basic rundown of using php

[greenace92]

Hello,

 

I hope I picked the right category. 

 

I have an interesting situation. I'm building a website and I want to have the ability to work on it / prototype it without having the website accessible to the public. Currently it's not accessible because I placed a .htaccess file into my server but I think it didn't work correctly because I can't actually log in. That's not the main problem, I think the problem is that it's not ASCII but UTF-8. Been trying to figure out how to convert that.

 

I'm not sure if I even need web but I figure if I'm going to test it, which one of the things I have to test is capturing video with my phone then storing it to my server then retrieving it again. The capturing should be easy through HTML5 from what I've read. 

 

I have access to php and sql. I just don't know if I need internet access. I don't know how to store locally. 

 

Most php scripts don't even seem to mention a storage location. I have set up sql databases that used php to gather information. It's just not fresh in the mind at the moment. 

 

I mean it had to work right? I mean I get the pop up that says "Authentication Required" which wasn't there until I uploaded the .htaccess file, which how can the .htpasswd file not be read if the .htaccess file is being read. I think it is in the right folder... anyway, maybe I don't need the web to prototype my website

 

Except for the phone part, I would like to see that the phone's camera UI and camcorder UI is easily accessed by one button 

 

Any help would be appreciated 

 

 

[requinix]

I have an interesting situation. I'm building a website and I want to have the ability to work on it / prototype it without having the website accessible to the public.

Either it's on the internet and you block access to everyone but you, or (the normal solution:) you install PHP and other stuff in a development environment, like on your own computer.

 

Currently it's not accessible because I placed a .htaccess file into my server but I think it didn't work correctly because I can't actually log in. That's not the main problem, I think the problem is that it's not ASCII but UTF-8. Been trying to figure out how to convert that.

I doubt that's the problem. What's happening?

 

I'm not sure if I even need web but I figure if I'm going to test it, which one of the things I have to test is capturing video with my phone then storing it to my server then retrieving it again. The capturing should be easy through HTML5 from what I've read.

You need "web" but that doesn't necessarily mean the internet. You can set up a web server wherever you want, include PHP and stuff, set it up right, and use that.

 

I don't know how to store locally.

Depends how the data comes to PHP - I don't know how the video capturing part works.

 

Most php scripts don't even seem to mention a storage location.

You pick the location yourself.

 

I mean it had to work right? I mean I get the pop up that says "Authentication Required" which wasn't there until I uploaded the .htaccess file, which how can the .htpasswd file not be read if the .htaccess file is being read.

Did you know the path to the .htpasswd file has to be absolute? You can't just use ".htpasswd" because Apache will think you mean to look in the server configuration files, not in the same directory as the .htaccess.

[greenace92]

Thank you very much, I am starting to work on the php aspect as this is a huge part of the website I'm working on. 

 

I need to figure out these key components : data input, data storage, program input parameter specification, creating accounts / maintaining file association 

 

I'm installing right now on Linux, I'm trying to see if I can get away with using the built in software installer as opposed to running something like sudo apt-get on terminal or downloading tar.gz files and extracting/installing through terminal... this is such a pain, I really enjoy double-click .exe files 

 

Anyway thank you for your thorough response, I think I'm going to try and work locally as the website html/css files are locally based at the oment 

[greenace92]

Ugghh I'm already regretting this, just reading the installation instruction of php for linux, I had a hell of a time installing apache, it would fail and literally say stuff like "Sanity check failed" which made me wonder "Is that a joke?" I have seen signs that the developers of linux had a sense of humor for instance "Who am I?" 

 

Anyway, I think would rather do the online method but my IP address is "not clean" apparently as I always have problems accessing WHM due to my IP address being blacklisted and seeing as it is dynamic, even if the hosting service provider whitelists my IP address, within a few minutes or so, I am once again blocked.. this is another dumb issue I am facing.. I don't even torrent man 

 

I don't know how we have a "dirty" IP address although I share the router and the IP address may have been transferred to us from a previous user, I don't know if that is how it works 

[greenace92]

Oh yeah about the .htaccess / .htpasswd, I got it to work, I think the problem was either directory location or the ASCII 

 

At any rate, I created the files directly in CPanel and placed them into the directories manually by typing the directory locations 

[kpmedia]

I've never liked locahost solutions.

It takes up too many system resources on the same system where you're trying to do the other work.

 

What I do is use a dedicated server or VPS, and then alter my hosts file for localized DNS. The site has no remote DNS. (Sometimes it's a "live" site, and I want to test major changes first on the dev server.) This also works for shared hosting, though finding the server IP can be a bit harder to find depending on the host.

Edited December 20, 2014 by kpmedia

[greenace92]

Yeah I too went with a VPS, it's nice... the local hosting it was like "Oh wow, my server has been down the entire day?" haha

 

Anyway thanks for your response