setup rant

[Callum]

Having finally got PHP, Apache and MySQL installed I am hugely relieved but why the ###### is it so damm hard to set up Apache and PHP? It took me ages to fail at setting it up. All I can say is thank god for Wampserver 2. (not sure if im allowed to mention names). How was your experiance setting it up?

[justsomeguy]

I've never installed Apache, but every time I've installed PHP on IIS I've followed the instructions in the manual to the letter, it takes me about 30-45 minutes, and it always works the first time. The manual might be a long read, but the information is there for a reason. Every PHP installation I've fixed for someone else was caused by them skipping a step in the install instructions because they didn't read them all the way through. I believe the saying goes "either take the time to do it right, or make the time to do it over".

[aspnetguy]

I haven't installed Apache and PHP for a long time but I don't recall it being too painful, I use WampServer too. When installing PHP on IIS I follow this guide and can have it installed in about 15 minutes. http://www.tjitjing.com/blog/2006/05/php5-...erver-2003.html

[JC5]

I never had to. My brother had already had it installed on this computer by the time I started learning it

[boen_robot]

The first time I had PHP installed on Apache was easy, because I was following a "third party" tutorial on the subject. Still, the point that was already made is to follow instructions to the letter. If you want a more weird setup, take the time to first learn what each of things does and what you can tweak on it.Like for example, once upon time when reading such tutorials, they suggested copying php5ts.dll and php.ini to "C:\WINDOWS" and copying php_mysql.dll to the main PHP dir... right now, if I read such tutorials I laugh at them, as this is a really messy setup that can easily be avoided.The next "evolutionary" step was to extract all of PHP in any folder (not just in "C:\PHP" as in tutorials) and use the configuration files there, rather than copying them to specific places. To do this, I had to read the PHP manual to realize what each of the things did and how PHP looks for configuration and extension files.Now, instead of keeping php.ini in the PHP folder, I place it in another folder, along with a php.conf file to configure Apache for PHP, and if I need to update PHP, I delete the files in PHP's folder, and extract the new PHP in that same folder. I don't even have to link Apache back to it - it would already be configured. If I need to update Apache, I just include the php.conf file, and PHP is up again.As far as IIS goes, I've installed it just once on IIS6, and it was easy since I had already done it in Apache and knew what IIS would need. But I still had to read the manual to do it, so the point remains - READ and follow the documentation.