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If you have been following my progress you will have downloaded the php plug-in already. If not just check the previous post. Anyway, compared to the Lynda.com complimentary video the versions we are using will be newer until of course Lynda.com update their videos and then the version that I will be using here will be outdated. Techmology….
Well just double click the icon and install. It should be smart enough to install in the right directory.
Below you can see some of the differences between versions but don’t be afraid. Don’t be very afraid. ……?
As you technology is developing at a rapid pace and that includes php. So it is very difficult for Lynda.com to redo their videos whenever there is a slight change. A rule of thumb when installing software is: when in doubt choose yes. Below are the steps to install WAMP but that was yesterday, tomorrow may be different.
Anyway the first step is to double click on the icon and the following screen should appear. If you don’t know where the icon is you can check the previous post and be more careful where you download it to.
Of course you should press next and in the following page you can use the default folder as below but I follower Lynda.com’s lead and created a program_files folder in the c: directory and installed there. Notice the underscore in program_files. Don’t mistake it for the already existing program files folder.
Press next and next.
Check auto start and press next.
Press install.
Choose the www folder which will have been created.
Leave it as localhost and press next.
Choose an appropriate email and, yes, you guessed it, press next.
Around here it differs from the video but this is where my years of pc experience came in handy. I somehow just new instinctively that I ought to press next.
You will notice that it detected firefox because that is my browser of choice and it should be yours too.
Uncheck “Launch WAMP5 now”and then press finish.
Yeah, we’re done. At least partly anyway. There is still some php plugin afffair. I will get to that later though.
Lynda.com not only tells us what software we need, it tells us where to get it. In the 4th and 5th video provided for free on their website it shows you how to download and install the necessary software. So far so good. If this were a talent competition I would have to say Lynda is looking sweet. Anyway to make it even easier for you I will also provide the links to the software I am going to use. According to Lynda.com we need to download two things for starters.
I am downloading [02/15/2007] – WAMP5 1.7.0 with Apache 2.2.4 and PHP 5.2.1
and
PHP4.4.5 ADD-ON for WAMP5 1.7.0 (6 Mo)
If you are reading this at a later date you will probably be downloading newer versions. New versions usually mean safety so it might be recommended to keep your software up to date. I don’t yet know how easy/difficult/fun/tedious that is going to be.
On the VTC website there are about 16 videos discussing php that you can watch free of charge. On the Lynda.com website there are only 9.
You may remember though that I stopped after video 6 on the VTC site because I felt that they had skipped information necessary for complete beginners like me.
The first Lynda.com video claims to be 2 minutes and 32 seconds long but it sure felt like a lot longer. I hope it was longer because if not this may be a very tedious course to get through. Anyway, in the very long 2 and a half minutes of the the first video they basically introduce the course and at first it seems cool but then all this new vocab like “strings” and “arrays” and stuff like that was bandied about. It might scare some people off php forever but not me. I will not falter, not for a second……maybe.
One good thing about the intro is that they said that they would introduce all the necessary software. Hopefully they give details on how to get it and install it too.
