PHP on non-servers?

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2004-11-03 03:49pm

Does anyone know if there's any way I can test PHP (or any other server-based) scripts on my local computer, without having to upload the pages to a server? The reasons I want to do this are:
1) Dial-up connection and slow modem
2) Don't have access to the school's server from home anyway

Lord MJ · Post by **Lord MJ** » 2004-11-03 04:19pm

Assuming you're on windows.

You'll need to download and install apache (or activate IIS).

You'll need to download and install PHP, and then follow the documentation to connect it to your apache (or IIS).

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-11-04 02:14pm

A server is just a PC that happens to have the right software on it. But the best way to play with PHP and MySQL is to install a decent Linux distro (dual-boot if you want to keep using Windows for most things). It's the closest approximation of the webserver environment you're going to find on most hosts that support MySQL and PHP.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2004-11-04 03:30pm

One thing that you can't quite test right under windows is that Apache or PHP supports a special config file for each folder, the name begins with a period (in L*unix* it means it's hidden, i think) but in windows you have to name it something else and edit the main config. Other than that, it's easy to install the apache+php+mysql combo and run say a CMS in it.

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2004-11-05 07:59am

Darth Wong wrote:A server is just a PC that happens to have the right software on it. But the best way to play with PHP and MySQL is to install a decent Linux distro (dual-boot if you want to keep using Windows for most things). It's the closest approximation of the webserver environment you're going to find on most hosts that support MySQL and PHP.

Yeah, I've been planning to install Linux sometime soon anyway, so I might just do that. Most Linux distributions comes with PHP and MySQL, so I won't have to download anything, correct?

Lord MJ wrote:Assuming you're on windows.

You'll need to download and install apache (or activate IIS).

You'll need to download and install PHP, and then follow the documentation to connect it to your apache (or IIS).

Seems like IIS doesn't work on XP Home. Apache doesn't seem to be too huge so I'll DL it and hope for the best