I am just starting to learn PHP development (wordpress specifically) and was wondering if there is a way to structure my PHP projects such that I don't need to create them inside the /var/www/ folder?
Specifically, I am coming from Ruby on Rails and it was very handy that I just had to type rails server into any directory which was initialized with Rails in my system and Rails would automatically associate the correct relative paths.
It is very cumbersome having to sudo each time into the /var/www/ folder and create the projects there. I would much rather have some sort of directory in my home directory where I can put all my PHP projects into.
I am using the standard LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP).
Laravel is quite similar to Rails; I've decided to go ahead and use it.
The command php artisan serve is essentially the laravel version of
rails server, and configures the document root to be the current directory, much like php -S localhost:8000.
Related
I have created an administrative system for libraries which basically lets you register books, users, borrowings and all kind of stuff that happens in a library. To code and test it, I used XAMPP, in my own PC, using Apache PHP and MySQL to structure and develop the application.
It works, and has a very complete and efficient set of functions and utilities, that is why I plan to implement it in my school's library, that for years has been using Microsoft Excel as a tool to organize all the books and students.
The thing is: I don't understand how to setup this app as a local web application. The idea is to install the folders and files in the library computer so it can control the system locally and through a browser (using localhost to access the PHP application).
I know it is possible to simply install XAMPP manually and copy the folder to htdocs and then use it normally, but I want to eliminate the manual part, and have some sort of setup that lets any person install the app without having to understand how Apache or MySQL works.
Does anybody know what could I do? I have though of creating a series of batch files (the library PC uses Windows) and move folders, create shortcuts, etc. using normal cmd commands. It would be a better alternative, but still the user would need to go through XAMPP (or some other service) setup prompts.
Thanks very much
you can create a bash file to automate this process.
I'm not even sure this is the right way to do this, but I am looking for some advice. I am developing on a Mac, but using VMWare to run this project in Windows.
I am using WAMPserver 2.2A. My directories look like this:
C:\Users\John Doe\Development\project-web\
C:\wamp\www\
What I would like, is to develop my project in project-web, but have a symlink in www so I can run it in the browser with apache. This is what I tried:
mklink project "C:\Users\John Doe\Development\project-web\"
I ran into some permissions errors when trying to approach it this way. I feel like this would be better than storing the project in \www\ but I might be wrong.
Any advice would be great!
Apache generally doesn't follow symlinks by default, as they can be trivially used to break out of the document root. I'd suggest looking into using an Apache Alias instead to create a virtual Apache folder that maps to your development directory
Currently using LAMP stack for my web app. My dev and prod are in the same cloud instance. Now I am getting a new instance and would like to move the dev/test environment to the new instance, separating it from the prod environment.
It used to be a simple Phing script that would do a SVN export into the prod directory (pointed to by my vhost.conf). How do I make a good build process now with the environments separated?
Thinking of transferring the SVN repository to the dev server and then doing a ssh+svn push (is this possible with Phing?)
What's the best/common practice for this type of setup?
More Info:
I'm currently using CodeIgniter for MVC framework, Phing for automated builds for localhost deployment. The web app is also supported by a few CRON scripts written in Java.
Update:
Ended up using Phing + Jenkins. Working well so far!
We use Phing for doing deployments similar to what you have described. We also use Symfony framework for our projects (which is not so much important for this but Symfony supports the concept of different environments so it's a plus).
However we still need to produce different configuration files for database, front controllers etc.
So we ended up having a folder with build.properties that define configuration for different environments (and in our case also for different clients we ship our product to). This folder is linked to the file structure using svn externals (again not necessary).
The Phing build.xml file then accept a property file as a parameter on the command line, takes the values from it and produces all necessary configuration files, controllers and other environment specific files.
We store the configuration in template files and then use copy/filter feature in Phing to replace the placeholders in the templates with the specific values.
The whole task of configuring the given environment can then be as simple as something like this:
phing configure-environment -DpropertyFile=./build_properties/build.properties.prod
In your build file you check if the propertyFile property that specifies the properties file is defined and load the file using <property file="./build_properties/build.properties.prod" override="true" />. Then you just do any magic with the values as you need.
You can still use your svn checkout/update and put all the resulting configuration files into svn ignore (you will have them generated by phing). We actually use additional steps in Phing. Those steps in the end produce a Linux shell installation self-deploy package. This is produced automatically in Jenkins. We then send the package to our clients or the support team can grab the package from Jenkins and they can do the whole deployment just by executing it (we still prefer manual deployments to production servers) or Jenkins can deploy it automatically (for example to test servers).
I'll be happy to write more info if needed.
I recommend using Capistrano (looks like they haven't updated the docs since they moved the site) and railsless-deploy for doing deployment. Eventually, you are probably going to need to add more app boxes and run other tasks as part of your deployment so choosing a framework that will support this can save you a lot of time in the future. I have used capistrano for two PHP deployments (one small and one large) and although its not perfect, it works well. It also handles all of the code checkout / update, moving symlinks into place, and rolling back if something goes wrong.
Once you have capistrano configured, all you have to do is something like:
cap dev deploy
cap prod deploy
Another option that I have explored for doing this is fabric. Although I haven't used it, if I had to deploy a complex app again, I would consider it. The interface is simple and straightforward.
A third option you might take a look at thought its still in the early stages of development is gantry (pardon the self promoting). This is something I have been working on out of frustration with using capistrano to deploy a PHP application in an environment with a lot of moving pieces. Capistrano is great and works well for non PHP application deployments, but you still have to some poking around in the code to understand what is happening and tweak it to suit your needs. This is also why I suggest giving fabric a good look.
I use a similar config now. Lamp + SVN + codeigniter + prd and dev servers.
I run the svn repos on dev. I checkout the repos into the root folder of the dev domain. Then use a post-commit hook to update the root folder everytime any developer commits.
When we are happy and have fully tested the code I ssh into the prd server and rsync the dev root to the prd root.
Heres my solution for the different configs. Outside the root folder I have a config.ini file. I parse the file in my codeigniter constants.php script. This means that the prd and dev server can have separate settings without them ever being in the repos.
If you want help with post-commit, rsync and ini code let me know.
Ok,
This seems like something that would be obvious, but I haven't been able to figure this out.
I just started using Solar PHP5 Framework http://solarphp.com. It is a great php5 framework. But with any new framework the is a learning curve.
Issue: Solar uses many pre-written scripts to make directories and files for you. Making it easy to rapidly deploy a site. Being that it uses these scripts, it makes symbolic links to files and directories. (Example: Chapter 1 in the manual) This is great until you need to export your entire root directory to upload to your server or make another instance on another development computer. The problem for me is, when I do this, the files are editable, but do not reflect any changes when I refresh a page. Its like it doesn't update any code. The only way I can accomplish changes or updates, is to (essentially) run the site set-up each time, which involves running all the setup scripts, setting up the DB connections, etc. This is a total pain.
Question Is there any advice out there on doing this where I can just export the working root directory, to easily upload to server or other dev machine, without having to run those scripts over and over again. I know its something easy but I do not know exactly what to search for.
Is the a certain method for exporting directories/files that use symbolic links?
You might try using rsync instead of ftp to deploy the site. rsync will respect symlinks. Of course you will need have ssh access or mount the server over ftp/sftp with FUSE. If youre using SVN you could also ssh into the server and do an svn export or checkout.
I am interested in the PHP framework, especially by symfony and ZendFramework, but I am not sure of one thing: I saw the need to type command lines to create a project with these frameworks. Ok, but once the project is finished, is it possible to move files to another server without installing anything (except for Apache)?
Thank you in advance
Ps: No report, but do StackOverflow uses a framework?
It is absolutely possible to run a symfony or zend framework application without installing the framework on the server. Symfony has a special mechanism to pack everything into one folder. If you use zend framework you basically have to copy the "Zend" folder to your "lib" directory and you are ready to go.
As far as I know, StackOverflow is build on ASP.net and C# running on several windows servers.
Firstof, most of those commands are needed for development only. But also you do not have to have the commands in your global path, it's also possible to execute the scripts directly.
In case of symfony that would be something like
./symfony-framework/data/bin/symfony
if you installed symfony to symfony-framework.
I believe stackoverflow is based on .NET MVC or plain ASP .NET - http://meta.stackoverflow.com will give you that answer
With Zend Framework, it is possible. The Zend_Tool part, which sets up the basics of your project is just addition. You can, but you don't have to use it at all. You can just write the project from scratch yourself, just stick to the standard project architecture.
Anyway, once the project is ready, it does not need any command line setup, other than mayby setting correct file system permission if your project needs to write some files.
I can't say about symphony, but I assume it also can be just copied to the target server.
I don't know, how about ZF, but project made with Symfony can be easily moved to another server just by copying files. However it will be difficult to maintain your project without commands. Also you have to copy all Symfony's core files to your server, but it will be better to install Symfony there before.
About Symfony:
Usually, you develop locally on your dev environment (using Wampserver or MAMP for example). You will require access to the command line to run symfony commands, specially for complex tasks like ORM tasks. So you have to install symfony on that environment.
According to the official doc the recommended installation method is through SVN (either the trunk or a tag) inside your project folder.
When you'll push the files from your dev environment to another (using project:deploy if you can), all the required files will be pushed.
So there is no need to install (in the sense of "run" or "execute") anything on the live environment server. The only "installation" method that requires an access to the command line is the PEAR install method, which is not recommended.
The only problem that I had when I deployed an application was a user permission problem on the cache folder, but that's easy to fix by changing the folder permission.