PHP with IIS be sufficient for very first dynamic site?

[Nileke]

I'm studying the "Training from the Source" book on Dreamweaver MX 2004 with ASP, Coldfusion and PHP written by Jeffrey Bardzell.
Lesson 4 is (amongst other) about choosing a server model. I have IIS installed with my Windows XP. And I have PHP installed using the PHP Windows Installer. Will this do for continuing with the book?
I find it rather daunting to try Apache and the PHP binary files.

Marianne

[Newsgroup_User]

Nileke wrote:
> I'm studying the "Training from the Source" book on Dreamweaver MX 2004 with
> ASP, Coldfusion and PHP written by Jeffrey Bardzell.
> Lesson 4 is (amongst other) about choosing a server model. I have IIS
> installed with my Windows XP. And I have PHP installed using the PHP Windows
> Installer. Will this do for continuing with the book?

You can certainly use PHP with IIS, but the PHP Windows Installer is
next to useless. It doesn't contain support for MySQL.

--
David Powers
Author, "Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8" (friends of ED)
Author, "Foundation PHP 5 for Flash" (friends of ED)
http://foundationphp.com/

[Nileke]

Thanks for responding. Meanwhile I installed Apache and with the instructions in the book the PHP Windows binary file.
I followed the PHP instructions to the letter, but to no avail. I get a syntax error message in Apache, that the module cannot be found. So I posted a message for help on a dutch PHP forum.

[Newsgroup_User]

Nileke wrote:
> Thanks for responding. Meanwhile I installed Apache and with the instructions
> in the book the PHP Windows binary file.
> I followed the PHP instructions to the letter, but to no avail. I get a syntax
> error message in Apache, that the module cannot be found.

If you followed the instructions to the letter, they must be either out
of date or badly written. Pity you didn't buy my book instead.

Which module does Apache say it can't find?

--
David Powers
Author, "Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8" (friends of ED)
Author, "Foundation PHP 5 for Flash" (friends of ED)
http://foundationphp.com/

[Nileke]

Syntax error in line 159.cannot load c:/php-5.1.2-Win32/sapi/php5apache2.dll into server.

According to my book I had to add the following line in the file httpd.conf:
LoadModule php5_module c:/php-5.1.2-Win32/sapi/php5apache2.dll

Previous to adding the LoadModule sentence I had:
moved the php.ini-dist to c:\Windows and renamed it php.ini
put the php5ts.dll file in c:\windows\system32
extracted the PHP windows binary file to c:\php-5.1.2-Win32

Can the word 'sapi' be the problem?
I just removed it from the LoadModule sentence in httpd.conf. I changed it to:
LoadModule php5_module c:/php-5.1.2-Win32
Now I get no more error message in the Apache window and at the bottom of the Apache window it says:
Apache/2.0.55(Win32) PHP/5.1.2

[Newsgroup_User]

Nileke wrote:
> According to my book I had to add the following line in the file httpd.conf:
> LoadModule php5_module c:/php-5.1.2-Win32/sapi/php5apache2.dll

Assuming that your PHP folder is C:\php-5.1.2-Win32, the correct command is:

LoadModule php5_module c:/php-5.1.2-Win32/php5apache2.dll

> Previous to adding the LoadModule sentence I had:
> I moved the php.ini-dist to c:\Windows and renamed it php.ini.
> I put the php5ts.dll file in c:\windows\system32.

Ugh. The book is teaching you a way to install PHP that was abandoned
more than two years ago. Since you're doing it that way, you will need
to copy libmysql.dll from C:\php-5.1.2-Win32 to c:\windows\system32.

Check that extension_dir in php.ini is pointing to the correct folder.
In your case, it should be:

extension_dir = "C:\php-5.1.2-Win32\ext"

You also need to check the Windows extensions section in php.ini.
*Remove the semicolon* from the beginning of these two lines:

;extension=php_mbstring.dll
;extension=php_mysql.dll

Then add

extension=php_mysqli.dll

Save php.ini and restart Apache when you have made all the changes.

--
David Powers
Author, "Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8" (friends of ED)
Author, "Foundation PHP 5 for Flash" (friends of ED)
http://foundationphp.com/

[Nileke]

Under the caption Paths en Directories in php.ini I found extension_dir.
It says: extention_dir="./"
This is where I must type "C:\php-5.1.2-Win32\ext" after extension_dir=. Am I correct?