| If you are developing web applications such as
Blogs and Content Management Systems (CMS), it is
useful to install the software on your PC for local
development. Many of the most popular web applications
are written in PHP and make use of the MySQL database.
For local development, you will need PHP, MySQL and
a server. Many web hosts - including those running
Linux - will have PHP, MySQL and the Apache Server
installed. Here we explain how to install PHP on
a Windows-based PC. Before doing this, you may want
to follow our guide to installing the Apache
Server.
Optionally, you may also want to follow our guide
to installing
MySQL. |
The good news is that PHP can be installed simply using
a Windows installation program. The bad news is that
this performs a restricted installation and the PHP web
site warns that “the installer isn't the preferred
method for installing PHP.”
…which is why I decided to do the slightly more
long-winded, but compete, installation of PHP by downloading
the ZIP file. This can be found on the PHP web site:
http://www.php.net/
You will find that several alternative versions
of PHP are available. You may choose to download an old
release in order to be assured of running the same version
of PHP as your web host. However, here I shall assume
that you want to download the latest stable release.
At the time of writing this is version 5.05. This is
available from the downloads page: http://www.php.net/downloads.php.
The file I downloaded is called php-5.0.5-Win32.zip though
the name will change in time as new versions are released.
| Note: Built-in support for MySQL
is no longer provided with PHP 5 (as it was with
PHP 4). Moreover, some versions of PHP 5 omit a necessary
file, libmysqli.dll. PHP 5.0.2 includes
this file. For use with MySQL, therefore, you may
either want to use PHP 4, 5.0.2 or, alternatively,
you can download the latest release and extract
the missing file from the 5.0.2 release. See our
guide to installing
MySQL for more information. |
Download this file and decompress it into a directory
of your choice using XP’s Windows unzipping tool
or a third party tool such as the StuffIt
Expander.
On my PC, I’ve unzipped into the directory F:\windev\php though you could simply extract to C:\php if you wish.
| Note: It is possible to run PHP with servers other
than Apache. For the sake of clarity, however, we
assume that you have installed the Apache Server
onto your PC as explained HERE. |
All you have to do now is to let the Apache Server
know where PHP can be found on your hard disk. Do this
by editing the Apache configuration file httpd.conf.
This can be done direct from the Configure Apache Server
item in the Apache group on the Windows Start menu.
You can edit httpd.confby selecting an item from the Apache group on the Start Menu
Alternatively,
you can find the file in the configuration subdirectory
beneath your Apache directory using Windows Explorer.
By default this will be: C:\Program
Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf unless you have installed it into some other directory.
In this directory, you will find httpd.conf. Open this
file in Notepad.
At the end of the file you will need to add two lines
to tell Apache to load the PHP module. Note that the
first line specifies the PHP installation directory and
you should edit this to the actual directory path into
which you unzipped PHP. Be sure to use the / character
in the directory path rather than the more usual Windows
\ character:
LoadModule php5_module c:/php/php5apache2.dll
AddType
application/x-httpd-php .php
These lines tell Apache to load PHP and treat files
ending with the extension ‘.php’ as
PHP files – which,
obviously, is something that we wish it to do! Note that
the version number in the module and dll name specified
above assume php 5 and this may need to be
changed with other versions.
You can test that your changes are valid by selecting
Test Configuration from the Configure
Apache Server group
in the Windows Start menu (see above). If there are any
errors – for
example, if the directory you specified does not exist – it
will inform you. If there is an error, you may need to
correct it by editing the two lines you just entered
into httpd.conf.
All being well, you are now ready to restart the Apache
server. Do this by selecting Restart from the Control
Apache Server submenu in the Windows Start menu. When
Apache restarts it should install PHP ready for use.
To test it, type this text into Windows Notepad:
<?php
phpinfo();
?>
This is a PHP command which calls the phpinfo() function.
Save this file with the name test.php into the \htdocs subdirectory beneath your Apache installation directory
(e.g. if you installed Apache into the default location
on the C:\ drive the full path to your new file will
be C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs\test.php).
Assuming you set up the Apache server with the name
localhost (as explained in our Apache installation instructions),
you can now use the name ‘localhost’ to access
the \htdocs directory. To verify this, start up your
web browser and enter http://localhost/test.php into its address bar:
Assuming you have set
up Apache Server to use the name
localhost and you have saved the
PHP test file, test.php into
the \htdocs dubdirectory as explained
above, you should be able to test PHP by entering
this address in your browser You should see something similar to the following appear
in your browser window:
Your first sign that PHP is alive!!!
And that’s it. You now have Apache and PHP installed.
| As a final step, it is a good idea to add an
INI file to configure PHP. You will find one named php.ini-recommended in
your PHP directory. You can copy this to your \Windows directory
and rename it php.ini. It is recommended
that you change the doc_root entry
in php.ini to the path to the \htdocs folder
(assuming you are using Apache Server). e.g.
doc_root = "G:\Apache
Group\Apache2\htdocs"
You may also want to change the extension_dir entry
to the PHP extension subdirectory's path (typically
this is the \ext subdirectory beneath the PHP directory
itself). e.g.
extension_dir = G:\php5\ext
More detailed advice can be found in the PHP
online manual.
|
Click HERE for
help with installing MySQL…
See also, our Guide
To WAMP - Windows-Apache-MySQL-PHP
October 2005 |
