PHP Developer Journey: How to use XAMPP for developing PHP Web Applications

Hi all, i am back with my PHP Developer's Journey - Tutorial for the next session. I hope you alread read the XAMPP installation on Windows. If you don't know how to install XAMPP then please refer this article.

Now let's get started with our next session about How to run XAMPP and How to work with XAMPP to run PHP Web Applications? Let's move on.

Where XAMPP control panel stays?

See the below picture. Navigate to the Start button then look for "XAMPP For Windows".

By clicking on the XAMPP Control Panel, it will take to the XAMPP Control Panel.

Note: By default, XAMPP Control Panel sits at the Desktop. You can open it from there also.

How XAMPP Control Panel looks like?

See the below picture if you want to see how XAMPP Control Panel looks like.

The XAMPP Control Panel Application shows you different modules like Apache Web Server, MySQL Database Server, FileZilla Server, Mercury Mail Server etc..etc.

Let's See What is the functionality of different modules present in XAMPP Control Panel Application?

Apache :

Apache is the world's largest Open Source Web Server for running PHP applications.
Since PHP is a Server Side Scripting Language, so to work with PHP we should have installed one web server in our computer and that server's name is Apache.
Whenever we want to work with PHP we should have installed a web server. If we don't have a web server then we can't run PHP applications.

MySQL :

MySQL is the world's largest Open Source Database Server.
It's purpose is to store and retrieve the information.

Note : To work with MySQL you must be familiar with SQL (Structure Query Language). Don't get panic basics will be covered in future tutorials.

FileZilla :

FileZilla is the world's largest Open Source FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
It's purpose is to transfer files from localhost (Local System) to remote host (Remote System).

Mercury :

The Mercury is a Mail Server - a program that sends and receives mail on behalf of a group of users on a machine or local area network.
Mail from the outside world is received by Mercury and placed in the addressee's mailbox, where the user can access it at any later point.
Messages sent by local users to the outside world are passed to Mercury, which then takes whatever steps are necessary to deliver them, removing the burden from the user's workstation and allowing him to continue with other work.

Note :

To run all these modules, simply click Start button besides it.

Other options in XAMPP Control Panel Application:

Shell :

It opens a Command Shell (DOS Prompt) at the root of your XAMPP installation with a correctly set environment for working with a Command Line Interface (including a temporary Path).
With the newer Control Panel, the xampp_shell.bat will be created the first time you open the XAMPP Shell.
The file (xampp_Shell.bat) that runs the Command Shell will be in the root of XAMPP, so if you want - you can open it with an editor and see what it does.

Setup :

It opens up a set up screen which you already know about this file when you install XAMPP you would have seen it i guess. It simply shows different options. Please read the different options and do what ever you want to do. See below screen for better understanding.

Port-Check :

This port-check option takes you to the window which shows different services of installed XAMPP modules like Apache, MySQL, FileZilla, Mercury, Tomcat with their assigned port numbers.
Different modules have different port numbers assigned to them.

Note :

Default port number for Apache HTTP Service is 80
Default port number for MySQL service is 3306
Default port number for FileZilla FTP service is 21
Default port number for Mercury service is 25
Default port number for Tomcat is 8080

Explore :

Explore option will take you to the actual location of XAMPP installation directory. i.e C:\ directory which i have installed it on C:\ in my previous demo.
This is the directory which contains all the files and folders of XAMPP Control Panel. Means different services like Apache, MySQL, PHP, phpMyAdmin, etc. Please see all but never ever delete any of them. If you do so then you might face problems with installed modules. So be careful.
It consists of the main folder called "htdocs" which is the root directory where every PHP application or PHP file or PHP project will be stored.

SCM:

This will show different windows installed services. As we already know about this services.ini file. See below picture.

There are some other options like "Refresh", "Help" and "Exit" available. Use Exit for closing the XAMPP Control Panel Application.

Starting and Running Apache, MySQL Services :

Points to remember:

Before going to run your PHP application or PHP file or PHP project folder, you should start the Apache Service simply by clicking the Start button in the XAMPP Control Panel Application. See the above picture.
If the PHP file is having a database interaction then MySQL service should be started. Otherwise SQL queries will not be executed. So choose the options wisely. But by default start both Apache and MySQL services.
To run any PHP related application the file must be stored in "htdocs" folder. This is the root of the Apache web server.
Here you might get one doubt regarding MySQL, that How to access MySQL? For that, XAMPP is blessed with a tool for running SQL queries. The tool is "phpMyAdmin".
The phpMyAdmin gives you all the options for running SQL queries. Like how to create a table, how to insert the data in the table, how to delete the data from the table etc. You will come to know about this in MySQL tutorial.
In the rest of your PHP programming world you will always use one word called "localhost". So what is a localhost?
Localhost is the default name for describing the local computer address. Its IP address is 127.0.0.1.

That's all for now. In the next session we will see how to run PHP applications using localhost. What's the role of localhost in running PHP applications etc etc...