What is XAMPP?
XAMPP is a free and open-source cross-platform web server that lets us host our website on a local system. It is developed by Apache Friends. It consists of an Apache HTTP server, MariaDB Database, and interpreter for PHP and Perl programming languages. It is supported by Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Why do we use XAMPP?
XAMPP is designed to use as a development tool only, to allow website designers and programmers to test their work on their own computers without accessing the internet. XAMPP creates an environment to run our PHP and Perl scripts locally. We can deploy our project developed in these languages and we will be able to see the output.
Components in XAMPP
XAMPP consists of several components which help it to run and host websites locally. We will take a look at some of the major components here. So if you see XAMPP is made from core components first name only. X represents Cross-Platform, A represents Apache HTTP server, M represents Maria DB database, last two Ps represent the languages PHP and Perl.
- Cross Platform:- This is not component but we can say this is the feature of the XAMPP. Which tells us that XAMPP is not platform dependent, we can use XAMPP on any system like Windows, Linux or macOs.
- Apache HTTP Server:- As we know Apache is a famous HTTP cross platform server. It is used to deliver web content worldwide. It processes the requests and serves web content via HTTP.
- Maria DB Database:- Originally, MySql was the part of XAMPP but after version 5.5.30, Maria DB took its place. Maria DB is relation database only developed by Mysql. We can do all the CRUD operations same as we do with MySql.
- PHP:- It is the backend scripting language, which is used to develop dynamic websites. We develop websites using PHP and we deploy it in XAMPP server. Apache from XAMPP processes the php requests interpreted by XAMPP interpreter.
- Perl:- Perl is combination of two high-level dynamic language. Like PHP, Perl is also used to develop dynamic websites. Perl is written in C.
- phpMyAdmin:- This is a dashboard to perform the operations of Maria DB. phpMyAdmin provides GUI to handle the data. We can create the Table or Databases using GUI as well as queries. Also we can do the CRUD operation using this GUI as well as quaries.
- XAMPP control panel:- XAMPP control panel provides us the option to operate the different-different components of XAMPP.
- Filezilla:- Filezilla is a File Transfer Protocol Server, which let us to handle operaion performed on the file.
These are some of the core components of XAMPP. In the next post, we will see how to install XAMPP on our systems.