2 | How to Install a Local Server for PHP | 2023 | Learn PHP Full Course for Beginners

Summary

This video tutorial guides viewers on setting up a local server for PHP development using XAMPP, a popular and easy-to-install software. It addresses common concerns about server installation and reassures viewers of its simplicity. The tutorial covers downloading XAMPP from apachefriends.org, installing it on Windows, and configuring it to run PHP and MySQL services. It also demonstrates creating a new PHP file in Visual Studio Code, setting the PHP executable path, and testing PHP code execution on a local server, concluding with a teaser for the next video on PHP syntax.

Takeaways

• 😀 Setting up a local server is essential for developing websites using PHP and should not be intimidating.
• 🛠️ There are various server software options available such as LAMP, VAMP, XAMPP, and WAMP.
• 🐘 The tutorial recommends using XAMPP (Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl) for its ease of setup and familiarity.
• 💻 XAMPP can be downloaded from apachefriends.org, offering versions for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
• 📥 Download and install the appropriate XAMPP version for your operating system, ensuring to note the installation location.
• 🔧 After installation, configure the XAMPP control panel and start the Apache and MySQL services to run PHP locally.
• 📁 The 'htdocs' folder in XAMPP is where you can create and manage your local websites.
• 🌐 Access your local server by typing 'localhost' in your browser to view the default XAMPP page or your PHP websites.
• 💬 PHP files can be created by renaming HTML files to '.php' and can contain both HTML and PHP code.
• 🖥️ If using Visual Studio Code, ensure PHP is set up correctly by configuring the PHP executable path in settings.
• 🔗 PHP code within a PHP file can be executed on the server, as demonstrated by the 'echo "Hello World";' example.

Q & A

What is the purpose of installing a local server on your computer for PHP development?

Installing a local server allows you to run a website using PHP on your computer without uploading it to the internet, making it easy to work on your website offline.

Why might some people be scared of installing a server on their computer?

Some people might be scared due to misconceptions about the complexity or potential risks of installing a server, but the script clarifies that setting up a server is a common and straightforward process in web development.

What are some of the different server software options mentioned in the script?

The script mentions LAMP, VAMP, XAMPP, and LIMP as different server software options available for setting up a local server.

Why does the speaker recommend using XAMPP for setting up a local server?

The speaker recommends XAMPP because it's easy to set up and they have been using it for many years, making them comfortable with its functionality.

How can one obtain XAMPP for setting up a local server?

XAMPP can be downloaded from the Apache Friends website, and the script provides a link to the website for easy access.

What are the two services that need to be running in XAMPP to get PHP working?

The two services that need to be running are the Apache server, which runs PHP, and the MySQL server, which provides access to the database.

Where should the 'htdocs' folder be located in relation to the XAMPP installation directory?

The 'htdocs' folder should be located within the XAMPP installation directory, typically found in the C drive or a specified installation directory.

What is the significance of the 'localhost' URL when working with a local server?

Typing 'localhost' in the browser URL directs you to the default page served by the local server, which in the case of XAMPP, is the 'htdocs' folder where your websites are stored.

How can you create a new website within the XAMPP server?

You can create a new website by creating a new folder within the 'htdocs' directory and then adding PHP files to it, which will be accessible via the 'localhost' URL with the folder's name.

What is the difference between creating a PHP file and an HTML file when setting up a website?

While both PHP and HTML files can contain HTML code, PHP files allow for the execution of PHP code, which can dynamically generate content for the website.

Why might Visual Studio Code show a 'cannot validate' message when working with PHP?

Visual Studio Code may show a 'cannot validate' message if it cannot find the PHP executable path. This can be resolved by manually setting the path to the PHP installation within the editor's settings.

Outlines

00:00

💻 Setting Up a Local Server for PHP Development

The paragraph discusses the process of setting up a local server on a computer to develop websites using PHP. It reassures users that installing a server is safe and common practice among web developers. The narrator introduces various server options like LAMP, MAMP, XAMPP, and WAMP, and mentions Docker. The chosen server for the tutorial is XAMPP due to its ease of setup and familiarity. The tutorial guides users to download XAMPP from apachefriends.org, select the appropriate version for their operating system, and install it on their computer. It emphasizes the importance of noting the installation location and provides a step-by-step guide through the installation process, including handling potential pop-ups and setting up the server to run PHP and MySQL services.

05:01

🌐 Creating and Configuring a PHP Website Locally

This paragraph explains how to create and configure a PHP website using the XAMPP server. It details the process of deleting the default files in the 'htdocs' folder and creating a new folder for the user's website. The narrator demonstrates how to access the local server through the browser by typing 'localhost' and shows how to create multiple websites within the server. The tutorial then moves on to setting up the website in a preferred code editor, such as Visual Studio Code, and creating an 'index.php' file. It highlights the difference between HTML and PHP files and provides a solution for a common issue where Visual Studio Code might not recognize the PHP installation, guiding users to manually set the PHP executable path within the editor's settings.

10:02

🔧 Testing PHP Code and Preparing for Further Tutorials

The final paragraph demonstrates testing PHP code by writing a simple 'echo' statement within PHP tags in an HTML file. It shows how to save the file, refresh the website in the browser, and see the output 'hello world', confirming that the PHP server is running correctly. The paragraph concludes by mentioning that the next video will cover PHP syntax, allowing users to write PHP code effectively within their websites. The tutorial ends on a positive note, expressing gratitude and anticipation for the continuation of the learning process.

Keywords

💡Local Server

A local server is a software system that mimics the behavior of a live server, but operates on a user's personal computer. In the context of the video, setting up a local server is essential for developing and testing websites using PHP without needing to upload them to the internet. The video script mentions installing a local server as the first step for PHP web development, emphasizing its importance for offline website testing.

💡PHP

PHP is a server-side scripting language designed for web development. It is used to create dynamic web pages and manage server-side operations. The video script discusses installing a local server specifically to run PHP, indicating that PHP is central to the video's theme of website development. The script also mentions creating PHP files instead of HTML for incorporating server-side logic into web pages.

💡XAMPP

XAMPP is a widely-used software package that includes an Apache server, MySQL database, and PHP. The video script highlights XAMPP as the preferred choice for setting up a local server, due to its ease of setup and familiarity to the speaker. XAMPP is used to demonstrate how to run a PHP website on a local computer, showcasing its role in the development process.

💡Apache Server

The Apache Server is a popular open-source web server software. It is one of the components of the XAMPP package and is necessary for running PHP scripts. The video script explains that starting the Apache server within XAMPP is a critical step to enable PHP execution, linking it directly to the functionality of a local development server.

💡MySQL Server

MySQL Server is a relational database management system that is also part of the XAMPP package. It is used to manage and store data for websites. The script mentions starting the MySQL server alongside the Apache server to access databases, which is essential for dynamic website development where PHP interacts with databases.

💡LAMP Stack

LAMP is an acronym for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, referring to a stack of software used to develop web applications. The video script lists LAMP as one of the many types of servers available for local development, indicating its popularity and relevance to the video's theme of setting up a PHP development environment.

💡Docker

Docker is a platform that uses containers to enable developers to develop and deploy applications consistently across different environments. The video script mentions Docker as an alternative to traditional local server setups, suggesting it as a modern approach to setting up a development environment for PHP.

💡localhost

In web development, 'localhost' refers to the local server on one's own computer. The video script instructs the viewer to type 'localhost' in the browser to access the local server, demonstrating how to view a PHP website running on the local server. This term is crucial for understanding how to access and test a website during development.

💡Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a popular source-code editor that supports PHP development. The video script mentions setting up PHP within Visual Studio Code, highlighting the importance of having a suitable text editor for PHP development. It also touches on configuring the editor to recognize the PHP executable, which is necessary for syntax highlighting and code validation.

💡PHP Syntax

PHP syntax refers to the rules governing the structure of PHP code. The video script briefly mentions that future content will cover PHP syntax, indicating that understanding the proper syntax is essential for writing functional PHP code. The script uses 'echo' as an example of PHP syntax for outputting 'hello world', demonstrating a basic PHP command.

Highlights

Installing a local server is essential for setting up a PHP website.

Local server installation is a common practice among web developers and should not be feared.

Various server software options exist, such as LAMP, VAMP, XAMPP, and LIMP.

Docker is another method mentioned for setting up a server environment.

XAMPP is chosen for its ease of setup and familiarity to the presenter.

ApacheFriends.org is a resource for downloading the XAMPP server software.

XAMPP allows running a PHP website locally without uploading to the internet.

Different versions of XAMPP are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac.

The installation process for XAMPP is straightforward and quick.

It's important to note the installation location for future configuration changes.

After installation, the XAMPP control panel can be accessed to start the Apache and MySQL services.

Docking the XAMPP control panel for easy access is recommended.

The htdocs folder in XAMPP is where websites are created and managed.

Creating a new folder in htdocs allows for the setup of a new local website.

PHP files can be created by changing the extension from .html to .php.

Visual Studio Code may require manual configuration to recognize the PHP executable.

A PHP file allows for both HTML and PHP code, maintaining website functionality.

The presenter demonstrates creating a simple PHP file that outputs 'Hello World'.

Next steps include learning PHP syntax for proper website development.

Transcripts

so in order to set up a website using

PHP we have to install what is called a

local server and there's a lot of

different software out there in the

internet that you can get in order to

install a local server on your computer

I do know that some people are a little

bit scared when it comes to installing a

server on your computer and I just want

to point out that there's nothing to be

scared of everything is going to be fine

and you're not going to install any sort

of viruses anything setting up a server

is something that is actually quite easy

to do and anyone that does websites do

it quite frequently so it's not

something that new people should be

scared of doing it's something that

takes a couple of minutes to do and then

you have something running on your

computer so when it comes to installing

a server there's many different servers

you can choose from you have lamp Vamp

xampp limp there's many different kinds

of servers I did also hear about

something called Docker from one of my

subscribers in the last video so it's

just interesting to see that there's so

many different ways to do it what we're

going to use however is a server called

exam and the argument I have for using

exam is that it's easy to set up and

it's the one I've been using for many

years I'm just really comfortable using

exam amp so going inside your computer

you can see that we have this website

here that I just found called

apachefriends.org I'll go ahead and

leave a link to it so you can actually

see it on screen here basically this is

just going to be a piece of software

that you're going to download that we're

going to start and then it's going to

run our server on our computer this

means that we can actually run a website

that is using PHP on our computer

without having to upload our website to

the Internet so this makes it very easy

to just work on our website offline on

our computer just like if it were to

just make a HTML website as you can see

we have a couple of different versions

We can install in here we have for

Windows Linux and mac and you can also

see what version we're going to install

in this case here this is going to be

release 8.2.0 which is the PHP version

that we're going to run on This Server

here so once you've figured out what

operating system you're sitting on I bet

you probably know already you're going

to go and click the button for that one

so I'm going to click windows then it's

going to install the program for you and

if it doesn't you're just going to go

ahead and click up here where it says

click here

then we're going to accept the Privacy

pop-up and then we're just going to go

and download the latest version which is

8.2.0 so we have the latest version of

PHP here so I'm going to go and download

it now once you have it downloaded

you're just going to go ahead and double

click it so we can make sure to install

it on our computer and it is important

that you take note of where exactly you

are installing it since we will have to

go in and do a couple of changes to it

now if you do get a pop-up like this

don't worry too much about it since this

is only going to be relevant if we were

to install this inside our program files

inside our main drive so with that I'm

just going to click OK and then we're

going to choose where we want to install

this program so we're going to make sure

all these are ticked on and then I'm

going to click next then I'm going to

select where I want to install this now

as you can see I have it inside my C

drive but not inside my program file so

I can just go and install it directly on

the C drive so I'm just going to go and

do that click next then I'm going to

choose a language in this case it's

going to be English

and then we can just go ahead and make

it set up our program on our computer so

it's just going to unpack and install

now if you do insist that you want to

install this inside your program files

then I do have a link in the description

where you can go in and actually make

sure there's no warnings popping up when

you try to run this program inside the

program files but like I said if you

just installed it directly inside the C

drive like I did here we're not going to

have any sort of issues now once you

have it installed it's going to ask if

you want to start the control panel now

if you want to wait with later for now

let's just go ahead and not do that

because I do want to show where exactly

this is installed so you can just open

it up from inside your computer so with

that I'm going to click finish and then

you're going to go into a installed

xampp which is inside in my case the C

drive so I'm going to go into this PC

inside my C drive then I'm going to go

down to the bottom here and then you can

see I have X amp inside the XM folder

we're going to have the actual server

files which means that we can scroll

down to the bottom and actually run this

control panel that we were just asked

about so we can just go and click the

xamppdashcontrol.exe open it up and then

you can see we have a little software in

here now the important thing for you to

know about in here is that we have two

services that we need in order to

actually get PHP working one is going to

be the Apache server which is the one

that we need in order to actually run

PHP and the second one is the MySQL

server which is used in order to get

access to our database so what I can do

is I can start these two and then you

can see we have them running another tip

that I have for you is to make sure that

you go down and actually dock this at

the bottom since this is the program

you're going to have to start every

single time you need to start working on

your website this means that we need to

go down actually dot get or pin it to a

taskbar so you have easy access to it

next time with this running we now need

to set up our website inside This Server

here which is very easy to do so we're

going to go back inside our folder where

we have X amp installed and then you're

going to go up to the top here and then

you're going to go inside the folder

called 8T Docs

now in here you're going to find a bunch

of files and these are just mainly to

welcome you into the XM software so if I

were to go inside my browser here and

inside the URL I'm going to type

localhost and then you can see we get

this little website here and this is

basically what we see with these files

inside the HC docs folder this is

basically what this is so we don't

really need to have this so what I can

do is I can go back inside our folder

then I'm just going to delete all the

files that we have in here now the

important thing for you to know about

this folder here is that this is going

to be the place where you start creating

your websites every time you want to

create a new website inside This Server

here so what we can do is we can go and

create a new root folder so I'm going to

right click and say I want to create a

new folder I can call this one my

website just to give it some kind of

name of course you're more than welcome

to call whatever you want it to be but

in my case I'm just going to call it my

website

and now what you're going to notice is

that inside the browser I can go back

inside and type localhost and then you

can see we get a list of all the

different websites that I have inside

this folder here this means that if I

were to create a second website go in

here create a second one my second

website then you can see if I were to

refresh in here we now have a new

website that we can open up using this

server here so if I were to click my

website you can now see that we have

this website open so going inside your

preferred editor in my case this is

going to be Visual Studio code I'm going

to go ahead and create my first file

which means that I'm going to save this

file inside this folder that I just

created a very good advice for you is to

go inside and actually dock the HD docs

folder on the side over here so I have

quick access to it so what I can do is I

can go ahead and go inside find xampp

take my HD docs folder and dock it over

here in the side so in this sort of way

I have quick access to it whenever I

have to open my folders here so I can

click it go in here let's just go and

delete that second website since we

don't have actually need it I'm going to

go inside my root folder and create a

index dot PHP now this is the moment

where some people are going to get

confused if it came directly from my

HTML course because when it comes to PHP

we want to make sure that instead of

creating HTML files we create a PHP file

the main difference here is that we

actually allow for PHP to be run inside

these files here you can still write

HTML just like you can before so you

don't need to freak out about your

website breaking or anything like that

or not being able to write HTML inside

these files just because it's called dot

PHP and the same thing goes if you have

an existing website that you want to

convert into a PHP website you can just

take all the different HTML files that

you have and just change the extension

from HTML to PHP on those and it's going

to work inside your server and it's not

going to break anything by the way I

should say that because some people do

worry that it is going to break

something so I have to say it with this

file here I'm going to save it and then

you can see we have this front page here

so if I were to go back inside my

website I can refresh my website and

then you can see we get a completely

blank page and that's because right now

we have the index file running inside

our server now depending on the editor

you're using because in some cases the

editor is just going to work straight

away but if you are using visual studio

code it may ask you something down here

at the bottom it says cannot validate

since a PHP installation could not be

found this is a very typical thing when

you have a new version of Visual Studio

code so if you have not set up PHP

already inside this software you are

going to have to set it up manually

inside this text editor here so what you

can do if you were quick enough is to

make sure you opened up the link it gave

you if not then we're going to go up

into file go down to preferences go

inside your settings then you're going

to click on extensions and then you're

going to go down to PHP and from in here

you can actually set it to where you

want to have the executable path set up

inside a Json file so go to click this

you can now see that we have this one

line called

psp.validate.executable path and this is

where we need to set in the link for our

PHP installation which is again inside

the exam folder so if I were to go back

inside the exam folder go back you can

see we have a folder in here called PHP

so I'm going to click it and then you

can see we have a PHP dot exe file down

here at the bottom this is the one we

need to link to inside this executable

path inside Visual Studio code so what I

can do is I can copy my path here go

back inside paste it inside the double

quotes and then we're going to write

backslash PHP dot exe now if you copied

the path directly like I did here you

want to make sure these are not

backslashes but instead forward slashes

otherwise you're going to get an error

message

and once you did this you're just going

to go and save the file and then you can

close it down and now we have it set up

so that we can actually find the PHP

version that we're using once we start

creating a PHP website so just to kind

of test this out let's go ahead and

start up a regular HTML website now I'm

just going to zoom in for you so you can

actually see what is going on here and

what I'm going to do is I'm going to go

inside the body tags and create a pair

of PHP tags which we use in order to

write PHP inside a website so what I can

do is I can write angle bracket question

mark PHP question mark angle bracket and

then anything that goes in between here

is going to be considered as PHP so just

to follow a very popular tradition here

let's go ahead and go inside and write

Echo

double quotes hello world

close it off with a semicolon save it go

inside our website

refresh it and then you can see we get

hello world so with that we now know

that we have a server running so we can

actually write PHP code inside our

website and have it display inside the

browser and with that in the next video

we're going to talk a bit about PHP

syntax so we can actually write PHP

properly inside our website so hope you

enjoyed and I'll see you in the next

video

[Music]

thank you

[Music]