Today we cover What is XAMPP, Why use XAMPP, How to Download and Install XAMPP, Basic Web server configuration
What is XAMPP?
XAMP is a open source free cross platform web server. It’s maintained and compiled by apache. The XAMPP stands:
- X – [cross platform operating systems] meaning it can run on any OS Mac OX , Windows , Linux etc.
- A – It stands Apache – this is the web server software.
- M – It stands MySQL – Database.
- P – It stands PHP
- P – It stands Perl – perl is scripting language
Why use XAMPP
- In order to use PHP, you will need to install PHP
- XAMPP provides an easy to use control panel to manage MySQL, Apache and other programs such as filezilla, Tomcat etc.
How to Download and Install XAMPP
We look into step by step process to install XAMPP for Windows. For Other Operating Systems, installation steps are similar.
- Step 1:Install XAMPP from http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html. Download the XAMPP package from this url and install.
- Step 2:Installation XAMPP is just like installing any other windows program. There are however, a few things that we must note.
- Step 3:After you have downloaded XAMPP, run the setup. The warning message dialog window shown below appears.
- Step 4:
- Step 5:After you have deactivated the User Account Control, click on OK button on the warning message box.
- Step 6:This time you get following message
- Step 7:In the succeeding screen, click next
- Step 8:In the next screen, Change the installation path if required. Click Next
- Step 9:In the next screen select Apache and MySQL. You may optionally select FileZilla (FTP Client) if needed. Click Install
- Step 10:On successful completion of installation, you will see following window
- Step 11:Click on Finish button.
Basic Web server configuration
- htdocs: All the PHP code written in htdocs directory. This is the web root directory.
- mysql: This directory contains all the information related to MySQL database.
- php: This directory contains PHP installation files. It contains an important file named php.ini.
XAMPP Control Panel
- Click on start menu.
- Explore the programs directory and locate Apace Friends then XAMPP as shown in the diagram below.
- The diagram below shows the control panel.
Configure XAMPP
If anyone has doubts on this topic then please do let me know by leaving comments or send me an email.