Server Side Scripting...

[saintoctopus]

So...how do you allow it? We have a group of 8, they want to practice Apache/PHP/SQL and whatnot...not my area of expertise... Do I need a test lab/server/clients etc...? Or is there another way?

[dwhyte85]

It depends. You could just have one instance of MySQL, Apache & PHP and give them a folder to work in and make a database - e.g, http://server/STUDENT

 

You could set it up on Windows if you wanted, something called XAMPP - just click, click, click and go.

 

Might have to think about how you'll stop them deleting each others bits though.

[dhicks]

So...how do you allow it? We have a group of 8, they want to practice Apache/PHP/SQL and whatnot...not my area of expertise... Do I need a test lab/server/clients etc...? Or is there another way?

 

You could give them each their own virtual machine to configure, or buy 8 Raspberry Pis.

[jim_potter]

I like the VM idea. I've deployed VMWare player for windows installation practice.

 

Or set up a linux host and give them SSH access to it?

 

Jim

[saintoctopus]

Linux would be a whole new world...!

 

So, for the VM idea...literally a VM on their local machine, and let them loose?

[dhicks]

Linux would be a whole new world...! So, for the VM idea...literally a VM on their local machine, and let them loose?

 

That might be the advantage of Raspberry Pi's or similar - you just have to buy them and provide hardware to plug them in, configuring them is up to the pupils. You could do pretty much the same with Linux VMs, too - just create 8 Debian VMs, provide the pupils with SSH to connect to them and leave them to it.

[ijk]

You might...

 

If you are able to provide a linux based server, either physical or virtual - doesn't matter, you could run Virtualmin (Webmin) and set them up with their own domain control panel.

 

Your work here involves installing linux and virtualmin - well documented; creating DNS records to point to the server, one per domain/subdomain - whatever you choose; creating the domains in virtualmin; providing the individuals with username and password and letting them get on with it.

 

I.e. create your own internal web hosting company.

[jim_potter]

Worked for me - free VMWare Player (MSI it out).

 

As long as no one goes crazy with virtual disk size. I found that auto expanding disks started at ~5GB. I ran this over a network too, which worked fine. (I think vmware grumbled a bit, but no real performance problems)

 

Or QEmu - virtual Raspberry pis (untested)

 

Jim

[sonofsanta]

We do it with a server and mapped drives, works wonderfully. Takes about an afternoon to set up, no reason you can't do it on a virtual server, if not any old physical box will do so long as you have a Server Licence - and the cost of those is cheaper p.a. than any online hosting.

 

Installing a PHP/MySQL Development Server for students on Windows Server 2012 - Part1 - Blogs - EduGeek.net

Installing a PHP/MySQL Development Server for students on Windows Server 2012 - Part2 - Blogs - EduGeek.net

[saintoctopus]

We do it with a server and mapped drives, works wonderfully. Takes about an afternoon to set up, no reason you can't do it on a virtual server, if not any old physical box will do so long as you have a Server Licence - and the cost of those is cheaper p.a. than any online hosting.

 

Installing a PHP/MySQL Development Server for students on Windows Server 2012 - Part1 - Blogs - EduGeek.net

Installing a PHP/MySQL Development Server for students on Windows Server 2012 - Part2 - Blogs - EduGeek.net

 

Absolutely superb! Thank you