php, coldfusion and general web development waffle

luke · Post by **luke** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 9:12 pm

so, i've somehow been blagged into helping a local charity finish of their web site. no worries, except it's all been done using php - which i've never used ( i use coldfusion )

i was just going to install it on my iis setup, but i'm not sure what version i need - the 'Non Thread Safe' or the 'Thread Safe' version?

anyone know?!

https://windows.php.net/download/

i'm sure i'll have plenty more questions over the next week

Post by **faceless** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 9:17 pm

are they using a php portal system for the site?

Once you know what that is, you can usually find plenty of hack sites etc.

luke · Post by **luke** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 9:29 pm

they've got some sort of php cms that allows them to edit the pages, but until i can get php installed i can't do anything

do you know the difference between the thread safe and non thread safe versions of php?

why can't everyone just use coldfusion, its so much easier

Post by **faceless** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 9:56 pm

If you download one of their php pages it should say what the CMS is, so that will make things easier.

Are you planning to do a complete revamp of the site though? If not, I don't think you really need to get php installed. I don't have it here, though if I did I'd do it within a Virtual PC.

Normally I just edit the php files using my normal text editor (pspad). If I'm doing something that's new, I'll just upload the file to the server and test live.

luke · Post by **luke** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 10:12 pm

no, i'm not going to redo the whole site - if i did i'd just do it in coldfusion! it just needs some tweaking here and there and some new pages, nothing major

i've been meaning to learn php for a while, so i don't mind installing it, and i prefer testing it locally. i've already got iis setup with coldfusion so it shouldn't be difficult to get php running as well.

i found this article;

Difference between PHP thread safe and non thread safe binaries

Post by **faceless** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 10:36 pm

The most important things in learning php are learning how to inject and extract info from the database.

I meant to say that I wasn't sure about the threaded v non-threaded idea. But I see the point now. As far as I can tell, it's not really relevant unless the site is very busy and require as much stream-lining as possible.

What CMS are they using?

major.tom · Post by **major.tom** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 11:49 pm

"Thread safe" refers to how it interacts with the O/S in a multi-user environment. Since I didn't know what effect this would have (if any) on the syntax, I did a quick google search which brought back this.

conclusion: If you're not using CGI, you should be fine with the thread-safe binaries

Are you working directly at the website host (I cringe to think their using windows/iis) or just developing on your own windows PC?

luke · Post by **luke** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:00 am

yeah thats the same link i found, i'm going to try the thread safe version ... hopefully it'll be alright

i'm developing it on my windows pc major, i have iis setup already because i need it for coldfusion, plus they don't even have the hosting or domain sorted yet

why do you cringe of a windows/iis setup? one of the servers i use for hosting is a windows/iis with cold fusion and its very rare theres any trouble

Brown Sauce · Post by **Brown Sauce** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 10:16 am

install xammp Luke, I've been doing wordpress stuff for a while,

https://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

when you find out what cms they're using, if it ain't wordpress ask 'em why

edit

If it's drupal give it to someone else ...

luke · Post by **luke** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:18 pm

thanks sauce, that looks interesting - and coldfusion should run on apache too - i'll check out wordpress as well

Brown Sauce · Post by **Brown Sauce** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 6:23 pm

if you need any help with wordpress gi me a shout ..

luke · Post by **luke** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 6:36 pm

i've got php working on my iis setup and i've had a quick look at whats going on with the site ... it doesn't appear there is a database. it uses something called tinymce which then saves the results through php as a .html page - although the editor comes up blank when i try do do anything with it ... it adds adds header and footer info to the .html page and displays in a iframe

i can view whats there, i just can't edit anything with tinymce at the moment until i work out why its coming out blank ...

major.tom · Post by **major.tom** » Tue Mar 29, 2011 7:02 pm

luke wrote:why do you cringe of a windows/iis setup? one of the servers i use for hosting is a windows/iis with cold fusion and its very rare theres any trouble

2 reasons:

experience/bias -- LAMP (linux, apache, mysql, php) may be a little esoteric to administer, but offer the most bang for the buck. What you give up in "polish" (eg. Aero Glass) you easily gain back in performance and scalability. That's why there so popular for hosting websites.
cost -- M$ license/support structure may be harder to swallow when there are free and low-cost alternatives that fit the bill nicely and are arguably more secure. For a charity, that might be a significant factor.

But that's just my opinion... If Windows does the trick, go at 'er.

luke · Post by **luke** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:23 pm

i was having no joy getting php to load up tinymce with the pages to edit under iis, so i installed xampp, and it worked first time

thanks sauce

now i can actually start the work!

Brown Sauce · Post by **Brown Sauce** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 9:35 am

that's good ..