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PHP & MySQL – Environment Setup

In order to develop and run PHP Web pages, three vital components need to be installed on your computer system.

  • Web Server − PHP works with virtually all Web Server software, including Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS) but most often used is Apache Server. Download Apache for free here − https://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi
  • Database − PHP works with virtually all database software, including Oracle and Sybase but most commonly used is MySQL database. Download MySQL for free here − https://www.mysql.com/downloads/
  • PHP Parser − In order to process PHP script instructions, a parser must be installed to generate HTML output that can be sent to the Web Browser. This tutorial will guide you how to install PHP parser on your computer.

PHP Parser Installation

Before you proceed, it is important to make sure that you have proper environment setup on your machine to develop your web programs using PHP. Store the following php file in Apache’s htdocs folder.

phpinfo.php

<?php
   phpinfo();
?>

Apache Configuration

If you are using Apache as a Web Server, then this section will guide you to edit Apache Configuration Files.

PHP.INI File Configuration

The PHP configuration file, php.ini, is the final and immediate way to affect PHP’s functionality.

Windows IIS Configuration

To configure IIS on your Windows machine, you can refer your IIS Reference Manual shipped along with IIS.

Install MySQL Database

The most important thing you will need, of course is an actual running database with a table that you can query and modify.

  • MySQL DB − MySQL is an open source database. You can download it from MySQL Official Site. We recommend downloading the full Windows installation.
  • In addition, download and install MySQL Administrator as well as MySQL Query Browser. These are GUI based tools that will make your development much easier.
  • Finally, download and unzip MySQL Connector/J (the MySQL JDBC driver) in a convenient directory. For the purpose of this tutorial we will assume that you have installed the driver at C:\Program Files\MySQL\mysql-connector-java-5.1.8.
  • Accordingly, set CLASSPATH variable to C:\Program Files\MySQL\mysql-connector-java-5.1.8\mysql-connector-java-5.1.8-bin.jar. Your driver version may vary based on your installation.

Set Database Credential

When we install MySQL database, its administrator ID is set to root and it gives provision to set a password of your choice.

Using root ID and password you can either create another user ID and password, or you can use root ID and password for your JDBC application.

There are various database operations like database creation and deletion, which would need administrator ID and password.

For rest of the JDBC we would use MySQL Database with guest as ID and guest123 as password.

If you do not have sufficient privilege to create new users, then you can ask your Database Administrator (DBA) to create a user ID and password for you.

Create Database

To create the ADGLOB database, use the following steps −

Step 1

Open a Command Prompt and change to the installation directory as follows −

C:\>
C:\>cd Program Files\MySQL\bin
C:\Program Files\MySQL\bin>

Note − The path to mysqld.exe may vary depending on the install location of MySQL on your system. You can also check documentation on how to start and stop your database server.

Step 2

Start the database server by executing the following command, if it is already not running.

C:\Program Files\MySQL\bin>mysqld
C:\Program Files\MySQL\bin>

Step 3

Create the ADGLOB database by executing the following command −

C:\Program Files\MySQL\bin> mysqladmin create ADGLOB -u guest -p
Enter password: ********
C:\Program Files\MySQL\bin>

Create Table

To create the Employees table in ADGLOB database, use the following steps −

Step 1

Open a Command Prompt and change to the installation directory as follows −

C:\>
C:\>cd Program Files\MySQL\bin
C:\Program Files\MySQL\bin>

Step 2

Login to the database as follows −

C:\Program Files\MySQL\bin>mysql -u guest -p
Enter password: ********
mysql>

Step 3

Create the table Employees as follows −

mysql> use ADGLOB;
mysql> create table Employees
   -> (
   -> id int not null,
   -> age int not null,
   -> first varchar (255),
   -> last varchar (255)
   -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.08 sec)
mysql>

Create Data Records

Finally you create few records in Employee table as follows −

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (100, 18, 'Zara', 'Ali');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.05 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (101, 25, 'Mahnaz', 'Fatma');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (102, 30, 'Zaid', 'Khan');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (103, 28, 'Sumit', 'Mittal');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql>

Now you are ready to start experimenting with PHP.

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