysql.dll to start the extension we remove the semicolon sign from the front “;” and ready We could also attribute the path to a temporary catalogue TEMP : we find session.save_patch and attribute , for Windows XP this will be something like session.save_patch = C:\WINDOWS\Temp, I will not write here about additional options, because it had eventually to be about basic installation so now we save the edited file. The last condition so that the php language worked on our server is adding it to Apache through the edition of the configurational file httpd.conf, we can do this from menu start, but probably it is easier to visit a suitable catalogue that is C:\apache\conf on the end of the file we write:

LoadModule php5_module c:/php/php5apache2.dll
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

Find the DirectoryIndex line which informs our server about the perspicacious names of the files which have to be treated as the main site in the given catalogue, this looks significantly like this: DirectoryIndex index.html here add index.php, save it, close and ready now reboot your Apache server.

We can now write our own promissory notes or modify different (depends on what who likes) on our local ‘workshop’ without the need of sending after every modification of files with the ftp client, and even without the need of connection with the net. I am waiting for comments if you like my work