Easy Steps to Install Local Web Server on your PC
November 26, 2012 | 
Written by Rawaf W | 
in 
Web development work should always be done locally. When developing a website, all the development work should be done on a local web server installed on your computer. That way, the production time is greatly reduced and you can fully test your work before launching.
There are a number of local Web Server applications available on the Internet. XAMPP is one of the most robust, and compatible as far as offering a cross platform (multiple operating system) solution. This Local Web Server application is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS environments.
XAMPP is a collection of software that includes Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl. It also includes Tomcat, FileZilla FTP server and Mercury Mail for sending emails.These programs work together to give you a very robust environment for hosting web programs on your local machine. It is also very easy to install, configure and use.
This tutorial will show some details about features and teach you how to install and manage a local web server on your PC using XAMPP that you can use it for testing scripts, programming,etc.
XAMPP Features
XAMPP Team have released the last version of XAMPP 1.8.1
- Apache 2.4.3 – Web Server, hosts content at http://localhost/
- MySQL 5.5.27 – Database Server, many software packages use this to store data
- PHP 5.4.7 – Programming language, many modern programs use this as a language
- phpMyAdmin 3.5.2.2 – phpMyAdmin is an open source tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the Internet
- FileZilla FTP Server 0.9.41 – FTP server used to transfer files to/from your local machine
- Tomcat 7.0.30 – Server used to execute Java programs
- Strawberry Perl 5.16.1.1 Portable – Programming language, many programs use this language and has been around longer than PHP
- Mercury Mail – Mail system used for sending emails
XAMPP Download
Download the correct program for your operating system. This tutorial will go over the Windows version, but the MacOS X, Linux and Solaris versions are very similar. check the following links for choose your version:
Just save the installer where ever you want, The installer is relatively small, it has 97 MB, and it is hosted on sourceforge, this meaning that the transfer will be fast, so if you have a good internet connection you will have the installer in a matter for 2-5 minutes.
Advantage of using XAMPP
- Allow you run many websites locally on our computer without any cost because the XAMPP itself is free!
- Allow you do tests, troubleshooting, demo or almost anything without the worries of our real website being touch.
- After successful testing, troubleshoot and so on, you can proceed to install or move it to the real server.
- Configures all of the necessary components of a Web Server for you without the complication.
Steps to Install XAMPP
- After download your version of XAMPP, run the installer on your computer and make sure that your Windows firewall unblocks Apache.
- Select the location where you want XAMPP to be installed (space used after installation is 200MB)
- Select which services you want XAMPP to install and click “Install” button:
- After the installation is complete, you will find XAMPP under Start | Programs | XAMPP.
Managing Your Server
The first thing you should do run XAMPP desktop icon where you show XAMPP control panel then click the “Admin…” button for Apache. This will launch your default web browser and send you to the Welcome page. If it gives you the option, choose your language (in this case, English) and you will see your administration area.
Under the PHP list it include several programs which demonstrate the sorts of things PHP can do.
The “Status” page will show you which services are currently activated. They should all be green except for FTP, SMTP and Tomcat.
The MySQL server runs with the default MySQL privileged account i.e root with no password, in order to fix this security risk go to http://localhost/security/index.php and assign a password for the MySQL SuperUser account.
Congratulations! You’re done! Now put your website’s files in a new directory under C:\xampp\htdocs\ (if you installed xampp in C:\xampp). For example: C:\xampp\htdocs\mywebsite\; and setup your databases using PHPMyAdmin located here http://localhost/phpmyadmin/.
That’s it! Hope you enjoyed the post!, If you have any problems or questions about your setup, ask below and we’ll be sure to help you out!
About the Author: Rawaf W
Rawaf W is the editor and founder of Nightocoder Blog. You can follow nightocoder on Twitter, on Facebook, on Pinterest or you can subscribe via RSS.
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