XAMPP has been my development environment of choice until now. I am now switching to a Raspberry Pi to get a true Linux environment for development and testing, especially Linux permissions issues, which XAMPP doesn’t provide when run in Windows.
JonRadio,
I checked out XAMPP and it seems great for installing MySQL and PHP. I actually already have these two components in place on my dev machine.
My problem is that when I launch my new WordPress site through IIS the first time, WordPress prompts me to enter the database connection information, it says it connects but it can find the WordPress database. I assume that WordPress has a database to store data related to your site?
Yes, WordPress stores a lot in the database. All your Pages, Posts, Settings, User IDs, per-use info, you name it.
XAMPP installs Apache and phpMyAdmin, too. I prefer XAMPP because it uses Apache, which is likely what your Production environment will be, if you are use commercial hosting. Linux is the preferred hosting environment for WordPress, though it does work in IIS, too.
jonradio,
Many thanks for you reply on this!
So it sounds like either Apache or Linux are required to do WordPress.org development on a local windows machine? Im coming from the Asp.Net world so neither of these were required…
Actually, designing a Development Environment requires a knowledge of the Production Environment. Given a choice, WordPress “prefers” a Linux/Apache Production Environment.
Once you know what your Production Environment will be, then try and get the Development Environment to match as closely as possible.
Don’t get me wrong. WordPress can run in an IIS environment, but the problem is two-fold:
- Most IIS environments have defaults that need to be changed to get WordPress working properly
- WordPress is tested by many more people in a Linux environment than an IIS environment, so undetected bugs are more likely to creep into WordPress running in an IIS environment. Then there are Themes and especially Plugins — many plugins just plain won’t work in IIS
MAMP is great for local WordPress development on Windows: http://www.wampserver.com/en/
Although I’ve had some issues get it to run alongside IIS or Web Matrix. You may have stop the IIS Services before using MAMP.
I will just leave this here:
[Link removed]
best of luck!
@evan Herman:Thank you contributing to the forums but please do not use these forums to link to articles on your own site. Wherever possible, please use the relevant Codex page instead – which in this case would be installing WordPress locally
Yes, WAMP (MAMP is for Apple environments) is similar to XAMPP, but you still run into the major differences between Windows and Linux file permissions, and the difficulty of installing software using Linux instructions because of the different file layout used by WAMP and XAMPP, as compared to the many Linux operating systems.
As I said above, the closer that your Development environment matches your Production environment, the better.
As for running WebMatrix and XAMPP (or presumably WAMP) on the same machine, it can be a real headache. More than just stopping and starting IIS Services, in my experience.
