XXAMP installation

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Working with XAMPP

XAMPP is an AMP stack which lets you install Apache, MySQL and PHP in your computer together with some other useful software. It has been designed to provide you an easy installation experience. It’s free and available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

Downloading and Installing XAMPP

Go to XAMPP web site and download the installer based on your operating system. Installation should be similar to a normal software installation you do in your operating system.

When installing, there would be an option to select whether you want to run Apache and MySQL as services. If you chose it, Apache and MySQL will start at system boot-up which may not need if your computer is tight with memory resources or if you are not doing PHP development frequently. You can change these settings after installation.

Starting Apache and MySQL

Instructions provided in this article are based on Windows operating system but the approaches should be similar for other operating systems.

Go to the location where you installed XAMPP (usually C:\Program Files\xampp) and double click on XAMPP Control Panel (xampp-control.exe). This will bring you following screen. Click on Start buttons next to Apache and MySQL for starting them.

Once opened, you would see XAMPP icon on the right of your task bar. Clicking on that icon will show/hide XAMPP control panel. To exit from XAMPP, click on Exit button in XAMPP Control Panel.

Apache Is Not Starting Error

Sometimes you would experience that even after clicking Start button several times, Apache is not starting. This is usually because some other service is running at the port required by Apache which is 80 by default. An easy reproducible way for this error is starting Skype before starting Apache.

In such a case, you would need to stop other service temporary and restart it after starting Apache. For an example, if you do so for Skype, it will find another port for working after restarting.

In the installation directory, you would see a program called Port Check (xampp-portcheck.exe). Double click on it and it will show you status of required port for Apache, MySQL and other software that comes with XAMPP. If required ports are already occupied, it will show the names of services that run on those ports.

Making Requests to the Server

Once you started Apache in control panel, type http://localhost in your web browser. This would bring you a web page that lists XAMPP related details.

Putting Stuff in Web Folder

Under XAMPP root directory there is a folder called htdocs. That’s where you should put your web site related stuff. For each web site you create, it’s better to create a folder inside htdocs folder and then put content inside that to avoid conflicts.

For an example, you can create a folder called learnphp inside htdocs folder and put welcome.php inside that. Then you can access it via the URL http://localhost/learnphp/welcome.php.

Root URL and Home Page Content

In above example, root URL of your web site is http://localhost/learnphp/ and it’s generally expected to see home page of the web site once root URL is typed in the web browser.

Usually web servers have been configured to look for an index file (can be index.htm, index.html, index.php etc) in the root of the web site folder and show its content for the home page of the site. So, if you had a file called index.php inside learnphp, you would see its output once you typed http://localhost/learnphp/.

Make sure you have only one index file in your web site to avoid conflicts. If you have more than one (say index.html, index.php), required file will be chosen based on the order defined in your web server’s configuration settings.

Locations of Configuration Files

Based on your requirements, sometimes you would need to change default settings of your web and database servers. Usually this is done by altering their configuration files. In XAMPP, Apache, PHP and MySQL configurations files are located in following locations (This assumes XAMPP installation directory as C:\Program Files\xampp).

Apache Conf File (httpd.conf): C:\Program Files\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf

PHP Conf File (php.ini): C:\Program Files\xampp\apache\bin\php.ini

MySQL Conf File (my.cnf): C:\Program Files\xampp\mysql\bin\my.cnf

In XAMPP, some Apache configuration settings have been moved to sub configuration files under xampp\apache\conf\extra.

To open my.cnf, double clicking on it may not work sometimes. In that case, open Notepad and then locate my.cnf file by setting Files of Type to All Files as below.

Restarting Apache and MySQL

To take effect any configuration change, it’s required to restart Apache and/or MySQL. In XAMPP, if these two are already running, stop them and start again in the Control Panel.

installation, others, php

wamp server installation

5:52 AM Unknown 0 Comments

WampServer

How to Set up and Get Started
with PHP MySQL Web Development

1. Introduction

AMP is an acronym for Apache (an HTTP Server), MySQL (a relational database) and PHP (a server-side programming platform). These are industrial-strength, open-source software that collectively can be used to develop, deploy and run web applications. Depending on the operating platform, we have:

WAMP: Windows-Apache-MySQL-PHP
LAMP: Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP
MAMP: Mac-Apache-MySQL-PHP

You can choose to install the components individually, or use a bundled software package. For example,

Zend Server (@ http://files.zend.com/help/Zend-Server-Community-Edition/zend-server-community-edition.htm) (for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS).
WampServer (@ http://www.wampserver.com/en/) (Windows only).
Easy PHP (@ http://www.easyphp.org/).
XAMPP (@ http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html) (for Linux, Windows, Mac OS).
Glossword WAMP (@ http://glossword.biz/glosswordwamp/) (Windows only).

I shall assume that you are familiar with Apahe, MySQL and PHP. Otherwise, read "How to setup and get started with Apache HTTP Server", "How to setup and get started with MySQL".

2. Setting Up WampServer

WampServer (@ http://www.wampserver.com/en/) bundles Apache, MySQL and PHP for Winodws in a single package. It also includes tools such as PhpMyAdmin (a MySQL database administration tool), SQL Buddy (an alternative to PhpMyAdmin), XDebug (a PHP Debugging Tool), WebGrind (a PHP Profiling Tool).

2.1 Installing WampServer

To Install WampServer:

Download: Goto WampServer mother site at http://www.wampserver.com/en ⇒ Select "DOWNLOADS" ⇒ Choose the appropriate package for your platform (e.g., WampServer 2.2e (32 bits)) ⇒ Download the installation file (e.g., wampserver2.2e-php5.4.3-httpd2.2.22-mysql5.5.24-32b.exe).
Install: To install the WAMPServer, simply run the downloaded installation file. Choose your installation directory. I shall assume that WampServer is installed in "d:\WampServer", denoted as<WAMPSERVER_HOME>, in this article.

2.2 Starting WampServer

To start the WampServer, choose "start WampServer" from the "Start" menu; or run "wampmanager.exe" from the WampServer installed directory. An icon will appear on the icon tray. "Green" icon indicates that all the services have started. "Red" indicates that all the services have stopped. You can put the server online (so that user can access the server over the Internet) by selecting the option "Put Online". Alternatively, you could put the server "Offline", such that it is accessible only within the localhost.

2.3 Verifying the Installation

By default, a directory called "www" was created under the WampServer installed directory, which serves as the root directory of the Apache Server. A welcome page called "index.php" was also created in the "www" directory.

To verify the installation:

Start the WampServer. Wait for the icon to appear green (indicates that all services have started). Otherwise, click the icon and select "Start All Services". For testing, put the server "offline" to disable external access (i.e., it can be accessed only in localhost).
Start a browser and issue URL http://localhost. This will in turn request for "index.php". Observe the output and compare with "index.php" source.

2.4 Writing a Hello-world PHP Script

Use a program editor to write a simple PHP script called "hello.php" and save under the "www" directory, as follows:

<html>
<head>
<title>First PHP Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
echo '<h1>Hello, world!</h1>';
?>
</body>
</html>

To run this script, start a browser and issue URL http://localhost/hello.php.

Check the output produced via "view source". Take note that PHP is a server-side technology (instead of client-side technology like JavaScript). The PHP statements <?php ... ?> are processed in the server, and the results returned to the client (browser).

2.5 WampServer Directory Structure

WampServer is organized in the following directory structure:

bin: contains binaries for Apache, MySQL, and PHP, in their respectively sub-directory. For each component, you can install multiple versions and select one of them in operation.
apps: contains server-side tools such as PhpMyAdmin, SQL Buddy, and WebGrind.
tools: contains client-side tool such as xdc (XDebug Client).
www: is the apache server's root directory.
logs: contains apache access and error logs; and mysql log files.
alias: contains the the apache's alias configuration for PhpMyadmin, SQL Buddy and WebGrind.

2.6 Apache Configuration

The Apache's configuration file "http.conf" is located at "<WAMPSERVER_HOME>\bin\apache\Apache2.2.xx\conf". Take note of the following configuration directives.

The core directives are:
```
ServerRoot "<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/bin/apache/apache2.2.xx"
Listen 80
ServerName localhost:80
DocumentRoot "<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/www/"
```
The ServerRoot specifies the apache's installed directory. Listen specifies the TCP port number for Apache web server, in this case, default of TCP port 80. The DocumentRoot specifies the root directory of the web server.

The directives related to directory authorisation are:

#
# Each directory to which Apache has access can be configured with respect
# to which services and features are allowed and/or disabled in that
# directory (and its subdirectories). 
#
# First, we configure the "default" to be a very restrictive set of 
# features.  
#
<Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
</Directory>
#
# This should be changed to whatever you set DocumentRoot to.
#
<Directory "<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/www/">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride all
#   onlineoffline tag - don't remove
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from 127.0.0.1
</Directory>

The directives related to logging are:

ErrorLog "<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/logs/apache_error.log"
CustomLog "<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/logs/access.log" common

2.7 PHP Configuration

The PHP's configuration file "php.ini" is located at "<WAMPSERVER_HOME>\bin\apache\Apache2.2.xx\bin".

[TODO] Explanation

2.8 MySQL Configuration

The MySQL's configuration file "my.ini" is located at "<WAMPSERVER_HOME>\bin\mysql\mysql5.5.xx", i.e., the MySQL installed directory. Take note of the following settings:

MySQL Server

[wampmysqld]
port  = 3306
socket = /tmp/mysql.sock
key_buffer = 16M
max_allowed_packet = 1M
table_cache = 64
sort_buffer_size = 512K
net_buffer_length = 8K
read_buffer_size = 256K
read_rnd_buffer_size = 512K
myisam_sort_buffer_size = 8M
basedir=<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/bin/mysql/mysql5.5.xx
log-error=<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/logs/mysql.log
datadir=<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/bin/mysql/mysql5.5.xx/data

The port specifies the TCP port number for the MySQL server (defaulted to 3306). The basedir specifies the MySQL installed directory. The datadir specifies the databases directory. The log-errorspecifies the MySQL error log file.

MySQL Server Daemon (mysqld.exe)
```
[mysqld]
port=3306
```

Interactive Client (mysql)

[client]
#password = your_password
port  = 3306

2.9 Customizing MySQL

The default MySQL installation provides a superuser called "root" without a password. It also provides an anonymous user with no password. You need to set a password for root, remove the anonymous user, and create a new user for operational use.

There are many ways to administer MySQL:

PhpMyAdmin
SQL Buddy
MySQL Interactive client ("mysql.exe")

SQL Buddy

To set password for superuser "root":

Login to SQL Buddy via URL http://localhost/sqlbuddy, with user "root" and empty password.
Select "Users".
Check the row of "User" of "root", "Host" of "localhost" and select "Edit".
Enter the new password in "Change password" box.
Repeat the above for root@127.0.0.1 (IP address for localhost) and root@::1 (IPv6 localhost address).

To remove the anonymous user:

Login to SQL Buddy with superuser "root".
Select "Users".
Check the row of anonymous user (empty user name), and select "Delete".

You should not use superuser "root" for normal operations. "root" should be used for creating new user only. You could create a new user for normal operation. To create a new user called "wampuser":

Login to SQL Buddy with user "root".
Select "Users".
In the "ADD NEW USER", enter "localhost" in "host" box, "wampuser" in "name" box, and "xxxx" in "password" box. Select the appropriate authorization option (do not check the "Grant Option"). Click "Submit" button.

MySQL Interactive Client (mysql)

Read "How to setup MySQL".

3. Eclipse PDT (PHP Developer Tool)

A good IDE with a graphic debugger is critical for program development.

Eclipse PDT (PHP Developer Tool) is an IDE for PHP program development. The main advantage is it can debug PHP script with XDebug or Zend Debugger. Read "Eclipse PDT (PHP Developer Tool)".

4. PhpMyAdmin and SQL Buddy

PhpMyAdmin (http://www.phpmyadmin.net) is an open source web-base tool intended to handle the administration of MySQL. SQL Buddy (http://www.sqlbuddy.com) is an alternative to PhpMyAdmin.

4.1 PhpMyAdmin

PhpMyAdmin is bundled in WampServer, installed under <WAMPSERVER_HOME>\apps\phpmyadmin3.x.xx.

The configuration file is "config.inc.php", located at the PhpMyAdmin installed directory. The default configuration requires you to hardcode the MySQL user and password inside the configuration file:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'config'
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user'] = 'root';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = 'your_root_password';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = true;

I recommend that you change the configuration to prompt user to login with password by changing the auth_type from "config" to "cookie".

// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'config'
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'cookie';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['user'] = 'root';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = 'your_root_password';
// $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = true;

To launch PhpMyAdmin, start a browser and issue URL http://localhost/phpmyadmin.

4.2 SQL Buddy

SQL Buddy is an alternative to PhpMyAdmin, which is also bundled in WampServer, under directory <WAMPSERVER_HOME>\apps\sqlbuddy1.3.x. SQL Buddy could be easier to use than PhpMyAdmin.

To use SQL Buddy, start a browser, and issue URL http://localhost/sqlbuddy.

5. Setting up SSL Support for Apache Server

Step 1: Create a Certificate for the Web Server

The first step to set up SSL/TLS is to create a certificate for your web server. To do so, you need OpenSSL, which is an open-source software available at http://www.openssl.org (source distributions only). For windows user, you can download the OpenSSL binary from http://www.slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html (you also need "Visual C++ 2008 Redistributables". The download link is given in the same page). Download and install OpenSSL. (WampServcer also bundled a copy of OpenSSL in d:\WampServer\bin\php\php5.3.5\extras\openssl but is hard to use.)

Create a self-signed certificate for the server: Use OpenSSL to create a self-signed certificate for server by issuing the following command from a command shell. First of all, a public-private key pair needs to be generated. The private key is saved in the server in a secure file "server.key". The public key is store in a certificate "server.crt" to be transferred to the user.

> openssl req -new -x509 -days 36500 -sha1 -newkey rsa:1024 -nodes -keyout server.key -out server.crt 
  -subj /C=SG/O=Company/CN=localhost

-x509 requests a x509 certificate to be generated.
-days 36500 sets the expiration period for the certificate. The default is 30 days. I set to 100 years.
-sha1 specifies that SHA1 encryption should be used.
rsa:1024 sets the key as 1024 bit RSA.
-nodes specifies no passphrase is to be used for the private key file.
-keyout and -out specify where to store the private key (server.key) and certificate (server.crt).
-subj sets the country code (/C), company name (/O), and the web site address (/CN). If you leave these out, you'll be prompted for them. The CN (Common Name) must be the same as the address of your web site, otherwise the certificate won't match and users will receive a warning when connecting.
Refer to http://www.modssl.org/docs/2.2/ssl_reference.html for more information about OpenSSL command syntax.

To view the content of a certificate (which contains the public key of the server), issue the following openssl command:

> openssl x509 -in server.crt -noout -text

Step 2: Configuring Apache HTTP Server

First of all, move the private key file (server.key) and certificate (server.crt) to the Apache's configuration directory (<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/bin/apache/apache2.2.xx/conf).

To configure apache for SSL/TLS support for WampServer, simply uncomment the following lines in apache's configuration "httpd.conf" (under <WAMPSERVER_HOME>/bin/apache/apache2.2.xx/conf):

LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so
Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf

The LoadModule loads the SSL module and the Include directive includes more configuration options for SSL/TLS support.

Tailor "conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf":

Listen 443
NameVirtualHost *:443
 
<VirtualHost *:443>
DocumentRoot "<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/wwwssl"
ServerName localhost:443
ErrorLog "<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/bin/apache/Apache2.2.17/logs/error.log"
TransferLog "<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/bin/apache/Apache2.2.17/logs/access.log"
SSLEngine on
SSLCipherSuite ALL:!ADH:!EXPORT56:RC4+RSA:+HIGH:+MEDIUM:+LOW:+SSLv2:+EXP:+eNULL
SSLCertificateFile "<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/bin/apache/Apache2.2.17/conf/server.crt"
SSLCertificateKeyFile "<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/bin/apache/Apache2.2.17/conf/server.key"
 
<Directory "<WAMPSERVER_HOME>/wwwssl">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    allow from all
#   SSLRequireSSL
</Directory>
 
</VirtualHost>

Verifying SSL/TLS Installation

To verify Apache with SSL, start the Apache Server. Start a browser and issue https://localhost.

Because the server certificate is self-signed and not signed by a trusted CA (Certificate Authority), browse issues a warning.

For firefox: Select "I understand the risk" ⇒ "Add Exception" ⇒ "Confirm Security Exception".

What if...

In case of error in the installation:

Check the Apache and SSL log.
Try connecting to the Apache server via OpenSSL as follows:
```
> openssl s_client -connect localhost:443
```
If the connection succeeds then an HTTP command such as "`GET /"' to retrieve a web page.

More on Certificate

You may be able to get a free certificate from CAcert.org.

You can attached a passphrase (i.e., password) to the private key file. However, to start Apache, you need to either hardcode the passphrase in the apache's configuration file (same security exposure as no passphrase) or provide the passphrase during the start-up dialog (can't automate the apache start-up!).

To generate a certificate for signning by CA:

Generate a public-privage key pair and a certificate request:
```
> openssl req -new -sha1 -newkey rsa:1024 -nodes  
  -keyout server.key -out www.example.com.csr
  -subj /O=Company/OU=Department/CN=www.example.com
```
we didn't use the -x509 switch. The command will therefore generate a public-private key pair and certificate request (in a .csr file), but not a certificate (.crt file).
Send that certificate request file "www.example.com.csr" to the CA (with your payment).

Rename the received certificate to server.crt and verify its contents:

> openssl verify -CAfile /path/to/trusted_ca.crt -purpose sslserver server.crt

Check that the certificate corresponds to your private key:

> openssl x509 -noout -modulus -in server.pem | openssl sha1
> openssl rsa -noout -modulus -in server.key | openssl sha1

Install your private key (server.key) and certificate (server.crt) in your apache configuration.

Popular Posts

Contact Form

XXAMP installation

Working with XAMPP

Downloading and Installing XAMPP

Starting Apache and MySQL

Apache Is Not Starting Error

Making Requests to the Server

Putting Stuff in Web Folder

Root URL and Home Page Content

Locations of Configuration Files

Restarting Apache and MySQL

wamp server installation

WampServer

How to Set up and Get Started
with PHP MySQL Web Development

1. Introduction

2. Setting Up WampServer

2.1 Installing WampServer

2.2 Starting WampServer

2.3 Verifying the Installation

2.4 Writing a Hello-world PHP Script

2.5 WampServer Directory Structure

2.6 Apache Configuration

2.7 PHP Configuration

2.8 MySQL Configuration

2.9 Customizing MySQL

SQL Buddy

MySQL Interactive Client (mysql)

3. Eclipse PDT (PHP Developer Tool)

4. PhpMyAdmin and SQL Buddy

4.1 PhpMyAdmin

4.2 SQL Buddy

5. Setting up SSL Support for Apache Server

Step 1: Create a Certificate for the Web Server

Step 2: Configuring Apache HTTP Server

Verifying SSL/TLS Installation

What if...

More on Certificate

About me

Like us on Facebook

Popular Posts

Contact Form

XXAMP installation

Working with XAMPP

Downloading and Installing XAMPP

Starting Apache and MySQL

Apache Is Not Starting Error

Making Requests to the Server

Putting Stuff in Web Folder

Root URL and Home Page Content

Locations of Configuration Files

Restarting Apache and MySQL

wamp server installation

WampServer

How to Set up and Get Startedwith PHP MySQL Web Development

1. Introduction

2. Setting Up WampServer

2.1 Installing WampServer

2.2 Starting WampServer

2.3 Verifying the Installation

2.4 Writing a Hello-world PHP Script

2.5 WampServer Directory Structure

2.6 Apache Configuration

2.7 PHP Configuration

2.8 MySQL Configuration

2.9 Customizing MySQL

SQL Buddy

MySQL Interactive Client (mysql)

3. Eclipse PDT (PHP Developer Tool)

4. PhpMyAdmin and SQL Buddy

4.1 PhpMyAdmin

4.2 SQL Buddy

5. Setting up SSL Support for Apache Server

Step 1: Create a Certificate for the Web Server

Step 2: Configuring Apache HTTP Server

Verifying SSL/TLS Installation

What if...

More on Certificate

About me

Like us on Facebook

How to Set up and Get Started
with PHP MySQL Web Development