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PHP PHP Basics PHP on the Web HTML and PHP

M Glasser
M Glasser
10,868 Points
Posted by M Glasser
M Glasser
10,868 Points

Guessing this won't work on a basic local server?

Using atom and the atom-live-server package to preview and edit the downloaded project files for this course. Followed the instructions and added php code block then changed the name of index.html to index.php. Now my localhost in the browser shows the directory rather than interpreting the index.php file as the index. Can anyone explain what's happening? My guess is the local server I have set up is not capable of processing PHP.

2 Answers

andren
andren
28,558 Points
andren
andren
28,558 Points

In order to use PHP with web content you do indeed need a server that is compatible with PHP, as well as to have PHP installed on the machine the server runs on. From what I can see the server that atom-live-server is based on is only designed to handle plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript content.

There are plenty of local servers compatible with PHP though. Including one that is built into PHP itself, which can be used within Atom through the php-server package.

So if you download PHP on to your machine and use the package above or some other PHP compatible server then you should have no issues testing PHP on your local machine.

M Glasser
M Glasser
10,868 Points
M Glasser
M Glasser
10,868 Points

Ok cool! Thanks! Actually got this working in MAMP, but would rather use something like atom for these basic exercises.

Jonathan Kuhl
Jonathan Kuhl
26,133 Points
Jonathan Kuhl
Jonathan Kuhl
26,133 Points

You can also try the built-in php server that comes with the PHP installation:

Run the following from your project's directory:

php -S localhost:3000

3000 can be replaced by any other valid port number of your choosing. More information is in man php

Run localhost:3000 in your browser and your project should be there. It will auto detect and load index.html or index.php (but it's not a good idea to name the php file "index")

Seth Johnson
Seth Johnson
15,200 Points
Seth Johnson
Seth Johnson
15,200 Points

Thank you Jonathan! I was very, very puzzled about this for awhile. It worked exactly the way I needed it to.