Assignment: Software Installation and Configuration

In this assignment you will install software that will be used during the course. This software includes a programming text editor and a PHP and MySQL Environment. Also as part of this assignment you will learn how to take screenshots and make them into images. The deliverables of this assignment are two peer-graded images of your running software.

If you follow the instructions carefully and look at the handouts and watch the podcasts, this assignment should be pretty straightforward and take less than an hour.

Note: As you install on Windows, you may be asked for permission to open ports or to allow an application through the firewall - say 'yes' to these dialog boxes if they are popping up when you first install or first start your PHP environment.

If you get stuck on this assignment - feel free to get assistance from anyone who can help. All we want is that you have successfully installed the software and can use it on your system. This is not intended as a difficult or challenging assignment.

Resources

There are several sources of information so you can do the assignment:

• Setting up your PHP/MySql Devlopment Environment http://www.wa4e.com/install.php
• Learning How to Make Screen Shots
  • Screencast: Windows Vista/Windows 7
  • Screencast: Windows XP
  • Screencast: Macintosh
  You should practice taking a few screen shots on your computer and saving them as PNG or JPG files.
• Chapters 1, 3, 4, 37, 39, and 41 from the free textbook The Missing Link: An Introduction to Web Development and Programming written by Michael Menendez and published by Milne Open Textbooks.
• Lectures and materials on Introduction to Structured Query Language from www.wa4e.com

Specifications

• Install a programming text editor if you don't already have one. I recommend Atom, but you can use NotePad++ (Windows) or TextWrangler (Macintosh). You can use any editor you like but TextEdit (Mac), NotePad(Win), and Microsoft Word at *not* acceptable as program editors.
• I suggest XAMPP for Windows and MAMP for Macintosh. They all function very similar. But all the course examples will be with MAMP and the course staff will be most familiar with problem arising when you use MAMP so if you choose another environment you should be prepared to do your own tech support.
• Navigate to the phpMyAdmin application select the "SQL" tab and type

  SELECT 'January 3, 2017'
  

  Substituting the date you are taking the screen shot, press the "GO" button and then take a screen shot of the resulting page.
• Following the instructions in the installation documents, make sure that display_errors = On in your php.ini file. Make the screen shot to show you did it as follows:
  • For MAMP, go to the phpinfo page in your environment and scroll down until you can take a screen shot showing that your php.ini is correct and take a screen shot
  • For XAMPP, go to Apache / Config and open the php.ini file and scroll down to show that display_errors = On and take a screen shot.
  • For Linux, use any editor to open your php.ini file and take a screen shot showing display_errors = On.

Sample Screen Shots

The first screen shot for the peer-graded portion of the assignment is the phpMyAdmin as follows:

Here a sample of the second screen shot in the peer-graded portion is to verify that display_errors is On in your PHP configuration:

Here is a sample of a screenshot if you are using XAMPP: