How do I test a website using XAMPP

Question

This is a fairly general query as I m very confused about how to do this  I want to use the apache server which I have downloaded as part of XAMPP in order to test the website I am building  which will use php and mysql  The general question is  how do I do this   As far as I understand it  the files go into C  xampp htdocs  which can then be accessed via localhost  What confuses me though is that the XAMPP admin stuff is also located here - so  for instance  I can t replace the file index php without losing access to phpMyAdmin and so on  Do I have to create a new folder for the website within this   I tried setting up a virtual host using instructions I found online  I added it to the windows host file and to the xampp hosts config file as directed here  for instance  Having done this the Apache service would not start and gave me an error log very similar to this one  I followed the instructions given in the answer to that  and it still did not work  I have since removed and reinstalled it and it is working ok again  but without the virtual hosts set up   Finally  I want to use HTMLPad to build the website because I really like its real time preview feature  However  to set this up  it again needs to be connected with the server  The instructions it gives are      In-depth Tutorial  How do I preview PHP files       To be able to preview PHP files locally without uploading to web  you   need to have a web server installed on your computer and it must be   configured to support PHP files  Please refer to PHP and web server   manuals for more info on installing web server with PHP support       We recommend to use the free Apache web server from apache org      Step 1 - What is your document root  Find out what is your local web   server document root folder  The document root folder stores web page   files available via your web server URL  Please refer to your web   server manual for more info       Step 2 - What is your web server address  Find out what is your local   web server URL  usually it is http   localhost       Step 3 - Make sure your web server works Verify that your web server   really works with PHP files  To do this  save a PHP file to your web   document root and try to open it via web browser  For example  if your   web document root is c  htdocs   save your file as c  htdocs index php   and try to open it via URL http   localhost index php      If your web server works  you are now ready to configure internal   preview       Step 4     Configure internal preview Now you must tell the editor   software how to use your web server to display the PHP file preview       On the Options menu  click Preferences  In Preferences window  click   Preview folder  Click Mappings  then click Add  Enter your document   root folder and the corresponding web address  in the above example   you would enter c  htdocs  and http   localhost    Again  in the context of all the above  I m not quite sure I understand this  Presumably this links to all the php  mysql etc files within the original htdocs folder  But does it matter where the files I m working on are saved  for example   Basically  I m just a bit confused  and any help would be very much appreciated

User · Answer

Just make a new folder inside C  xampp htdocs like C  xampp htdocs test and place your index php or whatever file in it  Access it by browsing localhost test   Good luck

User · Answer

Just edit the httpd-vhost-conf scroll to the bottom and on  the last example demo for creating a virtual host  remove the hash-tags for DocumentRoot and ServerName  You may have hash-tags just before the  lt VirtualHost   80 gt  and  lt  VirtualHost gt   After DocumentRoot  just add the path to your web-docs     and add your domain-name after ServerNmane    lt VirtualHost   80 gt        ServerAdmin webmaster dummy-host2 example com     DocumentRoot  C  xampp htdocs www      ServerName example com       ErrorLog  logs dummy-host2 example com-error log        CustomLog  logs dummy-host2 example com-access log  common  lt  VirtualHost gt    Be sure to create the www folder under htdocs  You do not have to name the folder www but I did just to be simple about it  Be sure to restart Apache and bang  you can now store files in the newly created directory  To test things out just create a simple index html or index php file and place in the www folder  then go to your browser and test it out localhost      Note  if your server is serving php files over html then remember to add localhost index html if the html file is the one you choose to use for this test   Something I should add  in order to still have access to the xampp homepage then you will need to create another VirtualHost  To do this just add   lt VirtualHost   80 gt        ServerAdmin webmaster dummy-host2 example com     DocumentRoot  C  xampp htdocs      ServerName htdocs example com       ErrorLog  logs dummy-host2 example com-error log        CustomLog  logs dummy-host2 example com-access log  common  lt  VirtualHost gt    underneath the last VirtualHost that you created  Next make the necessary changes to your host file and restart Apache  Now go to your browser and visit htdocs example com and your all set

User · Answer

The webpages on an online server reside in a location which looks somewhat like this  http   www somerandomsite com index php  Since xampp is Offline  it sets up a local server whose address is like this http   localhost   Basically  xampp sets up a server  apache and others  in your system  And all the files such as index php  somethingelse php  etc   reside in the xampp htdocs  folder    The browser locates the server in localhost and will search through the above folder for any resources available in there   So create any number of folders inside the  xampp htdocs   each folder thus forming a website  as you build it     Sometimes apache won t even start  This is due to  the clashing of ports with some applications  Some of them I commonly encounter is Skype  See to that it is killed completely and restart apache

User · Answer

Make a new folder inside htdocs and access it in browser Like this or  this  Always start Apache when you start working or check whether it has started  in Control panel of xampp

User · Answer

create a folder inside htdocs  place your website there  access it via localhost or Internal IP  if you re behind a router   - check out this video demo here

[apache] How do I test a website using XAMPP?

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