Forgive me, for I know not what I do...

m_s · 2005-10-11 16:35:52

Complete and utter newbie.

I want to make a website for a small computer security consultancy I am starting up. I know very little about making websites, probably quite a lot more about using them. But I have seen Textpattern used in a few places, and love the elegance and simplicity of it. I found myself a free host that allows PHP and MySQL and all kinds of other acronyms that I have little idea of the meaning of – myhostia.com.

But I just don’t know where to start… Well, I do: I started with the installation manual and some very helpful things at the Textbook Project – excellent stuff. But I’m still nowhere at all.

I have uploaded Textpattern to my website, but when I try to view any pages, all I get is text I don’t understand – I guess it’s PHP code.

After spending fruitless time last night installing standalone Apache, MySQL and PHO, this morning I came across XAMPP. This seems excellent, and installs smoothly. But when I try to go to localhost, nothing at all happens – blank page. I think this might be a HOSTS issue, but it seems that something is locking my HOSTS file and I don’t know how toi find out what program it is. When I run Hostsman, which I use as HOSTS editor, everything is greyed-out and I can’t change anything.

Also, a program called pv.exe tries to start up and something is blocking it – again, I don’t know what, and I don’t know how to find out.

I have read the manual, and I’m getting nowhere. Please can somebody talk me through this slowly, being kind to an aparently slow-witted newb?

Thanks.

m_s · 2005-10-11 16:40:45

More on my setup: I’m running XP, with various security programs running, so I know one of these is likely to be the culprit. I have the following running realtime protection: Outpost firewall, TrojanHunter, Online Armor, Ghost Security Suite.

zero · 2005-10-11 18:01:09

I don’t use XP but use XAMPP on win98. I found that disabling my firewall sped things up incredibly. I just enable it again when I am online. Try that first and see if it helps.

m_s · 2005-10-11 19:06:22

Thanks, Peter. No, doesn’t work. Over at DonationCoder, someone suggested pv.exe might be closing itself down because it’s misconfigured, but there’s no sign of that in the logs – seems to be working alright. I have shut down all my security progs one by one, but nothing makes it work.

Oh, that’s very interesting: I just discovered that file://localhost/ does display a list of my drives, but http does nothing… Anyone know what’s going on?

—-

So a bit more info: when I formerly tried to open .php files, I got junk – meaningful junk, but not what I was meant to see, I don’t think. Now when I drag .php files into my browser, or navigate to them via file://localhost/etc I am asked if I want to download or open the file. If I choose open, I then get a message (in Opera) ‘Could not start application’. So it this some kind of problem with my PHP install?

Last edited by m_s (2005-10-11 19:13:52)

zero · 2005-10-12 19:17:53

m_s, Are you missing something obvious such as have you started XAMPP Basic Start? This starts Apache and Mysql, which are needed so that localhost works. There’s also XAMPP Control Panel which does the same but I don’t use that.

Another reason for a blank page is that localhost is working OK but you haven’t got the right path somewhere.

Another thought is that you could uninstall, turn off all apps (use ctrl alt del and end some of the processes that you KNOW are not necessary), then reinstall. With you having so many firewalls, they may have interfered with your initial installation.

m_s · 2005-10-12 19:31:08

Thanks again, Peter. In the end I decided to uninstall. My priority is getting it to work on server-side – it’s not working there, either – so I’ve opened a support-ticket with freehostia, and I’ll see what they say. I’m reconsidering my needs – I love the effects with Textpattern, but I was opting for it because I thought it was easier, where actually I might already have enough html experience to get my simple site done that way.

zero · 2005-10-12 21:03:15

Textpattern is not your problem, it is XAMPP or your server setup. Honestly there isn’t anything much easier to set up than textpattern. If you only have a simple site then a static site can be fine, but if you’d like more interaction and a blog, then txp is just the job. Perhaps try it again soon. Best wishes.

m_s · 2005-10-13 18:40:40

It is a simple site I have in mind – what I would like is a tabbed interface, four or maybe five pages of text navigated by top-of-the-page (but under-the-banner) tabs.

What is the simplest way to set Textpattern up on a local machine so that I can play about with development ideas?

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#1 2005-10-11 16:35:52

Forgive me, for I know not what I do...

#2 2005-10-11 16:40:45

Re: Forgive me, for I know not what I do...

#3 2005-10-11 18:01:09

Re: Forgive me, for I know not what I do...

#4 2005-10-11 19:06:22

Re: Forgive me, for I know not what I do...

#5 2005-10-12 19:17:53

Re: Forgive me, for I know not what I do...

#6 2005-10-12 19:31:08

Re: Forgive me, for I know not what I do...

#7 2005-10-12 21:03:15

Re: Forgive me, for I know not what I do...

#8 2005-10-13 18:40:40

Re: Forgive me, for I know not what I do...

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