Problems with Preview, despite reading all previous postings

[TrapezeArtist]

Obviously I'm not the only one who has had problems with the configuring "Preview". However, not of the previous threads seems to have produced the answer to my problem, even though the problem seems the same.

I have Apache and PHP installed on my machine. I have a couple of test files in C:\Archivos de programa\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs, and they open fine in Firefox. However, when I have the file open in Rapid PHP and click on "Preview", I get a message to say that the software is not yet configured. I've tried configuring it every which way, but nothing works!

I do find some of the instructions a bit ambiguous, but I've tried all the alternatives I can think of, without success. Doubts I have are things like:
should there be a trailing slash on the path names?
should the path to php-cgi.exe include the filename or just the folder?

At the moment, the document path is specified in Apache's httpd.conf without the slash, but I've tried it with as well.

I see that the Built-In Web Server settings include a port number that defaults to 89. I haven't tried changing it, but is that right?

Any help or advise gratefully received.

[Gatis]

If you want to preview PHP files on your local PC, there are two choices:
1) You install Apache and PHP (or you can install XAMPP package, because it is easy and all-in-one).

2) Rapid PHP has a built-in web server, so if you do not have your own web server installed, you can download and install only PHP. WeBuilder can then use built-in web server with your PHP.

The second one is easies to configure. Just, make sure you specify the path to the php-cgi.exe file under Options=>Preferences=>Preview=>Script preview=>Web Server Settings.
Otherwise(if you want to use the first option), please refer to this site for a detailed list of steps you need take to set up the php file preview:
http://www.blumentals.net/rapidphp/faq.php?qid=hpd_map

[TrapezeArtist]

Well, I tracked down the problem:

Preview doesn't work if the page starts with an "include" that points to a mysql_connect file. Most of my pages have that, so it appeared that it didn't work at all when I tested it. When I happened to test with a file that has no mysql connection, it was fine.

So now I just have to find a way of making it display the files with the mysql connection. Any ideas?

[bandrej]

You must have installed and configured PHP and MySQL database on your server for "preview" to work, or any other browser for that matter (read Gatis post).

Off: Someone should really move this topic to Self-Help.

[TrapezeArtist]

You're right. This thread has reached a natural break and I'll transfer to Self Help to continue the topic.