Web development under Windows

Downloading

• Download the latest Apache 2 series Win32 Binary (MSI Installer) package from http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi?Preferred=http%3A%2F%2Fapache.mirror.cygnal.ca and save it to a folder - 2.0.52 in my case
• Download the latest 4-series PHP zip package from http://www.php.net/downloads.php and save it to the same folder - 4.3.9 in my case
• Download the latest 4.x series MySQL server from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/4.1.html - get the Windows (x86) file and save to the same folder - 4.1 in my case

Installing

Installing Apache 2

• Just use the default options, but do change the Administrator's Email Address to your email address
• Do a typical installation
• Now in your browser, if you are not firewalled or anything, if you point to http://hostname.uwaterloo.ca/ you should see the Test Page for Apache Installation - hostname is the hostname of your computer

Installing MySQL 4.x

• Extract the zip and run setup.exe from archive
• Do a typical installation, Skip the Sign-Up, then configure the MySQL server
• Use Standard Configuration and leave the default options, but:
  • Enter a good root password
  • Don't create an Anonymous Account
• Done!

Installing PHP 4

• Extract the zip to C:\ and rename php-4.3.9-Win32 to simply php
• Copy C:\php\php4ts.dll to C:\Windows\System32 * Copy C:\php\php.ini-recommended to C:\php\php.ini
• Open the Apache httpd.conf file: Start > Apache > Configure Apache Server > Edit httpd.conf
• At the end of the file, add:

  # For PHP 4 do something like this:
  LoadModule php4_module "c:/php/sapi/php4apache2.dll"
  AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
  PHPIniDir "C:/php"

• Save the file

Further Apache 2 configuration

• At around line 290 of the httpd.conf file, change UserDir "My Documents/My Website" to UserDir "My Documents/public_html"
• A bit further down, uncomment all the lines between (and including) and
• Change My Website to public_html
• Change DirectoryIndex index.html index.html.var to DirectoryIndex index.php index.php3 index.html index.html.var
• Save the file

Testing

• Create My Documents\public_html
• Create public_html\index.php and enter this into index.php:

• Save the file and point your browser to http://hostname.uwaterloo.ca/~youruserid/
• It should print out a bunch of information about your current setup

MySQL User Account

• Start > All Programs > MySQL > MySQL Server > Command Line
• Enter root password
• Enter the following commands

          GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'userid'@'localhost'
          IDENTIFIED BY 'some_pass' WITH GRANT OPTION;
          GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'userid'@'%'
          IDENTIFIED BY 'some_pass' WITH GRANT OPTION;
          SET PASSWORD FOR
          'userid'@'localhost' = OLD_PASSWORD('some_pass');
          SET PASSWORD FOR
          'userid'@'%' = OLD_PASSWORD('some_pass');
          exit

Perl 5.8

• Get a Perl MSI Package from ActiveState: http://activestate.com/Products/Download/Download.plex?id=ActivePerl
• Run the installer with the default options
• CGI's will have to use the executable path c:\perl\bin\perl.exe

PHPMyAdmin

• Get the latest PHPMyAdmin from http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/downloads.php - get the zip package
• Extract to C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs
• Rename the folder to phpmyadmin
• Edit the config.inc.php and change

$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = 'your_passphrase';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type']     = 'cookie';

• Go to http://hostname.uwaterloo.ca/phpmyadmin/ log in and enjoy