All Posts
Series Index: Local Environment
November 30, 2024
!Series: Local Environment Apache MariaDB OpenSSL PHP phpMyAdmin SQL WordPress
In this learn-along tutorial series, we will be setting up a local development environment from scratch on a Windows 11 machine, using Apache as our HTTP server. We will also use this development environment to run different experiments: Setting up a site running PHP 8 and a site running PHP 7 on the same server […]
Posted In: Tutorials
Part 7 – Installing WordPress
November 30, 2024
!Series: Local Environment Apache phpMyAdmin WordPress
In this final section, we will be installing WordPress on our test-1 site. Downloading WordPress Download the WordPress files at this link. You will want to use the option for downloading and installing yourself, not one that talks about setting it up on an existing provider. WordPress download page Extract the files. Generally, there’s an […]
Posted In: Tutorials
Part 6 – Setting Up HTTPS
November 29, 2024
!Series: Local Environment Apache OpenSSL
In this section, we will be setting up our site to accept connections over HTTPS. General Concepts In order to understand the rest of this section, we need to think about a few fundamentals. Specifically, how does the internet work and how can we transmit data (reasonably) securely over it? All the data available on […]
Posted In: Tutorials
Part 5 – Adding and Managing a Database
November 2, 2024
!Series: Local Environment MariaDB PHP phpMyAdmin SQL
In this section, we’ll be adding a database to our websites, along with a way to manage those databases. We will be using MariaDB as our database and phpMyAdmin as our database manager. Downloading MariaDB MariaDB is an open-source relational database. We’ll be using the free version, MariaDB Community. Go to the downloads page at […]
Posted In: Tutorials
Part 4 – Installing PHP
October 30, 2024
!Series: Local Environment Apache PHP
In this section, we will be adding PHP to our demo websites—a different version for each site. Downloading PHP Since we’re going to have two different versions of PHP, it makes sense to have a new folder just for our PHP versions. I’ll create a new folder in the Development folder called PHP. All of […]
Posted In: Tutorials
Part 3 – DNS Records and Virtual Sites
October 20, 2024
!Series: Local Environment Apache
In this section, we will be adding DNS entries and configuring Apache to serve to simple local websites. These websites will be using static HTML and not PHP–we’ll be adding PHP in the next section. Localhost Start Apache using your preferred method. Go to http://localhost to see the “It works” message. How is Apache doing […]
Posted In: Tutorials
Part 2 – Installing and Running Apache
September 25, 2024
!Series: Local Environment Apache
In this section, we will be installing Apache as our HTTP server. Getting the Apache Download Let’s start at the official Apache site and look at the information for Windows users. Before we start the download, let’s look at the site a little bit. We can see that Apache 2.4 requires Windows 2000 or later—which […]
Posted In: Tutorials
Part 1 – Development Environment Components
September 22, 2024
Before we get started, it is important that we understand each of the pieces we need to include in our local development environment: DNS records in our hosts file An HTTP server A server-side scripting language A database server It’s easiest to understand these components when we walk through how they each get used. To […]
Posted In: Tutorials
What’s a Learn-Along Tutorial?
September 20, 2024
At various points on this site, I’ve posted what I call ‘learn-along tutorials’. What do I mean by that? In my experience, when you’re learning something new, it helps to talk about what you’re learning, and force yourself to explain it to someone new. Talking about it helps, but in my experience, forcing yourself to […]
Posted In: Tutorials
Update 09/2024: Local Environment
September 17, 2024
As I mentioned in passing in my April update, I started a new job late last year (not in technology; programming is more of a very useful hobby than something I do professionally at the moment). That’s kept me busy but also changed my focus to some extent. I did finish the JavaScript course I’d […]
Posted In: Education