This document provides instructions for setting up a local development environment or "sandbox" for testing and developing WordPress websites using XAMPP on Windows and OSX systems. Key steps include downloading and installing XAMPP, which bundles Apache, PHP and MySQL. Once installed, WordPress can be downloaded, unzipped in the XAMPP folder, and accessed at localhost. Virtual hosts allow hosting multiple sites on the same machine for development. Best practices include keeping the sandbox similar to production servers and taking regular backups.

1. Sandbox: Running WordPress on Your Local Machine Presented by: A. Alfred Ayache, ZCE @NotrsWebmaster [email_address] http://notoriouswebmaster.com

2. Prerequisites Unzipping files

3. Copying and moving files

4. Running programs and batch scripts

5. Editing text files with a text editor

6. What Is (Not) a Sandbox? Is : Sandbox: Your own private webserver, running on your local machine (Windows, OSX, Linux) Is Not : Not a production server.

7. Should not be exposed to the world.

8. Not security hardened.

9. Uses of a Sandbox Running a local copy of WordPress

10. Testing downloaded themes and plugins

11. Testing beta releases of WP

12. Developing your own themes and plugins

13. Developing websites and web apps

14. Running local copy of web apps (other than WP)

15. Learning Web programming (PHP, Perl, Ruby, Python)

16. NOT RECOMMENDED: running a local production server

17. WordPress Requirements WordPress XAMPP PC OSX Version 3.1 3.2 1.7.7 1.7.3 PHP 4.3 5.2.4+ 5.3.8 5.3.1 MySQL 4.1.2 5.0+ 5.5.16 5.1.44 Optionally, you may also need mod_rewrite and email capabilities, depending on how you want to configure your installation, or what plugins you want to test.

18. Introducing XAMPP Collection of open source apps

19. Apache , PHP , MySQL , phpMyAdmin , and more!

20. Available for Windows , OSX , Linux and Solaris

21. Super easy installation (especially compared to manual installation of the components)

22. Why Do I Need Apache? Your browser can consume, process and display HTML , CSS and JavaScript .

23. A webserver can serve HTML, CSS and JS; but can also process PHP .

24. Then, PHP can access MySQL databases.

25. So What's This PHP and MySQL? PHP is the scripting language used to write WordPress.

26. MySQL is the database used to store your WordPress data, such as posts and user information.

27. Together with Linux and Apache , they form the LAMP stack; one of the most popular platforms for web development.

28. Installing XAMPP for Windows Download the zipped XAMPP from ApacheFriends.org (149MB)

29. Unzip to C:\XAMPP

30. Run setup_xampp.bat Sets directory names in the batch files.

31. Running XAMPP on Windows Run xampp-control.exe

32. Start Apache and MySQL

33. http://localhost/

34. Problems With Windows Installation Apache wouldn't start on WinXP.

35. Download vcredist_x86.exe from Microsoft, and run it. This will install missing DLL's.

36. Try starting Apache again.

37. (BTW: no problems running on Win7.)

38. Installing XAMPP on OSX Download XAMPP dmg from apachefriends.org (86MB)

39. Double click dmg, and drag XAMPP to Applications folder

40. Running XAMPP on OSX Go to the XAMPP folder in Applications. Run XAMPP Control

41. Start Apache and MySQL (order is unimportant)

42. You'll be asked for the admin password to your machine

43. The LEDs should turn green

44. http://localhost/

45. Apache Won't Start :( On occasion Apache won't start.

46. XAMPP Control may even show it as started, but it hasn't.

47. On OSX it actually tells you why: There's another process listening to port 80 . You need to find that process and terminate it with extreme prejudice. Chances are good that process may be Skype .

48. Quit Skype , and start Apache again. You should be good to go.

49. XAMPP localhost Main XAMPP page:

50. Installing WordPress on OSX Download the latest version of WordPress from wordpress.org

51. Unzip it under /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/htdocs/<dir>

52. In your browser go to http://localhost/<dir>

53. You can also: Unzip it under /Users/<username>/Sites/<dir>

54. In your browser go to http://localhost/~<username>/<dir>

55. Installing WordPress on Windows Download the latest version of WordPress from wordpress.org

56. Unzip it at C:\XAMPP\htdocs\<dir>

57. In your browser go to http://localhost/<dir>

58. Create a Database At the bottom of the XAMPP localhost menu, click phpMyAdmin

59. Enter a database name (alphanumeric and underscores, no spaces or special characters) and click Create

60. Back to Our WordPress Install Windows will allow creation of configuration file

61. OSX will not: you'll need to edit the wp-config-sample.php and save it as wp-config.php

62. You'll need to know: database name

63. database user ID (root)

64. database password (blank)

65. database host (localhost)

66. table prefix (wp_) If the install program can't write your wp-config.php file, it'll display the text, and ask you to cut and paste it into the file, using an editor of your choice.

67. Virtual Hosts Chances are you'll want/need more than one web site/app hosted on your machine.

68. Virtual hosts (aka vhosts) allows you to host multiple web apps or sites, on the same machine.

69. This is what the hosting companies use for shared hosting.

70. Virtual Hosts: Files hosts - shortcuts DNS Win: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

71. OSX: /etc/hosts httpd.conf - Apache configuration Win: C:\XAMPP\apache\conf\httpd.conf

72. OSX: /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/httpd.conf httpd_vhosts.conf - Virtual Hosts configuration Win: C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf

73. OSX: /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/extra\httpd-vhosts.conf After modifying these files, restart Apache

74. Virtual Hosts: hosts ## # Host Database # # localhost is used to configure the loopback interface # when the system is booting. Do not change this entry. ## 127.0.0.1 localhost 255.255.255.255 broadcasthost ::1 localhost fe80::1%lo0 localhost 127.0.0.1 lphsgrads 127.0.0.1 lphsgrads2.dev 127.0.0.1 aaa The 127.0.0.1 IP address is your localhost machine

75. Just add another line with the localhost IP, a space or two, and your desired domain name

76. Virtual Hosts: httpd.conf This is the main configuration file for Apache

77. Insure the include for httpd-vhosts.conf is uncommented:

78. Virtual Hosts: httpd-vhosts.conf NameVirtualHost *:80 <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName mybloggittyblog.blog DocumentRoot &quot; /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/htdocs/myblog &quot; <Directory &quot; /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/htdocs/myblog &quot; > Options Indexes FollowSymLinks ExecCGI AllowOverride FileInfo Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> </VirtualHost> For a new vhost: Copy the VirtualHost segment, and change the ServerName

79. DocumentRoot and Directory must be the same, and point to the document root of your virtual site

80. Use forward slashes between dirs, even on Windows. No slash at the end.

81. Restart Apache

82. In your browser: http://mybloggittyblog.blog

83. A Debt of Gratitude Owed to the open source developers, testers and documenters who give so generously of their time and skills, to provide us with these awesome tools.

84. Thanks to their efforts, we can easily communicate with unprecedented reach.

85. Best Practices Keep your sandbox as close to the server's versions as possible

86. Install WP/plugin updates as they become available

87. Take regular backups

88. manifest.txt URL's

89. ID's and passwords

90. Directory path

91. Resources WordPress.org (of course)

92. WordPress.tv

93. XAMPP - http://apachefriends.org

94. Notepad++ - http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

95. TextWrangler - http://barebones.com/products/textwrangler/

96. Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5555 For vcredist_x86.exe DLL installer