In this tutorial, you will be learning Installing xampp, create and execute your first PHP program, and manage database through phpMyAdmin.
What is XAMPP and what it does?
Before discussing how to Installing xampp, let us know what xampp is. According to Wikipedia, XAMPP stands for Cross-Platform (X), Apache (A), MariaDB (M), PHP (P) and Perl (P), from that term -as you suggest- we know that this software consists:
- Apache Web Server that is used to run the PHP program.
- MariaDB (previously using MySQL), which is used as a database. MariaDB is an open source database that is a “duplication” of MySQL.
- Perl, as in additional options, if we want to do programming Perl.
whereas the cross-platform itself means that the software can be used for a variety of operating systems, it supports Windows, Linux, and MacOS.
so what the usefulness of XAMPP, it simply to run PHP and MySQL, because in both cases what this software is intended.
Xampp server is actually portable server (files) which you can install on your computer, so you can use your own computer as the server, for testing purposes or as actual own hosting. and it’s a platform where we run .php files.
XAMPP name is an acronym for:
Xampp is a development tool mainly used by designers and developers to test their work on their computers, without any access to the Internet. So we can test our work on localhost server just like we test on real servers.
Download and Installing xampp
XAMPP FULL Version – Installer (.exe)
To download the latest version of XAMPP, you can visit the front page of XAMPP official website at www.apachefriends.org, then click on the “XAMPP for Windows” button in the downloads section, it will automatically download the FULL version (.exe file).
The advantage of this version is that we can install Apache and MySQL service via the XAMPP Control Panel, in addition, XAMPP menu will be added to the start menu of Computer.
Alternatives to XAMPP are given below:
How to Run XAMPP on Windows
After we successfully Installing xampp on windows, now we discuss how to run it. If during the installation process you checked the “Do you want to start the control panel now?” option, then automatically XAMPP Control Panel will open,
If not, it can be run manually by following the menu: START > All Programs> XAMPP > XAMPP Control Panel. If you use the portable version, you can run it by opening the installation folder and double-click the xampp-control.exe file.
Next, start Apache and MySQL component by clicking the start button that corresponds to it. If everything is going well, it will appear green color in these components.
Next, do some test whether PHP can run well. Open your browser and type http://localhost/ in the address bar, if it goes well, it will display xampp page as shown below.
Now, you have successfully Install xampp on your system and the xampp control panel has worked as expected, you can now emptying the htdocs folder by deleting the files inside it (the default xampp files) and replace it with your PHP files.