What the hell's wrong with Drupal on WAMP?

if users are posting support requests to you, then you have to know the answer..

I spent 4 days getting this combination to work then I broke It yesterday. I am so tiered of working on it I have just put that project on hold. I think I need to work on things I can make work with out so much effort.

most noobs are trying to figure out how to install drupal on their windows computer. so they have to learn about wamp and how to install drupal on it. wamp works fine as a development environment and really isn't that difficult to set up. but if the whole environment is new to you, you're going to have to do some research to figure it out.

Maybe you can start explaining with what's not working for you then? Setting up WAMP is probably one of the simplest things a developer (on Windows) ever has to do. I don't get the impression that there is any thing wrong with WAMP ... ...

It's because more people are deploying Drupal on WAMP and WIMP stacks, and because on Drupal.org there is a horrible dearth of organized, actually helpful information about running Drupal on Windows, whether WAMP or WIMP. Mostly, when one tries to find documentation, seek help in IRC or look to the forums, one of two things happens: 1) Some variant of the "I hate Windows" thing - eg "I wouldn't touch Drupal on Windows with a ten foot pole. Sorry, can't help you," or "only NOOBS use Drupal on Windows"... 2) The searcher finds 10,000 unanswered threads on how to do some simple thing, so they look outside Drupal.org for answers. It's no fun running open source software without the benefit of the open source community [you might as well run Joomla]. Nonetheless, huge numbers of businesses run Windows, so a growing number of shops really would like to deploy on WAMP or WIMP and take advantage of some of the economies to be found there. MS is doing very interesting things with PhP on IIS7 and is even [gasp] attending DrupalCamps and DrupalCons. So, maybe your site is one of the few places WAMPY/WIMPY Drupallers can go for information, NOOBs or not. Thanks for putting the information out there. Someone's gotta do it.

time to write a nice article about the Acquia Stack Installer. http://acquia.com/downloads

I had a serious headache setting up drupal on wamp with http request fail errors. It took some time to discover the http request fail reset module to bypass this problem and until I had drupal slowed to a crawl. I've never had any similar trouble installing drupal with a webhost, so presumably the issue lies with wamp. For all it's flaws though, wamp is still the least painful way I've found to run drupal on windows.

drupal runs ok on xampp use it.

I actually switched from XAMPP to WAMP a few weeks ago and love it. The migration was simple - only taking about 10 minutes. True I have a lot of experience in setting up LAMP servers, so that's a big plus for me. A few things I can think of that might cause problems: - mod_rewrite is disabled by default, so people might have problems getting clean urls to work - there is a difference in paths between Windows and *nix setups. That can lead to some confusion. - WAMP ships with PHP 5.3. Drupal isn't 100% 5.3 friendly. Best bet is to download PHP 5.2.9.2 and use that instead. If you are using XDebug, then use PHP 5.2.6 since there are problems with PHP crashes and XDebug in Windows on PHP>5.2.6. To the last point remember if you want to change your php.ini then edit wamp directory/bin/php/{version}/phpForApache.ini. That file is copied over by WAMP when changing PHP versions. Another thing to keep in mind is that WAMP sets error_notices to E_ALL. A lot of modules out there still throw notices, so go best to change it to E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE. Until D7 is out in the wild for a while and more modules move to full PHP 5 only support, this will probably be needed. And for the serious developers out there who want to use their own domains I highly recommend installing Treewalk DNS. I have mine setup so that the .devel TLD is my system. I can then quickly setup unlimited sites, and even do wildcard subdomains - great for testing multisite stuff. This combination of stuff works great on my Vista 64 system.

I can second the simple XAMPP setup: 1) Download XAMPP (use google to find this) 2) Install XAMPP 3) Turn on the Server 4) Navigate to localhost/phpmyadmin 5) Create database 6) Download Acquia's Zipped version of Drupal 7) Copy decompressed files inside the "htdocs" of the XAMPP application folder (you could create a folder if you like) 8) Access "localhost" or "localhost/newsubfolder" 9) Install Drupal Nothing too complicated. Or you could use Acquia's Stack installer, though that has errored out on me once or twice.

I use WAMP on my laptop for all of my development, and I've only had one real issue. It seems like admin/build/modules takes a really long time to load. I've tried messing with the hosts file, as I'd heard that the IPv6 configuration that is on by default in Vista could cause problems, but it didn't seem to help. At this point, I'm chalking it up to the rest of my environment being what it is, and that there is a *lot* of stuff that happens on that page.

because it finally has a Mac version that works. That way my two development environments (a windows & mac machine) are the same. But then I'm still slightly different from staging and production. So I've been tempted to try to use VMware or VirtualBox so I could run a virtual Linux server that very closely replicates my production environment.

How about appserv? I've used it on windows with no problem :)

I see complaints about documentation and forum replies dismissing help for people using Windows. The same happens to Linux and Unix beginners and is the biggest single roadblock to people using Linux for Web development. Installing Apache, MySQL, and PHP on your existing Windows netbook, notebook, or workstation is far easier for Web developers already on Windows. The various packages of Apache, MySQL, and PHP sometimes work and sometimes do not but are hard to fix at the start of a class because there are so many variations of the packages each with different problems and each reacting differently to the various versions of Windows. To diagnose the Apache part of a package install, you end up installing Apache by itself. The same thing happens with MySQL then PHP. When the package works, the package interface is different to the cpanel you use on your Web server or VPS. Ubuntu has the best support for beginners but a search of Ubuntu or any other Linux distribution frequently brings up documentation showing how to use an incompatible version from 2002 or earlier. Converting an old computer to Ubuntu usually works without resorting to the outdated documentation but converting a modern computer often runs into trouble, leaving the user wishing they had simply installed Apache, MySQL, and PHP direct into their Windows machine. The Unix/Linux pages are full of unexplained commands that have to be entered in the Unix DOS box. Try telling a Windows user to revert to the 1970s and DOS commands. Windows looks really good compared to the documentation for Linux and Unix. One argument for converting to Linux is that your Web site will be hosted on Linux. Who cares? The vast majority for beginners use a hosting package that includes cpanel. They do not see the dreaded Unix DOS box. Based on students with notebooks, a straight installation of Apache works in Windows with the Windows firewall and virus checkers turned off. The Windows firewall and virus checkers spoil almost every installation of everything and students are used to switching them off. With those items off, MySQL and PHP slip in as smooth as cholesterol into an artery. Vista and Macs have strange security arrangements where things randomly refuse to work in class and they have to take the machines back to the shop or whoever installed the operating system. My suggestion for the future, when Webmin and related packages can do everything that cpanel does, is to set up your local machine, using your existing operating system, and your hosted VPS with exactly the same lineup of Apache, MySQL/PostgreSQL, PHP, Webmin, the other mins, Drupal, dotProject, and WebERP/XRMS. We can then use one Web interface for everything and forget Windows, Linux, Unix, the perpetual Gnome/KDE fight, the annoying Mac differences, and the dreaded Vista. Of course we have to make all those web applications change to use one themeing system so they all use the same theme because then all the buttons will be the same. Quick! Look out your window. Is that a flock of winged piglets up in the sky?

I sucesfully install durpal 6.2 in my machine using wamp: 1.Creat a database say:my_site. 2.run durpal by http://localhost/drupal/install.php 3.Select the language when error comes 4. Just rename default.settings.php to settings.php in sites\default hit refresh 4. In settings.php $db_url = 'mysql://username:password@localhost/databasename'; by $db_url = 'mysql://root:0205039@localhost/my_site';save it and hit refresh here 0205039 is my pass. 5. complete the next step............. N.B. Theres may be an error shown that Unable to send e-mail just ignore it! Thats all!!!!!! Use Drupal on wamp Thank you

I got tired of all the problems of running drupal on xampp amd wamp. So, I searched and found the perfect solution: "Mowes_portable"

I am installing Drupal 6.14 using WAMP on a Windows Vista machine and following the instructions in the Lynda.com Drupal Essential Training Release Date 8/08 I have followed the steps several times and even went to the effort of uninstalling WAMP (from my previous lessons on Joomla) and then reinstalling it. Specifications in WAMP indicate that I am using localhost SQL Server version 5.1.36, Apache 2.2.11 PHP/5.2.0, phpMyAdmin Version 3.2.01 I took the following actions: 1. Opened PhpMyAdmin and created drupal database - successful 2. Downloaded Drupal 6.14 to mydownloads 3. Opened with WinZip 4. Extracted files to a folder in mydownloads named Drupal-6.14 5. Opened C:\wamp\www folder 6. Deleted Index.php file - folder is empty 7. Selected 22 items from drupal-6.14 folder - 7 folders and 15 files and copied 8. Pasted 22 items into C:\wamp\www folder 9. Returned to web browser and removed phpmyadmin leaving only localhost, pressed enter. That opened a browser with multiple lines of the following message: Deprecated: Function ereg() is deprecated in C:\wamp\www\includes\file.inc on line 902 At the bottom of the screen (after what appears to be several hundred lines of the above message, there was the drupal screen. I selected English language and had the same instance of several hundred lines of the message above before displaying the instructions to create the settings.php file. Each time I had the same several hundred messages coming across. I finally did get through to the point that I had the new site set up. I am wondering how many other issues like this I may run into. Thanks, Don

I'm viewing the Drupal course on Lynda.com. ONCE I figured out I needed to uninstall IIS, all went smoothly with the installation of WAMP (used the 2.0h version based on a comment above titled PHP 5.3) and Drupal. Note: I temporarily turned off my anti-virus software as well. For people who need to run both IIS and Apache concurrently, there are methods to do this. The key seems to be that you need to set them to use different ports. This is a page that has some info: http://www.wampserver.com/phorum/read.php?2,57798 . I am sure there are others.

http://apache2triad.net/ I can't believe that that's not mentioned once as a good way to install Drupal on windows.. It installs & configures all services needed to run a WAMP & a bit more. Install it and you can just follow the normal doc's on installing Drupal I do agree with the comments though of complex & bloated documentation on Drupal, It's large and there's legacy support that's poorly marked at times you read the whole thing only to get to the end to find it was for 4.62 or earlier, unless your always looking for phishing attacks on yer documentation o_O. It is however a community that for the most part stays on topic and doesn't go bashing typos that helps dyslexics (like me) or ESL (English as a Second Language) people feel a bit more free to talk code & not semantics. My personal experiences are however grate with WAMP running on my netbook (yes netbook) with the above mentioned install. I use it to do Note taking & Theming when I'm on the go, and scare stewardesses when I'm on a plane thinking I'm on the web (yes I have been told to stop going online at 30k feet). And to the blue screen of death, that sounds like something other than php, it could have been, however, it sounds more like a corrupted registry or hard disk/component failure. When a service craps out it should just take itself out not shower you with the blue. It's come along way since 95's BSOD hell.. I still prefer being able to control shift backspace in GNOME though *shrug*.. but then I wouldn't have notepad++, and a few other tools.

Apache2Triad appears to be discontinued. Since I come from the Windows world, Drupal looked like an amazing pain to set-up from scratch. Luckily, I found TurnKeyLinux.com's pre-configured VMware appliance. It got me hooked on wanting to use Drupal and finally suggest it as our new corporate Intranet CMS to replace our antiquated Lotus Domino based site. We looked at SharePoint, but the licensing is confusing, irritating, and costly, and was ultimately a turn-off to the powers in control of funding projects. The only positive it has is flawless Active Directory integration, which none of the non-Windows solutions seem to have. Even our ancient Lotus Domino site has decent LDAP integration. Unfortunately, I've had nothing but problems getting Drupal to work reliably on Windows. I've also had no luck getting any of the LDAP modules to communicate with our Active Directory. I researched the LDAP options and found that you can (attempt to) implement authentication at each level of the stack, yet nobody seems to have a "best practice" way of accomplishing it. I wasted many hours sifting through the drupal.org forums to try to make sense out of it. Some require an Apache plug-in, some require a PHP plug-in, and some require IIS instead of Apache for SSO pass-through authentication... It just starts to look like an aimless hack. Today, just before I left work, I had the DAMP installation running on a fresh installation of Windows Server 2003 R2 (32 bit). It appeared promising until I logged into Drupal from my laptop (Win7Px64IE8). For some reason, the refresh stops short and requires a manual refresh after login?!? I don't have that problem with the Linux installations I've been testing. It almost pains me to admit, as a "Windows guy", that Linux could better than Windows for something so seemingly simple. Am I just wasting my time trying to use a configuration with which Drupal was never designed to work? I'm considering recommending to my director that we drop our guard and admit "just one" Linux appliance VM into our, otherwise, all-Windows network.

I first started using WAMP version 2.0c about two years ago, and experienced no problems. A couple of months ago I upgraded to version 2.0i - and that's when the problems began. I have been experiencing the volumes of PHP errors reported above, plus every now and again (and sometimes, very frequently) I get a Windows message telling me that the Apache server has stopped working. I tried DAMP and MoWeS, but PHPMyAdmin did not work with DAMP, and I kept getting the "Apache not working" message with MoWeS, so I have gone back to WAMP. Version 2.0i includes PHP 5.3.0 by default. Following advice included in a comment above, I downloaded and installed PHP version 5.2.6 You can do this by selecting, from the WAMP icon menu on the toolbar: PHP > Versions > Get More ..., which takes you to the WAMP website and allows you to select the version that you want. Once installed, PHP > Versions shows the versions that are available and the the one that is active (ticked). Select the one that you want to use and WAMP reboots itself (the icon turns yellow, then comes back to white). Since using version 5.2.6 of PHP, it seems that my problems are solved. One point to note. When I try to import an SQL dump of a database via PHPMyAdmin while PHP 5.2.x is running, I get a "file too big" error; but when I switch to PHP 5.3.0, it imports without any problems.

This is probably related to all versions of Windows but has anyone solved the problem with getting xdebug to integrate between Eclipse (or any of the other IDE's for that matter). DAMP was fantastic. I had it up and running in 5 minutes (after spending 2 months of hell developing at a snail's pace with wampserver and drupal). BUT, if you want to do anything more complicated than string a few modules together...it looks like you will be wasting your time. Look at Robert Douglass's comment at the foot of this page: http://acquia.com/blog/xdebug-komodo-and-acquia-drupal-stack-installer Looks like this showstopper even has the guys at Acquia stumped!?

What's wrong with you? if you're gonna google bomb this, you'd better have answers.