Week 6- Server side Scripting

Introduction

The blog so far contained client-side related posts, where we started from some basic HTML, then went to styling the site to vamp it up with some designs and not to leave it static we also worked on some JavaScript and some basic XML. After learning those it was time to switch to server-side.

What is server-side scripting?

Internet works cause of TCP /IP. It has two protocols working together both of which are lower level protocols such as application level. Server-side scripting is a web server technology and is done to generate a dynamic page by having the users request running directly on the web server. Server-side scripting was performed with the use of a combination of C programs that made use of the CGI. It is mostly used in websites so they will be able to connect to a database. It is usually used to provide interactive web sites that interface to databases or other data stores. Some advantages to server-side scripting is the ability to highly customize the response based on the user's requirements, access rights, or queries into data stores. As security, server-side scripts aren’t available to the browser and they are executed on the server.

Task Overview

This week’s task is about installing Xamp together with running some few tests to make sure it works well.

Control Panel

 Testing

FTP works

 Xamp was downloaded from www.apachefriends.org and it was installed successfully. After it installed users which have skype installed it interfered with Xamp since they both work on port 80. First we had to check that the control panel opens and works fine and so far it did work fine. Then we had to check that both  http and https works fine and it worked. Then we had to check if the FTP works. At first the FTP was showing as deactivated then i managed to activate it from the control panel but still it did not work. Therefore I went on SCM in Xamp control panel and for some reason altough it was activated from the control panel it did not get activated therefore i activated it manually and got it working.

FileZilla activated manually

After that we had to check other severall reports like php info report, visitors report and also test the guestbook. These mentioned above all worked successfully. To check if the guestbook is working you simply type in the details it asks you for and when you save them you are to get your details in the guestbook.

PHP Report

Guestbook

Visitors

 The html index.html file was also tested, this was found in the C: in the folder Xamp then htdocs. I added a picture and also in the folder I added another folder where there was the CSS found in it and linked it to it. I then tested it by by typing in the following URL http://localhost/index.html

index.html working

Testing from another computer. 


To do this I went on cmd to get my IP address went on another computer and opened the browser and typed in the IP address in the URL to check that it works to.
Replacing the index.html
We also had to replace the index file, this was done using FileZilla. I connected to the FTP server then drag and dropped the index.html file. Since there was already and index.html file a dialog box came up asking what I wanted to do, in this case i wanted to overwrite the index.html file and clicked Ok.
Conclusion
Xamp installation was not a hard task although there were some things that didn't work immediately one can easily find some answers one the internet itself.