Best methodology for PHP+APACHE+MYSQL Development

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+1 Q:

Best methodology for PHP+APACHE+MYSQL Development

Hi! I want to start learning PHP. I have had a look at the various options available to install the PHP+MySQL+Apache combination. But it all seems too cumbersome and a lot of editing to the CONF files always leads to one problem or the other. So I had a couple of questions to ask:

1) How will something like WAMP help me? If I install WAMP, will that be enough? 2) Isn't there some Eclipse like IDE ( coming from a Java Background ), that allows WAMP to be integrated with it? ( Or is typing on Notepad the only option available )?

Please help me out by explaining things a little elaborately. Thank you so much for your time and patience.

+2 A:

i personally use xampp and netbeans for my local web development. you can actually set up the netbeans project wherever you want, so you can just place all your files in the htdocs folder of xampp (at C:\xampp) and edit the files in the folder directly. This will allow you to immediately see any changes you have made by reloading the web page.

xampp allows you to run apache (with mod_php installed and configured) and mysql on your local machine and even includes a handy panel to let you start and stop them at any time.

netbeans has a lot of tools for easy development and support for frameworks like Zend. You can also use it for many other languages should you wish to expand.

Scott M. 2010-08-10 03:36:39

+1 A:

I prefer WAMP because it doesn't try to do anything fancy with configurations... when you install it, you get PHP, Apache, MySQL, and phpMyAdmin with each of their default configurations and extensions loaded. It's the same as installing them separately, only they're all in one convenient directory, and you get the handy tray icon to restart services and enable/disable extensions.

As for an IDE, I use Eclipse PHP Development Tools (PDT), but I've heard good things about Netbeans too. Eclipse can do everything Scott described Netbeans being able to do as well. You also might want to look into Aptana which was branched from Eclipse PDT but is now maintained by a different team.

Daniel 2010-08-10 05:11:17

so i will be able to compile PHP code right on eclipse? Where does it show the output? Does it have a web browser of it's own?

Gooner 2010-08-10 06:13:29

I meant using PDT.

Gooner 2010-08-10 06:14:20

PHP is an interpreted language-- meaning there is no compiling stage. The interpreter reads the .php files directly, optimizes them and outputs the results every time a request is made. You can literally change a line of PHP code in any editor, save, tab over to your browser, and see the results reflected once you refresh.If you're running an opcode cache like APC or eAccelerator, the optimized forms will be cached for faster parsing on subsequent requests.

Daniel 2010-08-10 16:23:15

Perhaps an example will be better... once you install wamp, it'll create the directory c:\wamp\www (assuming you chose to install to c:\wamp). This directory is your web root. Go to your browser and type in http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1, and the page you see there is c:\wamp\www\index.php. Replace that file with another of your own PHP files, and when you refresh you'll immediately see the change.

Daniel 2010-08-10 16:26:12

you can go ahead and install xampp from apachefriends, it comes with an apache web server, mysql database, phpmyadmin and a control panel for both servers, and installs fairly quick and with the default settings you will be pretty much set. Not sure what integration you'd want between the editor and the webserver though. if you mean code folding, autocomplete and all that stuff, eclipse has a php-friendly version, and so does netbeans (these 2 are the most popular choices as far as i've seen)

Raz 2010-08-10 11:09:59

ansaurus

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Best methodology for PHP+APACHE+MYSQL Development

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