In this lesson, you will learn how to set up your computer to start coding in PHP. You can skip this lesson if you already have the environment set up for PHP coding.
PHP applications or scripts run on a web server. There are essential components to be installed on your machine to generate and execute PHP Web pages. The Apache Web Server is a computer application that stores, processes, and delivers web pages to users when they request them.
To process PHP script instructions, you’ll need to install a parser that can generate HTML output. This data is visible in a web browser. MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Sybase, and Informix are examples of databases that support PHP applications.
If your server does not support PHP, you must choose a web server that supports and parse PHP code.
Below are some packages that make installing PHP and other essential applications an easy task:
It’s challenging to set up and configure the Apache Web Server. Web server stack packages such as WAMP, XAMPP, WAMP, and LAMP design are such as to reduce installation and configuration hassles.
This course will use the WAMP package to demonstrate PHP, MySQL, and other technologies topics. Please follow the blog post below for a step-by-step installation of the WAMP package.
Install PHP and MySQL on Windows Operation System Using the WAMP
These packages address the complexities of installing and integrating PHP, MySQL, Apache, and main configuration files within the Operating System. Moreover, they also handle the complexity of setting up and integrating PHP, MySQL, Apache, and base configuration files outside of the operating system.
However, following installation, using their control panel to handle Apache, MySQL, Tomcat, and Filezilla is very straightforward. There is no need to configure anything explicitly using PHP IDEs. A PHP IDE is a tool that assists you in writing a PHP script or application quickly and easily. Syntax highlighting and autocomplete tools comprise PHP IDEs.
A few well-known PHP IDEs are listed below:
This concludes the PHP Environment Setup lesson. In the next lesson, you will learn about the basic syntax of a PHP program.