Trouble configuring PHP

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Audioicon
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Trouble configuring PHP

Post by Audioicon »

Hello everyone, I once bought a Hard Disk Recorded, unfortunately that manual that came with the machine was printed in Japanese, I could not understand a single thing.

I'm trying to configure PHP for Apache. Eg: I tried to use Notepad to edit the php.ini file the books I'm referencing are not showing where the exact area is that I need to change the input in the PHP.INI file.

The instructions will say, go to line thirty one(31) and remove the semicolon but note pad does not show numbers.
I tried to use Dreamweaver CS3 because it has line numbering but the line numbering in Dreamweaver CS3 does not match any instructions I have seen.

Is there some kind of a special editor used to edit the PHP.INI file?
I have tried searching the internet and this forum for detail instruction on how to configure PHP to work with Apache in Windows Vista but cannot find one.

I hate to say this but I'm almost ready to jump to on the XAMPP wagon, I hate cutting corners and would rather do it the hard way but I can barely pass beyond the configuration progress.

Any ideas - please help.

Thanks, Patrick
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Christopher
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Re: Trouble configuring PHP

Post by Christopher »

Any instructions that say to go to "line 31" in a configuration file are pretty worthless. The author does not understand the essence of configuration files.

What setting do you want to set? My recollection of php.ini is that about the only thing you need to set to get it to work is "extension_dir". Then turn on the extensions you want by uncommenting them.
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Audioicon
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Re: Trouble configuring PHP

Post by Audioicon »

arborint wrote:Any instructions that say to go to "line 31" in a configuration file are pretty worthless. The author does not understand the essence of configuration files.

What setting do you want to set? My recollection of php.ini is that about the only thing you need to set to get it to work is "extension_dir". Then turn on the extensions you want by uncommenting them.

Basically I was trying to configure PHP to work with Apache. I used the PHP ZIP File instead of the installer, as I mentioned, I love learning from the core no matter how difficult so I can understand better for the future.

Anyway, thanks for your effort and response, I manage to follow a video I found that walk me through the process. It was a bit easy because the video used search terms in NotePad's "Find" function and I was able to find specific areas of the file to edit/configure without scrolling through each line looking for a specific area.

I know it's easy when you are used to it but I have never done this stuff before, I'm basically trying to set up a local server to test the PHP pages I'll be building or practicing with.

So all looks good, when I type http://localhost/index.php of http://localhost/phpinfo.php it take me to the php info page which tells me it's working by going to an info page.

Is there anything else I should be looking for?

Thanks again - Patrick
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Christopher
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Re: Trouble configuring PHP

Post by Christopher »

Audioicon wrote:Is there anything else I should be looking for?
include_path is fairly important. It is usually set to '.' meaning the current directory. If you want to install libraries in a central location then add that directory to the include path. error_reporting is also something you might want to set to show all errors/warnings/notices if you are using it as a development system. An any extensions you want need to be specified as well.
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Audioicon
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Re: Trouble configuring PHP

Post by Audioicon »

arborint wrote:
Audioicon wrote:Is there anything else I should be looking for?
include_path is fairly important. It is usually set to '.' meaning the current directory. If you want to install libraries in a central location then add that directory to the include path. error_reporting is also something you might want to set to show all errors/warnings/notices if you are using it as a development system. An any extensions you want need to be specified as well.
Yep I set the error reporting to on and the directory. I'm going to have dinner with some PHP scripts this evening, leanring the actual language. It's all Experimental. Patrick
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