This thread will provide information on setting up WAMP: Windows/Apache/MySQL/PHP. It helps to install a server on your own system if you plan to work on code since it is much more convenient to save/view a file than it is to upload/view. Also, if the code misbehaves, it won't get you in trouble with the suspension desk if the code uses too much resources and hurts server performance.

An alternative to manually installing everything would be to use a package that installs everything for you. I used to use PHPerl. I was pretty happy with it but outgrew it and wanted to do more customizing. I did like having started with it because I copy the way it organised the applications. Otherwise, I would have just used the default installation directories of the individual apps, which would result in the apps being all over the place.

If you are setting up a web server, you should be careful about security and keeping out riffraff. I would recommend using a router with built-in firewall to prevent outsiders from accessing your system.

If you want to provide outside access to your server, you need to do serious study on security to protect your system.

I will create different posts for subsections to keep one post from being too long. I might not finish in one sitting so please bear with me.

The applications that have autoinstallers either install by default in Program Files or off the root. Since there are several applications that you will have to deal with, it helps to put them all in one folder. Since you will also have to type out the names of the folders often, you want to keep them short and simple.

What I have done is created a folder called wamp: c:\wamp. So, if I have to type out the default folder, it's not too difficult, and since it is in the root, I don't have to dig too much to get to the web apps or sites.

Here's how my wamp folder looks like, highlighting the main folders we will look at.

If you have multiple sites, there are a couple of ways to deal with them. You can create separate users and use http://domain.tld/~user type urls, or create Virtual Hosts.

I fiddled with both options and got the latter one to work and like it so far.

I like separate sites/domains for different sections of my sites so I can refer to them with just the domain name, instead of domain/foldername. I have 3 installations of coppermine gallery alone to work with so it helps to treat them as separate sites.

So how does one go about using different domain names without purchasing them? Use the hosts file, and invent your own tld to prevent conflicts with existing ones. For example, I use http://gallery.tt to refer to my gallery. Using a fake tld prevents conflicts when trying to visit domains that actually exist. So instead of using .com, use your initials (as long as it doesn't correspond to an existing tld, such as com, net, etc).

Check out instructions on how to find and edit the hosts file here.
place lines such as the following:

127.0.0.1 is the IP address that computers use to refer to themselves, aka localhost. The name of the domain, when entered in the addressbar, will be directed to the computer itself, where the files are.

If it's not obvious, one wouldn't want to use one's actual domain name and tld for testing locally since it would conflict when one wants to visit the actual site on LP's server.

In the Apache httpd.conf file, I have the following entry for the gallery site:

Linux Users (including Ubuntu):
You can do a similar thing using xampp:
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-linux.html

This one package has everything you could want (including phpmyadmin) and more! It's just as easy to install as its windows counterpart.

Ubuntu users note:
you can NOT use the command su as you don't have a root account.
Instead you will have to use sudo in-front of most commands
examples:
instead of:
/opt/lampp/lampp start
you will have to go:
sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start
and you will be prompted for a password.


IMHO:
If you have access to a Linux machine it is better to do your development on it rather that windows.
Most of you are likely to be on Linux servers at lunarpages so this will eliminate any of the sometimes frustrating  differences, e.g. linux is case senSitive.
Doing it on Linux lets you play around with .htaccess - its best not to 'play' around with this on your live account.
Any you can make sure you have all your permissions correct.

Pardon my ignorance...
I would like to set up a waTmp system (Windows Apache Tomcat MySQL PHP) and GD2. I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do I have installed Apache Tomcat but from what I'm reading that is different than just installing Apache.

Help Please,
Nathan Winder

Dedicated server? no, I was planning to use my laptop. I do have a desktop I consider my "server" but I'm not sure what makes a server "dedicated". Is it not possible to use Tomcat for jsp?

This link may be of some help,

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread3483.html


RandyT

No problem nathandw, this is not my area of expertise but I will try and get someone to help you as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience !


RandyT