brand new numbskull

pinhead

As the header implies I'm an utter novice at this. I come from an ASP background but have had the support of a site created in PHP3 dumped on me from a great height! I know nothing so forgve me if may questions are a little basic!

I've downloaded Apache 1.3 to use as a test server. First of all, normal html pages won't display, or in fact be found, unless they are in the HTDOCS folder.
Is this the root?
Do I need a special PHP editor to create pages?
I've attempted to create a "Hello World" PHP3 page but only a blank page appears. There must be more server configuration to do such as Server Extensions Manager in IIS but I haven't a clue!

When you all stop laughing is there an help anyone can give me? Just a pointer could be enough.

Pinhead.

Anon

You'll probably get more/better advice posting in the Install forum on this site.

Apache is easy to configure. You can install php as an Apache module (faster) or run it with cgi. I set the whole thing up on both Linux and Windows without much trouble. Read the online documentation and get a couple of good books. Way too much information is already out there to repeat setup instructions here.

Anon

Well, there is a lot 🙂

Yes, the htdocs folder is the document root for apache. You can configure it to be something different, but that is the default on a windows install (c:\program files\apache group\apache\htdocs\ or so).

As for the hello world script not seeming to work, you probably don't have PHP working with apache (or something along the lines of installation problems). There are tons of tutorials on installing apache/mysql.. 28 listed at hotscripts:
http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Tips_and_Tutorials/Installing_PHP/

Also, you could use an 'installation kit', there are 16 listed on hotscripts:
http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Software_and_Servers/Installation_Kits/

These will basically install apache, php, mysql database, and possibly some other things depending on which one you get (if you decide to go this path).

Hope this helps,
-Josh B