Installing PHP

Nanowit

I would pay good money to buy an installer program, perhaps on a CD or DVD, that would install, on my WinXP computer, PHP and PostgreSQL so that they would RUN! From the looks of this forum, quite a few people would buy one! Perhaps the installer could offer a choice of database to install, like MySQL.

I have tried to install these twice in the past and always gave up at the complexity.

jonathen

I don't know of an all-in-one easy-install program that use postgresql, but if you are prepared to use mysql, then I highly recommend IBServer. It's an all-in-one for windows (runs like a dream on 2k/XP/2003) that has apache, php, mysql, phpmyadmin & php-nuke (you can easily remove the latter) preconfigured. You run the single installation exe and you are up and running with no stress.

It is free (open-source) and available HERE

The guy who coded this has made installing the 3 clients a breeze.

HTH

Jonathen

Nanowit

Thank you! I downloaded and ran the installer. It took me a few days to recall how to use everything, but now my PHP pages run perfectly! (I haven't used the database.)

I placed my pages inside the www directory inside the IBserver directory. My includes path is simpler than when on a remote host.

THIS IS A FANTASTIC SOLUTION TO MY PROBLEM!

stevenwee

Hi,

i have being trying to install PHP on my windows 2000 Pro/IIS in many attempts but still unable to get it running fully.

Can anybody help or give me some installation on how to get it up and running.

Wishing all a very Happy New Year
Steven Wee

TTT

[stevenwee], can you be more spesific "...still unable to get it running fully."

this is not best way to do this, but download both packages "PHP 4.3.4 installer ", and "PHP 4.3.4 zip package"
run installer
copy dll's from zip package to \windows\system\
edit \windows\php.ini ... line "register_globals = off" => on
from iss services set execute properties for php:
.php => c:\php\php.exe

stevenwee

Hi TTT,

Thanks for your help, let me give you an account of what I did.

I re-install windows2000Pro fresh and IIS but not service pack
Download 4.3.4-installer and 4.3.4-win32.
Run installation 4.3.4-install with no errors. Able to create a test.php file with the statement <?php phpinfo(): ?>. Able to display the php parameters but when I try to execute the following files it give me error message

text.html
<HTML>
<HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY>
<FORM METHOD=GET ACTION="text.php">
Who is your favourite author?
<INPUT NAME="Author" TYPE="TEXT">
<BR>
<BR>
<INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT>
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>

text.php
<HTML>
<HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY>
Your favorite author is:
<?php
echo $Author;
?>
</BODY>
</HTML>

the error message is

Your favorite author is:
Notice: Undefined variable: Author in e:\inetpub\wwwroot\text.php on line 6

I than run 4.3.4-win32 and copy the dlls into system32, modify the php.ini for extension, register_globals=on and also set up IIS extension .php still does not work.

I hope these information does give you what is wrong with my instllation.

Best Regards
stevenwee

TTT

stevenwee

Originally posted by TTT
<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="text.php">

Hi TTT,

thanks again, it works !! but I just wonder why I can't use GET. Could you also suggest me how and where should I get started in PHP ?

Regards
Steven Wee

TTT

i recomed to start with sting functions, arrays, for and while loops.

When you get some error try to figure it out what's wrong - use manual though it sucks, but it also contains lots of useful information 😉

stevenwee

Hi TTT,

Thanks, i will start with your suggestion and also I got a few books from the local library.

Best Regards
Steven Wee

Moonglobe

i don't know why post is working and get not, but be sure to read up on [man]register_globals[/man] in the manual before you decide to turn it on (as TTT suggests).

stevenwee

Hi Moonglobe,

Thanks for your info, it was useful. I understand that there are 2 flavours a CGI and SAPI, can you please tell me what is the different.

Regards
Steven Wee

Moonglobe

well the main difference is that the CGI will run a seperate process each time, while the SAPIs are server extensions that essentially become part of the server. you can do some more interesting things with a SAPI, and CGI has more overhead. but i think there are some security issues resolved in the CGI that are present in the SAPI (permission-based things), but i could so easily be wrong. anyone else with a better explanation?