This is not a graded assignment. However, this assignment is critical because you need to have a local web server on your own system to do proper web development. This write-up therefore leads you through installing XAMPP, a package that integrates a complete web development environment on either Windows or Macintosh systems. The standard practice throughout this course will then be to do development on your own system and then upload your web pages to the CS server so that all of us -- me as your professor, our teaching assistant and/or graders, and even other students — can view your work.
It is critical that you do this assignment by our second class of the semester: Thursday, September 3, 2015. That way, if you have problems, we will have time to address them before the second assignment is due, which will be just days after that. Don’t procrastinate. Get the semester off to a good start. Install XAMPP over the weekend (if not sooner) to ensure that you have it up and running before our second class. If you have problems, use the Piazza discussion forum to get help from your classmates, our teaching assistant, and me.
The current XAMPP 5.6.12 installation for either Windows (32- or 64-bit systems) or Mac (OS X) systems includes
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/166cx_uRhYJ24qoI-zMrs1dpWVyOw5iloQ-ojjF41lv4/viewform
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHJncHhVdEdHMEFJZ2lsVmEzVmJwM1E6MA
If you are a Macintosh user, there is already a web server installed on you system. However, there are some advantages to using XAMPP rather than the built-in server. To install XAMPP, follow the directions for Windows Users below.
Here are the steps to enable what on the Mac is called “web sharing” (covered in Lesson 1, Step 8)
First, if you already have any of the XAMPP components on your system, you may wish to uninstall them
When you’re ready to do the installation
Note: This installation is optional. Some of you may already have NetBeans or Eclipse installed. I use NetBeans simply because it existed before Eclipse and I am used to it, as I have been using it for years. It isn’t important which Integrated Development Environment (IDE) you use, but it is important that you use one to develop code (rather than a plain text editor) to learn how to do so. A professional IDE will help you manage your work as the number of related files gets large.
On Windows systems, you need to install the Java Development Kit (JDK) before installing NetBeans, or install the JDK+NetBeans bundle
Installing the bundle
Testing Java
java command may work “out of the box” after Java is installed, but the javac command will almost certainly require you to add the JDK’s bin folder to your system’s PATH environment variableOn Mac OSX, Java is already installed. You can verify this by opening a terminal window and entering the commands shown below.
Note #1: Your version numbers will almost certainly be different from those below, but the commands themselves should give you similar messages.
Note #2: You may have to set your system PATH environment variable for these commands to work from the command line.
Jesses-MacBook-Pro::~ > java -version java version "1.8.0_20" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_20-b26) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.20-b23, mixed mode) Jesses-MacBook-Pro::~ > javac -version javac 1.8.0_20
To install NetBeans, all you need to do is to download and install the DMG “All” package from http://netbeans.org/downloads
Once NetBeans is installed (on either system), check for updates as follows (click the figure to enlarge it)
There is nothing you need to submit for this assignment. If everything discussed above works, you’ll be all set for Assignment No. 2.
As noted on the first page, this is not a graded assignment. However, it is critical for you to set up your system so that you are ready for the next assignment. In addition, there will be a quiz on the material in the Learnable course.