Creating Your Development Environment

Overview

A web development environment is a way to emulate how your website will function "on the internet" while existing on your personal computer. Your website can then be developed, in its entirety, on your personal computer and be tested for usability and functionality, without actually having to put it online.

The major benefits of having a localhost (hosted on your own computer) development environment include:

No need for internet connection
Faster updates as you do not need to upload files
Troubleshoot problems before launch.
Implement and test changes before rolling them out.
Hidden from the public without the need to password protect
More Secure. Ability to test security holes before site goes live.

Tastyseed recommends the LAMP web development environment.
What is LAMP?

Linux: Linux is the operating system that the web server is running on. Note that this does not mean your personal computer has to run on Linux, just that your development environment will act like it is running on Linux.
Apache: The Apache HTTP Server is the method by which the client talks to the server. In order to retrieve websites online, the client or web browser must request the site by way of the domain/url eg. http://tastyseed.com. Apache handles this request and directs the client to the particular server the tastyseed web files are stored. Apache then handles the response the server gives to the client.
MySQL: MySQL is a relational database system used to organize your online content. Since MySQL uses server-side programming, you must install the software that understands MySQL on your server, in this case your localhost server.
PHP: PHP is a server-side web programming language. Therefore you must install the software that understands the PHP language on your localhost server in order to execute PHP instructions.

How to Install the LAMP Development Environment

XAMPP makes it extremely easy to install every component of the LAMP environment on your computer. The XAMPP package can be downloaded and installed just as any other program would and it will automatically setup your environment.

Please follow the instructions on the XAMPP website and you will be up and running in no time.

Install XAMPP Web Development Environment

After installing XAMPP you might want to return to our PHP Overview and test out executing some PHP commands!

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Coding Your Web Site

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