[Year 12 Its] PHP/MySQL learning environment

[Peter Ruwoldt (wrk)]

Thanks for that Maggie
I was hoping to avoid the ftp part of this, at least during the 
development stages for students.  My hope was for students to be able to 
save their work over the network to their space on the server and then 
test their work from a browser. 
Peter

iaquinto at ozemail.com.au wrote:

> Try also www.openlab.net.au for an account there. Roland Gesthuizen is 
> your
> contact for help with this. As part of the VITTA subscription for our 
> school,
> we also purchased virtual server space on Openlab. You, as the 
> administrator,
> can make accounts for your students. They can then ftp their files to 
> their
> account at Openlab and view the html/php forms.
>
> Maggie
>
> Quoting "Peter Ruwoldt (wrk)" <pruwoldt at bigpond.net.au>:
>
>> I have started my learning of PHP/MySQL and very happy with the 
>> progress to date.
>>
>> *What I have done.*
>> I have downloaded and installed xampp 
>> <http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html> . Setup and 
>> configuration was a snap except that the Apache server would not 
>> start until I changed the port that Skype was using from port 80. 
>> Since I modified the MySQL login credentials the samples (eg CD's) 
>> did not work until I modified the relevant PHP files using a text 
>> editor.
>>
>> Next was to download and install the freeware tool PHP Designer 2005 
>> <http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html> . A couple of 
>> configuration settings were needed to let PHP Designer know where the 
>> PHP interpreter was located as well as the PHP ini file. I am also 
>> saving the php experiments into \xampp\xampp\htdocs where the php 
>> files that come with xampp are located. This means that my browser 
>> can also use these files using the address 
>> http://localhost/xampp/filename.php
>>
>> Finally a great set of tutorials at 
>> http://www.tizag.com/mysqlTutorial/mysqlinsert.php that covers mySQL, 
>> PHP, HTML and CSS.
>>
>> I have created a sample database using PHPmyadmin that comes with 
>> xampp. I created two tables that could be linked. Then I followed the 
>> mySQL tutorial from 
>> http://www.tizag.com/mysqlTutorial/mysqlinsert.php but modifying it 
>> on the fly to suit the database that I created. This modifying on the 
>> fly has been good as I know that I have understood.
>>
>> I have successfully created a html form and used the data input into 
>> this form to update a MySQL table. Fantastic. I have enough to 
>> continue building my knowledge and feel comfortable with this 
>> development environment. I am not sure that it is the best 
>> environment for school and this relates to my next question. Before I 
>> go too much further I need to work out how do I implement this 
>> learning in a school.
>>
>> *What I need is some advice about how to create a PHP/MySQL work 
>> environment at school*. Some of the issues are
>>
>> * Students should not store there work on a PC. PC's can be
>> re-imaged without notice. We can not assume that students will
>> work on the same PC each time either. They will need to be able to
>> continue with their work at other locations in the school and
>> hopefully at home.
>> * I would be happy with students doing their development on an
>> external server so that it can be accessed from school and home.
>> However, working on a server adds complexity as code has to be
>> written, uploaded to the server and then executed by checking with
>> a browser. They do not get the benefit of using tools like PHP
>> Designer 2005.
>> * How do you easily have a server set up so that 20 students can
>> each have their space for testing?
>> * It is easy to backup a database, destroy it and then restore it
>> using PHPmyadmin. PHP files can be copied to another location for
>> safe keeping.
>>
>> Regards
>> Peter
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee 
>> -- that will do them in.
>>
>> Peter Ruwoldt
>> ICT Coordinator
>> Grant High School
>> Hosking Avenue
>> MOUNT GAMBIER  SA  5290
>>
>> P. 08 87263107 (Do not leave voice mail)
>> F. 08 87250173
>>
>> ruwoldtp at granths.sa.edu.au
>> http://waraku.blogspot.com/
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
>
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-- 
If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee -- that will do them in.

Peter Ruwoldt
ICT Coordinator
Grant High School
Hosking Avenue
MOUNT GAMBIER  SA  5290

P. 08 87263107 (Do not leave voice mail)
F. 08 87250173

ruwoldtp at granths.sa.edu.au
http://waraku.blogspot.com/