[SOLVED] Testing Local PHP files Using LAMP Server

[cpetercarter]

Hav a look at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ApacheMySQLPHP

Does your browser ask if you want to download the php file instead of displaying it? If Apache is not actually parsing the php after you restarted it, install libapache2-mod-php4.[ED: I think this should be -php5 if you have php5 installed] It is installed when you install the php4 package, but may have been removed inadvertently by packages which need to run a different version of php.

You may also need to actually enable it, by doing sudo a2enmod php4 [ED; ?php5]followed by sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart. If sudo a2enmod php4 [?5]returns "$ This module does not exist!", you should purge (not just remove) the libapache2-mod-php5 package and reinstall it.

Be sure to clear your browser's cache before testing your site again.

[Can+~]

It seems we are getting somewhere, but still not where we need to be. I can now access files in /var/www/ through the browser, but instead of parsing them it gives me the option to download them. Here is a screenshot....

Ok, your apache server doesn't know what to do with php.

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5

Restart apache2, and test it again.

[brennydoogles]

Ok, using the help.ubuntu.com link really helped, now I can view most of my pages. Somethings are not working correctly, such as an AJAX news script I wrote (which works fine on my godaddy.com hosting), but I can work on that more later. Thanks for all of the help!!

[pmasiar]

I am curious why you picked such combination of tools, as a beginner? If starting with Python/Turbogears, and installing all by docs, you can have running webserver with database in less than hour. Of course, it will not be production-ready Apache, but developer's friendly CherryPy. Your database will not be MySQL but much simpler SQLite. But your "hello world" app will be generated for you, including install, in less than hour (including proper directory structure for future project, including JS and CSS files), and you can later change to MySQL - you just change config file. Same with Apache - but as beginner, you might be more interested in devel-friendly tools, not LAMP, which is optimized as effective production webserver.

Just a thought about your priorities - you know better what they are.

[brennydoogles]

I am curious why you picked such combination of tools, as a beginner? If starting with Python/Turbogears, and installing all by docs, you can have running webserver with database in less than hour. Of course, it will not be production-ready Apache, but developer's friendly CherryPy. Your database will not be MySQL but much simpler SQLite. But your "hello world" app will be generated for you, including install, in less than hour (including proper directory structure for future project, including JS and CSS files), and you can later change to MySQL - you just change config file. Same with Apache - but as beginner, you might be more interested in devel-friendly tools, not LAMP, which is optimized as effective production webserver.

Just a thought about your priorities - you know better what they are.

LOL... I understand what you mean. My idea to install a LAMP server was not thought out in advance at all... in fact, there was a php file that I did not want available on the web until it was finished, and I wanted to be able to test it without uploading it to my main server. It seems that I now have everything configured more or less properly (the problem with the AJAX was just a configuration issue caused by the change from my normal domain name to localhost). So while it was somewhat haphazardly that I decided upon LAMP, I now have it set up more or less to my liking and will keep it for now.