PHP Windows Safe Mode or Learn ASP

[Spansel]

I have taken over a website that was created by another person. For some reason this person saved all the pages with a .asp extension even though there are only a few pages such as form scripts that actually use .asp.

The company has decided to put the products into a database. Since I am familiar with PHP, I could get a database up and running more quickly if I use PHP. The site is fairly large and currently hosted at Godaddy.com. I have set-up a MySQL database and started working on the PHP code. It didn't take long to come across needing a simple include statement that does not work with our hosting plan.

We are hosted on a Windows server and I was told that running PHP in safe mode will not allow me to use includes and many other functions that I will probably need.

My options are
1. To Move the hosting to a Linux server - Which may cause problems because of all the .asp file extensions

2. Move the hosting to an internal server where we can run Windows and Mysql and PHP - The in-house network guy has never set-up a web server, but is willing to try

3. Learn ASP and use an ASP/ MySQL or ASP/SQLServer Solution

I am not sure which is the best option. I have designed many sites in PHP, but am by no means an expert user. I would appreciate any comments and suggesstions.

Thanks in Advance

Gina

[etully]

Since there are only a few pages that actually use ASP code (form scripts) you can re-write them in PHP.

If you need to retain the .asp extensions due to the pages already being indexed by the Search Engines, you can use .htaccess to tell the web server to parse .asp extensions for PHP.

Installing, configuring, securing, and maintaining your own web server for the first time is not something you do for a live web site - you experiment with it for a few years until you know what you're doing.

Making a sacrifice of features by running in Windows Safe mode doesn't make sense with all the cheap web hosting that's out there.

If I had to choose between moving the site to a Linux box (and re-writing a few forms scripts) or learning to do database work in ASP... I think the Linux box is easier.

[Spansel]

Thanks for the information. I didn't know about the .htaccess parsing function. I'll check that out.

[MarkR]

Safe mode doesn't really work very well on Windows - because its design relies on Unix ownership and permissions.

Moreover, it doesn't work on Unix either, because safe_mode is an inherently flawed design that simply creates problems.

If you need to run an untrusted application for some reason, shun safe_mode, and set open_basedir and disable_functions instead (Disable all functions which run external processes and set open_basedir to include directories the app is allowed to access).

Mark