Configuring PHP Development Environment in Solaris Express Development Edition

Contents

• Required Software
• Initialization of the Web Stack Components

Required Software

To create, run, and debug your PHP projects you need the following software:

• The NetBeans IDE for PHP. Downloads are available here.
• A web server. Typically development and debugging is performed on a local web server, while the production environment is located on a remote web server. The current version enables using a local server. Using a remote server with FTP access will be supported in future versions. PHP support can be added to a number of web servers (IIS, Xitami, and so on), but most commonly Apache HTTP Server is used. Click here for information on how to install and configure Apache 2.2.

• The PHP engine. The supported version is PHP5. Downloads are available here.
• The PHP debugger. The NetBeans IDE for PHP allows you to use XDebug, but using a debugger is optional. The recommended version is XDebug 2.0 as it is compatible with PHP5.
• A database server. You can use various database servers while one of the most popular ones is the MySQL server. Downloads are available here.
  Note: The recommended version of the product is MySQL Server 5.0. The provided documents describe the work with this version.

With the Solaris Express Development Edition (Sun SXDE) 1/08 all the necessary software - the PHP engine, the Apache HTTP server, and the MySQL database server- are already included in the distribution as a Web Stack. You only need to initialize them.

SXDE downloads are available here.

Initialization of the Web Stack Components

To initialize the Web Stack software components:

1. Choose Start > All Applications > Developers Tools > Web Stack Admin > Initialize.
   
   The following Terminal appears:
   
2. Press Enter upon a prompt. A context menu for Web Stack Admin appears. To configure a component, choose Options. To start/stop the Apache/MySQL server, choose the relevant menu item.
   
3. The A.M.P. Web App Development panel appears. Manage the settings for the Apache server, PHP5 engine, and MySQL database server.
   

Learn more about the AMP Solaris package here .

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