Complete Newbie needs help

[blackjenny]

Ok, I have done alot of research and I still can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I hope someone can help me. My problem is I can't get it to even work. I'm reading the Sams learn PHP in 24hours so everything I know is from there or the PHP website.

I downloaded PHP5.1.2. I got the installer and ran it. The book said that I needed a webserver or something. So I got the Microsoft Personal Webserver off my Window's 98 cd. So with those I thought I should be able to run PHP scripts. In the PWS I went to my "home page" and I opened my php script. I saw nothing.....blank. I put my php script in a html page and the screen was stll blank. I couldn't get it to work so I decided to download Apache. I downloaded the Installer File and the HTTP server file. I wasn't sure if these were the right ones and something was obviously wrong because I couldn't open them and they wouldn't work.

So what do I need to get php to work so that I can run php scripts in my browser?

[BOB101]

Did you change your extension form .html to .php. If you didn't it won't work.

[NogDog]

Easiest way I know of to get it working on Windows:

1. Download and install XAMPP: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html (you may want to uninstall the PHP and Apache versions you installed, first).

2. Once XAMPP is installed (it automatically installs PHP, Apache, and MySQL for you), find the "htdocs" directory under the XAMPP home directory. You want to put your pages in that directory or in any sub-directories you create beneath it.

3. To view a file, point your browser to http://localhost/file.php (or http://localhost/subdirectory/file.php).

[LiLcRaZyFuZzY]

http://localhost/ would link to letter:/programs/xampp/htdoc/

later on, you might probably want to install PHP, apache and MySQL alone (without XAMPP), get back to us then!