PHP

What is XAMPP?

XAMPP is a free, open source, easy-to-install package that puts a complete web development server – the AMP stack of Chapter 1 and more – on your own computer. It is developed by Apache Friends and released under the GNU General Public License. It was first released in 2002.

The letters of the name stand for:

XAMPP is distributed as one installer (or a zip/7z archive) and needs little or no configuration. Within a few minutes you have Apache, MariaDB, PHP and phpMyAdmin working together on http://localhost.

Components of XAMPP 8.2.12

The current XAMPP release, 8.2.12 (released 19 November 2023), is offered in three PHP flavours – 8.2.12, 8.1.25 and 8.0.30. The Windows package contains:

The Linux and macOS packages contain Apache, MariaDB, PHP with PEAR, phpMyAdmin, OpenSSL, Perl, ProFTPD and SQLite instead of the Windows-only tools.

System Requirements

Downloading XAMPP

1. Open the official site https://www.apachefriends.org and click Download.
2. Choose your operating system and the PHP version (8.2.12 recommended).
3. For Windows you get a file such as xampp-windows-x64-8.2.12-0-VS16-installer.exe (about 149 MB).

Installing XAMPP on Windows

Figure 2.1 – The XAMPP installation wizard on Windows

Installing XAMPP on Linux and macOS

Linux – the installer is a .run file. Make it executable and run it as root:

chmod 755 xampp-linux-x64-8.2.12-0-installer.run
sudo ./xampp-linux-x64-8.2.12-0-installer.run

# XAMPP is installed in /opt/lampp
sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start          # start Apache, MySQL (MariaDB) and ProFTPD
sudo /opt/lampp/lampp stop           # stop all
sudo /opt/lampp/lampp startapache    # start only Apache
sudo /opt/lampp/lampp startmysql     # start only MariaDB
sudo /opt/lampp/manager-linux-x64.run   # graphical manager

macOS – open the .dmg file, drag XAMPP into Applications and run XAMPP manager-osx from /Applications/XAMPP. The web root on macOS is /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/htdocs.

The XAMPP Control Panel

The XAMPP Control Panel (C:\xampp\xampp-control.exe) is the heart of XAMPP on Windows. Each server is one row ("module"):

The buttons on the right of the window are:

The log area at the bottom of the window shows messages such as "Attempting to start Apache app…", "Status change detected: running" or errors such as "Port 80 in use by …".

Default ports

Starting Apache and MySQL

1. Open the XAMPP Control Panel.
2. Click Start next to Apache. After a moment the module name turns green and the PID and ports (80, 443) appear.
3. Click Start next to MySQL. It turns green with port 3306.
4. Click Admin next to Apache, or open a browser and type http://localhost/. You see the XAMPP dashboard ("Welcome to XAMPP for Windows 8.2.12").
5. Click Admin next to MySQL, or open http://localhost/phpmyadmin/, to open phpMyAdmin.

The XAMPP Folder Structure

On Linux the same folders are under /opt/lampp (for example /opt/lampp/htdocs, /opt/lampp/etc/php.ini, /opt/lampp/etc/httpd.conf).

Your First PHP Page

All programs in this book are stored in a folder phpbook inside htdocs, with one sub-folder per chapter. For this chapter create the folder C:\xampp\htdocs\phpbook\ch02.

1. Open your editor (VS Code, Notepad++ …).
2. Type the program below.
3. Save it as C:\xampp\htdocs\phpbook\ch02\hello.php – the extension must be .php (in Notepad choose Save as type: All Files).
4. Make sure Apache is running, then open http://localhost/phpbook/ch02/hello.php in the browser.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head><title>My first PHP page</title></head>
<body>
<h1>Hello from XAMPP!</h1>
<?php
echo "PHP is working. Today is " . date("l") . ".";
?>
</body>
</html>

Hello from XAMPP!
PHP is working. Today is Thursday.

Checking the PHP installation

The built-in function phpinfo() displays every detail of the PHP configuration: the version, the loaded php.ini, all extensions and their settings.

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

OUTPUT browser · http://localhost/phpbook/ch02/info.php

A shorter check that prints only the facts we need:

<?php
echo "PHP version : " . PHP_VERSION . "<br>";
echo "Server API  : " . php_sapi_name() . "<br>";
echo "mysqli      : " . (extension_loaded('mysqli') ? 'loaded' : 'NOT loaded') . "<br>";
echo "Upload limit: " . ini_get('upload_max_filesize') . "<br>";
echo "Timezone    : " . date_default_timezone_get();
?>

PHP version : 8.3.6
Server API : apache2handler
mysqli : loaded
Upload limit: 40M
Timezone : Asia/Kolkata

Checking the database server

The next program connects to MariaDB with the default XAMPP account – user root with an empty password – using the MySQLi extension (studied in Part IV).

<?php
$conn = mysqli_connect("localhost", "root", "");
if (!$conn) {
    die("Connection failed: " . mysqli_connect_error());
}
echo "Connected to the database server.<br>";
echo "Server version: " . mysqli_get_server_info($conn);
mysqli_close($conn);
?>

Connected to the database server.
Server version: 10.11.14-MariaDB-0ubuntu0.24.04.1

phpMyAdmin

phpMyAdmin is a free web application, written in PHP, for managing MySQL/MariaDB databases through the browser. Open it with http://localhost/phpmyadmin/. With it you can:

• Create and drop databases and tables (Databases and Structure tabs).
• Insert, browse, edit and delete rows (Insert and Browse tabs).
• Run any SQL statement (SQL tab).
• Import and export databases as .sql files (Import / Export tabs) – the easiest way to move a project to another computer or to a hosting server.
• Manage user accounts and privileges (User accounts tab).

Part IV of this book uses phpMyAdmin and the MariaDB monitor to create the databases used by the PHP/MySQLi programs.

Important php.ini Settings

Open Config → PHP (php.ini) in the Control Panel. After every change, Stop and Start Apache so that the new setting is loaded.

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
date.timezone=Asia/Kolkata

Important httpd.conf Settings

Listen 80
ServerName localhost:80
DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs"
<Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>
DirectoryIndex index.php index.pl index.cgi index.asp index.shtml index.html index.htm

• Listen – the port Apache listens on.
• DocumentRoot – the folder that is served as http://localhost/.
• AllowOverride All – allows .htaccess files (Chapter 22) to change settings per folder.
• DirectoryIndex – the file shown when only a folder is requested (index.php first).

Changing Apache's port (port 80 busy)

If another program (Skype, IIS – World Wide Web Publishing Service, VMware, a VPN client …) already uses port 80 or 443, Apache cannot start and the log shows "Port 80 in use by …". Either stop that program or move Apache to another port:

1. Control Panel → Apache Config → httpd.conf: change Listen 80 to Listen 8080 and ServerName localhost:80 to ServerName localhost:8080.
2. If 443 is busy: Config → httpd-ssl.conf: change Listen 443 to Listen 4433 and <VirtualHost _default_:443> to <VirtualHost _default_:4433>.
3. Control Panel Config → Service and Port Settings → Apache: set the main port 8080 and SSL port 4433.
4. Start Apache and open http://localhost:8080/.

Changing the MySQL port (port 3306 busy)

If another MySQL server is installed, port 3306 may be in use. In MySQL → Config → my.ini change port=3306 (in both the [client] and [mysqld] sections) to port=3307. In PHP you then connect with mysqli_connect("localhost", "root", "", "db", 3307).

Setting a Password for the MySQL root User

By default the MariaDB user root has no password. To set one:

1. In phpMyAdmin open User accounts, click Edit privileges for root / localhost, then Change password; enter the new password and click Go.
2. phpMyAdmin will now show "Access denied". Open C:\xampp\phpMyAdmin\config.inc.php and set the same password:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'config';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user']      = 'root';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password']  = 'your_new_password';

1. Use the same password in your PHP programs: mysqli_connect("localhost", "root", "your_new_password").

Virtual Hosts

A virtual host lets you open a project with its own name, such as http://phpbook.test/, instead of http://localhost/phpbook/.

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName localhost
    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs"
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName phpbook.test
    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/phpbook"
</VirtualHost>

Then add the name to the Windows hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts, edited as administrator) and restart Apache:

127.0.0.1   phpbook.test

Using the XAMPP Shell

Click Shell in the Control Panel. The window opens in C:\xampp with the php and mysql programs on the path:

# php -v                       → shows the PHP version
# php -r "echo 5+7;"           → runs one line of PHP
# mysql -u root                → opens the MariaDB monitor
MariaDB [(none)]> SHOW DATABASES;
MariaDB [(none)]> exit

Running Apache and MySQL as Windows Services

Start the Control Panel as administrator and click the red ✗ in the Service column next to Apache and MySQL. It turns into a green ✓ – the servers are now installed as Windows services and start automatically every time Windows starts. Click the ✓ again to remove the service. In Config → Autostart of modules you can instead make the Control Panel start chosen modules whenever it opens.

Common Problems and Solutions

Backing Up and Uninstalling

• Back up a project: copy its folder from htdocs and export its database from phpMyAdmin (Export → SQL).
• Uninstall: stop all modules, remove services, then run C:\xampp\uninstall.exe. Before uninstalling, save your htdocs folders and export your databases – the mysql\data folder is deleted.