Best methodology for PHP+APACHE+MYSQL Development

I want to start learning PHP. I have had a look at the various options available to install the PHP+MySQL+Apache combination. But it all seems too cumbersome and a lot of editing to the CONF files always leads to one problem or the other. So I had a couple of questions to ask:

1) How will something like WAMP help me? If I install WAMP, will that be enough? 2) Isn't there some Eclipse like IDE ( coming from a Java Background ), that allows WAMP to be integrated with it? ( Or is typing on Notepad the only option available )?

Please help me out by explaining things a little elaborately. Thank开发者_如何学JAVA you so much for your time and patience.

i personally use xampp and netbeans for my local web development. you can actually set up the netbeans project wherever you want, so you can just place all your files in the htdocs folder of xampp (at C:\xampp) and edit the files in the folder directly. This will allow you to immediately see any changes you have made by reloading the web page.

xampp allows you to run apache (with mod_php installed and configured) and mysql on your local machine and even includes a handy panel to let you start and stop them at any time.

netbeans has a lot of tools for easy development and support for frameworks like Zend. You can also use it for many other languages should you wish to expand.

I prefer WAMP because it doesn't try to do anything fancy with configurations... when you install it, you get PHP, Apache, MySQL, and phpMyAdmin with each of their default configurations and extensions loaded. It's the same as installing them separately, only they're all in one convenient directory, and you get the handy tray icon to restart services and enable/disable extensions.

As for an IDE, I use Eclipse PHP Development Tools (PDT), but I've heard good things about Netbeans too. Eclipse can do everything Scott described Netbeans being able to do as well. You also might want to look into Aptana which was branched from Eclipse PDT but is now maintained by a different team.

you can go ahead and install xampp from apachefriends, it comes with an apache web server, mysql database, phpmyadmin and a control panel for both servers, and installs fairly quick and with the default settings you will be pretty much set. Not sure what integration you'd want between the editor and the webserver though. if you mean code folding, autocomplete and all that stuff, eclipse has a php-friendly version, and so does netbeans (these 2 are the most popular choices as far as i've seen)