Open Server is a free freeware program for web developers that includes a package of server software components. Open Server is needed to create and debug full-fledged sites on the local computer. Simply put, with the help of this program you can make an analogue of Linux servers under Windows, and run sites, for example, written in PHP, without any problems.
Open Server is very easy to use. You don't need to be able to configure Apache and Nginx servers or configure MySQL to run the program. The program does this automatically. Moreover Open Server implemented as portable applicationthat does not require installation. The program can work from a flash drive, HDD and CD / DVD disc. In the latter case, the program will create a temporary directory with data on disk or virtual device... It is possible to manage it via the console and create your own program assemblies.
If necessary, the program can work as a server in local or global networks... If you work as an Internet server, you need a static IP address, and you should also remember about possible threats and protect your computer from malicious scripts.
The main set of components:
- apache server;
- DNS server Bind;
- Nginx HTTP server;
- base mySQL data, MariaDB, MongoDB, PostgreSQL;
- redis journaling data store;
- memcached data caching system;
- FTP fTP server FileZilla;
- environment for executing PHP scripts PHP 5.x;
- postScript interpreter Ghostscript;
- service for working with e-mail Sendmail;
- many others auxiliary utilitiessuch as HeidiSQL, Adminer, RockMongo PHPMyAdmin and others.
You can install additional Pear and Composer components as needed.
The program is presented in three versions Basic, Premium, Ultimate. The difference between them is in the number of additional utilities for work. The basic version contains only the basic set for starting the server. The Premium version includes the core server programs and additional utilities Git, ImageMagick, MongoDB, Rockmongo, PostgreSQL, and PhpPgAdmin. The Ultimate version includes a large number of additional freeware graphics programs, various text and HTML editors, programs for working with the Internet, download managers, SCP clients, and so on.
Open Server can run in limited mode in a situation where there is no way to make changes to hOSTS file when restricting access rights or blocking by a firewall. In this case, only one localhost 127.0.0.1 address will be available for sites.
Key features and functions
- very simple controls;
- a large number of different versions main modules;
- three program options to choose from: Basic, Premium, Ultimate;
- the program is implemented as a portable application;
- opportunity to work in local area networks and the Internet as a server;
- sSL support;
- cyrillic support in domain names;
- the ability to configure a DNS server;
- support for domain pointers;
- the ability to use scripts to start / stop the server;
- the ability to emulate different connection speeds to test the availability of sites at different speeds;
- the ability to connect additional components;
- the ability to create your own assemblies.
Complex. This is, you guessed it, good old Denwer. He firmly settled on my computer back in 2003. Other alternatives, if they existed at that time, were known in narrow circles and were not so popular.
Let's take a look at what we can use today, after so many years. I suggest reviewing, testing and comparing 14! software systems for the development of sites for Windows.
1. AMPPS
Latest version: 1.7Russian language: yes (partially)
Portable version: No
Home page: http://www.ampps.com/
Basic kit:
- Softaculous AMPPS 1.7
- Apache 2.2.22
- MySQL 5.5.22
- PHP 5.3.10 and 5.2.17
- PERL 5.10.1
- Python 2.7.2
- MongoDB 2.0.4
The undoubted advantage of this assembly is the support of many common CMS, blog platforms, web forums, message boards, photo galleries, etc. There are more than 200 applications available! The set of components included in the package also keeps up with life, all modules are quite fresh and, remarkably, here we can find such exotic things as Python and MongoDB.
Of the minuses, I want to note the partial Russian translation, which is present only in the script directory, and even then not everywhere. After restarting Apache, the tray menu refused to work, restart windows did not help. Another drawback is the lack of portability. In my opinion, AMPPS is more useful for beginners to learn scripts than for serious developers. It was not very comfortable for me to work with this software package, there are better options.
Latest version: 2.5.10Russian language: No
Portable version: No
Home page: http://www.appservnetwork.com/
Basic kit:
- Apache 2.2.8
- PHP 5.2.6
- MySQL 5.0.51b
- phpMyAdmin-2.10.3
Is there Russian language
Portable version: Yes
Home page: http://www.denwer.ru/
Basic kit:
- Apache 2.2
- PHP 5.3.3
- MySQL 5.1.40
- phpMyAdmin 3.2.3
Denwer is extremely simple and straightforward, and therefore has the largest army of fans among "dummies". Most full description this platform will be the following phrase, said by one of the users: "Denver performs the main tasks, and okay, and the more lotions, the more problems (no one uses them for all 100)."
Latest version: 5.3.9Russian language: Yes
Portable version: Yes
Home page: http://www.easyphp.org/
Basic kit:
- PHP 5.3.9
- PhpMyAdmin 3.4.9
- Apache 2.2.21
- MySQL 5.5.20
Note that EasyPHP manages the server on its own, no scary black windows pops up, starting and stopping the server is pretty quick.
Latest version: 2.0.2.0Is there Russian language
Portable version: Yes
Home page: http://eleanor-cms.ru/server
Basic kit:
- Apache 2.2.19
- PHP 5.3.6
- MySQL: MariaDB 5.2.6
- PhpMyAdmin 3.4.2
- SlimFTPd 3.1.81
- DNS Unbound 1.4.10
In this assembly, I liked the design of the menu, which turned out to be quite attractive, which is a rarity among this kind of programs. I also liked the control panel, or rather the start page, which has a rather unusual design.
After creating a new domain, the control panel just disappeared. It turned out that there was an error in the domain manager, and it opens an incorrect address, but these are trifles. Another disappointment was the inability to open the folder with domains from the tray menu, I had to look where I installed EleanorServ ...
In general, I liked EleanorServ, especially the ability to start / stop the server directly from the browser.
6. Nimp
Latest version: 1.5.0Is there Russian language
Portable version: Yes
Home page: http://nimpbox.ru/
Basic kit:
- Apache 2.2.17
- Nginx 0.9.3
- MySQL 5.5.8
- PHP 5.3.5
- Sendmail 31
- phpMyAdmin 3.3.9
- Sypex Dumper 2.0.8
- FileZilla 0.9.37 beta
- Memcached 1.2.4
While using this assembly, something constantly crashed, FileZilla never stopped itself (I had to kill it through the task manager), and Memcached did not start at all. Some bewilderment was caused by the words of the author of the program that "this assembly is perfect for highly loaded sites in corporate and city networks", the program is clearly far from being used in a corporate environment.
The "trick" of this platform is that Nginx works as a frontend and is intended for serving static content, while Apache works as a backend for generating dynamic content. In general, my impression of this assembly remained twofold, it gradually changed from sharply negative at first to normally acceptable in the process of working with the program.
Latest version: 4.5.2Is there Russian language
Portable version: Yes
Home page: http://open-server.ru/
Basic kit:
- Apache 2.2.22;
- Apache 2.4.2;
- Nginx 1.2.0;
- MySQL 5.1.63;
- MySQL 5.5.24;
- PostgreSQL 9.1.2;
- PHP 5.2.17 (IMagick 2.2.1, Zend Optimizer 3.3.3, IonCube Loader 4.0.7, Memcache 2.2.4);
- PHP 5.3.13 (IMagick 2.3.0, Xdebug 2.2.0, IonCube Loader 4.0.14, Memcache 2.2.6);
- PHP 5.4.3 (Xdebug 2.2.0);
- SlimFTPd 3.181;
- Fake Sendmail 32;
- NNCron Lite 1.17;
- Memcached 1.2.6;
- Adminer 3.3.4;
- HeidiSQL 7.0;
- Webgrind 1.0;
- PHPMyAdmin 3.5.1;
- PHPPgAdmin 5.0.4;
- PHPMemcachedAdmin 1.2.1;
A nice feature of Open Server is the ability to use the program as a portable personal start menu. You can install the server on USB stick, move your portable programs, create bookmarks for frequently visited sites and wherever you are, you will have a convenient menu quick access to your favorite sites and programs.
Latest version: 1.8.2Russian language: No
Portable version: Yes
Home page: http://www.server2go-web.de/
Basic kit:
- Apache 2.2
- PHP 5.3.2
- SQLITE
- MYSQL 5.1.46
- PERL 5.8
The impression is extremely negative, although it would seem: the server starts, PhpMyadmin opens, and what else is needed? No, a server that cannot be stopped is not for me. Burn it in hell!
Latest version: 8.5.4Russian language: Yes
Portable version: No
Home page: http://www.uniformserver.com/
Basic kit:
- Apache 2.4.2
- PHP 5.4.0
- MySQL 5.5.24
- phpMyAdmin 3.5.1
Russian language: No
Portable version: Yes
Home page: http://www.usbwebserver.net/
Basic kit:
- Apache 2.2.21
- MySQL 5.5
- PHP 5.3.9
- PhpMyAdmin 3.4.9.0
The functionality of USBWebserver is similar to Denwer, except that Perl is missing. In the control panel, you can start / stop modules, open logs, there are still a couple of useful functions and settings, that's all. I would recommend this assembly as a GUI replacement for Denwer for those who need similar functionality, but want to have a control panel with buttons and tweaks.
Latest version: 2.27Russian language: No
Portable version: No
Homepage:
Basic kit:
- Apache 2.2.22
- PHP 5.3.10
- MySQL 5.5.20
- SQLite 3.7.10
- Smarty 3.1.7
- PhpMyAdmin 3.4.9
- Xdebug 2.1.3
- SQLiteManager 1.2.4
But not everything is so rosy in our kingdom, of course there are also disadvantages. The most important and significant disadvantage is that Vertrigo is not portable, it cannot be installed on a USB flash drive and used on different machines. Among other problems, I would like to note the difficulties with creating a domain or alias, as well as the absence of the Russian language.
Latest version: 2.2dRussian language: Yes
Portable version: No
Home page: http://www.wampserver.com/
Basic kit:
- Apache 2.2.21
- Php 5.3.10
- Mysql 5.5.20
- XDebug 2.1.2
- XDC 1.5
- PhpMyadmin 3.4.10.1
- SQLBuddy 1.3.3
- webGrind 1.0
The assembly works well and has a scary but understandable menu. There is nothing in it that makes this local web server stand out from the crowd. To be honest, I was very surprised to see such squalor in the design of the program after visiting the stylish and colorful homepage.
Latest version: 0.4.0.4Is there Russian language
Portable version: Yes
Home page: http://winginx.ru/
Basic kit:
- Nginx 1.2.0;
- PHP 5.3.13;
- PHP 5.4.3;
- Node.js 0.6.17;
- MySQL 5.1.62;
- MongoDB 2.0.5;
- memcached 1.2.6;
- phpMyAdmin 3.5.0;
- Adminer 3.3.3;
- RockMongo 1.1.1;
- phpMemcachedAdmin 1.2.1;
- Xdebug 2.2.0.5, Zend Guard Loader 5.5, ionCube 4.0.14
Working with logs looks rather strange in Winginx. To view them, we are offered a menu for selecting files of the form error.log, access.log, and so on, but which module these logs belong to is impossible to understand: Nginx, PHP, or maybe Node.js?
Although Winginx has a control program, the command of the web server itself, as well as in Denwer, is carried out via .bat files. I drew this conclusion from black windows pop-up out of nowhere during server startup or shutdown.
It is possible that someone (first of all, beginners) will find the function of automatic installation of scripts (PhpBB, WordPress, Joomla, etc.) very useful when creating a domain, especially considering that the scripts are configured to work with Nginx (rewrite the rules pretty hard). However, I personally never use such functions and prefer to perform the installation myself, because you never know what and how is installed there and what surprises may await you in the future.
14.Xampp USB Lite
Latest version: 1.7.7Russian language: No
Portable version: Yes
Homepage: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html
Basic kit:
- Apache 2.2.21
- MySQL 5.5.16
- PHP 5.3.8
- phpMyAdmin 3.4.5
The modules start and stop quickly enough, the welcome page is not confusing and understandable, albeit in English. In general, a pretty good software package (with a bunch of goodies in the desktop version) in which there is nothing superfluous or repulsive. Black windows don't attack from around the corner, the control panel is quite ordinary, but of little use.
Of the minuses of this software complex, I can note just this control panel, or rather the absence of this very control, it has nothing but starting and stopping the server. There is no convenient menu with a list of sites, there is no web server settings section, there are no useful tools... You will have to manually configure the working environment in this assembly.
Comparison
| Portable | Russian language | GUI availability | Useful GUI | Viewing logs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMPPS | - | + | + | - | + |
| - | - | - | - | - | |
| + | + | - | - | - | |
| + | + | + | + | + | |
| + | + | + | + | + | |
| Nimp | + | + | + | + | - |
| + | + | + | + | + | |
| + | - | - | - | - | |
| - | + | + | - | + | |
| + | - | + | - | - | |
| - | - | + | + | + | |
| - | + | + | + | + | |
| + | + | + | + | + | |
| Xampp USB Lite | + | - | + | - | - |
Testing
Test # 1 - False startThe essence of the test is to deliberately spoil the Apache configuration in order to check whether we receive any warning or all the indicators will be green, but nothing will work. Agree that there is little desire to use an assembly that deceptively reports a successful launch and makes you an idiot. If the server does not give any signals or works in secret, then the test will also be considered a failed one.
Test number 2 - Difficult paths
The essence of the test is to intentionally install the server into a folder with a complex name, in our test we will use a folder named “C: \\ test \\ Mys $ ka! ._- () zlo () + ~% & 2% Files”. If PhpMyAdmin (it is taken just for convenience, since it is in every assembly) does not open, then the test will fail accordingly. Each person is an individuality, folders are sometimes called the most unexpected names. The folder name chosen for the test is correct for Windows and should be processed correctly.
Test # 3 - SSL out of the box
The test is extremely simple - we start the server and try to open PhpMyAdmin via SSL protocol.
Legend: "+" means the test passed successfully, "-" means the test failed.
| False launch | Difficult paths | SSL out of the box | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AMPPS | + | + | + |
| - | + | - | |
| - | + | + | |
| + | + | - | |
| + | + | - | |
| Nimp | + | - | - |
| + | + | + | |
| - | + | - | |
| + | - | - | |
| + | - | - | |
| + | + | - | |
| + | + | - | |
| - | - | - | |
| Xampp USB Lite | + | - | + |
Conclusion
Having examined and tested so many software systems, the question arises - what should you choose in the end for your everyday work? The answer to this question is not so easy, each assembly will be good for a certain type of task.For beginners, I suggest using Denwer as the simplest and most time-tested WAMP kit. For all other web developers, as well as for those newbies who lack Denwer's functionality, I recommend using Open Server.
If you need to quickly familiarize yourself with any well-known script, forum, photo gallery or guestbook and do not want to bother installing it and finding a suitable platform, then you can try AMPPS. Of course, provided that the script you are interested in is supported by this development.
In case someone needs to use such rare modules as local mail server, Node.js, MongoDB, etc., then I think everyone can choose a suitable option for themselves among other participants in our review.
P.P.S I want to warn commentators who advocate a virtual machine with Linux on board and do not recognize anything else as an alternative. In part, I agree with you, when transferring a site to a real hosting, some problems may arise: streams, fs rights, symlinks, console, etc.
However, look at it from the other side. Such problems are special cases and they arise quite rarely. In reality, the opposite is true - the layout designer on the Smarty engine does not need to know anything about streams, symlinks and the console at all, and CMS developers have learned to set the correct write permissions for uploaded files for 100 years.
As a result, I want to say - WAMP platforms have the right to exist and use virtual machines in most cases it is completely unjustified.
Local server Is a web developer tool for creating, debugging and testing various scripts and web applications. In other words, a local web server is an emulator of a real server of a hosting provider located on your computer. The work of the local server is no different from the real one and we can create and test our sites on it.
I won't go deep into how the local server works and what it consists of. We'll talk about this anyway in another article. In this article, we will analyze installing and configuring a local server to your computer, but first let's figure out which local server to choose at all.
There are many local servers available today, but which one should you choose?
I have been using the Denver gentleman's kit for a long time, which includes php, mySql databases and PhpMyAdmin. You can find out more about this package on the developer's official website. Denver is one of the popular local server packages for web developers.
But I had to give up Denver when I discovered Open Server. In my opinion, this application is much more convenient to work with, especially since in latest versions the developer included a large number of the right programsrequired by the webmaster: browsers, code editor, file manager and others.
Open Server is distributed absolutely free. The only thing is that you can thank the author for such a super useful product for a webmaster by transferring an arbitrary amount to online wallet... As the author says, donations are very important, because the project is not commercial. Well, it is understandable, without money today, nowhere ... In general, I personally translated how much was not a pity.
Open Server benefits
What can I highlight in favor of this server? In general, I can say a lot of good things about Open Server, but I'm afraid the article will turn out too long. Therefore, I will highlight the important points.
The product comes in 3 versions: Ultimate, Premium, Basic. In general, you can see the difference on the developer's website, but I made a screen and attached it to the article.
It is the presence of several versions that I consider a plus, tk. you can download exactly what you need. Pay attention to the unpacked Ultimate version - more than 5 GB. I personally have constant problems with free space on my hard drive. Those who have no problems with this + need additional modules and programs, then you can safely download Ultimate.
Availability free software as already noted. What programs exactly? I made a screen again.
The list, as you can see, is impressive.
Private program update. In fact, this is also very important. With each new version bugs are fixed and new features appear.
Portable version of the program. The program essentially works without installation. You can carry it on a flash drive and, if necessary, work on another computer.
Rich program capabilities. Below I have inserted a screenshot of the Open Server settings window. Looking at this screen, you will understand that this server contains everything that a webmaster may need when developing a website. FTP server, work with mail (php mail, smtp mail), aliases (for), domains (creating an additional domain alias), task scheduler (though I haven't used it yet).
Excellent documentation + support forum. The developer wrote the manual rather succinctly. Moreover, you can ask any questions of interest on the support forum. In general, there is everything to start. You just need to pay a little attention to understand all this.
For now, I'll finish with the advantages, but this is not the whole list. You can find out more about Open Server on the official website of the developer - http://open-server.ru.
Installing a local Open Server
First, we need to download the distribution from the developer's site. You decide which version to download. This does not affect the operation of the local server. The distribution kit is a self-extracting archive. Double-click to unpack the archive somewhere on hDD computer, but in general it is desirable to root hard disk... That's it, you can run the program. Now go to the folder where you unpacked open-server and immediately create a shortcut on the desktop for the main boot file... You will find two versions of the boot file - one for the 32-bit operating system (Open Server x86.exe), the second for the 64-bit (Open Server x64.exe). We create a shortcut according to your system. For example, I chose "Open Server x64.exe" because I have a 64 bit OS. To create a shortcut, click right click mouse over the file, then Send -\u003e Desktop (create shortcut).
At the first start, the program will ask you to select a language and then a dialog box will pop up in which you will be prompted to install Microsoft Visual C ++ Runtime & Patches if you run Open Server on this computer first time.
To be honest, I don't even know why it needs to be installed, in previous versions Open Server didn't have that. But I installed and I advise you.
You can start Open Server by double-clicking on the shortcut that we sent to the desktop. After launching, a red flag will appear in your tray (next to the clock), this will mean that the local server program is running, but the server itself is not activated. Before activating, let's first look at the settings.
The first thing we need to do is to start the local server when the application starts (in principle, this is up to you). To do this, in the settings in the "General" tab, put a checkmark "Server autostart".
In the tab “ Modules»You can see the installed modules for the local server and can be changed if desired. For example, the default php version is 5.5. If you need 5.6.xx or php-7, then you can change it without any problems by selecting the required version from the drop-down list.
Also in the “ Server»I advise you to select the option« Always use Wirth. disk". This is necessary so that when the server starts up, virtual disk... You can choose any drive letter.
I recommend leaving the rest of the settings as they are. If you have tricky with the settings, then you can always roll them back to the factory settings by clicking on the " Reset settings«.
Now you can start the server - click on the red flag icon in the tray (just one click with the left mouse button) and select the green flag in the program menu. What do the colors of these flags mean?
- Green - the server is running;
- Orange - the server is starting / stopping;
- Red - the server is stopped.
After starting, you should have a virtual disk - W (unless, of course, you specified a different label in the settings). I want to note that when you first start, you may be asked for approval windows firewallif you have it enabled. The window of approval can pop up several times, and all the time we give the go-ahead to the firewall to perform actions by the Open Server. Otherwise, your server will not start.
We go to the virtual disk W and in the folder “ domains»Create a folder for your future project and upload all the files of your site there. There is no need to create a WWW folder in the site folder, as is done in Denver. After the files are uploaded, the server restarts by clicking on the orange flag in order for the server to determine new folder site.
To start the site after installation in the Open Server menu, go to “ My sites»And in the drop-down list of sites click on the desired one. After that, the browser will open, which is installed by default in Windows - if you are using the simplified version, and if you are using full version, then the browser will open, which is set in the local server settings.
In this article I have described how to install a local "Open Server". The list of settings that I have gone over is far from complete ... We will talk about the rest of the features and settings sometime in another article, but for now, I'll probably finish on this note.
Good luck and enjoy your site building!
Hello, today we will talk about choosing and creating a local server (localhost) on a computer, which any webmaster needs to test a dynamic site (its modules, plugins, themes, templates, engine updates, etc.) on a computer, and not on hosting on the Internet, that is, you can test the site even without an Internet connection.
You can download the sources for the article below
Sites on engines (wordpress, joomla, Bitrix, etc.) are dynamic sites, unlike static sites - they cannot be opened on a computer through a regular browser, to edit and view them, you need to install a local server (localhost) on your computer - “ program ”- which will create hosting on your computer - after which you will be able to view the dynamic site through a regular browser even without an Internet connection.
Which local server (localhost) should I choose?
1. Denwer (Denver) (“denwer.ru/”)
Denver - Free Local Server for windows.
Created by Russian programmers!
The site contains a video in Russian on installing and configuring a local server - Denver.
The project accepts donations - so it's worth supporting a domestic manufacturer!
2. MAMP (“mamp.info/en/”)
MAMP stands for Macintosh, Apache, MySQL and PHP.
MAMP is free, but there is also a paid version that allows you to set up multisite mode for wordpress (MultiSite).
MAMP is developed for operating system OS X (Apple's successor to Mac OS), but there is also a beta version available for Windows.
3. XAMPP (“apachefriends.org/ru/index.html”)
XAMPP is the most popular PHP development environment, it is free product with open source code
developed for Windows, OS X and Linux.
Allows you to create wordpress MultiSite sites.
The site and instructions for XAMPP have been translated into many languages, including Russian.
This product has an extension for various engines called - Bitnami- this free tool all-in-one for installing Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, etc.
"Bitnami.com/"
What platforms does Bitnami run on:
Operating Systems: Windows, OS X and all linux distributionsincluding Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Amazon, Linux, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, etc.
Virtualization platforms: VMWare, VirtualBox, Xen, KVM, Parallels, others
Cloud platforms: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, VMWare vCloud, OpenStack, CloudStack, others.
Bitnami is surprisingly easy to set up and use!
For developers of sites on the wordpress engine - Bitnami can be downloaded here:
"Bitnami.com/stack/wordpress"
4. DesktopServer (serverpress.com/ ”)
An excellent free product that allows you to create a local server in 5 minutes.
IN demon paid version it is possible to create 3 sites and you cannot use MultiSite for wordpress - all these restrictions have been removed in the paid version of the product.
5. WampServer (wampserver.com/ru/)
WampServer is a Windows web development platform for dynamic web applications using Apache2 server, PHP script interpreter and MySQL database.
Site and installation instructions in Russian.
The following information products will also be of interest to users of wordpress sites:
1. Plugin Duplicator
Available at wordpress.org:
Number of downloads: 745,009 - a lot of downloads!
Plugin site: “wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/”
A free and popular plugin, it allows you to clone your WordPress site for use elsewhere. Needed in order to create an exact copy of your site to use as a testing environment on a local computer or on your hosting account.
Making an exact copy of your site will allow you to test plugins, themes, and even WordPress engine updates before making changes on a real website.
Unfortunately this plugin does not support MultiSite.
2. Sandbox plugin
Available at wordpress.org:
Number of downloads: 1,883
Plugin site: “wordpress.org/plugins/sandbox/”
The plugin creates an exact copy of a WordPress site on your existing hosting, allowing you to test changes regardless of your real site, the changes will be hidden from visitors and search engines.
Another interesting product:
3. Instant WordPress (“instantwp.com”)
Instant WordPress is a portable WordPress development environment.
A video on how to easily and quickly install and use this product can be viewed here:
"Instantwp.com/documentation/video/"
That's all!
It doesn't matter for what reason you need to create your own website, the main thing is to approach this matter with all responsibility and act in stages. The first thing to do is install a local web server on your computer with which you can practice and start creating your own site even without Internet access.
In order to turn your local computer into a full-fledged (test) web server, you need to download and install a special software package. There are a lot of such complexes, but they usually include a standard set of products - apache web server, MySQL DBMS, pHP language And so on.
In this article, we will look at one of the most popular software suites for web developers called Denwer. And exactly Denwer we will install on the local computer operating system Windows 7... If you have a different version of the operating system, that's okay Denwer installs seamlessly on Windows XP and Windows 10.
Where to download Denwer
Before starting the installation, you need to download Denwer (Denver) from the official website of the developer, where you need to fill in your personal information, such as name and address email, after which a link to the distribution kit will be sent to you at the address you specified. Or you can go the other way and download exactly the same distribution kit from our website.
Installation process
Now let's start installing Denver on Windows 7. Let me remind you that for others windows versions whether it's XP or 10ka, the whole process will be the same.
We launch the newly downloaded Denver distribution and observe a security warning that says - do we really want to allow the application to make changes to the computer. We say that we agree by clicking on the "Yes" button and proceed to the next step.
In the installer window to the question "Do you really want to install the base package?" Click "Yes" and wait for the archive to unpack.
After unpacking the archive, a browser window and a console will open in front of you. In the browser, as a rule, there is no useful information for us, moreover, in most cases it tries to open non-existent page on your computer, so you can safely close it. You shouldn't touch the console, we will need it to install Denver.
After closing the browser window, although this is not necessary, go to the console and press the Enter key.
Next, we read that something like "blah blah blah", and at the very end of the console the directory where the server will be installed is indicated, by default it is C: \\ WebServers, but no one forbids specifying another drive, just entering a new path, as in the screenshot below:
Next, we confirm the installation to the selected location, in my case the D: \\ WebSrv folder already exists and a warning appeared about whether I really want to install into it, do not pay attention to all this and click on the "Y" button if we want to continue, or the "N" button if you change your mind.
The next step is again to confirm that we want to install the web server in this directory by pressing the "Enter" key. Everything is standard in the style of small soft (Microsoft).
At the next stage, a virtual disk will be created, which is necessary for the functioning of all system components. We select any drive letter you like, by default it is the letter "Z", we will probably leave it.
Press "Enter", and then again and before proceeding to the next step - wait until all files are unpacked.
Now we have to choose how to load a virtual disk, there are only two options:
- The disk is created and appears immediately at system boot and is not disconnected at shutdown.
- The disk is created when the web server starts, and after the web server is stopped, the disk disappears.
In principle, both options are good in their own way, we choose what we like. I usually choose the first option, in this case, even with the server turned off, you can work with files on the disk (of course, you can do this right in the folder specified at the beginning of the installation, but it's more convenient for me).
Press "Enter" and go to the next step.
At the end of the installation, Denver will ask something like the following - “do you want to place shortcuts on the desktop?”, I strongly recommend that you answer “I want”, in this case it will be more convenient to work with it in the future. Press the "Y" key and press "Enter". After that, 3 shortcuts are created on the desktop to start, stop and restart the server.
On this installation local web Denwer server is complete, and you can see 3 shortcuts on the desktop:
- Restart Denwer - restart the server
- Start Denwer - start the server
- Stop Denwer - stop the server.
They look like this.
