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Posted by no on 09/28/72 11:51
On 28 Jun 2006 04:17:35 -0700, "tx2online@gmail.com.thisbitisnotvalid"
<tx2online@gmail.com> wrote:
>Is this possible, having my system as some form of 'closed' test bed on
>which I can experiment and learn?
Yes, quite straight forward if you are happy to roll your sleeves up.
I did a similar thing (Apache, PHP & MySQL) to run a stand-alone
version of my website on my laptop. There are other (smaller/simpler?)
webserver packages for the PC but I prefer to use Apache and the other
'standard' products in their Windows flavour because then at least you
are learning something that is an industry standard.
Look into the following components:
* install the Apache web server on your PC (download the Windows MSI
binaries from http://httpd.apache.org/). Then you'll have a webserver
resident on your PC accessible using the http://localhost/ URI. You
can put a mini test website in whichever root folder you define and
play to your heart's content. You can also access it from another PC
on your network as long as your firewall software is configured
correctly to allow inbound port-80 connections (http://<your_pc_ip>/)
* install the addon PHP modules (http://www.php.net/downloads.php).
When this is installed and working you will be able to run pages with
the .php suffix. Test it with something simple like a hello_world.php
page:
<?php
echo "<p>Hello World</p>"
?>
* then (optionally) install a MySQL server
(http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/) if you want to interact with a
database, as I am sure you will once you get going with PHP.
* I use phpMyAdmin (http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpmyadmin) to
maintain the database - just install the scripts and have a look at
the install/config pages for configuration.
You'll have to do a fair bit of reading to get them all installed and
configured but it will be worth it.
When you start learning PHP have a look at http://w3schools.com/ for
some good examples and tutorials. Then use http://www.php.net/ for the
online manuals and references.
Chris R.
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