PHP Forum

**psb000** · 06-25-2005, 06:30 PM

I bought the Macromedia DreamweaverMX 2004 with asp, coldfusion and php book and I set up my php and apache servers according to the book. As I go through the tutorial I find that when I preview my pages it does not display the php properly as I go from one page to another. The page does not display the php string. I checked the source code on the page and it's the same as the tutorial it just doesn't display right. does anyone know how to fix this?

**metho** · 06-25-2005, 08:38 PM

What have you done to try and fix this yourself? You'll get a far better response if you illustrate that your working on the problem. Please don't expect forum members to do all the work for you...

**Kyrnt** · 06-25-2005, 08:45 PM

psb, please post the code and we'll take a look at it.

**psb000** · 06-26-2005, 05:57 PM

here's the code for the two pages:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>
<body>

<h1>Are you a Cat Person or a Dog Person?</h1>
<p>I am a <a href="animal_home_page.php?mypet=Cat">Cat</a> Person. </p>
<p>I am a <a href="animal_home_page.php?mypet=Dog">Dog</a> Person. </p>
</body>
</html>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>

<h1>The <?php echo $_GET['mypet']; ?> Person Home Page </h1>
<p>You are <?php echo $_GET['mypet']; ?> a Person. </p>
</body>
</html>

I don't think it's the code. I think it's the setup. The second page won't show the 'mypet' . So it just has the 'You are a Person' Instead of 'You are a Dog/Cat Person'. I don't know how to fix it. I've tried other examples and they all have the same problem. I checked the code and it seems right but it won't show on the second page

**metho** · 06-26-2005, 07:11 PM

psb,

Setting up a local server and php testing environment isn't an easy task for a newbie. When I taught this subject at Uni, the overwhelming majority of students couldn't cope with the apache server. If your on Windows, use IIS instead. The GUI is far easier to manage than apache's command-line tools.

When you've installed IIS, you then have to install PHP, go to the php site and download the windows installer package for the latest version of PHP. Be sure to read all the documentation as it gives essential installation steps to follow in order to get it to work.

http://www.php.net

You'll also need to install MySql Server to run with your php applications. I'd advise going to the MySql site and downloading version 3.23 so that you can download and install "mysql control centre" to administer the database. All theese apps are available from:

http://www.mysql.org/downloads/

You also have to get a grip on setting directory permissions in order for a local server to be able to run and get several php application to work properly. Servers and scripts require permissions for special users for your operating system. They're names "IUSR" and "IWAM". Both are used for annonymous authentication and access to files and resources on your system.

http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/kn...fm?id=tn_15378

and

http://dmxzone.com/showDetail.asp?TypeId=2&NewsId=6664

When you've cruised through that lot, post back and report on what progress you've made.

**Christopher** · 06-26-2005, 07:38 PM

Use something like WAMP (with the PHP4 plugin, since WAMP comes with PHP5 by default) or XAMPP. Those both will install Apache, PHP and MySQL (XAMPP gives you some other stuff, too) automatically. Such programs are good for newbies who don't want to fuss with the server configurations.