PHP 5/MySQL Programming- P7:computer programming has often been seen as a difficult and arcane skill. Programming languages are difficult and complicated, out of the typical person’s reach. However, the advent of the World Wide Web has changed that to some extent. It’s reasonably easy to build and post a Web page for the entire world to see. The language of the Web is reasonably simple, and numerous applications are available to assist in the preparation of static pages | 8 PHP 5 MySQL Programming for the Absolute Beginner figure The default page for Apache proves a local server is running. While you re getting started I recommend not allowing external access. To make a new home page for your computer look for a directory called htdocs under your Apache installation. Apache is configured to automatically display a file called if the file exists. On live servers I usually have an page so the user gets a nice HTML page when she goes to a particular directory. However for my own development server I usually take out the index page so I can see a directory listing and navigate the htdocs directory through the server. Starting Apache as a Service You can run Apache as an executable program but it s preferable to start it as a service. Services are background processes that automatically restart whenever the computer is restarted. Services don t usually have a graphic interface but they sometimes have icons in the task bar. To run Apache as a service activate services from the control panel on my machine the path is Control Panel Administrative Tool s Servi ces . Figure 9 shows the services control panel. Use this panel to turn your various services on or off. Note that if you change your server s configuration you must turn it off then back on before your server recognizes the changes. figure This control panel starts and stops Apache. The newest versions of Apache seem to launch themselves as services automatically. If this happens great. Don t worry about the DOS window I mentioned it won t be there. The most important thing is whether you get a page when your browser is pointed at localhost. If so you have a functioning Web server. Chapter 1 Exploring the PHP Environment Configuring Apache Apache is configured through a series of heavily commented text files. Look in the conf directory of your Apache directory for a file called . This is the main configuration file for Apache. You shouldn t
