# Setup

Before we start writing PHP code, it's necessary to set up a proper environment for developing, running, and testing our PHP scripts. Here are the basic components we need:

* **Web Server:** A software that can serve our PHP pages. Apache and Nginx are two popular options.
* **PHP Processor:** This interprets our PHP code and transforms it into HTML that the web server can serve to users' browsers.
* **Database Server (Optional):** While not mandatory for all PHP development, a database server such as MySQL or PostgreSQL is essential for dynamic, data-driven websites.

There are two primary ways you can set up your PHP development environment:

#### Option 1: Local Installation

You can install a web server, PHP, and a database server individually on your own computer.

* For **Windows** users, you can download and install each component individually. The links for downloading these components are:
  * Apache: [Apache HTTP Server](https://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi)
  * PHP: [PHP for Windows](https://windows.php.net/download/)
  * MySQL: [MySQL for Windows](https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/installer/) Alternatively, you can use a pre-packaged software stack like [XAMPP](https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html) or [WampServer](https://www.wampserver.com/en/), which include all three components.
* For **macOS** users, PHP and Apache are pre-installed on your machine, and you only need to install MySQL: [MySQL for macOS](https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/)
* For **Linux** users, you can install each component using your package manager. For example, on a Ubuntu-based system, you could use the following commands:

  ```bash
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install apache2
  sudo apt-get install php
  sudo apt-get install mysql-server
  ```

#### Option 2: Using Docker

If you want to avoid manually managing individual components on your system, you can use [Docker](https://www.docker.com/). Docker allows you to create containers that bundle all the software you need.

You can find pre-made Docker images for PHP development environments on [Docker Hub](https://hub.docker.com/).

An example of how to pull [PHP 8 XAMPP](https://hub.docker.com/r/tomsik68/xampp/) Docker is here:

```
docker pull tomsik68/xampp:8
```

Here's a simple `docker-compose.yml` file for a basic PHP development environment:

```yml
version: '3'
services:
  web:
    image: php:apache
    volumes:
      - ./:/var/www/html/
    ports:
      - 8080:80
  db:
    image: mysql:5.7
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: rootpass
      MYSQL_DATABASE: test_db
      MYSQL_USER: test_user
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: test_pass
```

You can start your environment with the command `docker-compose up`, and then access your PHP site at `http://localhost:8080`.

No matter which method you choose for setting up your environment, ensure that everything is set up correctly before you start developing with PHP.

### Useful VSCode Extensions:

PHP Intelliphense

Live Server

PHP Server