About Setting up a Test Server on Your Own Computer
Here are a few basics of what this broad subject has to offer
up to any individual who wants
to know more about it.
When you’re developing a website, you require to see it in
action on a honest server, to see
how it will work. While you could upload your pages to your web
mass every time you make a
change, this quickly gets time-consuming and tiresome. Wouldn’t
it be great if you could have
a little test server of your own? Well, the server is nothing
but a quantity of software so
you can! Please note that, for the purposes of this article, I
will assume you’re with Windows
as your operating system.
Installing an IIS check Server.
While with IIS isn’t recommended, a test server is very simple
to install. All you require to
do is open ‘Add or detach Programs’ in Windows’ regulate panel.
All you require to do is click
Internet Information army (IIS), click OK, and you’re done.
What we have explored up to now is the most important
information you need to know. Now, lets
dig a little deeper.
Of course, there are downsides to this. Many versions of
Windows don’t come with IIS, and
there’s no way to ensconce it on them Windows XP Professional,
for example, comes with IIS,
but Windows XP Home does not. You might also want to think that
installing IIS on your
computer will often make it fewer secure.
Installing an Apache check Server.
Compared to installing IIS, installing Apache is hard Linux
distributions all have relatively
simple ways of liability it, but Windows wasn’t intended for it.
To get Apache installed,
then, you’re departure to require to have a little fight with
the system.
Note: If you want to skip all the next steps, you might think
with an ‘easy installer’ report
of Apache, such as XAMPP (for Windows), which you can get at
www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html. The downside to
this approach is that you will be
relying on them to impart new releases, instead of being able to
inform things yourself.
First of all, download Apache from
http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi. Make sure you
download the Windows Installer (MSI) version. You’ll find it
easiest to make the server run as
a service, as this will make it run automatically Apache will
exist in your system tray (in
the bottom-right turn of your screen).
Now, you require to find your Apache configuration file. In the
folder where you installed
Apache, look for another folder named ‘conf’, and then a sand
named ‘httpd.conf’. Open this
sand and look for a setting called DocumentRoot. You should
change this to moment to a folder
on your hard drive, such as ‘c:/html’.
Now, you’ve got Apache, but that’s not commonly much good on its
own. The odds are that you’ll
want to ensconce PHP and MySQL as well, so here’s how:
Download PHP from http://www.php.net/downloads.php. Again, go
for the installer. Once you’ve
installed PHP, find its folder, and rename the php.ini-dist sand
there to php.ini. Find the
‘doc_root’ setting there, and set it to the same thing you set
Apache’s to.
Back in Apache’s httpd.conf, you should add these lines:
LoadModule php5_module “c:/php/php5apache2.dll”
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
PHPIniDir “c:/php”
If you didn’t ensconce PHP in c:\php, change the outline above
to exhibit where you put it.
Now, installing MySQL isn’t as difficult, because it runs
independently of your Apache
configuration. Download MySQL from dev.mysql.com/downloads.
Again, get the Windows installer
version. This installer has a lot of settings, but you’ll be
punish if you just click Next
through them to accept all the defaults.
The only remaining measure is to allow MySQL scaffold in PHP.
print libmysql.dll sand from
c:\php to your Windows\System32 folder, and then open the
php.ini sand you bent before. detach
the semicolon from the create of the line that says
‘;extension=php_mysql.dll’, and prevent
the file.
Shut down Apache and renew it, and you’re done!
Visiting Your Server.
When they’ve installed a server on their computer, many people
miracle how they can access the
server they just installed as if they were visiting it over the
web. The answer is simple:
just open your web browser, and go to this URL: http://localhost
(you can also use
http://127.0.0.1). This special address means ‘the server on
this computer’.
You’ll know if you installed Apache successfully because you’ll
see a page congratulating you.
When you change your web pages, just use your browser’s Refresh
button to see the effect.
If you would like to learn more about this subject, take a look
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