Posts filed under "wordpress"
Well I’ve finally sorted out the server part, and it is pretty easy really. Once you’ve got XAMPP installed, you’re down to two buttons one to start Apache, Mysql and php while the other is to terminate the actions. Once you’re running the actual server online, then you can start playing around. The files should go within the XAMPP folder in your root directory, ie C/apachefriends/xampp/htdocs/…. whatever you want after that is fail game really. This all really does come into it’s own when you install wordpress as you would install it normally on your actual ftp server, and you can see you tweaks and what not straight away,…which is nice. Configuring and Using the Apache HTTP Web Server on a Windows XP PC
Well this does article does seem to go into a bit of detail in terms of how to configure everything, but it pretty simple to follow, which should help us understand what we’re doing with XAMPP.
http://www.brokenkode.com/configuring-and-using-the-apache-http-web-server-on-a-windows-xp-pc
As detailed in my previous post about this specific topic I’m learning php. What this has done is opened my eyes to what the web can be. So I’m going to document what I do on my journey to learn php, primarily to sort out my blog. I know it seems like such an ardous task to have a simple blog. The problem here is I’m not one for having anything simple. I like a challenge and to be honest this is one hell of a challenge. A great deal of the work has been done for me to be honest, all I have to do is learn how to actually work through everything. I’m going to be writing these posts as if it’s a tutorial. I will be updating it and tweaking it as time goes by till I get the absolute perfect blog, at least in my eyes alone. The added bonus is that I can then add something else to the list of things I know how to deal with, and in addition, any new aspects that Wordpress brings out, I’ll be able to deal with, since I feel I’ll be doing this blog thing for a while, I’m pretty lucky to have gotten out of the MT mold pretty sharpish and found something that much more powerful.
Right so what do we know about php? 1. Well it’s a pretty powerful little language. 2. It resides and does stuff on the server side for a website, and is where all the dynamic content happens as it were. 3. You embed it into html tags, so it’s html embedded. 4. It’s an open source language that’s freely available from this website here, php.net.
Now why should we care for Wordpress? Well as far as I can tell, it’s possible to actually set up a server on your local machine, regardless of what your actual machine is or what platform you’re using.
Well you’ve got php but all the other gumph that makes up your server also needs to be downloaded. The good thing is that you can download an installer that does all the setup for you and then you can go ahead and customise it to your hearts content. There are a great many installers out there. Personnaly I’ve gone for XAMPP, you can find it right here, XAMPP
After running the exe for this fantastic bit of software, you go to your route directory and you can actually run the server by clicking on the exe from there, remember not to close it but use the stop xampp button for that action.
Right so far so good, to help you along you can even download the documentation for php as well, it’s all there and you can even download it as a windows help file of sort which is very sweet I thought, get it from here, download docs .
And bang you’re now running a server on you machine. So how does this help me exactly with my Wordpress customisation exactly? Well now you can set up your site on your machine and see if things are working without actually upsetting your installation on your site. You check everything, tweak, whatever and then just upload those files, no fuss, knowing full well everything works exactly the way you want it.
http://www.brokenkode.com/setting-up-a-server-on-your-machine
Well I decided nearly 2 weeks ago to move away from moveable type. Now while this was something of a drastic move, I knew that sooner or later I would have to do this, since no development was happening past 2.64a that didn’t cost an extortionate amount. So having scoped out all the alternatives as explained in this post here I now needed to learn how to use Wordpress tags, and php. Playing just a bit with it all I’ve learnt a great deal in a very small amount of time. So what I’m writing now my journey through the world of php and wordpress. The idea is to get a resource for all newbies like myself that have to wade through hundreds of post trying to know where to start. I’ll be able to make ‘in hindsight’ type comments and hopefully new people to Wordpress will have a point of reference.
So a new category is created, and a new learning resource is about to be built one brick at a time. Hopefully I’ll have a semblance of mastering php by the end of this ordeal that could very well take 3 months, but then again I’m not really in that much of a hurry.
Just collecting links here and there that I think will help me implement the features I want in this site. It will take a while to get to grips with php, it will take a while to get to grips with Wordpress, but eventually I think it will be something I can be proud of.
Wordpress Hacks: WordPress Wiki - my-hacks.php
Getting started with php: Getting Started with PHP
An introduction to php: An Introduction to PHP