Moving from ASP to PHP

Hi.

I've used WebAssist extensions for quite a number of years and was disappointed when they announced that they would be dropping support for ASP and would no longer be developing extensions for ASP.

So...seeing as WebAssist have forced me into a "move to PHP or go away" situation I wondered if I could use this forum to help me move to PHP?

My first question, and bear with me as I am a complete PHP novice, is:

Previously, I used a browser to open ASP pages, locally (dynamicpage.asp), which were linked to a database. I've tried creating a PHP page, with a database connection, but when I try to preview this page in the browser (dynamicpage.php), it just reopens the page in Dreamweaver.

It appears that I can't open a PHP page that has a database connection, locally, in my browser.

How do I achieve this?

Thanks.
Regards
Nath.

Have a look here:
144/

Thanks for the reply.

What is the difference between the link you've posted and this product?:
en/

I am concerned about using third party software products that will, inevitably, require updating every time there is a new release or bug problem.

At least, with Windows IIS, you get the updates automatically and it's part of the operating system.

Is there anything, for PHP, that will update automatically so that I can develop on my PC without worrying that I'm out of date?

Also, I note that I will have to stop IIS running in order to use XAMPP.

I still need to use IIS for the sites I've developed in ASP, so I need a product that won't conflict with IIS.

Any other ideas?

Originally Said By: Nathon Jones

  Thanks for the reply.

What is the difference between the link you've posted and this product?:
en/

I am concerned about using third party software products that will, inevitably, require updating every time there is a new release or bug problem.

At least, with Windows IIS, you get the updates automatically and it's part of the operating system.

Is there anything, for PHP, that will update automatically so that I can develop on my PC without worrying that I'm out of date?  

Have a look at this thread:
showthread.php?t=6541

I don't consider Apache to be third party. They have more market share on the web than Microsoft.

I wouldn't want any auto updates on my development server - too much of a moving target. I want it to be as close as possible to my web server. You just update xampp when it's time to update your web server environment. That keeps everything in sync.

At the bottom of the page of the link I gave you, it tells you how to run Apache on a different port.

i have successfully run iis7 and apache under vista, primarily to keep testing an old asp site.

i had them both using default port settings, but as the apache was used primarily, i would stop the iis service most of the time and start iis and stop apache when testing asp

David Powers PHP solutions is an excellent book with a great guide to doing this step by step

Is there a solution that won't require me to start / stop the IIS service?
Don't you find that a real inconvenience?

i'm pretty sure if you set up apache to use port 8080 instead of port 80, you can run both concurrently.

i never needed to do this as i had only one asp site to work with, and starting / stopping a service can be done in a couple of clicks