Development Tools, part II
So I continued downloading and installing tools..
MySQL Server 5.1
Since my web hosting provider only supports MySQL, it’s only logical to use it as the backend. So, I downloaded “mysql-essential-5.1.45-win32.msi” from http://dev.mysql.com. The installation went pretty much down with “typical” settings and “standard configuration”.
Eclipse for PHP
Then I downloaded the package “eclipse-php-galileo-SR2-win32.zip” from Eclipse.org. I have been using Eclipse for Java for many years now and I wanted to give it a try on PHP development as well. What comes to PHP development, I expect things to go as smoothly as I'm used to with Eclipse.
After firing up Eclipse, I was told to install at least the following plugins/addons:
Zend Debugger from http://downloads.zend.com/pdt and
JSEclipse from http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/jseclipse/autoinstall/site.xml
Data Tools Platform (DTP) from http://www.eclipse.org/datatools/downloads.php
I ended up installing only DTP. I will install the rest on-demand, if I seem to need them later..
Miscellaneous Configuration
Before getting our hands dirty with our first prototype iteration (of design and coding), I made some final environment touch-ups:
- I created a symbolic link inside /htdocs pointing directly into my PHP Eclipse project. This is a convenience link in order to directly display my PHP project contents in my browser. Now I can point my browser to http://localhost/
- I modified the DirectoryIndex directive in Apache web server’s “httpd.conf” configuration file. I added “index.php” just before “index.html”. Now my index.php gets the attention that it deserves.
UMLet 10.4
Since I’m in a habit of putting my initial designs “on paper”, I downloaded this handy Eclipse plugin called UMLet. It’s used for drawing UML diagrams. You can get it here: http://www.umlet.com/changes.htm
Any questions or comments? Let the discussion continue in the forum!
