Setup my Workspace

These instructions are for Windows Laptops/Desktops

XAMPP can work on MacBook, but you're better off configuring each piece separately (Apache Web Server, MariaDB, PHP, etc)
MacBook ships with the Apache Web Server pre-installed and configured - so XAMPP installs in an obscure location to avoid the conflict

  1. Download and install XAMPP (if you do not already have it) --Do this ONCE only.
    Installing more than once, or re-installing will severly mess up your environment.
    Expected Results

    XAMPP installs to c:/xampp and creates a heirachy of folders

    Check to make sure the folder c:/xampp/htdocs exists. This is going to be our working directly.

  2. Create the following folders inside htdocs
    web-assets
    web-assets/tpl
    web-assets/lib
  3. Download Bootstrap and extract the css and js folders into c:/xampp/htdocs/web-assets/
  4. Download jQuery JavaScript and save to c:/xampp/htdocs/web-assets/js/jquery-3.4.1.min.js
  5. Download this Custom CSS file and save it to c:/xampp/htdocs/web-assets/css/site.css
  6. Download this app_header.php file and save it to c:/xampp/htdocs/web-assets/tpl/app_header.php
  7. Download this app_footer.php file and save it to c:/xampp/htdocs/web-assets/tpl/app_footer.php
  8. Your folders should now look like this:
    htdocs <--- this is your ['DOCUMENT_ROOT']
    `-- web-assets
        |-- css
        |   |-- bootstrap-grid.css
        |   |-- bootstrap-grid.css.map
        |   |-- bootstrap-grid.min.css
        |   |-- bootstrap-grid.min.css.map
        |   |-- bootstrap-reboot.css
        |   |-- bootstrap-reboot.css.map
        |   |-- bootstrap-reboot.min.css
        |   |-- bootstrap-reboot.min.css.map
        |   |-- bootstrap.css
        |   |-- bootstrap.css.map
        |   |-- bootstrap.min.css
        |   `-- bootstrap.min.css.map
        |-- js
        |   |-- bootstrap.bundle.js
        |   |-- bootstrap.bundle.js.map
        |   |-- bootstrap.bundle.min.js
        |   |-- bootstrap.bundle.min.js.map
        |   |-- bootstrap.js
        |   |-- bootstrap.js.map
        |   |-- bootstrap.min.js
        |   |-- bootstrap.min.js.map
        |   `-- jquery-3.4.1.min.js
        |-- lib
        `-- tpl
            |-- app_footer.php
            `-- app_header.php
    
  9. Now create your first bootstrap themed page (myfirstpage.php) using the following starter template:
    <?php
      $page_title 
    "My First Bootstrap Page";
      include_once 
    $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/web-assets/tpl/app_header.php';

      echo 
    "<h1>Hello World!</h1>";
      include_once 
    $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/web-assets/tpl/app_footer.php';
    ?>

  10. Your page should be available at the following url: http://localhost/myfirstpage.php and should look like this