Months ago, I was reading some template tutorial for Joomla and came across this powerful tool called xampp by Apache Friends. It is a FREE software package, released under General Public License, that installs an Apache web server, MySQL, PHP, and Perl into your computer. It sets up a local server, accessible even when offline, that enables you to install content management systems such as Wordpress, and Joomla.
This tool is indispensable, at least for me, because it has provided me with a platform that simulates the working environment on the web. With this tool I can create customized templates for blogging platforms (through accessing the backend or editing the files). I can preview plug-ins before applying it to the actual website. Or I can start from scratch and learn to build a PHP-enabled website.
Is it easy to use you might ask. To run it, I simply open the xampp control panel and
start Apache and MySQL. Then I open a browser window and type 'localhost/Joomla' on the address bar to view the index page for my Joomla website. Similarly, I type 'localhost/Wordpress' to view the index page for my Wordpress site. I log in on the admin page like I normally would on a website to access the backend. From there, I customize my templates. When I'm done, I stop Apache and MySQL from the control panel.
Interested? Get it from Apache friends. There are different versions available for download. Recommended system requirements for Windows are 64MB ram, 300MB disk space.
This tool is indispensable, at least for me, because it has provided me with a platform that simulates the working environment on the web. With this tool I can create customized templates for blogging platforms (through accessing the backend or editing the files). I can preview plug-ins before applying it to the actual website. Or I can start from scratch and learn to build a PHP-enabled website.
Is it easy to use you might ask. To run it, I simply open the xampp control panel and
start Apache and MySQL. Then I open a browser window and type 'localhost/Joomla' on the address bar to view the index page for my Joomla website. Similarly, I type 'localhost/Wordpress' to view the index page for my Wordpress site. I log in on the admin page like I normally would on a website to access the backend. From there, I customize my templates. When I'm done, I stop Apache and MySQL from the control panel.Interested? Get it from Apache friends. There are different versions available for download. Recommended system requirements for Windows are 64MB ram, 300MB disk space.
