How to work with PHP on Windows XP?

Question

Hi

I want to do a sample program in PHP on Windows XP.

Do I need any special software to get this to work?

I am afraid that I simply open notepad type the PHP program and save it with php extension. Then I open it with the browser as a HTML file. But it does not work.

Please help

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

You need to have a web server with PHP installed on your PC to make this work.

I highly recommend installing wampserver on your computer. It is a Windows installer that will put PHP, MySQL and Apache in your computer and let you manage all the services and such very easily. If you have problems getting it to work, you can also try out XAMPP, although I've never used it myself.

Answer 2

Another easy one to set up (though it takes extra config to support PHP5) is easyPHP

Answer 3

you can simply install PHP, and then run the program and redirect the output

php foo.php > output.html

and then use any browser to open up that html file.

Answer 4

However you decide to install a webserver and php (or just php and use it in the console like someone mentioned):

• Check out the PHP Manual, especially the Getting Started section.

Apache (Very, very easy)

1. Check out the WampServer getting started presentation.
2. Download and install WampServer.
3. And you are ready to go.

Microsoft (Not tested this myself)

1. Check out PHP on Windows.
2. Download and install the Microsoft Web Platform Installer.
3. Let me know how that work out... (never tried it myself, since WampServer is so easy)

Answer 5

Since you have IIS on the windows cd I would suggest you go to control panel, install/uninstall programs and click on windows components and install IIS. Then install ASP.NET 3.5 from www.asp.net and finally install Phalanger from http://www.php-compiler.net/

That will give you the benefit of both worlds, you can program in ASP.NET using PHP as the language, you can use only PHP if you prefer that or you can mix using ASP.NET/C# on some pages and PHP on other pages within the same application.

Answer 6

I use XAMPP, works out of the box with his installer and is more than enough for a simple developer windows environment.

Answer 7

The simplest way - use www.microsoft.com/web platform installer. get the whole stack to run PHP all from one place.

Answer 8

Some answers containing the hint for using wamp. You should better use the Zend Server Community Edition.

This is also free and can be downloaded here: http://www.zend.com/de/community/zend-server-ce

This contains Apache, Mysql, PHP and some Zend related Tools. Benefit: its much better preconfigured than wamp.