XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl, plus many additional modules. The whole package is well integrated and can save a lot of time and hassle for the inexperienced web developer. [...] phpPgAdmin is a web-based administration tool for PostgreSQL, exactly as phpMyAdmin for MySQL.

It's a simple three step process (with a few sub-steps inside each) to get the system up and running - basically: install XAMPP, install PostgreSQL and install phpPgAdmin.

I'm going to walk you through the process with the settings that I chose for my server setup. I am not a Linux guru or a web server guru. [...] This post is compiled of steps and configurations that I've found on the internet. I wanted to have a consolidated instruction manual so I'm writing this tutorial to help anyone who's in the same boat as me.

It's a full installation tutorial too - every step from the installation of the operating system down to installing the packages for the web server and two languages (apt-get, of course). There's even parts of the configuration files that you'll need to add/update to get it all integrated.

The eleven step process includes making a work directory (so you don't copy over your current install and all of its lovely plugins and templates) and copying over a few key files to update to the latest release:

• Copy blog.original/wp-content/plugins to blog/wp-content/plugins
• Copy blog.original/wp-content/themes to blog/wp-content/themes
• Copy blog.original/wp-content/uploads to blog/wp-content/uploads
• Copy blog.original/wp-config.php to blog/wp-config.php
• Copy blog.original/.htaccess to blog/.htacces

For more information on upgrading your WordPress installation, check out this entry on their wiki.

I'll share an easy way to play around with PHP5.3 if you're on a Mac. First of all install MacPorts (don't forget to install XCode before).

He also includes a one-liner to be sure its all installed and working with the right version.

Last week, Philo showed you how to implement sIFR3. This time, I'm going to show you how to implement Facelift Image Replacement (or FLIR), an alternative to sIFR that does not require Flash.

This second part shows you how to install/setup the tool, configure it correctly for your setup and includes some of the pros and cons of using the software.

Zend Studio for Eclipse is a commercial edition of Eclipse plus the PDT plugin and various other additions. Unfortunately Zend decided to disable the Xdebug support of the Eclipse PDT plugin. Nonetheless if you'd like to use Xdebug for debugging your PHP scripts, follow these simple steps to restore the Xdebug functionality of Eclipse.

Its a simple six-step process (not including getting Zend Studio installed) to have the powerful debugging tool ready at your fingertips. You can find more information about setting up the tool here.

I'm talking about CodeIgniter (http://codeigniter.com), a solid piece of software written by Rick Ellis in PHP 4. It permits users to develop small and middle-scale PHP applications in minutes (literally) with minimal setup. In addition, CodeIgniter is built around the Model-View-Controller pattern, which allows you to easily separate data from application logic and visual presentation.

They show how to get it installed and up and working with a basic site including a little MySQL integration.

PHP developers beware: Zorba now has a language binding for PHP 5! Most PHP developments have to deal with XML and since PHP version 5, the support for XML has been greatly improved and developers can use various extensions that speak XML. We strongly believe that XQuery was the missing piece in this set of tools and therefore we are very excited by this release.

You can get the full details from this post to his blog including installation instructions and usage examples for everything from a simple query to a more complex XML insertion.

As some of you might have noticed, I've been a bit busy lately creating new PECL extension - sphinx. The extension provides an interface to a feature-rich fulltext search engine Sphinx written by Andrew Aksyonoff. We (Andrew and me) made our best to keep the extension as compatible to the pure-PHP API (shipped with Sphinx) as possible in order to make the transition easier.

The PECL page has already been created as well as a page in the manual for how it works. He also briefly mentions the installation (including teh required libraries).

The main purpose of this extension is to make a dev's life easy. This extension has been used by several of my devs at RBS and has been proved to increase productivity and reduce the number of painful small queries to write. Their enthusiasm has driven me to post this for the CI fans out there.

Installing the extension (download) is a simple replacement of the old Model.php and the creation of a model file for all of the tables in your application. He recommends checking out the source for some "really handy" bits of functionality.