Few years ago, I wrote an article about how to setup Apache web server using AppServ. Now there are many software similar to AppServ so I decide to write a new fresh one. But instead of using the same software as the previous article, I will use XAMPP this time. XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. At the moment there are four XAMPP distributions: Windows, Linux, Mac OS and Solaris. See XAMPP for more information.

XAMPP is not meant for production use but only for developers in a development environment. XAMPP is configured is to be as open as possible and to allow the web developer anything he/she wants. For development environments this is great but in a production environment it could be fatal.
Reference: XAMPP security console

This article will show you how to setup Apache web server with PHP/MySQL using XAMPP on Windows 7 (x64). The current version of XAMPP is 1.7.4. It comes with PHP 5.3.5 so if you don’t plan to use this PHP version, you should download the older version of XAMPP instead.

Step-by-step

1. Download XAMPP for Windows. Browse to www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html and click XAMPP for Windows.
   
2. Scroll down to Download section, there are 3 formats which you can choose to download. In this example, I select ZIP format.
   
3. Unzip the file into the folder of your choice. If you extract XAMPP in a top level folder like “C:\” or “D:\”, you can skip to step 5. Otherwise, you have to run “setup_xampp.bat” in \xampp folder. In this example, I extract to C:\ so I can skip to step 5.
   
4. Here is the screenshot of the execution of file setup_xampp.bat.
   
5. Open XAMPP Control Panel by right-click on xampp-control.exe and select Run as administrator.
   Note: If you’re using Windows XP, you just double-click on the file.
   
6. On XAMPP Control Panel Application, select Svc checkbox of Apache and click OK. This will install Apache as a service on this computer.
   
7. Click Start to start Apache web server.
   
8. Repeat step 6-7 on MySQL. Now Apache and MySQL are installed as Windows services and already started.
   
9. You can check if the services are really installed on the computer by click SCM.
   
10. On Services, you will see Apache and MySQL services are started and startup type are set to Automatic which means that services will be started automatically when the computer starts.
    
11. Now it’s time to test, browse to “http://localhost” or “http://127.0.0.1″. You will see the screen as below. This is XAMPP’s splash screen, select English language.
    
12. Here is the XAMPP’s main page. You can view other pages using navigation menu on the left side. For example, XAMPP’s status to see which components are running, security page to view current security configuration of the XAMPP installation, etc.
    
13. The main directory for all WWW documents is \xampp\htdocs. If you put a file “test.html” in this directory, you can access it with the URI “http://localhost/test.html”.
    
14. You can manage MySQL using phpMyAdmin by browse to “http://localhost/phpmyadmin” or you can select phpMyAdmin link on the XAMPP’s main page (in Tools section).
    Note: By default, the root’s password is empty (blank password).
    

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On this example, I show how to record an Photoshop action which will add a simple text and align it at bottom right on an image as watermark. I use Adobe Photoshop CS5.

Step-by-step

1. Open an image that you want to add a watermark on Photoshop. This image will be used as an example image to create a watermark action.
   
2. Open Actions Window by select Window -> Actions on the menu bar or you can press Alt + F9.
   
3. On Action window, click on Create new Action icon. This will open New Action dialog box, enter the name for an action as “watermark” and you can also add a shortcut key for this action by change the value in Function Key as you want. Next, click Record.
   Note: You can toggle hide/show the Action window by press ALT + F9.
   
4. Next, add a watermark text on the image. On Tools menu, select Horizontal Type Tool (T) and click on anywhere on the image. Type the text as a watermark, usually something like “? Yourcompany” and set font family, size and style as you want. On this example, I use the text “? Linglom.com” with font family Tahoma, bold and size is 36 pixel as a sample. Then, click on Commit any current edits to apply changes.
   Note: The copyright symbol (?) can be typed by hold ALT + 0169. Then, release the ALT button.
   
5. Next, set align of the watermark text to bottom right of the image. On Tools menu, select Move Tool and select both layers, watermark text and image layer, by click on the first layer, hold CTRL and click on the second layer. Then, click on Align bottom edges and Align right edges icons. The watermark text will move to bottom right of image.
   
6. You notice that the watermark text is too attached to edges of image. It would be nicer if you keep a little distance from edges. So use Zoom Tool to zoom to the watermark text, and select Move Tool. Click on the watermark layer and move it away from the edges as you want.
   Note: To move the watermark text layer more precisely, you can use the directional arrow keys.
   
7. Make watermark text more transparent by set opacity on the watermark text layer. Select the watermark text layer and set opacity to 30%. You can adjust this value as you want.
   
8. (Optional) You can set blending option of the watermark text to make it looks better. Double-click on the watermark text layer. This will open Layer Style dialog box, check Stroke, set size to 1 pixel and change color to whilte (#FFFFFF). Click OK.
   
9. On Action window, click Stop playing/recording icon to stop record this action.
   
10. Now you have finished create an action that add a watermark on image. Let’s try to run the watermark action on another image. Open a new image, select on “watermark” action and click on Play button. If there isn’t any error, you should see the watermark at the bottom right of this image.
    

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• On April 29, I have just realized that my account would expired on May 1 but I don’t want to renew the account because current hosting provider allows only a domain per account. And now I have more than a domain to manage so I have to move my blog to other hosting provider.
• On April 30, I ask support team of the current hosting provider to expand my account for a few days to complete transfer my data to Hostgator which is the new hosting provider that I’ll move to. They agree and enable my blog till May 4.
• On May 1, I backup and restore data to Hostgator. Now the hosting problem had been fixed.
• On May 2, I want to transfer domain registrar from my current registrar (OnlineNic) to other domain registrar (Netfirms) for management issue. Again, I ask support team for the code using to initiate the transfer.
• On May 3, I have received an e-mail from support team about the code. Then, I initiate the domain transfer.
• On May 4, I have received an e-mail from OnlineNic. It’s look like an automated system. They tell me that I have to wait 5 days and OnlineNic will transfer the domain. That’s means the transfer will begin on May 8 and my blog will be offline tomorrow until May 8. I decide to wait so that why my blog is downed about a week.
• On May 5-7, I take this change to upgrade and patch my blog and plugins to the latest version.
• On May 8, the domain registrar is transferred succesfully.
• On May 10, I point DNS server of linglom.com to Hostgator’s DNS server and put the blog online.

I have use Hostgator for 4 months now (hosting other website) and never face any problem. If you’re looking for a good place to hosting your web with economy price, I would recommend this one.

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Requirement

• Apache Tomcat 5.0
• JDK 1.5

Note: if you have JDK below 1.4, you need to install Java Secure Socket Extensions (JSSE)

Step-by-step

1. Create .ketstore file
• Enter command line and change directory to your JAVA\bin folder. (Default path is: C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_12\bin)
• Type “keytool –genkey –alias tomcat –keyalg RSA and press Enter.
  Where tomcat is an alias name and RSA is a key algorithm.
• Type your password for the keystore. (Default password is: changeit). In this example, I’ll use password as “password�?.
• Enter general information about this Certificate. The example is the image below. In the last line, Enter key password for (tomcat) should be the same as you enter before.
  Note that this information will be displayed to users who attempt to access a secure page.
  
• The file .keystore will be created on your account. (Currently, I use administrator account so it’ll be in C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator)
  
2. Configure Tomcat
• Open server.xml in Tomcat\conf folder. (Default path is: C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat 5.5\conf)
• Uncomment the paragraph below this line
  .<br /> (By removing tags below the line)
• Add new attribute keystorePass=”password” to the Connector element. If you haven’t change keystore’s password, you don’t have to add this attribute.
  
• Change port to 443 if you want to access a page from https:// without specifies port after hostname.
  
• Save and restart Apache Tomcat service.
3. Test the result
• Open browser and navigate to the Apache Tomcat server with https:// prefix
  
• There will be a pop-up window show about security alert, click Yes.
  
• When you see Apache Tomcat’s default page, that’s means you have success enable SSL on the server. Congratulate.
• Also, you will notice there is a key icon on the bottom right of your browser.
  
• Try double click on the key to view certificate’s detail.
  

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