CakePHP is a web development framework that uses the MVC model. It is a free open source framework for PHP that uses the Model-View-Controller software design pattern. In this tutorial, I will teach you how to set up CakePHP using XAMPP on a Windows 7 system.
Before we proceed, it is best that you install XAMPP first, which contains PHP, Apache, and MySQL. Let’s get cracking then!
1: Download XAMPP and CakePHP
2: Install XAMPP
Once you have installed XAMPP (version 1.7.3) on your Windows with the default option, all your files will be located in the C:/xampp folder.
3: Mod Rewrite Module
Once XAMPP is installed as the local server, you can then proceed to enable mod_rewrite. To do so, you will have to open the httpd.conf file that is located in C:/xampp/apacheconf and uncomment by removing # from the following line: # LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so.
4: Place CakePHP Files in a New Folder
Extract the CakePHP (version 1.3.8) zip file and copy all its contents to your local web server, which in this instance is C:/xampp/htdocs/jack. I have decided to name the CakePHP folder as jack and in it, you will find many files and folders for the framework, including app, cake, docs, vendors, .htaccess, and index.php.
5: Set Up Virtual Host
Open the httpd-vhosts.conf file from the C:/xampp/apacheconf/extra in order to set up new virtual host that can run your CakePHP application. You will have to add the following lines in order to run the application:
<strong>NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot C:/xampp/htdocs/jack
ServerName local.jack.com
<Directory “C:/xampp/htdocs/jack”>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost></strong>
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
DocumentRoot C:/xampp/htdocs/xampp
ServerName localhost
<Directory “C:/xampp/htdocs/xampp”>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>```
The httpd-vhosts.conf file will have the aforementioned configuration for virtual host to run CakePHP and other php application. I have decided to choose local.jack.com as the server name, and likewise, we will have to add it to the C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etchosts file as mentioned below:
# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 local.jack.com
# ::1 localhost
If your web server is already running, restart it so that you can access the new CakePHP installation by growing to http://local.jack.com through your browser.
6: Setting Up Database Connection
Start off setting up your database connection by renaming the database configuration file to database.php file from database.php.default file, as found in the C:/xampp/htdocs/razib/appconfig folder. Now open the database.php file and enter a username, password, and database name to the ‘$default’ connection variable:
var $default = array (
‘driver’ => ‘mysql’ ,
‘persistent’ => false
‘host’ => ‘localhost’ ,
‘login’ => ‘root’ ,
‘password’ => ‘ ‘ ,
‘database’ => ‘jack’ ,
‘prefix’ => ‘ ‘ ,
);
7: Run CakePHP
Open http://local.jack.com on any browser and CakePHP can now access the database configuration file!
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