[RESOLVED] xampp on Windows 7 and PEAR

03jh01

Hello everyone,

I have xampp installed on windows 7 and it works perfectly. However, I don't know how to use PEAR that is apparently included with xampp. There are a few bits and pieces on the Internet involving this, but none that actually solve my problem really.

I am putting all of my .php files that I want to run in the' htdocs' folder. I want to be able to connect to databases, using PEAR, with files placed in the htdocs folder using

 require 'DB.php'

, initially, to load the required module. I should explain that I am currently reading 'Learning PHP 5' by O'Reilly and they use PEAR in this manner to connect to databases in the database chapter of the book and I really want to follow it, but cannot get the PEAR part of xampp to work.

So, basically, how can I connect to a database, using PEAR with xampp, from files placed in the hdocs folder. I get this error when I try to connect:

Warning: require(DB.php) [function.require]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in E:\xampp\htdocs\Test.php on line 3

Fatal error: require() [function.require]: Failed opening required 'DB.php' (include_path='.;\xampp\php\PEAR') in E:\xampp\htdocs\Test.php on line 3.

It is probably an easy thing to do and it is probably obvious why this error is occuring, but I have absolutely no idea what I am doing in this area and so don't want to start changing config files or moving folders around without advice from people who actually know what they are doing 🙂.

Thanks hugely, in advance, for any replies.
Jason.

03jh01

Edit: should obviously be a ';' after the php code above 🙂.

bradgrafelman

quote=03jh01[/quote]Well this at least shows that XAMPP correctly added the PEAR directory to the include path. This is the directory where you should be storing all PEAR-related files (not in htdocs).

First and foremost, inside this PEAR directory you should find a PEAR.php file. If you don't, then PEAR wasn't correctly installed.

03jh01

Thanks a lot for your reply. So, I put PEAR related files in the directory you specified (alongside the PEAR.php file, as it is present). How do I then run the file to test whether it works or not. I can only run files in the htdocs folder at the moment? Plus, should there be a DB.php file with xampp? Thanks again.

bradgrafelman

03jh01 wrote:
How do I then run the file to test whether it works or not.

Er... you don't "run the file" at all; you include it (as you showed above in your first post) in your scripts wherever you want to use that class.

03jh01

Now, you see...this is why I posted in the newbie section 😕. Anyway, so I obviously 'include' the file in my solutions and that will give me access to the functions within, of which will allow me to access databases. However, say I am making a web form in one file. I 'include' the DB.php file and I consequently build a form that feeds it's fields into a database. How do I then run that file so the form is displayed (with the database functionality) because files have to be in the htdocs folder by default (with xampp)?

Also, is it the DB.php file I want (as I can't find it in xampp) or is it the PEAR.php file I want to 'include' to get access to database functions? It's just everything I have read before suggested I needed the DB.php file??? Thanks for your help.

bradgrafelman

03jh01 wrote:
How do I then run that file so the form is displayed (with the database functionality) because files have to be in the htdocs folder by default (with xampp)?

I don't understand your question. You write a PHP script that includes the DB.php file, you save it wherever you like, than you access it in your browser.

03jh01 wrote:
Also, is it the DB.php file I want (as I can't find it in xampp) or is it the PEAR.php file I want to 'include' to get access to database functions?

Read the two file names and see if you can't answer that one by yourself. 😉

03jh01

It doesn't let me display files that are outside of the htdocs folder though. If I save them anywhere but the root of the htdocs folder, the files do not display in the browser. Also, when I use Netbeans to write my scripts, the default project path is the htdocs folder. It seems to be where php scripts with xampp are run from by default. However, I obviously need to include the relevant files to add database related functions but I can't because my files are stuck in the htdocs folder.

By the sound of your response (i.e. this shouldn't really be), I would guess that i'm just being really dense again. I'm sorry if I am. I can't get them to run anywhere else though.

bradgrafelman

03jh01 wrote:
It doesn't let me display files that are outside of the htdocs folder though. If I save them anywhere but the root of the htdocs folder, the files do not display in the browser.

Aye, that makes sense, since the root of your website is the htdocs folder...

03jh01 wrote:
However, I obviously need to include the relevant files to add database related functions but I can't because my files are stuck in the htdocs folder.

Why does it matter where 'your' files are versus the files you need to include? The include/require functions accept a file path, not just the name of a file in the same directory. You can quite easily include files from another folder, another hard drive, or even another computer altogether (if there was a network link between the two, of course).

One way to do so would be to specify the location of the file in the include/require statement using either an absolute path or a relative one in relation to the current script's location (e.g. inside the htdocs folder). However, another way to do this would be to specify a path relative to any folder in the include_path directive, since PHP checks inside each path listed in that directive if it can't find the file you're referring to.

The whole point of me mentioning that the PEAR directory was in your include_path directive was that you simply need to include/require the PEAR-related files using a relative path to the PEAR directory regardless of where you're actually using them (e.g. inside htdocs).

03jh01

Right okay. Thanks a lot for all your help. I just needed someone who knew what they were doing to guide me through that. Is there any chance you could have a look at my thread in the newbie section about floatval() and form output. My first query in that thread hasn't been answered yet. Doesn't matter if you can't...Thnaks for your help here anyway. Sorry for being a bit dense at times 🙂.

bradgrafelman

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