WAMP vs. XAMPP

@Howard_KaikowJun 24.2009

As one new to PHP, I’d like to install a PHP sandbox on my Windows system.

Today, I learned of WAMP and XAMPP.

What are the advantages/disadvantages of each?
Alternatives?

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14 Comments(s) _↴

@NogDogJun 24.2009 — #I prefer WAMP due to its user interface.

@svidgenJun 24.2009 — #Have you taken a look at this table? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_WAMPs

@Howard_KaikowauthorJun 24.2009 — #Have you taken a look at this table? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_WAMPs[/QUOTE]

Did not know about that.

I will.

One of my concerns is that XAMPP for Windows includes

Apache, MySQL, PHP + PEAR, Perl, mod_php, mod_perl, mod_ssl, OpenSSL, phpMyAdmin, Webalizer, Mercury Mail Transport System for Win32 and NetWare Systems v3.32, Ming, JpGraph, FileZilla FTP Server, mcrypt, eAccelerator, SQLite, and WEB-DAV + mod_auth_mysql. [/QUOTE]

And WAMP Server includes:

- Apache 2.2.11

- MySQL 5.1.33

- PHP 5.2.9-2
[/QUOTE]

Seems that XAMPP has a bit too much,

Another concern is disk space.

How much has to be on the OS drive?

How much can be on other drives?

Maybe this is covered by docs on the XAMPP and WAMP web sites?

@NogDogJun 24.2009 — #WAMP also includes phpMyAdmin and support for SQLite and OpenSSL. The mod_php is simply the Apache module for running PHP scripts, and is also part of WAMP. Of the other things you listed for XAMPP, the only ones that stand out to me are Perl support and the Mercury Mailer stuff, as well as Filezilla FTP server. Unless you know that you have a need for those, I wouldn't sweat it, particularly since you can download and install any of them separately if and when you need them. (For that matter you can download and install everything these packages give you; they just make your life a lot simpler.)

As far as disk space, my WAMP directory currently contains about 140MB, and that includes some MySQL data files (pretty small right now) and a couple project directories (again, relatively small at the moment).

@Howard_KaikowauthorJun 24.2009 — #WAMP also includes phpMyAdmin and support for SQLite and OpenSSL. The mod_php is simply the Apache module for running PHP scripts, and is also part of WAMP. Of the other things you listed for XAMPP, the only ones that stand out to me are Perl support and the Mercury Mailer stuff, as well as Filezilla FTP server. Unless you know that you have a need for those, I wouldn't sweat it, particularly since you can download and install any of them separately if and when you need them. (For that matter you can download and install everything these packages give you; they just make your life a lot simpler.)

As far as disk space, my WAMP directory currently contains about 140MB, and that includes some MySQL data files (pretty small right now) and a couple project directories (again, relatively small at the moment).[/QUOTE]

I would prefer WAMP merely because it does not include the extra stuff.

Why would I want, e.g.,

NetWare Systems v3.32, Ming, JpGraph, FileZilla FTP Server, mcrypt, eAccelerator, SQLite, and WEB-DAV + mod_auth_mysql.

I do not want anything that is not REQUIRED to use PHP.

@NogDogJun 24.2009 — #Many of the special-purpose functions available with PHP require that certain extensions be installed, many of those requiring 3rd party libraries. At the one extreme, all you need to use PHP is PHP. Apache is only needed if you want to run your PHP scripts as web pages (and you could use Windows IIS instead if you prefer). MySQL is only needed if you want to use that particular DBMS (you could use SQLite instead, PostgreSQL, etc. -- or no DMBS, that's your implementation decision to make). mcrypt is not needed unless you want to use the PHP mcrypt functions; the same with OpenSSL, etc., etc., and so forth.

@Howard_KaikowauthorJun 25.2009 — #Many of the special-purpose functions available with PHP require that certain extensions be installed, many of those requiring 3rd party libraries. At the one extreme, all you need to use PHP is PHP. Apache is only needed if you want to run your PHP scripts as web pages (and you could use Windows IIS instead if you prefer). MySQL is only needed if you want to use that particular DBMS (you could use SQLite instead, PostgreSQL, etc. -- or no DMBS, that's your implementation decision to make). mcrypt is not needed unless you want to use the PHP mcrypt functions; the same with OpenSSL, etc., etc., and so forth.[/QUOTE]

As I know nothing about PHP, I'll to wait to read the books I just got to see what I need.

Initially, I have two tasks:

1. To have a hit counter.

For this I will either need to write files, or use whatever database my web host allows. I do not yet know what database software can be used at my current web host.

2. To not allow certain files to be downloaded from myweb site witout the user first clicking a button, or checking a box, to indicate that they agree to, sa, "terms of use". I realize that this could be done with Javasript, but I've been led to believe that PHP would be more secure because I may be able to prevent access to the file if the user does not agree. In this case, perhaps, I would have to encrypt the URL.

@MindzaiJun 25.2009 — #I realize that this could be done with Javasript...[/QUOTE]

You won't be able to do it with javascript. JS is client side so all of the source code is available to the user. Besides this, javascript has no access to the filesystem so even if you ran it as server side js you couldn't control files with it. PHP is definitely the way to go with this.

@Howard_KaikowauthorJun 25.2009 — #You won't be able to do it with javascript. JS is client side so all of the source code is available to the user. Besides this, javascript has no access to the filesystem so even if you ran it as server side js you couldn't control files with it. PHP is definitely the way to go with this.[/QUOTE]

Thanx.

I just called my old ISP, who still hosts my web site.

They do not yet have MySQL, but are going to be putting it up someday.

I expect when they upgrade to PHP 5.2.9.

So, in the short run, I'll have to use files for the counter.

@NogDogJun 25.2009 — #You could also use [url=http://php.net/sqlite]SQLite[/url], which is an "embedded" database server (doesn't require that any separate DBMS application be installed on the host). It does, however, require that the PHP installation includes support for the SQLite extension.

@Howard_KaikowauthorJun 25.2009 — #You could also use [url=http://php.net/sqlite]SQLite[/url], which is an "embedded" database server (doesn't require that any separate DBMS application be installed on the host). It does, however, require that the PHP installation includes support for the SQLite extension.[/QUOTE]

Thanx.

One of the books I have states that SQLite is an iterface for flat files.

@MindzaiJun 25.2009 — #For something as simple as a hit counter I'd just stick with a plain flat file.

@Howard_KaikowauthorJun 25.2009 — #For something as simple as a hit counter I'd just stick with a plain flat file.[/QUOTE]

Initially, I will.

@Howard_KaikowauthorJul 06.2009 — #I tried installing WAMPServer a few hours ago.

During the install, I confirmed that Firefox should be the default browser, yet AFTER the install, Firefox was no longer the default browser,

According to the instructions, I should have been able to right/left click on the WampServer icon and do various things The only thing I could do was set the language,

So, I re-installed and allowed WAMPServer to automatically start, but nothing appeared.

I gave up and uninstalled wampserver.

I then went to the XAMPP web site.

Seems like better documentation, but I need to read carefully due to the warnings about security.

I downloaded 3 versions, 2 of XAMPP and 1 of XAMPP Lite.

The installer version for Windows XAMPP.

The .zip version for Windows XAMPP.

And the .zip version for XAMPP Lite for Windows.

Seems to me that XAMPP Lite is most appropriate for my learning PHP.

Does not seem to be an installer version for XAMPP Lite.

I an hoping that the instructions for installing the .zip for full XAMPP will apply to XAMPP Lite.

I registered for the Apache Friends forum, but seem to be having trouble getting the activation mesage

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