Can I develop websites on Xampp and publish on windows based server? (PHP/IIS 6/7/Apache)

Question

hi,

I usually develop websites on the WAMP/XAMPP and host it on Linux servers. All works fine. But to meet some of the client requirements, we need to host a new project on to a Windows based server running IIS (I guess its IIS7, if not IIS6).

I don't have access to a windows server on my local. So how I can develop with having an understanding that it would work fine when hosted on the Windows. My main concern is with .htaccess stuff. For example, URL rewriting.

I have been googling around and could see that I can do something with ISAPI filters.

Are there more things I should care about (other than .htaccess)? Which ISAPI filter you would recommend to me?

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Actually, you can run Apache on Windows 2008. We do it...

Alternatively, if you do want to run PHP in IIS7, it is easy: MS has an entire site dedicated to apps that can be installed directly to IIS (and a bunch of them are PHP)

Answer 2

The site mentioned earlier is http://php.iis.net/

If its Windows 2003 Then the guide is: http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/247/using-fastcgi-to-host-php-applications-on-iis-60/

If its windows 2008 then the guide is: http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/246/using-fastcgi-to-host-php-applications-on-iis-70/

.HTACCESS files are not used in IIS, so if you make an extensive use of those then you will have issues. For URL re-writing I use Ionic's ISAPI Rewrite Filter: http://cheeso.members.winisp.net/IIRF.aspx