What is the use of wampserver in php?

Jul 26, 2022

Emma Y.

2min Read

Download Glossary For Web Beginners

WAMP is an acronym that stands for Windows, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. It’s a software stack which means installing WAMP installs Apache, MySQL, and PHP on your operating system (Windows in the case of WAMP). Even though you can install them separately, they are usually bundled up, and for a good reason too.

What’s good to know is that WAMP derives from LAMP (the L stands for Linux). The only difference between these two is that WAMP is used for Windows, while LAMP – for Linux based operating systems.

Let’s quickly go over what each letter represents:

  1. W” stands for Windows, there’s also LAMP (for Linux) and MAMP (for Mac).
  2. A” stands for Apache. Apache is the server software that is responsible for serving web pages. When you request a page to be seen by you, Apache grants your request over HTTP and shows you the site.
  3. M” stands for MySQL. MySQL’s job is to be the database management system for your server. It stores all of the relevant information like your site’s content, user profiles, etc.
  4. P” stands for PHP. It’s the programming language that was used to write WordPress. It acts like glue for this whole software stack. PHP is running in conjunction with Apache and communicating with MySQL.

Instead of installing and testing WordPress on your hosting account, you can do it on your personal computer (localhost).

WAMP acts like a virtual server on your computer. It allows you to test all WordPress features without any consequences since it’s localized on your machine and is not connected to the web.

First of all, this means that you don’t need to wait until files are uploaded to your site, and secondly – this makes creating backups much easier.

WAMP speeds up the work process for both developers and theme designers alike. What is more, you also get the benefit of playing around with your site to your heart’s content.

However, to actually make the website go live, you need to get some form of hosting service and a Domain. See our beginner-friendly article about web hosting for more information.

Pro Tip

Or if you’re already prepared to go online, take a look at what Hostinger has to offer. We can guarantee you the best web hosting prices in the market for high-quality hosting solutions.

In essence, WAMP is used as a safe space to work on your website, without needing to actually host it online.

WAMP also has a control panel. Once you install the software package, all of the services mentioned above (excluding the operating system that is) will be installed on your local machine.

Whether you use WAMP or software packages for the other operating systems, it’s a great way to save time. You won’t have to upload files to a site and will be able to learn how to develop in a safe and care-free environment.

You can download WAMP here.

What is the use of wampserver in php?

Emma is an advocate for organized chaos. She loves longboarding, yoga, and cyber security. On a normal day, her content strategy is surfing the waves of content platforms, flexing the forms of social media and blog, and unlocking the paths of untouched SEO techniques.

Introduction: How to Run a PHP Script With Wamp Server

Let me explain today how to use the wamp server to run PHP files. You can use this method to run PHP scripts you may have obtained from somewhere and need to run with little to no knowledge of PHP. You can execute your scripts through a web server where the output is a web browser. So let's get started

Step 1: Installing the Server Software

To set up the server we are using a software called wamp server.

  1. First you need to download the wamp server according to your system specifications(32 bit windows or 64 bit windows) from here
  2. Install the file on your computer and keep the settings to default unless you have specific requirements.
  3. After Installation start Wamp server.

Step 2: Setting Up the Server

  • If the installation went well, you should have an new icon in the bottom right, where the clock is.
  • Click the icon to see the menu as given above(1). The icon should be green in color, if it is red/orange then there is an error. From here, you can stop the server, exit it, view help files, and see the configuration pages.
  • Click on localhost, though, and you'll see the page as above(2) : (Localhost just refers to the server running on your own computer. Another way to refer to your server is by using the IP address 127.0.0.1.)
  • If you saw the above page, then congratulations! Your PHP server is up and running, and you can make a start scripting PHP pages.

Step 3: Saving Your PHP Scripts

  • Whenever you create a new PHP page, you need to save it in your www directory. You can see where this is by clicking the www directory item on the menu.
  • When you click on www directory, you should see an explorer window appear.

  • The PHP Script you want to run should be copied into this directory.

  • This www folder for Wampserver is usually at this location on your hard drive:
    c:/wamp/www/

    Bear this in mind when you click File > Save As to save your PHP scripts.

Step 4: Running the PHP Script

  • You can run the PHP Script in two ways:

Method 1:

Open localhost through the menu in the bottom right of the taskbar.

A page should open in your browser and you should see a list called Your Projects

If you saved your PHP script at the right place you should see your script name in this list

Click on the script to run it

Method 2:

Suppose you have created a php script called test1.php. To launch

this script, you need to add the script name after localhost in your browser. So we type

http://localhost/test1.php

Your server knows where the www folder is, so you don't have to type it out: just add the script name to localhost. Likewise, if you create a folder under www then you'd just type this:

http://localhost/folder_name/script_name.php

Viola, your script should be up and running.

Step 5: Troubleshooting

If you encounter an error like "api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1.0.dll is missing”, then you need to (re)install the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015, either via Windows Update or download and directly install the Visual C++ Redistributable:

  1. Install all pending Windows Updates

1. Go to Start – Control Panel – Windows Update

2. Check for updates and install all pending updates, then restart the computer.

3. After the restart repeat the steps above again until no more updates are available.

2. Download the Visual C++ Redistributable 2015

  • For Windows 64-bit

Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 (64-bit)

  • For Windows 32-bit

Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 (32-bit)

  • Run the vcredist_x64.exe (64-bit) or vcredist_x86.exe (32-bit) and select Uninstall if already installed
  • (If you uninstalled) Run the .exe again and select Install and restart the computer

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What is WampServer used for?

WampServer is a Windows web development environment. It allows you to create web applications with Apache2, PHP and a MySQL database. Alongside, PhpMyAdmin allows you to manage easily your databases.

Do I need WAMP for PHP?

Yes, php comes with wamp and when you install wamp server on your pc, php also get installed.

Is WampServer same as XAMPP?

XAMPP vs WAMP - Key Differences The crucial differences between XAMPP and WAMP are: XAMPP is a cross platform software package that supports macOS, Linux, and Windows. On the other hand, WAMP is a local server that only supports Windows Operating System.

Is WampServer good for production?

YES, it can be used in production under condition that you install the secure WAMP distro. And yes it can run on Internet and not just intranet. Here is a link to a secure WAMP for production where you can customize the security level and other settings to suit production environment.