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Smelena
Cure Neurotypicals Now!
Joined: Apr 02, 2007
Posts: 2130
Location: Australia
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 Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 3:33 am Post subject: Help Needed For .php / My Website |
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Help!
I am a self-confessed computer moron.
An IT friend of mine has been teaching me how to write in php and upload onto my website. He set my website up initially and I want to be able to maintain it myself and upload by myself.
I managed to upload stuff on his computer his place. Yes he was there ... but he watched me make a couple of mistakes, work it out myself, and do it.
I've come home and am very proud that I've managed to install Firezilla, and download everything from my website to my PC.
I want to upload a new article all by myself (my friend said he'll give me a gold star).
However I can't look at the php files. On his computer, I right-clicked and in the options was 'open with'. This option is not on my computer. Mine opens on the internet to show me the finished product.
I want to check the computer language on articles that have successfully been uploaded to make sure I've written mine properly.
Is my computer missing a piece of software? I have Windows XP.
Should I download something from here?http://www.php.net/downloads.php Which bit?
Please speak very slowly .... I don't know much about computers.
Thanks for any help.
Helen
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kip
Phoenix
Joined: Mar 14, 2007
Age: 21
Posts: 683
Location: Las Vegas NV USA
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| Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 6:15 am Post subject: |
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Ummm... you should have that option when you right click, not left click. On my comp it's like, the 4th one down, but it might be a bit different.
If you still caint find it, try opening the programme you would use to edit it with normally, like Notepad or something similar. Then find the file and open it inside the programme.
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lau
Quinquaginta Novem! Male Gee-knee-us + silly bits.
Joined: Jun 18, 2006
Age: 59
Posts: 7004
Location: Somerset UK
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| Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 8:11 am Post subject: |
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There is another devious method I almost always set up.
There is a "Send to" option, when you right click.
If you do the following:
Go into "My Computer" and open the C: drive (usually), then the WINDOWS folder (say yes to "do you really want to see these files"). In there, you should find "Notepad". Right click it and "Copy".
Back to the C: drive, "Documents and settings" (again, say yes to do you really want to...), into your profile name (or even better, the "all users"), "Send to" folder, right click and "Save as shortcut".
You may find it nicer to rename the shortcut to just say "Notepad".
From now on, whenever you have a file that is text based, you can always right click on it, and "Send to" Notepad.
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Another option would be to get hold of a text editor that "knows" what PHP files look like. When in Windows, I use TextPad, which I eventually bought. It is very flexible, but not specifically geared to PHP. OTOH, there are lots of free options. I can't give any specific recommendions, but I just scanned a bit of http://www.php-editors.com/
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polarity
Toucan
Joined: Feb 16, 2006
Posts: 282
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| Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 9:17 am Post subject: |
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Double clicking .php files shouldn't be opening them in a web browser (but it's probably the kind of thing that's set to do automatically, because someone thinks they know better than the user), as they won't be rendered/displayed properly. They have to be on a working web server, as it's the server that makes all the PHP code produce the right kind of output.
You have the option of editing and testing files on the webserver (easiest), or setting up a testing web server on your own computer (more complicated, but at least you can get things working before everyone gets to look at them, and you'll learn a fair bit too).
To set up your own web server you'll need 2, maybe 3 programs. The first is a web server program. Apache is the world standard, so has more documentation available. This will allow you to serve HTML pages, but PHP won't work until you install the PHP package too. You may also need a database server if part of the website needs that. The standard one is MySQL. The 3 packages work pretty well together, and if you're using Windows or MacOSX then they're very easy to install and there's instructions all over the place for them. The links I posted are for the latest windows packages.
There's a single package that contains Apache, PHP and MySQL that's called XAMPP, but it doesn't do things the standard way (the normal configuration files are ignored), so is complex to get running properly, even though it's the easiest way to install all 3. Also it doesn't have particularly good documentation.
Either way you'll want an editor a little better than notepad or wordpad for editing .php files (and definitely not Word). I recommend SuperEdi, as it has all the functions a starting PHP coder needs, without a lot of extra ones to make things confusing. It's got line numbers (so you can track down things from error messages), syntax coloring (so variables, comments and HTML parts are in different colors), and highlights pairs of brackets to make it easier to find where they open and close. It even has a built in FTP program, so you can open/save files on the web server without opening other programs, if you choose not to set up a local (on your own PC) testing web server.
To set it so .php files are always opened with your editor of choice, you'll need to right click on a .php file, select Open With from the menu, then select Choose Program.... If your editor isn't in the list of programs, then you'll need to click on Browse... and hunt down the executable file for the editor program in the provided window*, and double click on it. Select the checkbox for Always use the selected program to open this kind of file, so you only need to double click on .php files in future (You can do this process again if you want to switch to another editor later).
*Finding executable files on your disk drive is made more difficult by Windows, as by default it hides the extensions for the files, so you can't see the .exe after the file name (or .php for that matter). To fix this click the Start button, then open My Computer. From the menu select Tools, then Folder Options.... Clcik on the tab for View, then scroll down the list and make sure the checkbox for Hide extensions for known file types is unchecked. Click on Apply. You'll also need to click on Apply to All Folders to make it show extensions in every folder. This will have the side effect of making every folder look like the My Computer folder though (so thumbnails/sort order will be the same), although you can change them back the next time you view folders (setting it to list view and making it sort by type makes it easier to find files than icons sorted by name though).
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lau
Quinquaginta Novem! Male Gee-knee-us + silly bits.
Joined: Jun 18, 2006
Age: 59
Posts: 7004
Location: Somerset UK
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| Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 10:16 am Post subject: |
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Excellent post, polarity. So good, I'm tempted to suggest starting a sticky thread for "Computing Tips".
One minor flaw - at the end, where you suggest "Apply to All Folders". This is not needed, at all. The "Hide extensions for known file types" is a global option.
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Oregano, n: The ancient Italian art of pizza folding.
Laws:
Ogden: The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up.
Oliver: Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
Osborn: Variables won't; constants aren't. |
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Smelena
Cure Neurotypicals Now!
Joined: Apr 02, 2007
Posts: 2130
Location: Australia
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richie
Ye Olde Bookwyrme
Joined: Jan 10, 2007
Age: 49
Posts: 11179
Location: Lake Whoop-Dee-Doo, Pennsylvania
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| Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 10:22 am Post subject: |
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| lau wrote: | | Excellent post, polarity. So good, I'm tempted to suggest starting a sticky thread for "Computing Tips"..... |
Please do....
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