XAMPP is a cross-platform Apache distribution enriched with third-party applications, namely MySQL, PHP and Perl. It was designed as a web server that can be a friendly assistant in website creation and maintenance.
XAMPP provides developers with an easy and comfortable way to test dynamic webpages without access to the Internet. It also includes the newest versions of Mercury and Tomcat.
With XAMPP, you can manage MySQL and SQLite databases and you can create a remote host using FileZilla FTP server (also included in the package). This is useful for the administration of large Content Management Systems (CMS).
The installation process requires user intervention only to ask if the components should be installed as Windows services too. You don’t have to decide now, seeing how this is configurable from XAMPP’s control panel. This is also the only interface with the user and only from here you can perform server configurations.
By default, all services are stopped; therefore, you need to manually start the ones you need and administer them at the same time. In Service Settings you can choose for the XAMPP Control Panel to run as service, and automatically make specific modules active at startup. In addition, you can set up an account and password for secure access.
XAMPP receives regular updates in order to keep up with the latest version of the included components. Its developers are successful in their attempt to provide an up-to-date web server that can be used for website testing and maintenance.
