It is not as complicated as you think. Given that Macs are descendants of *nix system, it already has apache2 and PHP module built in, we only need to activate those two and install mySQL. Here’s how.

Activating apache web server

Piece of cake, you only need to go to System Preferences and then to the Sharing prefpane.

System Preferences

Inside the Sharing prefpane check the web sharing on the left hand side. Simple as that and you’re done.

Check web sharing in the pref pane

You know where you have the folder Sites in your home folder? If you put anything there, it will be accessible via http://localhost/~yourusername/. Cute anot?

Activating the PHP module

You will need to type things into terminal this time. This is also a piece of cake, don’t be afraid, the Terminal is our friend :)
To run terminal you can spotlight it or go to Applications / Utilities using Finder.

Terminall app via Finder

Here’s what you have to do in Terminal.

1. First go to /etc/apache2/ directory by typing cd /etc/apache2/ <return>. If it returns an error check your input, see if you’ve typed it right.
   

   Opening the httpd.conf in terminal

2. Next on, let’s open the apache configuration file: httpd.conf as root. We do this by typing sudo nano httpd.conf. You will be prompted to enter your login password. Upon doing so, this screen will show. This is nano, Terminal’s text editor.
   

   Editing httpd.conf using nano on Terminal

3. Now we’re going to activate the PHP5 module. If you take a look at the terminal screen, you’ll see a list of commands. We’ll do a ^W aka Where Is to find the line that says php5. Press Ctrl+W, type in php5 <return>
4. Take a good look at the terminal screen, you will see this line:
   #LoadModule php5_module libexec/httpd/libphp5.so. You only have to delete the # sign:
   LoadModule php5_module libexec/httpd/libphp5.so
5. Done, now exit nano with ^X command. You will be prompted to save your changes. Type Y <return> to save and exit. Don’t change the file name in process btw ;)
   

   Save and exit with ^X

That’s it, we have ourselves an apache2 web server with PHP. You can check if the PHP module’s running with a simple phpinfo();

Installing mySQL

Another walk in the park. If you don’t already have it, you can download mySQL server here. You are looking for the mySQL server installer in package format, it’s the .dmg format you’re already familiar with. It’s a 60MB download, smaller than the 70+ MB XAMPP and 130+ MB MAMP ;)

Installing is simple, mount the .dmg and then install all the packages including the .prefpane. After installing all items you will be taken to the newly installed mySQL prefpane.

mySQL prefpane

Done, now mySQL’s up and running. You might want to install Navicat or phpMyAdmin for the mySQL front end. Now that you have everything working, you can already start developing.

Extra: VirtualHostX to shorten your working URL

I’m not a big fan of long URLs, my working host is http://localhost/~anima/ and my phpMyAdmin URL is http://localhost/~anima/phpmyadmin/. Those are long badass URLs and I hate them, so I looked for a workaround shortening them and that’s when VirtualHostX comes to the rescue.

VirtualHostX

This way I can shorten my http://localhost/~anima/ to http://anima/ and my http://localhost/~anima/phpmyadmin/ to http://mysql/

Free version of VirtualHostX allows you to create 3 host names, that should be enough: one for the main working URL, one for mySQL and you have an extra one. Different story if you want to assign each projects of yours with a different host name. You must get a license then :)

Tyler Hall (the developer of VirtualHostX) was very kind to give me a free license of this because I tweeted something about it :)

Gotta love Macs, they have the beauty and the brains inside :) Happy developing!

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<?php for ($i=1; $i < 10; $i++) { echo "<a href=\"something.php?id=$i\">No $i</a>"; }

Am I right am I right?

Looks complicated? Hell yeah. Truth is, there’s a much simpler way to achieve the same goal. I learned this trick from Wordpress’ Loop. Check this out.

Let’s take a look at this piece of code, in here we’re doing a For loop:

<ul>
<?php
for ($i=1; $i<10; $i++) {
    echo "<li><a href=\"?p=$i\">Go to page # $i</a></li>";
}
?>
</ul>

As simple as that looks, the echo command could be a little tricky because we often have to use double quote and single quote characters inside. Debugging can be a pain in the ass.

An approach I propose: the Wordpress way. Here’s how:

<ul>
<?php
for ($i=1; $i<10; $i++) { ?>
    <li><a href="?p=<?php echo $i;?>">Go to page # <?php echo $i;?> </a></li>
<?php }
?>
</ul>

This way we exclude the HTML tags from the PHP loop. Wow I can’t really describe that, if you do PHP you know what I mean. Now you can HTML not inside the echo command.

Wordpress is using this approach on templating and I find it very easy to use once you get used to it. So why don’t you give it a try and let us know what you think :)

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Granted, you have the need to check your website/web app in popular browsers: Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Firefox 1, 2, 3, Chrome, Safari and Opera. Installing Chrome, Safari and Opera is a no-brainer, but those multiple versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox can be tricky. Here’s how we can do it.

Note: in this article I am using Windows XP with IE6 as a default browser. If you’re on Vista and you already have IE 7 installed you can skip the IE7 installation section.

Before we start, these are the installers we’re going to need. Don’t worry if you don’t have it yet, we will discuss about where (and how) to get them as we go.

Installing Internet Explorer 6 and 7

First we’re going to install IE7, this is also a no-brainer. Get it here and experience Microsoft’s long-ass installation and an unnecessary restart. Done and done with IE7, now we’re going to setup IE6. Download the Multiple IE installer, it’s free and it’s superuseful :)

Run the installer and keep going next until you see a checkbox selection like this:

If your target audience includes the good old Windows 98, 95 and Windows 3.1.1 users then definitely select them all. If that’s not the case then just leave it all unclicked except Internet Explorer 6.

Installing Firefox 1.5, 2 and 3

Thanks to this article, installing these browsers can be done easily. First you have to get all Firefox installers. Firefox 3 can be downloaded from this link, Firefox 2 here and Firefox 1.5 here.

I’d start with Fx 3 because that’s my favorite. Do a custom installation, choose where you want to install Firefox 3. In my case I want to install it here:

Next we’ll launch Firefox Profile Manager. This part’s a bit tricky so let’s pay extra attention here. What we’re going to do is we go to the Mozilla Firefox start menu folder by right-clicking the shortcut on the start menu.

Explore the Firefox start menu folder

Then we’re going into the duplicated shortcut’s properties by right-clicking the shortcut and select Properties. These are the values you’re going to change: in the Target field, add the following string: -profilemanager.

Shortcut Properties

Rename the shortcut to Profile Manager and launch it. We will need to create 3 different profiles for each Firefox installation. Here are my Firefox Profiles:

Firefox Profiles

Now you can install Fx 2 and 1.5 with custom installation, just remember to change the install directory. Your installation directory should look similar to what I have on the left side screenshot. We’re almost there, it’s a pretty long journey but we’re getting there.

Hang on.

Next step is the finishing strike. We’re going to put all the application shortcut to one place and modify the target just like we modify it on the Profile Manager section up there.

Here’s what we do, we add this string to the target field: -p “Fx 1″ where Fx 1 is the profile we made for that version of Firefox. Take a look at this screenshot for an example.

Et voila! That’s it! Now you have 3 Firefox installations running with different profiles. This means they can have different passwords saved, different bookmarks and so on. Please take a note that you can only run one Firefox instance at a time.

Have fun developing your website! :)

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