I’m way behind the times on this one, but until recently, I have never really developed locally. Everything I did was “going commando” and working directly on servers. The situation arose where I really needed to, so now I have MAMP (Mac, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) installed locally. It is an excellent program and works great. I go over what it’s like in the first few minutes of using it, and get a fresh copy of WordPress installed locally.
Links from Video:
- MAMP
- WordPress
- Next Related Screencast: Moving Up with MAMP
actually you are missing some very usefull thinks.
1.subdomains in htdocs folder, you can create a new folder name it project1 and with localhost:8888/project1 in URL vouala you have a sub folder with your project.
2.phpmyadmin in the first screen you can make your brand new database select your collation an have all your projects running local.
Vive Css Tricks.
Yeah I noticed while re-watching it there is a super obvious box for creating a new DB. Fortunately the test DB is also perfectly fine.
hahaha ! The only true thing he said: I´m to lazy!
Haha, yeah. But never expected Chris to say “I’m to lazy” :)
The whole screencast was actually really funny, watching Chris doing stuff and doesn’t know what the heck he is doing :)
The “Bye bye” at the end was hilarious, so i have to ask you something Chris. What drugs ware you on at the time of making this, i want some too :P
I thought you used “virtual server” before, i mean i learned how to install it (without the WAMP/MAMP, that came a bit later, i was intalling everything manually) before i even started learning HTML… :)
too
You can actually create a new database from the phpMyAdmin home screen. There should be an input box at the bottom saying something like ‘create new database’ where you just type in you database name and hit ‘create’. I think I’ve seen that input box in the screencast.
Hi,
xampp is (one of) the PC version. LAMP is for linux I beleive.
re: new databases being setup in phpmyadmin…
(as At 8mins on your video) The home page for phpmyadmin has a ‘new database’ field :)
You can then add a new user with permissions just for that database using the ‘permissions’ tab – instead of just using the root account for all – I find that’s a good idea to stop accidentally changing db’s once you get a lot of sites set up locally.
Probably an obvious point but once you want more than one site locally you will need to put each site into a sub folder of the htdocs folder e.g. /htdocs/siteName/
p.s. Love the site Chris – slightly addicted to learning new things at the moment so checking daily for your updates!
Blake
If you set up a new user with permissions for a specific database do you still need to change the root password from root, for security reasons?
Thanks
Rene
PS. Love the site Chris, you are doing great stuff..
L(linux)AMP
W(windows)AMP
M(mac)AMP
S(solaris)AMP
F(freebsd)AMP
see a pattern? :D
XAMPP adds Perl, and is cross-platform, hence the X.
I’ve never installed any *AMP except for on a Windows machine. Thanks for the Mac walkthrough!
I personally use XAMMP (apachefriends.org) but this sounds like a great tool
Typo, its XAMPP
Stuff like MAMP that simplifies web server technologies is always useful.
I wonder if MAMP uses the Apache module built into OSX or if it is redundant.
I just always got in the habit of using Apache built into OSX and installing MySQL/phpMyAdmin and PHP manually.
-D
It’s funny that just as you start saying “can we create a new database?” you pointer is just above the create new database input box.
I did learn one thing, its possible to install Word Press on my PC (can’t belive I didn’t think of that before)
MAMP is a very useful tool, and its a must if your going to be doing any database or php development. So much faster then working live.
Great screen cast for those that might not know about MAMP!
I use XAMPP on my Mac, works great :) I have never used MAMP though, is there much of a difference?
I guess the X stands for an solution depending on the os :)
as Jaso sais: W…Win; L…Linux; M…Mac; …
greets
I am in no way a pro at using MAMP as I just downloaded it recently. I noticed you can point it to somewhere other than the htdocs directory. So I pointed it to the folder that I already had created that contains all of my sites. It’s just a personal preference with my file organization, but thought I’d share.
Yeah that’s what i did with mine too. Pointed it to my sites folder. Unfortunately I deleted something in PHPmyAdmin yesternight and in trying to fix it reset my mamp settings too. Got myself in a right pickle and can’t remember how I got it running the first time round!
Argh
The setting where you can choose which user the server should use to run is not important, especially on your home computer. It is probably intended for professional users who hosts websites and takes security seriously.
The “MAMP” and “phpmyadmin” parts of the URL is not directories, but aliases of directories that lives under a different path on the server. That’s why you can access them.
And as it has been mentioned before, LAMP is for Linux. If you are a windows user I recommend using XAMPP instead of WAMP-server, as it seems to have died down.
I think it’s cool that for one time I know a little bit more then you did, because I worked with XAMPP from the first time I ever used WordPress.
I am on Windows and am using WAMP.
I am getting an iMac soon, so this video was useful, since there are a couple of little things different.
Thank you Chris :)
One of the first things I did was change the location of the htdocs folder to the Sites folder for so it is a lot faster to get to. I am one of those guys who works locally as long as I can.
I am not sure how to change it in MAMP Pro but on the free version you just go to Preferences -> Apache -> Document Root.
http://skitch.com/devinclark/df3bx/mamp
Hey Chris
I really enjoy your screencasts and now I might Be able to help you improwe yours a little bit
1 if you put the hole wordpress folder inside htdocs you can namn them something and connect to it by
127.0.0.1/something
that means you can have sevral project going at once if you exemple got a conferance to do it can be handy to know that.
2 to add a datebase in phpmyadmin just click home(the little house) and under create new datebase put a namn in and click create database
// Axbard
I’m with you Chris; I almost always test my websites live, but it is nice to know MAMP. One reason I learned it, if I’m ever on the road and don’t have internet access but still want to do some developing, there’s my testing right there.
Good beginner’s walkthrough!
I recently ran into an issue with transferring the WordPress files from my local computer to the server after developing it locally with MAMP. I think a great follow up for this would be a “how to” on backing up your WordPress database, and switching everything to a live site.
Specifically, the issues I ran into were with links that replaced my website name with localhost:8888 and stored it in the database, so the links on my live site were all messed up. Just an idea! Great screencast!
I agree Chris that would be a really good follow up. I am would use MAMP more if I knew exactly which elements to change when you transfer to a live server.
In the video you had a comment about the apache user box. Now i don’t own a mac so don’t have the ability to know if this is the same as on linux but i think it on basic level is. Since its all unix design. So if i’m wrong on the next bit please correct me.
I believe the user the apache user runs as also determains the right apache has ( as in read/write). Becasue the user running apache has to have at least read rights and some times write rights on all files in your htdocs folder.
In local testing this can really be a pain. (i’ve had a lot of time i just got a 502 error because the files had the wrong owner) However in hosting or even server that are accessible to the Internet this is a need. Because if you run apache as a different users as your own account all of your files are always safe.
An little example: Running as your own user. A let’s say cacker finds your server and deiced to have fun. He get a file in your htdocs folder and runs this command
<?php
$command = "rm -R ~/*";
exec($command);
?>
Gone home folder.
If it was running as www, your files would be safe. This is one of the reason most hosting-companies run apache and php as the renting user.
So if you ever open port 8888, think about this ;)
Greets Piratelv
I was wondering what happened to the intro music!
It was there when I watched it
Yeah it is now but I don’t think it has been on the last few screencasts
Nice one Chris – I always ‘went commando’ too, until recently was away at a hotel for three days with no Internet connection at all! WAMP it is then.
I installed a copy and quite quickly it went belly up on me (TOTALLY my fault!) – a word to the wise, uninstalling (W)AMP is not easy and requires messing with your Regedit for a clean sweep – which you will need if you want to re-install. A quick Google suggests to me that this is not the case however with MAMP though, so win for Apple there!
What I ended up doing instead was installing the three components – Apache, MySQL, and PHP – individually. This was mainly so that I (as a novice) could actually see what was happening under the hood and witness how these applications interacted. My main guide in doing this was what I thought was a very good and thorough series of articles by Kevin Yank over at Sitepoint. You can check it out here:
Build Your Own Database Driven Web Site Using PHP & MySQL
This seems really useful, and I’ve not seen it before! :P But also, I find it somewhat easier for me to use my own website to test scripts, because then they’re public (but normally protected by a .htaccess username and password) and I can show people my work or random little projects away from my actually Mac.
One of the things I’ve done for a while now [having learned to do through some tutorials] is to create virtual hosts so that I can enter a domain into my browser [instead of typing in /localhost:8888/etc or whatever].
So all of my sites, I type in: sitename.local in my browser [making ease of use imo]
1.
Head to your /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache folder, and open the file called: httpd.conf in your text editor.
Navigate to the bottom of the file where it says: “### Section 3: Virtual Hosts”, specifically: “# NameVirtualHost *”
Under that, type in:
NameVirtualHost *:80
Include /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/vhosts/*.conf
[80 is the default Apache port setup by MAMP]
2.
From there, create a folder in that same apache directory called ‘vhosts’ [if not already there].
3.
Now open up your text editor and enter this:
ServerName sandbox.local
DocumentRoot /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/sandbox.local/
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
*** the htdocs folder is the default used for MAMP, you can change this in preference, however – if you do so you’ll have to change the directory in this file. ALSO – I used a directory of ‘sandbox.local’ for this example, you’ll want to change it for whatever you’re calling your site, ex: css-tricks.local, mysite.local, etc. ***
In this case, I would then save this file as ‘sandbox.local.conf’ into the ‘vhosts’ folder that you created earlier, where you need a .conf extension on the end of the file you create.
4.
From there – open up your Terminal and type in:
sudo nano /etc/hosts
** you’ll have to enter your password **
This is your hosts file, from here type in:
127.0.0.1 sandbox.local
http://skitch.com/nathanielwatts/df4md/terminal-sudo-80×55
and then hit Ctrl + x to close the file [it will ask you if you want to save].
5.
Then all you need to do is create your directory in the htdocs folder, in my case: sandbox.local – and you can type “sandbox.local” into your browser and it will head directly to that directory. So you can use that folder the same as you would on your server – dropping in WordPress files, etc.
Hope this helps you guys!
ONE THING I JUST NOTICED!
By default, a MAMP installation has the apache and mysql ports for 8888 [apache] and 8889 [mysql],
in order to make the above work, you need to click on “Set to default Apache and MySQL ports”.
!!
If any of you have questions, feel free to email me, [email protected]
Now that you have discovered MAMP you should put WordPress aside and try the wonder that is MODx…
Oh men this is so funny!
Yes, i agree it’s confusing at first.
When I first tried using Xampp for PC, it took me hours to figure out how to get it to work and how to see my site in the browser( that almost killed me!).
But now, I am quite familiar with it.
Thanks for the screen cast.
That was a fun show Chris. One other thing I think no one mentioned so far is the fact that once you hit the “Open Start Page” on the free and I guess “Web” button on the Pro version you’ll be able to get to all the major fuctions (phpMyAdmin) through the tabs on the top and should see the default username and password for those services on the welcome page.
XAMPP put me off to “All-In-One” local server installs. The configuration was messed from the start and caused issues getting MySQL to cooperate with Apache.
Discovered WAMP before moving to my new apartment and wouldn’t have internet for several weeks. Installed it, and was up and running in minutes.
Couple issues with another software binding to Port 80 after booting, so having to end the conflicting process through Task Manager. Still beats not having a local WordPress copy.
I really want to get into wordpress but I don’t know php that well. I will eventually run WAMP or XAMP on my machine to develop locally on my pc, but I am contemplating converting over to a mac. They are really sweet. I seriously have to buy Digging Into WordPress.
Just installed WAMP after being expired by your screencast. Can’t believe how it that was.
I also downloaded a local copy of the PHP Manul at http://php.net/download-docs.php Not as pretty as the main site, but a quick “localhost/docs/php” in my address bar will bring me everything I need.
I’m messing with a lot of things now, installing local copies of frameworks, scripts, etc. for the times when there’s no internet.
Eh… Am I missing something here?
Mac OS X has Apache and PHP 5 built-in since Snow Leopard (or Leopard even? And in older versions, it’s stupid easy to install).
Why would anyone need a software like this, or at least pay for it?!
That is just paying for open source software wrapped in a fancy GUI.
It’s like paying for fresh air, just because it’s in a shiny plastic bag.
Just enable PHP on apache by uncommenting “LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so” on /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
And start “web sharing” (aka Apache) in system preferences (or as any normal developer would do: run apachectl restart as root).
*BAM* http://localhost/~yourusername and you’re online!
And for MySQL, Oracle provides a really simple GUI tool for Mac if you’ve got some problems and can’t use the command line.
And if you really can’t do this basic stuff, like configuring an Apache/Lighttpd or any httpd without using some GUI, you are not allowed to call yourself a developer.
You can’t call yourself a plumber either without knowing how to use PVC cement.
It’s just basic stuff.
Oh, and that warning about running MySQL as your current user rather than creating a new user for it. It’s just safer to “sandbox” it, so that if you host a site online on your machine, somebody finds an exploit on MySQL or you give them too much access, at least they can’t access your personal files.
I’ve usually enjoyed watching these videos, even if I can’t learn anything new, but because they usually provide new perspectives to things.
But I’m sorry to say that this one was a total let down.
When it comes to development, developing PHP and hosting it on your desktop seems like a stupid idea (if there are multiple developers involved).
If you don’t have a separate development server just create another directory or hostname to the same server the production version is going and create another database for the development version. When ready, just copy it over to the production side.
Oh, but for this you’re most likely going to need to configure Apache…
Because I’m not a developer (and don’t call myself a developer) this stuff feels VERY hard and confusing to me. Now I have software that in a few clicks I’m ready to go. I think that’s the appeal. The software is also free (I paid for the pro version, because as I said in the video, I like paying for things I use).
All software is an abstraction of something else to make it easier to use, and this is no exception. If we are going to start down the “Why use this, it’s just an abstraction” road, we might as well end up at: why use computers when we can just use an abacus.
I understand that using a GUI tool that gets the job done in just a couple clicks is tempting.
Oh and after taking a closer look what the “pro” version packs, like the Postfix-tool, it seems a pretty nice software if you don’t want to learn to configure things yourself.
The free version is still kind-of “meh”.
But my point was, that even if your just a coder and not a developer or doing small things with PHP, learning the basic on how Apache (or any other httpd), mod_php (or fastcgi) and PHP are related, configured and used is a must.
Not only does it make coding and understanding code easier, but not knowing certain stuff might make your code really unsafe.
For someone that doesn’t know much about this stuff, running Apache+PHP as root and having exec(“rm {$_GET[‘file’]}”); might seem totally normal.
Sadly, this is a true example.
PS: after re-reading my previous post, I realized it’s kind of agressive. Sorry, didin’t mean to be :)
Toni,
I agree with your points that you need to know how to do those things via Terminal/Command line when you don’t have GUIs to help you but GUIs do speed things up.
I got into MAMP when OS X 10.5 came out which broke MySQL. The only way to get around working locally was with MAMP. Since then I haven’t bothered with the command line unless I really have to. It takes a few clicks to do something rather than tapping away in Terminal. For the same reasons I use Sequel Pro over Terminal for managing databases.
Except that Apple excels in breaking things like this when they upgrade various things. See how Ruby is broken and needs patched and updated to work right if you want to do any native ruby development on OSX.
The *AMP* packages are nice, if solely for the fact that they are maintained and you can easily update them to their current versions without much fuss.
MAMP works in Lion, and you can easily set the hosting folder to Dropbox.
Better late than never Chris! I think most designers hesitate to maintain a local Dev environment because it can be very technical and time consuming.
I’ve never had success with the free MAMP packages; but trust their pro version is quite friendly; because of the reviews I’ve read.
I just got a thank you email Friday from one of the NASA guys, @jpl.nasa.com, for my simply helpful article.
http://carlnunes.com/articles/localhost-developement-on-snow-leopard-1063
Maybe some of our friends here will benefit from it.
I don’t like to be ungrateful as you put in huge amounts of effort for the good of the community but I think that it would be advisable to look into a product a little more before you demo it as this screencast was not up to the normal high standards.
@Prydie
I didn’t know crap about MAMP, I downloaded it, installed it, and figured out how to get it to work for me. Then I recorded it, because that is going to be the same situation everyone else is in when they first try it.
I agree that the screencast wasn’t polished and little research was done prior to shooting it. That’s just the way it’s going to go sometimes, on purpose. I have a few more planned that are going to be just like this, so beware in watching any further episodes that they made be of this same “low” standard.
I don’t mean to be offensive that honestly was not my aim. I commented because I do really like your tutorials and I know negative feedback is disheartening but I hope you take it on board and that it will help you keep improving these tutorials.
Thanks for your continued efforts and what you give back to the community and sorry for any offence caused.
@Prydie
Hey,
I was blown away for a change – no nonsense, straight to the point and exactly what I wanted.
Steve
…yes, that would certainly define ungrateful for sure, personally i wouldn’t take it too seriously if i could help it. I think Chris does a great job providing information, but i don’t think Chris is that big headed enough to be posting “perfect” casts every single time. If anything screen casts like these only enhance the site, providing people with the “character” that is Chris.
Let’s face it, Chris isn’t really a professional news journalist, like a polished mannequin hosting the news, at least not every day he rolls out of bed…
Open and honest. Chris cannot do wrong.
I understand only a few people “get” professional web design. I’m thinking those who know, see the consistency in this approach and model themselves after it and some even envy it.
The value spans the industry. Giving webhead noobs the courage to hack-up WordPress to promoting a list of software products and doing it all with style.
I’m new to this too. And to see Chris struggle was refreshing. So thanks Chris, much appreciated.
Those that can, do. Those that can’t, criticise.
It was great to see you work your way through the problems.
Also if you guys are wondering, you can move the htdocs folder into your dropbox, point MAMP at it, and then point your install to use an externally hosted MYSQL database. That way you can do local development on anyone of your machines, as long as you have wifi. This does require the Pro version though, but 60 bucks is worth it. I think.
Is there a way to put the mysql databases on dropbox?
actually, that’s probably dangerous. so don’t do it folks
Hi Chris,
Nice work on the screencast. I’ve been using MAMP on OSX for years, and XAMPP on PC before that. I remember how confusing it was to get started.
As Toni suggested, I also configured OS X’s native PHP and MySQL but ran into issues several times when upgrading machines and with a few Apple security patches. (At least at that point in time these were considered core system files and were updated/replaced without user permission.) MAMP is a nice portable version of the LAMP stack. It moves from computer to computer and lives outside of OS X upgrades/updates so it’s more of a set it and forget it solution.
Nathaniel provides a great set of instructions for setting up multiple websites under MAMP. This is basically how I run my local sites, with the exception that name my sites local.site-name-here.com — just a naming preference. The same instructions will work using the free version of MAMP. Finally, in step 4, if you own/use TextMate, you can change that line to…
sudo mate /etc/hosts
Think you have some good material here for the next MAMP screencast. :)
Great as usual Chris and agree with Chris Morata, I also think a great follow up for this would be a “how to” on backing up your WordPress database, and switching everything to a live site, if poss ?
Have to ditto the above. That would make a great follow up article, and one which people who can actually move from MAMP to live always say is “so easy” to do. I have found it to be somewhat complicated myself. Would love to see the way Chris would walk us through it.
As an aside, has anyone had success using Backup Buddy from WooThemes? Was at a conference last weekend and Cory Miller was talking about it. Looks promising as well if you have a sandbox environment (which I know is slightly different than the point of this screencast).
Hi Chris! for once I am ahead of you as I installed WAMP on my laptop to try out WordPress and there are not many tricks to it. It was funny to hear you trying out things and wondering what the next step was. At work one of the students installed an intranet LAMP server based on Ubuntu to service the wordpress website which i work on from my windows vista machine.
http://www.turnkeylinux.org/lamp
Haha thats great! I wonder if they make a netbeans installation for mac? Im a PC or centOs at the moment so I’m not sure…but you should really look into netbeans if you have the time…it saves alot of it later in terms of debugging…and atleast on the PC it runs with xampp straight out of the box!
IDEs are a great tools, you could also checkout PHPeclipse I started out using that and its fairly straight forward as well.
Backing up wordpress and moving it to a “live” server:
– There are many good tutorials if you do a search on google, but <a href=”http://www.bloganything.net/775/how-to-move-your-wordpress-blog-to-a-new-web-hosting”>here</a> is the one I followed.
1. set up the home directory on your server.
2. upload your wordpress home directory to the server
3. go into your local phpmyadmin utility and select your database…
4. click on the “export” tab and check the following options(there is a much better explanation <a href=”http://codex.wordpress.org/Backing_Up_Your_Database”>here</a>): check the first 4 boxes under “structure” and deselect the “BLOB” checkbox, then select “zipped” for the file type and save it to your desktop.
5. go into the live servers phpmyadmin and create a new database for your wordpress installation
6. select the database and click the “import” tab
7. upload the zipped file
8. edit the wp-config.php file in the home directory to connect to the database and select the newly created one (usually, this is just root@localhost, sometimes not even using a password!)
9. that should be it! (if you can’t upload images through wordpress or wordpress asks you for ftp information when installing new plugins, you may need to adjust file permissions and ownership…but thats a whole other explanation!)
That’s it!
Mike
Hey Mike,
Great little tutorial!
One thing to add – there is a chance that the developer will have to do a find/replace on the WP tables for stuff like the site url, etc – if using a local install.
ex: change my values from sitename.local
to sitename.com
I personally open up the .sql file into TextMate and do a find/replace, however – my sites are generally not very large.
Hope this helps!
I have actually been using this and wordpress as a sorta diary/scrap book. I dont want that stuff accessible online, but I want a nice way of displaying all my info and thoughts, so just have a local copy.
On this occasion I actually like the fact that you do it for real Chris, we are all here to learn and sometimes the geeks ( no offence meant ) see the obvious, I see things now that were just rocket science to me at first so when the clever guys write the instructions they often forget what it looks like from the outside, so we need some balance here and Chris does that. And don’t forget it is free btw !
Anyway I have recently figured out the MAMP thing and also discovered this extra software which looks as though it will make life even easier and allows you to get the benefits of MAMP without having to cough up for the PRO version
I think you can use it for free for 3 setups or pay around $20 for the full deal
If anyone else has used it perhaps they could comment
cheers
Gary
Looks like I couldn’t add the url to the software D’oh!, it is called VirtualHostX at clickontyler dot com
if you can’t upload images through wordpress or wordpress asks you for ftp information when installing new plugins, you may need to adjust file permissions and ownership…but thats a whole other explanation!
Wow, I thought I was the only one going commando!
Chris – Do you or anyone on this list have suggestions for how I set up an EXISTING WordPress site (not installing a new WordPress site)? I’m tweaking a musician’s website and want to work locally on it.
I’ve installed MAMP on my Mac and kept the database name the same and changed everything else per your video but I get the message “error establishing a database connection.”
Do I need to import the database to make this work?
Also – purty please please do a follow up video showing how to upload the files back to the server in the next few weeks.
I am using your book and am learning so much from it and all of your fabulous videos.
Thank you for any help/suggestions.
You need to edit the configuration file once you copy it locally so that it connects to your local database instead of trying to connect to the live server.
Unless you are using the exact same account and password, then it might work w/o changing the config file for WP.
Hi Jim,
Thank you for your response!! I have been editing the config file and even (after watching Chris’ video again) gone into the myphp admin and changed site info to localhost, etc, etc.
I think I’m getting close to a solution but – for now – I’m gonna work commando to get this project done.
Chris. This video is exactly what I want to see. I’m a novice and just starting with php and about ready to throw my computer out the window but now i’m sitting down with a cool fizzy drink and a fresh mind.
I’ll give this a go and hope if works for me now. The fact that the video is raw is just like real life with plenty of doh moments. That’s what we need more of as hours n days and years are spent trying to figure out how stuff works which is great for inventors but us common folks just want it to work.
Will back back here if I end up on the edge ready to jump.
Thank you! This was a perfect way to introduce MAMP, just what I needed and just what I need to use it for, yay!
I am commenting pretty late, so sorry about that, but I thought I might share some info about the Pro version of MAMP:
– Virtual Hosts creation is probably the coolest feature of the Pro version. All you have to create new vhosts is to click on the Hosts Tab at the top. You’ll see that there is already one virtual host (localhost). If you want to “change the location of the htdocs directory” that’s where you need to do it: http://emberapp.com/azizlight/images/mamp-pro-virtual-hosts
– You can also create aliases for vhosts: http://emberapp.com/azizlight/images/mamp-pro-vhosts-aliases
– You can create vhosts that point to different locations: http://emberapp.com/azizlight/images/mamp-pro-new-vhosts
– If you want to see the directory listing of your local web server, be sure to enable Indexes for the given virtual host – you can do that via the ‘Advanced’ tab: http://emberapp.com/azizlight/images/mamp-pro-vhosts-indexes-enabled
If you play around a bit, you can also do a lot of cool things very easily. The hole point of MAMP Pro is to enable to fully control a web server without actually knowing much about server administration.
If you use VMware Fusion and want the perfect dev-environment you should look at step 6 of this tutorial: href=http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/wordpress/how-to-set-up-a-killer-wordpress-testing-environment-locally/
Hey,
I’ve enjoyed all the work you’ve put into your multiple blogs, forums, screencasts… I set up MAMP on my MAC and set the root folder to my “sites” folder with subfolders for each project…however I had some problems when setting root directory URL’s. I went to the root, which in this case was the sites folder. Unless there is a way of getting around this, I had to redo the URL’s when I moved it over to a remote server. I wonder if you can use subdomain’s locally? I’m sort of in the same boat where just the mention of SQL makes my brain explode.
Looks like I just need to be using MAMP Pro :/
Hi,
I am a complete newbie to wordpress and MAMP. This was very simple and worked like a charm for someone who has never touched code before. Thanks so much.
Just a quick note that the MAMP non-pro version doesn’t give you an option to set the MySQL password. Had to start the 14 day trial of the Pro. Any suggestions on getting around that?
Thanks. Again, very well done tutorial. I’ll be back for more.
I’m coming to this later than everyone. I was born late. Anyway, I’ve been futzing around with Mamp for ages, and I appreciated the effort to codify what you did to get started. The video is now listed as a suggestion on the MAMP installation page!
A previous poster noted this, but it’s cool, so it bears repeating:
Go to Server > General > and select Default Ports.
Restart MAMP, and you no longer have to suffix “localhost” with the port number.
I like that.
Many thanks Chris.
David
Hey Chris, this is actually the first video of your’s I have seen… I am really grateful as I am just transitioning from the xhtml/css stage to the php stage, and was having a bit of difficulty until I found MAMP and especially this video! Thanks heaps
-Michael
Chris,
The video is great I only have one problem. I follow your steps but I run into an access problem when I try to run the “hello” index file created. The message I get is:
“Forbidden, You don’t have permission to access / on this server.”
I thought I setup all of that correctly but…
Thanks for any help.
David
I love your podcasts Chris they are awesome!!
You explain everything brilliantly without all the “techy” stuff.
Need to know basis … keep it up dude!
I tried using MAMP to style a downloaded template but as it wasn’t a WordPress site so I got lost on what docs to amend as there is no “config” file to insert info for the database.
Long story short I would love you to do a vid showing how to install a downloaded skin using MAMP please.
PS looking forward to screencast 102!!!
hi – i have been trying to install mysql and et all the old fashioned way, but im still new to all of this. I found your video and installed mamp and stepped through php part no problem. I really enjoyed the quick video.
thank you
Thank you very much. Watched it twice and it got me over the mySQL hurdle. MAMP now installed and my live site cloned locally. Now I get to mess around! I used Backup Buddy in case anyone is interested.
Awesome cast Chris.
I love when you do videos that guide designers through developer territory :)
Thanks!
Thanks Chris! Great webcast!
Hey Chris, I have been enjoying all your videos. They are very helpful and informative. I have been trying to figure out this WordPress thing and I can’t seem to do it. I am a designer not a programmer and all this stupid .php stuff is really making me angry. I understand it makes the site dynamic, but I don’t think logically like a programmer and I just can’t follow what it is supposed to be doing. Anyhow, I downloaded MAMP and installed it. It’s running fine, but when I try open WordPress on my local server, it doesn’t work. It says, “Not Found – The requested URL /wp-config.php was not found on this server”. I use GoDaddy to host my site so I tried to add WordPress to my site there, I get a different error message – Error establishing a database connection, but it’s still the same thing. I would be so excited if I could actually see the WordPress page actually work on my computer. Anyone have any ideas. I’m really frustrated. I’m assuming that I have the wrong password or database name or something like that. I used ‘test’ as the database name, ‘root’ as the database user name and a password I created. Someone please help me understand all this stuff!!! I would really like to start creating WordPress sites, but I can’t even start if I can see what I am creating (damn php).
@ Ambler
Hi, Not sure how much of this will help, but I found that using the www/sql login, I had to change the port to Default port setting (Apache: 80 and MySQL: 3306) BUT the main requirement was changing updating passwords manually in the SQL files as the default pw “root” was hard-coded into scripts. So although you changed the password using MAMP interface it did not update the scripts that relates to MySql so access blocked.
Chang your script passwords:
from -proot TO -p{newpassword}
* note: NO space
All these scripts needs manual update of password (as above):
Applications/MAMP/bin/mamp/index.php
Applications/MAMP/bin/stopMysql.sh
Applications/MAMP/bin/checkMysql.sh
Applications/MAMP/bin/quickCheckMysqlUpgrade.sh
Applications/MAMP/bin/repairMysql.sh
Applications/MAMP/bin/upgradeMysql.sh
lastly open MAMP >File>edit template>PHP/ * (best to edit this in template than through bin as it’s recreated on each run)
I used coda a text editor to open bin folder for amendment.
For more info:
http://forum.mamp.info/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1719&p=17254#p17278
http://drupal.org/node/66187
Worth a try, good luck.
For clarification, please note:
On MAMP, the install script kept failing. When I went and looked at the php.ini file, the memory limit on scripts was set at 8MB. By bumping this limit up to 128MB, it took care of the issue.
File locations of php.ini files:
/Applications/MAMP/conf/php4/php.ini
/Applications/MAMP/conf/php5/php.ini
Whilst it’s better for MAMP Pro to open MAMP >File>edit template>PHP/ * (best to edit memory in template than through bin as it’s recreated on each run).
For a fuller description Check: http://drupal.org/node/66187 [section – Optional: Adjust PHP’s memory limit for scripts]
K
I loved the video :) thank you very much.
Someone may have already mentioned this (That is a whole lot of comments you got there) but I noticed you also used the non-MAMP solution to set up a database in your lynda.com course on creating wordpress themes. I’m guessing you made that video around the same time you wrote this post, which was quite a while ago now.
Anyway, the main thing I wanted to say was that I really enjoyed the course and it has taught me a lot. I’ve been designing for years but have always steered clear of too much back-end or coding work out of a combination of fear and laziness. But the course has given me the motivation to try out creating my own theme.
Once I’m finished with the course (in Chapter 3 now) I’ll probably mention this on lynda.com as well (assuming there is a place to comment) but saw this blog post linked from the MAMP home screen so thought I would mention it.
A little off-topic, but hopefully that’s okay. :-)
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the help. Great job with the screencast. Just like the way you show that you don’t have to be a geek to get it going
marty
Anyone know an easy way (you know, fill a couple of boxes, click a couple of buttons) of loading the whole thing up to a Hostgator server once I’ve built it locally?
Emily
Emily, If you’re talking specifically about WordPress sites, then you should checkout <a href=”http://pluginbuddy.com/purchase/backupbuddy” >BackupBuddy</a>. As well as being a great backup plugin, it also makes it super simple to migrate sites from one domain to another (eg. from a dev site to a live production site)
Anthony
Great video. But can someone please tell me why I cannot launch the wordpress admin on my local mac? I have MAMP running just like in every tutorial I have seen, except in my case- when I try to the launch wordpress I get a “file not found”? I know I am failing to edit something (maybe the httpd.conf file) and it is some sort of permissions issue, just do not what it may be and I am worried about doing damage to my machine. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I LOVE your video. I, too, am way behind the times (been working on mac since 1985), but never set up a MAMP. I wasn’t even sure what I was supposed to do with it. Your video was extremely helpful and entertaining!
Have you bookmarked — thanks again,
Suzanne
And there he sat, saying “Can we create a database ? I wonder if we can or not”, whilst hovering the mouse over “MySQL Localhost: Create new database”, and navigating away from it to another page where there’s another input field field to create a database.
Anyway, great episode Chris! Not sure if it’s “right”, but it feels comfortable knowing you hadn’t done this up until this point. Gosh, you’re human too ? Good to know :)
Thanks for the vid. Wasn’t really sure how to use MAMP after downloading and you made it all pretty easy :)
Hey Chris,
Thank you so much for this! You make things so human and do-able. I can’t believe I now have WordPress running locally on my MacBook and it only took 10 minutes. JUST THANK YOU.
A follow up sometime about running multiple sites and a bit more detail about taking sites live would be great – but really I appreciate everything you do. :)
JB
Thanks so much for this Chris! This is awesome and exactly the hand-holding I needed to figure out the little kinks in using MAMP with WP.
Also: at 8:19 there is a dialog box that says “Create New Database” at the bottom of the window – using that worked fantastically for me, as the test database wasn’t there for me for some reason.
Thanks Again!
On the free version, to make a folder with all your projects as the document root , open MAMP. choose the Preferences button. Choose the Apache tab and you will see the form to input your new document root. Type in or navigate to the WordPress parent folder “Sites,” “Dropbox,” or whatever and then you can place other project folders you want to work on. Then all you have to do is type localhost in the address bar to access their index in MAMP.
I’m having troubles with my new install of MAMP. It looks like everything’s running properly, with the server green lights all on and the start-up window showing, but when I click on either the ‘phpMyAdmin’ or ‘SQLiteManager’ tabs, both windows are blank!
I’m under the impression that I need to access the phpMyAdmin in order to be able to create a db and thus tell my ‘wp-config.php’ what to do, correct? Or is that where things are screwing-up (i.e., not telling that config file what to do…).
All-in-all, I’m stuck and am wasting hours trying to figure this out, so any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!
(I’m a Dreamweaver web designer and a graphic artist, so not a programmer, so please guide using simple lingo!?! Thanks!!)
Chris,
THANKYOU. I think I love you. Ang x
Great tutorial Chris. If anyone’s little icons aren’t showing up at the top, here’s a nice short 1-minute demo video on getting MySQL server set up on MAMP: http://flwtb.co/O6skNq
Thank you, thank you, thank you. You have saved my Mac from being thrown out the window in frustration!! Yours are the only instructions that worked for me. Love the screencast!
Sweet! Finally a tutorial that makes sense! Thanks for the webcapture and keep up the great work.
I love your tutorials…I come back to them over and over when I forget what the hell I’m doing!
And I love this one, I crack up every time because it’s so real…you’re just doing it like we would!
Thanks!
Nice Tutorial Chris!
I am brand new to MAMP and this helped to get me started and save time. thanks!
This video is right at my level. It totally helped me out – thanks Chris.
Guys, GUYS!
This is all very entertaining and stuff, but it’s not a “first moments” video.
I envy all the prior knowledge everyone on this forum has. But some of us are going to need a “first moments” video that comes before these first moments.
I seem to be the only ignoramus who dares to speak up on this forum, but I’m willing to guess I’m not the only one out there. Can anyone please recommend a truly “I’ve-never-even-seen-this-stuff-before” video?
I’d be very grateful.
Chris, You mentioned in your screencast having some confusion about what username to use. I don’t know if anyone else noticed or not but the database username “root” is shown on the MAMP welcome page.
I was wondering – does MAMP have a listing like WAMP for all the sites you have in your root folder … I found this very convenient on PC but I am using a MAC now and I am having trouble finding this page (non pro version) … thanks in advance.
Scratch that; I found out why – It’s not possible in the free version which I was using (odd because you can run as many sites as you want on WAMP – ah well LALIG.
Reference: http://vimeo.com/65383444
Cheers
Hey Chris,
Briliant. You just saved me a major meltdown. That’s for this screencast. I’m a complete newbie and this was JUST what i needed. Now i can impress the boss and start building our wordpress blog locally before running it live on the main site.
Champion.
Thanks!
Richard
i mean ‘thanks’ for this screencast ;-)
This video was fantastic. It got me exactly where I needed to be to start my website project. Thanks so much!