Hi, I need some advice from experts :) I will develop a website using PHP and I will use also MySQL. I bought some server space from a Virtual private server including all the service needed.
How should I develop the site? Shall I develop it on my machine at home (using for example Wamp), and when ready transfer all the files to the server? If so what is the best method to transfer also the database?
Thanks in advance!!
linky:
EDIT:
About Development Servers:
your Webhost is never bothered about how you develop your application, neither thay can provide or will ever provide development tools, technologies or space for this purpose. They only host your Application. So, It is your problem
"Shall I develop it on my machine at home" ?
Yes, because it is the only option you have if you want to do it yourself. The best way to do this is (IMHO), develop the application on your development machine, and test it on a another machine (server) with the specification, nearest to the one your commercial webhost has.
Best of luck
Developing on a local server should be faster since you can preview all the changes "live", without uploading the updated files to the hosted server. So yeah, I'd recommend working locally. I use Wamp myself.
As for the database, you can export it in PHPMyAdmin (ships with Wamp). It should generate a gigantic query (a set of queries, actually), which you can then execute on your site to create the tables and fill them with content.
It depends on your home setup. There is a way to export MySQL DBs, so you'll be able to transfer the database if that's the route you take. Having something like PHPMyAdmin makes this a lot simpler (comes default in XAMPP, which I would recommend using for a home server if you haven't set one up already).
Best method is to keep two servers. One is your production environment (the purchased one mounted in some rack somewhere). The second is your development environment (virtual machine running Linux, basically a copy of the production server).
You should be doing your development at home using whatever editor/IDE makes you happy (I recommend PHPDesigner). MySQL Workbench works great for creating/editing your MySQL database.
Copying changes over is as easy as rsync for the files and MySQL Table Export for the tables.
I also recommend running a SubVersion server on the Development machine, so you can keep dated revisions of your work (even if you are doing it alone).