WampServer

Hi people. I am new here and i am was hoping this community might be able to help with some questions that i currently have. It is my first time working with servers and i am now working in a school that currently have a paid host server. I have chceked the information on the host server and it says that it supports Apache 1.3.34, MySQL 4.0.25 and PHP 4.4.2. Now i am going to be working on my school's website and it uses PHP( my first time with PHP). Once i have worked on the website using Dreamweaver from the local machine in school, i will upload them to the host server. Now I am wondering if i were to download the latest version of the WAMP server which is WAMP5 1.6.1 and install it on my local machine, will it be able to work with the host nserver which has different versions of the 3 modules i mentioned earlier? Please help! It will be deeply appreciated.

Rauf

Okay WampServer sets up an SSI Intranet, it makes it for that computer, and its intranet only... Okay, so if i read your question right yes and no...
Yes, the files can interact, ex. include();, and No, to your main question no..
The only files that work on the wampserver are the ones in C:\Wamp\WWW(unless you changed this) AND/OR if you specified a different location during setup.. So if the host machine is on your local network i guess you could. You need direct file access though, as if it were your My documents almost, you need CHMOD 777, if you know what I mean.
Now understand me, I make websites(that is why i have wamp), and in my personal experience it has been easier to just, make the files, when you are done upload them.. less config. But again if it is on your local network youy should be able too.. Just during the install give it the directory of your host machine, ex. Where would your files be located(or w/e it says): \\SERVER_NAME\home\schoolrox.com\)

No the host machine is from a seperate hosting company. And what is CHMOD 777? Anyway if i want to prevent any incompatibilities, can i just work on the PHP files on my local machine using Dreamweaver and then upload them up to my Host Server? Will there be any other installations needed?

CHMOD is the modification of permissions to folders, 777 is all access to all users(anyone can read, write, and execute). And as for the serevr being seperate, you must use wamp server locally. You canNOT as far as i know do that, but why would you want to? You could just goto [www.site.com]...

I am very new to PHP and MYSQL. I have been building a ton of websites with html and flash, but want to dive into the database driven side of things.
How do you set up 'mysql' passwords and so on????
I use Dreamweaver, what do I put for a database connections?
Connection Name: ?
Server Name: ?
User Name
Password
Database
*How do I set up all of these? I do have WAMP installed, it is probably super easy to get set up. I might be overlooking something.
I think I have it set up locally so I can test out php pages while I build them.

THanks for the help.

Connection Name: Anything, name it what you want
Server Name: localhost
User Name: root
Password: leave blank if you have not changed roots password, otherwise put the password here
Database: the atabase you want to use

Here you go, if you where asking for script


$mysql_database_server_name = "localhost"; //Most of the time this is 'localhost'\\
$mysql_database_name = "db"; //This is the name of the database \\
$mysql_databse_user = "root"; //Please put a user that has access to the previously mentioned database, when using wamp, the deafault user is 'root', with no password\\
$mysql_database_user_pass = ""; //Put the password to the forementioned user here\\

$link = mysql_connect($mysql_database_server_name, $mysql_databse_user, $mysql_database_user_pass);
if (!$link) {
die('Not connected : ' . mysql_error());
}

$db = $mysql_database_name;
$db_selected = mysql_select_db($db, $link);
if (!$db_selected) {
die ('Can\'t use database :' . $db . ' <br>Reason: ' . mysql_error());
}

this needs to be at the begining of ever file connecting, i reccomend using some include()s.. make the script above into, connect.php then at the top of every file do
<?php
include("connect.php";
..
..
script
..
..
?>
or wherever you need to..