Software Setup for Class - ndgriffeth/Class-Notes-and-Lectures GitHub Wiki

Your goal in this class is to build a LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) Web Site that provides (or at least pretends to provide) products or services for customers/registrants.

LAMP is a pretty standard architecture for a commercial Web site, so the experience will be useful in job interviews and on the job. For the class, it will also be acceptable to use an xAMP system (x=M for Mac, or W for Windows, or L for Linux) on any other operating system. The crucial point is to have a Web server in front of a database management system, providing active content.

Recommended operating systems for this class are Mac OS X Mountain Lion and Ubuntu 12.04. These are the operating systems that will be available in the classroom. However, you may use any operating system you like, including Windows, other Mac OS X, and other Linux, as long as you can install the xAMP (Apache-MySQL-PHP) software. All of these are free, open software products that are available on a large variety of operating systems.

As upperclassmen and master's students in Computer Science, you should be able to download and install software on your own systems. However, I will do my best to help you with any problems. Obviously, I don't know enough to solve problems with every possible operating system, but I have done the installation and setup for Mac OS X Mountain Lion, Ubuntu 12.04, and Windows XP, so I should be able to help with those.

I am providing instructions for setting up your computer in two ways below:

 1.  General instructions for each operating system, from an on-line Web page
 2.  The (somewhat briefer) instructions, describing what worked for me.

General Instructions

These are longer and more complicated than my instructions, but more comprehensive. So if my instructions don't work for you, try these.

For Mac OS X Mountain Lion: http://coolestguyplanettech.com/downtown/install-and-configure-apache-mysql-php-and-phpmyadmin-osx-108-mountain-lion

For Ubuntu: http://www.howtoforge.com/installing-apache2-with-php5-and-mysql-support-on-ubuntu-12.04-lts-lamp

For Windows: I'm not sure, try this: http://www.wikihow.com/Install-WAMP

My instructions for each step

  1. Install and set up Apache for your operating system. Check that it works by browsing to localhost.

  2. Install and set up PHP for your operating system. Check that it works by creating the page "phpinfo.php" containing the line

When you browse to the page, you should see a summary of the PHP configuration.

  1. Install and set up MySQL for your operating system.. Check that it works by creating and querying a database on MySQL Workbench.