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Hail WebMasters under the LAMP light…

Ok, now if you don’t get the first headline, you’re probably reading the wrong BLOG. But just in case you’re wanting to come up to speed… the LAMP stack is the combination of Linux for an Operating System, Apache for a Web Server, MySQL for a DataBase, and PHP — a programming language used to create web applications and drive the DataBase. LAMP. And, they’re all Open Source — which usually means freely distributed — we are all greatly blessed by the Open Source community and the spirit of, well, openess.

Why do we care about LAMP? Well when you start counting all the hosting set-ups that rely on it, plus the treasure trove of excellent programs that run well on it — the likes of WordPress, JOOMLA, Druple, Moodle, and others — well you get the idea. Have you checked out HotScripts recently? Guess where the most heat is — PHP scripts. And you can take a look at Tiobe Software Index and find PHP currently (Oct. 07) is the 5th most popular software for programming, behind C, and Visual Basic, but ahead of JavaScript, Perl, and Python. It’s also ahead of Ruby, but Ruby looks like it has some legs on it lately.

Above, the top leaders in the Tiobe Software Index with PHP in position 5 this year. I’m discussing PHP here, and remain convinced of its position of importance for Open Source WebMasters, but you might like to take a good look at Visual Basic, and Ruby too.

To progress in your WebMaster skills, you’ve got to consider the source. So today, we’ll learn how you can install PHP (along with Apache and MySQL) on your own computer so you can begin learning about it… or if you already know it a bit — take your skills to the next level.

Get AMPed…

Just when you felt comfortable with the LAMP acronym — here are two more: WAMP, and MAMP. Huh? Well, the W stands for WINDOWS, and the M? You guessed it — Macintosh. These are two versions of the open source platform programs packaged to work on your local machine. This means, among other things, that you can play on your own computer, under the LAMP light, with the major programs that form the foundation of the open source movement, and which any Open Source WebMaster needs to know. So, depending on what system you’re on, click on one of those links and start your download.

Calling the DOCs…

Now, to start working with your new AMP set-up, first let’s call in the DOCs… documentation, that is:

• Apache Documentation
• MySQL Documentation
• PHP Documention
• PHP MyAdmin Documentation

There you go. You’ve downloaded the major open source software package. You have a link to the documentation and user manuals. Now what? I think your “homework” for now will be simply to get the software up and running on your machine (pay careful attention to installation instructions at those download sites), and to familiarize yourself with the four sets of documentation listed above. Hey… you never really leave college, you know.

In this column we’ll use this software to poke around and learn about how it all works. I’m going to set the posts about LAMP as a “series” here, with this as the first in the series, so you’ll always have a reference to these foundation programs and documentation.

Have some Coffee and get set for AMPtitude…

Ok… stay tuned for ways to use your new software to:

• Learn PHP
• Understand APACHE
• Download and wrestle with popular CMS programs like WordPress
• Oh… and did you realize that you now have the equivalent of a working web hosting server on your computer? Caution — the MAMP people do not recommend it as a working internet server because it uses a stand alone version of Apache, not the built in Apache that comes with Mac OS X. Think of this set-up as a PHP development environment. While it is possible to set-up your own web server on a Mac or PC, in this Blog Column I will be discussing PHP development concepts — not setting up a web server on your home machine.

Which leads me to one last closing IMPORTANT note: In order to test PHP pages, and HTML pages on your new AMP server set-up, you will have to save them to the correct directory. On a Mac (D’oh, now you know I’m a MAMP, not a WAMP), that would be in “htdocs folder” which is inside the MAMP diretory at the top level of your Applications folder — if you’ve installed it correctly. Your pages and scripts won’t run properly if you don’t. See why that was important? WAMPS will have to pay attention to specific instructions for the Windows platform.

Have fun… see you next time, and also in the comment discusions here. Oh, and would someone please tell the PHP, MySQL, and Apache folks that RSS at their websites would be an excellent way to keep us all informed… COME ON… the LAMP is on, but it’s not syndicated — what’s up with that?