Installing XAMPP on a Mac
- Download XAMPP for Mac OSX - Be sure to select the proper version of PHP. For Webucator classes, any version after 5 will be fine.
- Open the downloaded file (the DMG-Image).
- Drag and drop the XAMPP folder into your Applications folder.
Starting XAMPP on OSX
If MySQL Does Not Start
Testing your OSX XAMPP Installation
Class File Permissions
- Cmd+click on the ApplicationsXAMPPxamppfileshtdocs folder and select 'Get Info'.
- If the lock symbol at the bottom indicates that this information is locked, click the lock icon to unlock, and enter your user credentials.
- Once the settings are unlocked, choose 'everyone' under 'Sharing & Permissions' and change the option to 'Read & Write'.
Class Files
- Download the class files.
- After downloading the class files, navigate to ApplicationsXAMPPxamppfileshtdocs and create a new folder named Webucator and extract your class files in that folder.
Setting the MySQL Password on Macs
- The PHP files use 'pwdpwd' for the MySQL root password, while the default password is NO password.
- Change the password to pwdpwd by opening Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal) and enter:
- Enter 'y' for 'yes, let me set a password for the root user' and press Enter
- Enter the password pwdpwd. You will be asked to enter it again for confirmation.
- Quit Terminal (Cmd+Q) and restart Apache and MySQL using the XAMPP Control Panel.
Testing phpMyAdmin
- Go to http://localhost
- Click on phpMyAdmin under Tools
- Enter 'root' for username
- Enter 'pwdpwd' for password
Installing Northwind Database using XAMPP
- To install the Northwind database used in class, click on the 'phpMyAdmin' link on the left navigation bar of the XAMPP home page. That should take you to http://localhost/phpmyadmin.
- If it asks you to login, the username is root and the password is blank (unless you have already changed it to something else, like pwdpwd).
- On that page, click on the Import link under the Localhost heading.
- Browse to the Northwind-MySQL.sql file in your class files.
- Click the Go button on the bottom right of the page.
- You should get a Success message and Northwind should be added to the Database dropdown menu on the upper left of the page.
Recommended Editor
- Visual Studio Code ( Download, Install, and Set up)
- While you may use a different editor or IDE, Visual Studio Code is an excellent IDE to learn to code on. It provides a nice balance of power and simplicity and it is available on Windows and Mac.
Designate your testing server in Dreamweaver
- Go to Site > New Site.
- In the Site Setup dialog, fill in the Site Name (e.g., PHP) and browse to the Local Site Folder (e.g., ApplicationsXAMPPxamppfileshtdocs).
- Choose the Servers tab.
- At the bottom of the box on the right, click +.
- On the Basic tab, provide a Server Name, set Connect using to Local/Network, ensure the Server Folder matches the local site folder you specified in step 2, and set the Web URL to http://localhost/Webucator/ClassFiles/.
- Click the Advanced button.
- In the Server Model field, select PHP MySQL.
- Click Save. The server should appear in the table on the Servers tab.
- Make sure that both the Remote and Testing checkboxes are checked.
- Click Save.
Testing PHP Files
2 Methods for Testing Files in Browser
- Go to http://localhost/Webucator/ClassFiles/PHPBasics/Demos/HelloWorld.php in your web browser.
- Follow the same pattern to view all other class files; basically the ApplicationsXAMPPxamppfileshtdocs gets changed to http://localhost/
- Go to http://localhost/Webucator/ClassFiles/ in your web browser.
- Bookmark that page in your browser for easy access to it from now on.
- From there, you can see all the lesson folders and drill down to any class file for testing/viewing
And that's it
What’s Included in XAMPP?
How to Install XAMPP?
Component | Description | Version |
Apache | Default web server application | 2.4.4 |
MySQL | Database management system | 5.5.32 |
PHP | Server-side, general purpose programming language | 5.4.19 |
phpMyAdmin | Admin tool for working with MySQL | 4.0.4 |
OpenSSL | An open-source implementation of two popular security protocols – SSL and TSL | 0.9.8 |
XAMPP Control Panel | A simple control panel for working with different XAMPP components | 3.2.1 |
Webalizer | An analytics tool that generates user logs and usage metrics. | 2.23-04 |
Mercury Mail Transport System | A simple, open-source mail server | 4.62 |
FileZilla FTP Server | A FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server to make file transfers smoother | 0.9.41 |
Tomcat | A freeware Java servlet for serving Java applications | 7.0.42 |
Strawberry Perl | A popular distribution of Perl for Windows | 5.16.3.1 |
Downloading XAMPP
- .EXE – Self-executable file; easiest to install.
- .7z – 7zip file. Favored by purists, although it requires working with more complicated .bat files to install.
- .ZIP – Compressed zip file. Like .7z, installing through .ZIP files is considerably more difficult than using .EXE