Confused again, naturally.
Hi Jimmy,
I am a bit confused, as WebAssist's 'Support & Documentation page, under 'Dynamic Development Tutorials', the link 'Setting up a Testing Server for Windows' takes you directly to: What you need to start: * Windows XP, Vista, or 7 * XAMPP for Windows (Basic EXE package installer)
The tutorial tells you to make sure IIS is turned off (if it is installed). The link to 'Defining a Dynamic Site in Dreamweaver' takes you to directions for specifying XAMPP testing server settings.
My personal experience is that XAMPP is far easier to install and set up than IIS. IIS takes far more effort and understanding to get the various components working properly together (a chore you must do yourself). I'm not aware of any of the limitations you refer to. On the contrary, I found it to be far more immediately configurable and every bit as fully featured as IIS. If and when you want to update any of the components, XAMPP does it for you.
For instance, I have just cleaned out my second machine (Vista Ultimate) as I was installing new Dreamweaver. It had no testing-server, and no extensions installed. So:
From Download XAMPP
through install Sculptor in CS5
Through create site definition for sculptor site
Through create Sculptor Site
Through define connection in new MySql/XAMpp install
To testing new Sculptor(CMS) php site in browser (mynewsite)
12:03am - 12:46am = 43minutes
See attached images. I defy anyone to install and configure separate IIS, MySql, phpMyAdmin components (and get them installed as services working together), install Sculptor extension, and create and browse successfully in php environment in 43 minutes.
This is what I was about to post (before I saw your post!) :
Hi Sabby,
There are a couple of points you raised that I may be able to help with.
There are different 'packages' you can use for your local (testing) server. Some people on Windows machines use IIS, some use XAMPP, WAMPServer (or similar 'All-in-one' packages), and some build a testing server 'solution' by installing all the necessary components (Apache, PHP, MySql, phpMyAdmin) seperately.
In my experience, by far the easiest way to get up and running is with XAMPP - it has everything you need. So if you have that installed, ignore the settings for IIS, and trust your thinking about the testing server root directory being (usually) c:\xampp\htdocs\ . If your xampp folder is sitting in the root directory of your C:\ drive, then your testing server root directory is just as you stated. If you had a site folder called 'mynewsite', you would put that folder in the htdocs folder (so it would be at C:\xampp\htdocs\mynewsite\
The only thing that might prevent XAMPP from running as it should, is if your machine is already running IIS as a service. You can not run two testing servers concurrently. You can check this in one of two ways:
1. Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. Paste 'InetMgr.exe' into the Start > Start Search (or 'Run') field.
If those options are not there (or fail to produce the IIS Manager), then IIS not installed. If they are there, and you want to see if IIS is running, click on one of those links and in the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager panel that opens, at the top-right under 'Manage Server', if the 'Start' icon is greyed out and the 'Stop' icon is dark and therefore 'live', then IIS is running.
[You can stop the service here with the 'Stop' button to leave the way clear for XAMPP] .
The likelihood is though, that if you haven't installed IIS as a service yourself, it will not be installed.
So yes - definitely, Sculptor and all the extensions will run sweetly on XAMPP.