Getting
started with PHP
Configuring
Windows for local PHP development
It is easier to develop your PHP
scripts locally on your own computer and then upload your files once
everything is tested. Saving, uploading and testing to a remote server
is an arduous task. To develop your PHP files locally you will need to
download and install Apache
Web Server, and PHP
on you Windows Operating System. Installing, configuring
and testing Apache
After downloading Apache, install the server on your
computer. After the installation find and load the file "C:\Program
Files\Apache Group\Apache\Conf\httpd.conf" into a text editor.
In httpd.conf search for #LoadModule. There should
be a list of modules that can be loaded. Leave those alone, but
directly under them, add these lines:
LoadModule php4_module c:/php/sapi/php4apache.dll
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
Now find the line:
DocumentRoot "C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache/htdocs"
This is the directory out of which you will serve your PHP
documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
you can change the directory, for example to:
DocumentRoot "C:/myPHPscripts"
Now let's test our server. Create a file test.html:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Apache server test</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Apache server test.
</BODY>
</HTML>
Place the file to the directory that you set above. Now
start your Apache server:
Start -> Program Files -> Apache -> Management
-> Start Apache.
Now start your browser, and type in:
http://localhost/test.html
If you get:
Apache server test.
Congratulations! Your server is up and running, and we are
ready to install and test PHP.
Installing and testing PHP
If you already downloaded PHP, unzip
the file to C:\php.
Stop Apache. At c:\php find and copy php4ts.dll to the Windows\System
directory. That's it. Now, create a file called test.php:
<?php
print "PHP test.";
?>
Place it into the directory you set as
the document root, start up your Apache server, and type
this into the location bar of your browser:
http://localhost/test.php
You should get:
PHP test. Congratulations! Now you are ready
to run your PHP scripts on your computer and then upload your PHP files
online. But first you should learn PHP. What's more, you can even install MySQL
database on your own computer and develop PHP scripts with MySQL
queries. Visit our MySQL tutorial and find out
more about databases. Well, let's go to the next tutorial PHP
document structure.
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