WAMP

Draft

Definition

The acronym WAMP (or Q.A.M.P.) refers to a set of free software programs commonly used together to run dynamic Web sites or servers:

• Windows, the operating system;
• Apache, the Web server;
• MySQL, the database management system
• The PHP (and sometimes the Perl or Python) programming languages.

See LAMP, the original Linux-based solution

WAMP/MAMP products - Windows and Mac

For the Windows world there exist several complete packages that come with installers and a launch/stop/configure tool. Some also work for Linux, but I'd rather not use them on a real server.

• Also check out Wikipedia's Comparison of WAMPs.

WAMP5 / WAMPServer

• WampServer
• Also available on SourceForge (try this if the other is down)
• Supports PHP 5x and MySQL 5x (16:16, 4 December 2006 (MET)).
• This may be the best bet currently, but DSchneider didn't do any serious comparative testing, but it's the only one I was mostly happy with.
• Only thing missing were some mysql excutables that some programs or yourself may need for command line operations (e.g. LAMS installer needs this).

EasyPHP

• Easy PHP.
• Used to be the most popular PHP 4.x package
• Daniel K. Schneider did not test the 2.0beta version yet (mai 2007).

How to upgrade EasyPHP if you really need to

I once managed to upgrade PHP4.x to PHP5.x in Easyphp 1.8 (in nov 2006)

• Empty the ./php directory and get PHP from PHP
• Edit php.ini and explicitly load php_mysql (for the php 4 this was not necessary)

extensions_dir = "./ext"
extensions = php_mysql.dll

XAMPP

• XAMPP
• Also works fine, but this is more intrusive.

MAMP

• MAMP for your MacIntosh
• MAMP stands for: Macintosh, Apache, Mysql and PHP and can be used as light-weight developper's alternative to the built-in servers.

WAMP for Windows running from a memory stick

WAMP servers that run off a memory stick, your camera or any device that can act as a windows drive. Usually these distributions have less functionality, but take up less space and need no installation at all.

The Uniform server

• Apache Httpd Server, PHP, Perl, and MySQL
• Version 3.3. release in late 2005 includes: Apache 2.0.55, MySQL 5.1.17, PHP & Extensions 5.1.1, PHPMyAdmin 2.6.4-pl4 and more. So it's a bit behind products like WOS. Make sure to check requirements of portals you want to run.
• Plugins exist, e.g. for a Tomcat server, an FTP server etc.!
• The Uniform Server Homepage homepage, downloads,
• The Uniform Server documentation
• There are some distros that include popular packages.
• Uniform HELP center, e.g. see UniServer Known Problems if you need to change the virtual drive Uniform runs on etc.

WOS

• Webserver On Stick and makes it possible, to run a webserver based on Apache, MySQL and PHP from an USB Stick or any other writable media (harddrive, flash cards etc.) without installation under Windows. 2 versions are free:
• WOS is a WAMP + a number of packages that you can optionally include in the download. You will get one zip package of variable size
• WOS X, extends WOS with management tools (not tested)
• WOS Portable (download)

Test of WOS Portable II (6 May 2007)

• Daniel K. Schneider tried WOS + Apache2_SE, PHP5_SE, MySQL5_SE, MediaWiki, Moodle, PHPMyAdmin, Wordpress. Total download size was 18MB. Once installed the whole package was about 200MB.
• Make sure not to forget to include one (just one) version of Apache, PHP, MySQL and PHPMyAdmin.
• I dezipped the package into a "wos" directory on a memory stick.
• Clicking on f:/wos/wos.exe starts installing all the packages (make sure not interrupt when the WOS install screen is empty after installation of a single component ... it will go on) Memory sticks are very slow in writing thousands of files and the whole the procedure may take much more than an hour!! Install will only be complete when you see a new small administration panel "WOS Portable II - Status.
• Once complete, it will launch the start page and remind you that for all applications installed (e.g. Moodle) login is always: admin and password is password.
• Results: Apache/PHP/MySQL/Moodle/Wordpress installed fine. Install of Mediawiki & PhpMyAdmin failed the first time (maybe a write error ?). After relaunch of wos.exe (and an additional 30 minutes) they were installed and ran fine.
• Note: The Website was a bit confusing on 13:36, 6 May 2007 (MEST) (not clear how to get to the downloads, I found it through Useware-->WOS Portable). Also installation can go badly wrong, if you forget a component (e.g. php or mysql). Totally delete the install dir, kill hanging processes or reboot Windows, download again a good combination and reinstall. With my succesful install I did have a 7z.exe (decompression) error, but ignored it, but then had to install one of the applications again (faulty memory stick ?)
• Conclusion: Do not install this directly on a memory stick. Dezip and install on a harddisk, then transfer. I tried again and again had write errors (with a different memory stick).

Distributions of ready-to-run portals

There exist some distributions for packages like Drupal, Joomla etc. and that you can run usually directly from a memory stick or any other drive.

• E.g. * JSAS Joomla! StandAlone Server.
• Otherwise, packages like WOS do include preconfigured servers

Running a mediawiki on your travel PC

To run Mediawiki 1.7 (and better) you need to have PHP 5.0 installed !

From [1]:

If you want to clone a Mediawiki from your "real" server

Export your database on the server and transfer the file to your PC (e.g. to c:\tmp\wikimedia.sql):

mysqldump -p base_de_donnees > fichier.sql

Example:

mysqldump -p wikimedia > /tmp/wikimedia.sql

Import the database in your PC

Firstly create a database on you PC-based MysQL server

I suggest to use the command line to do the import, because file upload is limited in a typical PHP installation (else reconfigure the parameters in the php.ini file).

In EasyPHP 1.8 the mysql.exe program is here:

\program files\Easyphp-XX\mysql\bin\mysql.exe

In WAMP 5, the file is here:

c:\wamp\mysql\bin\mysql.exe

Open a terminal (DOS window, command prompt, or whatever it is called) and use this construct:

mysql.exe base_de_donnees -u root -p < path_to_sql_dump.sql

Example:

mysql.exe wikidb -u root -p < c:\tmp\wikimedia.sql 

Then wait for a long moment ...

Copy the MediaWiki server

• I suggest to zip the files on the serveur and then dezip exactly in the same place

Then, adapt the LocalSettings.php file

• • Change the DataBase user and password (on the PC I simply use the root)
  • You may have to ajust other things too, if you use short URLs on your production server, you may want to fix the Apache configuration on your PC too.

See ManageMediaWiki, my somewhat disorganized English/French installation MediaWiki management notes.

PHP/MySQL generators

These are tips to beginners with almost no php/mySQL skills.

Coding Php/MySQL/HTML requires expertise and in most cases it's not a good idea to try learning enough php just to build a simple data-base with a single table. In addition since nowadays all PHP web sites are under heavy attack by intrusion scripts there are security issues. Do never install any PHP application (e.g. a portalware that is older than 6 month and check the forums first. Make sure that there is a large user base.

If you need your own little database application:

• Firstly, try to see if you can't get the job done with a "web 2.0" database such as Zoho creator (See list of web 2.0 applications)

• If you must create your own application, then try php/mysql generators. They can generate full code for simpler applications.

Here is a list (no endorsements so far):

AppGini

• AppGini.
• This is a Windows program. It creates php,mysql,html. Simple functional version (without project files saving) is working.

PHP DataGrid

• PHP DataGrid.

These are server-side scripts that need moderate installation skills. Therefore needs php/mysql installed.

PHP Generator fo MySQL

• PHP Generator for MySQL.
• This is a windows program.

Works fine but with two caveats:

• PHP code generated looks like this: <? .... ?> instead of the correct <?php .... ?> .
• There are font problems, i.e. some buttons in the margins only show partly.

Web Form Generator

• Web Form Generator

(also Php Database Wizard). This is a Java application with a *.jar installer to create a edit/modify/view form for a table. Registration required.

• Installation:
  • Unzip first. If clicking on the *.jar fails, open a command window, go to the directory and type:

   java -jar install.exe

• • However you still will be in trouble, e.g. you will have to start manually the application with the provided *.bat file in the applications directory. So rather just fix you Windows installation and associate *.jar files with Java.

If java is not found, then you need to download java from http://java.com/ and install it. It's useful to have in any case, since many educational applications are written in Java.

• Use, see the help. This application will generate several files. If you work with a local WAMP, just tell it the web directory where to put these (click on the tools icon).

DKS's option. A sleek application that works without any problems. Only caveat is that you likely have to add some code to protect your database. Easiest solution would be to use the servers .htaccess mechanism.

PHP Data Grid

PHP Builder. DataGrid class for programmers ?