To W.A.M.P. or not to W.A.M.P.

[phplearner07]

I am a total newbie and I wish to get my website's survey off of the ground, but I find the learning curve to be enormous. For one, I have downloaded PHP, Apache, MySQL, and recently PHPmyadmin all separately, and I have found configuration issues, etc. to be difficult. Therefore, I have decided to download W.A.M.P. (I didn't even know about W.A.M.P. until recently, else I'd never would have taken the trouble to download everything else as a separate program.) The problem is that the further I get into dynamic web development, the more troublesome questions are generated. For example, I downloaded W.A.M.P. as an .exe file, but I'm a little afraid to run it because of a security warning, indicating that this program doesn't have an authenticated security certificate (or something). Secondly, I don't know if I'll need to delete all of the individual programs or if they'll get overridden, if I run W.A.M.P>. Are the W.A.M.P. programs fully and correctly configured? The bottom line: Is it worth it at this point to use the W.A.M.P. download or should I slug it out with what I have. (Note PHP seems to work fine with Apache, but there seems to be a bunch of stuff I need to do yet with MySQL.)

 

Should I use the PHPmyAdmin program --I've read that it has certain security issues? Also: My web host (Go Daddy) already has this account and the MySQL software, so is it a waste of time for me to do it at my end? Finally, is there a really EASY good book for DYNAMIC web development with Dreamweaver that one could recommend?

 

Sorry about all of the questions, but I am a total newbie!  ???

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can give, phplearner07

[PC Nerd]

i use xampp, its like the new generation WAMP

 

i reccomend it

its dynamic ( to an extent ) and its easy to use ( mysql, php, pearl, firezilla FTP, phpmyadmin, all sorts of goodies!)

 

its great for local host, although i dont have to much experience in configurint them together manually ( i had one go and took the short cut with xampp)

 

 

[s0c0]

I recommend you run lamp, install an easy linux distribution such as fedora core, centos, or ubuntu and then just install apache, mysql, and php.  Personally I suggest ubuntu.  Seriously the AMP part was built for linux.  But if windows works it works, just my 2 cents.

[clown[NOR]]

i'm using the latest version of wamp (wamp5) and i have absolutely no complains about it at all...

 

but I cant recommend any of them, since I've never tried xampp, so i cant compare... but as i said... no complains at all about wamp5

 

from what PC Nerd said wamp5 has the same functions.. also it has a really great menu that let's you configure most of it without messing around inside the config files.. ex: you can enable/disable PHP extensions, Apache modules etc.. and ofcourse phpmyadmin and all that...

 

i would give it a go if i was you.... but I bet PC Nerd would say the same thing about xampp =)

[PC Nerd]

use XAMPP, its got Pearl as well, so if you want it in the furure, then you dont have to worry.

 

imm put my installer in a ZIP for you if you want

[wildteen88]

I am a total newbie and I wish to get my website's survey off of the ground, but I find the learning curve to be enormous. For one, I have downloaded PHP, Apache, MySQL, and recently PHPmyadmin all separately, and I have found configuration issues, etc. to be difficult. Therefore, I have decided to download W.A.M.P. (I didn't even know about W.A.M.P. until recently, else I'd never would have taken the trouble to download everything else as a separate program.) The problem is that the further I get into dynamic web development, the more troublesome questions are generated. For example, I downloaded W.A.M.P. as an .exe file, but I'm a little afraid to run it because of a security warning, indicating that this program doesn't have an authenticated security certificate (or something). Secondly, I don't know if I'll need to delete all of the individual programs or if they'll get overridden, if I run W.A.M.P>. Are the W.A.M.P. programs fully and correctly configured? The bottom line: Is it worth it at this point to use the W.A.M.P. download or should I slug it out with what I have. (Note PHP seems to work fine with Apache, but there seems to be a bunch of stuff I need to do yet with MySQL.)

 

Should I use the PHPmyAdmin program --I've read that it has certain security issues? Also: My web host (Go Daddy) already has this account and the MySQL software, so is it a waste of time for me to do it at my end? Finally, is there a really EASY good book for DYNAMIC web development with Dreamweaver that one could recommend?

 

Sorry about all of the questions, but I am a total newbie!  ???

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can give, phplearner07

You only install WAMP if you want to develop offline rather than online. WAMP is free it has no spyware/malware or whatever. Ignore the certificate thing. That's IE and SP2 freaking out. All WAMP does is install Apache, PHP and MySQL for you. It does nothing else. It also allows you to easily mange Apache PHP and MySQL via the WAMP taskbar icon (small white semi-circle).

 

Also I don't know why people are offering other packages/OS's when the guy just wants to get up and running as quickly as possible. WAMP will do. XAMPP is too bulky. Offering a LAMP package when the guy hasn't got Linux! WHy use Perl when you got PHP?

 

You don't have to install WAMP if you don't want to. Having WAMP installed allows you to develop and test/debug your site offline. Its saves you the hasle of having to upload/download your php files every time you make changes to them and having to connect to the net to test them.

 

Also I would not recommend using dreamweaver for PHP/MySQL scripting. Use it for HTML/CSS yes, but not PHP. You'd be better of going for a PHP IDE. I use a simple to use IDE called Rapid PHP 2006. There are free IDE's about. A good one is Eclipse with the PHP plugin.

 

For books look into the O'Reily collection. The most important book you will need is the PHP Manual. There is a free online book called hudzilla too, I advise to check it out. Its pretty much the manual but more indepth.

[MadTechie]

Link to PHP Manual was wrong but i agree with wildteen88

PHP Manual

[wildteen88]

Link to PHP Manual was wrong but i agree with wildteen88

PHP Manual

link corrected

[phplearner07]

Dear Wildteen88,

 

Thanks so much --once again you've been very helpful! You've taken a good deal of time to reply to my frustration-laden queries and I really appreciated it!

 

Not to impose any further, but will this PHP IDE plugin from Eclipse help me with nasty error messages? For example, right now I can't even connect to MySql because of the following error message 2002: "Can't connect to local MySQL Server through socket '/usr/local/mysql-5.0/data/mysql.sock'(2)." (Apparently this is a very common error mssg, which has frustrated many.) This is the error message I get via Dreamweaver's testing tool. When I put in the PHP script --$connection = mysql_connect("localhost:, etc...") --into Dreamweaver myself (unlike what my textbook indicates), it asks for a path to a socket, which I don't understand. When I use a text editor, I get that it cannot find site.

 

I have tried to research this error, but I don't understand what the possible solutions are even talking about.

 

(By the way, will I need to delete all that I've installed before executing the wamp program, or will this program just override everything?)

 

Thanks again, the lost newbie.

[clown[NOR]]

shouldnt it be more like this?

 

$connection = mysql_connect("localhost", "user, "password")

 

or was (localhost:,...) just you typing to fast?

[wildteen88]

Dear Wildteen88,

 

Thanks so much --once again you've been very helpful! You've taken a good deal of time to reply to my frustration-laden queries and I really appreciated it!

 

Not to impose any further, but will this PHP IDE plugin from Eclipse help me with nasty error messages? For example, right now I can't even connect to MySql because of the following error message 2002: "Can't connect to local MySQL Server through socket '/usr/local/mysql-5.0/data/mysql.sock'(2)." (Apparently this is a very common error mssg, which has frustrated many.) This is the error message I get via Dreamweaver's testing tool. When I put in the PHP script --$connection = mysql_connect("localhost:, etc...") --into Dreamweaver myself (unlike what my textbook indicates), it asks for a path to a socket, which I don't understand. When I use a text editor, I get that it cannot find site.

 

I have tried to research this error, but I don't understand what the possible solutions are even talking about.

 

(By the way, will I need to delete all that I've installed before executing the wamp program, or will this program just override everything?)

 

Thanks again, the lost newbie.

Are you using *nix based OS? Earlier you where asking about WAMP, which is for Windows. Now you have a problem with sockets. sockets don't exist on windows. They are part of *nix OS's.

[boo_lolly]

easyPHP may be worth mentioning here. i run gentoo on my machine, so i have no use for windoze apps, but i figured it would be a good idea for the sake of the thread.