Installing XAMPP on a computer running Windows 10

While looking for installing MariaDB, I came across a suggestion that installing XAMPP would be the best way to download and get MariaDB (as it is one of the programs on XAMPP)
.
MariaDB does lot more than MySQL and it is MySQL's challenger arising out of MySQL (MariaDB is MySQL's fork). MySQL in LAMP stack has been replaced by MariaDB. The download link for XAMPP with MariaDB  is here. MariaDB is a truly open source with many advantages.

The download versions of XAMPP are v5.5.30 and v5.6.14 (both x32bit). These versions have  the following components and they can be downloaded from here

Xampp_Maria.png

These are all the programs in this download of XAMPP.

Updated PHP to 5.5.30 / 5.6.14
Updated Apache to 2.4.17
Updated MariaDB to 10.0.17
Updated phpMyAdmin to 4.5.0.2

After downloading double click xampp-win32-5.6.14-3-VC11-installer.
Bitnami shows up. Bitnami is very similar to Windows Platform Installer for Microsoft and some Open Source programs. Here are some screen shots of the installation.

XAMPP_01.png

Click Next to select components to install.

XAMPP_02.png

Choose the components you want installed. Since I had installed PHP recently, I chose to install only Apache and MySQL servers only. Clicking Next takes you to the next screen.

There was an advice not to install on C:\drive and so created a new drive J: for this installation.

XAMPP_03.png

After choosing installation folder click Next. The Bitnami set up for installing XAMPP gets displayed as shown.

XAMPP_04.png

Click Next. The Ready to Install window is displayed together with the windows command program as shown. I am not sure why this comes up. I did not close the this window going forward.

XAMPP_05.png

Click Next. The unpacking and installing processes begin as shown.

XAMPP_06.png

After a while Completing the XAMPP Setup Wizard is displayed.

XAMPP_07.png

Click Finish. You are done installing XAMPP.

After this installation you get  an app on your Windows 10 computer as as shown.

XAMPP_app.png

Click on the XAMPP Control Panel to bring up the control panel as shown.

XAMPP_Maria14.png

Although the XAMPP details in the beginning of this post indicated that MariaDB is packaged with this install it can be seen that it is still MySQL. Of course to run Apache needs some more configuring specially, as the port 80 is already used by IIS and or Skype. The other complication is that there was already an MySQL from a previous installtion from Oracle. After modifying these (essentially changing port assginments and removing previous version fo MySQL), I may be able to work these servers and see MariaDB.

One way to handle "Port 80 in use by "Unable to open process" with PID 4!" error

This frustrating message is displayed if there is port contention between an existing program and the new program you are trying to install.

For example, I wanted to install Apache, MySQL and PHP using the XAMPP cross-platform web server stack. I was frustrated by various erros that showed up which includes the 'Port 80 in use by Unable to open process with PID 4!'. It could be Port 443 as well. I am using Windows 7 64bit Ultimate edition OS and XAMPP version 1.8.3.

The PID refers to a port being used by the system. After various tweaks found a  way to start APACHE and the other programs. The XAMPP Control Panel may have a bug. Read here for details...

http://hodentekhelp.blogspot.com/2014/02/on-installing-apache-on-windows-7-64bit.html

Creating a database in MySQL

While you can use a GUI such as MySqlWorkbench that works with MySQL to create a database, you can also use the command line to create a database.

The MySQL used in the present case is the version that came with a recent XAMPP download. XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution that brings with it MySQL, PHP and many others. The one I used is a Windows distribution which contains many other programs. Presently I am using only the Apache and MySQL. Here is a XAMPP Control Panel that I use often. As I also have a IIS5.1 running on the same machine (at default port 80), I have to use one (Apache) or the other (IIS) at any given time. It is very easy to stop and start as you can see in the control panel.

In my previous post I described how you may connect to the database from your DOS window.

Here is the login command and the 'Show Databases' command to review the databases on this server:
----------

C:\xampp\mysql>cd bin

C:\xampp\mysql\bin>mysql -h localhost -u root -p
Enter password: *********
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 12
Server version: 5.1.30-community MySQL Community Server (GPL)


Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

mysql> show databases;
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| cdcol              |
| expacc             |
| mengerie           |
| mydb               |
| mysql              |
| phpmyadmin         |
| test               |
| webauth            |
+--------------------+
9 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql>
-----------------------------
To create a new database (TestDemo) is easy as you see in this command:
mysql> create database TestDemo
    -> ;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.05 sec)

mysql>
--------------------------
If you run the Show Databases again, you will see the new database (of course it will be empty) as in the following:

mysql> Show databases;
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| cdcol              |
| expacc             |
| mengerie           |
| mydb               |
| mysql              |
| phpmyadmin         |
| test               |
| testdemo           |
| webauth            |
+--------------------+
10 rows in set (0.08 sec)


mysql>
--------
You do a quit when you want to get out as in:
mysql> quit
Bye

C:\xampp\mysql\bin>