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Xampp Server: All You Need To Know

Introduction to Xampp Server

Xampp stands for Cross-platform(X), Apache, Maria DB(formerly MySQL), PHP, and Perl. Xampp Server is a cross-platform, free, and open-source package. It is developed by Apache friends and allows to run the PHP programs on a local server. It is available in a 32-bit and a 64-bit package separately.

The main components of Xampp Server are:

·         Cross-platform(X):

It works across multiple types of platforms and/or operating environments like macOS, Linux, or Windows.

·         Apache:

Manages to cache, handles incoming requests and hands them over to the processor, handles buffering, looks at basic authorization access, takes care of input/output throttling. It is a bunch of PHP, phpMyAdmin, FTP, and MySQL.

·         Maria DB/MySQL:

Stores persistent data is stored by this across requests. Services of data storage, data retrieval, data arrangement, data manipulation, and data deletion are offered online through this. MySQL here acts as a database component. Database-enabled servers and websites can be accessed through this.

·         PHP:

PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor and is an open-source back-end scripting language. It is used for web development and acts as a medium between the database and the user interacting through the HTML forms. It supports various DBMS.

·         Perl:

Files needed to run server-side code written with Perl are present in the Perl folder. The persistent data is accessed by it. It is extremely flexible and robust. Perl 5 and Perl 6 are the two high-level dynamic programming languages that are combined to form Perl. It also helps in networking and finding solutions for system administration problems.

Some other components are:

·         Tomcat:

Apache Tomcat(in short ‘Tomcat’) provides Java technologies such as Java Servlet, Java WebSocket, Java Server Pages, and Java Expression Language. It gives a pure Java HTTP web server environment. The current version being used in Xampp is 7.0.42.

·         Mercury:

Here, Mercury means the Mercury Mail Transport System and acts as a local mail server. It supports SMTP, IMAP, and POP3. Its stable release is 4.80.

·         phpMyAdmin:

It is free, open-source, and helps in handling MySQL over the internet. It is written in PHP. One way to access phpMyAdmin is to install a hosting server as LAMP, WAMP, MAMP, or XAMPP. Another way is to get a web host that that has phpMyAdmin installed in it. It plays an important role in creating, maintaining, and performing various operations on a database.

·         FileZilla:

It is free software that helps in transferring files over the internet. As a part of Xampp Server, it transfers our project files to our domain. There is no graphical interface for FTP. FTP client provides it. Thus, running FileZilla allows us to use an FTP client that gets connected to the server.

·         htdocs

This is an important folder that appears in the Xampp folder installed by us. To execute the PHP files, they should be stored in this folder either directly or by creating sub-folders in it.

Installing Xampp in Windows

File formats supported by Xampp are .EXE, .ZIP, .7Z or .7zip.

Step 1:

We have to visit the website https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html and find the version of the Xampp server suitable for our system.

Step 2:

We need to download the required version with the required specifications. It may take a few minutes to get downloaded.

Step 3:

On clicking on the downloaded file, we get a set-up wizard. We have to click on ‘Next.’

Step 4:

Now we have to select the components to be installed. All of them will be selected by default. We can deselect some of them but it would be better if we install all of the functionalities. Then, we have to click on ‘Next.’

Step 5:

The destination folder has to be selected here. It can be the default C drive too. Again, we have to click on ‘Next.’

Step 6:

The installation will start with unpacking the files. This may take a few minutes.

Step 7:

Finally, we can decide whether to start the control panel immediately as the download gets completed or no. Then we have to click on ‘Finish.’

Step 8:

We will get an icon for the Xampp server. The shortcut has been pinned to the Start menu as shown here.

Step 9:

When we click on that icon, the Xampp control panel gets opened. The fundamental components/services required to start the Xampp server are Apache and MySQL. The corresponding Process IDs denoted by ‘PID(s)’ and ‘port numbers denoted by Port(s)’ are shown.

Handling The Services

The start button:

The start button is allocated for every service separately. It not just starts the service but also opens the respective ports. These port numbers can be changed manually.

The stop button:

Like the start button, every component is associated with a stop button. This button stops the service and closes the opened port for the corresponding service. It is recommended to stop the service to close the ports when not in use as unnecessarily opened ports may act as vulnerabilities in a system.

Use of Admin for Apache:

When we click on it, the admin page of Xampp for Windows gets opened whose link is http://localhost/xampp/. This page gets opened successfully if the Apache service has been installed appropriately.

Use of Config for Admin:

On clicking on it, we can access and make changes to the configuration files like php.ini and httpd.config files.

Use of Admin for MySQL:

Clicking on it opens the phpMyAdmin page in the browser 

Use of Config for MySQL:

MySQL database files can be accessed through this.

Functionalities in the Xampp control panel:


• Config

Xampp and individual components can be configured. Here we can set the default editor and browser, select the modules for autostart, change language, change service and port settings, enter user-defined files, and change the log options.

• Netstat

It shows all processes running currently in our system along with the TCP listening sockets.

• Shell

It opens the UNIX shell. It is not recommended to use it. It creates a batch file to modify the functions of the Xampp control panel.

• Explorer

It opens the Xampp folder in Windows Explorer.

• Services

Shows all the services currently running in the background thus helping us to check their statuses.

• Help

It helps us by providing links to the Xampp forums.

• Quit

It closes the Xampp control panel. However, the started services don’t stop by just closing the control panel. They have to be stopped explicitly by clicking on the stop button provided beside every component.

Conclusion:

Xampp acts as a local host or a local server before we actually launch our projects to the main site. It can be used across various environments, is free of cost, and is easy to use. Thus, it is chosen widely by many developers. Xampp 5.6.3 is the stable version while the latest version is 7.4.4-0. The support for certain PHP functions depends on the versions.

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