Developing Drupal using XAMPP

Using XAMPP to create a full featured Drupal development workspace. I used the following to create a multi-site, mail enabled, flexible, development environment on MS Windows XP:

• XAMPP Lite for Windows (v 1.6.8)
• Stunnel for Windows (v 4.26)
• Drupal (v 6.x, 5.x)

1. Install XAMPP Lite
This should result in the following folder strucure:

You can test the XAMPP install by starting it and then browsing to http://localhost.

If you see the following then you have successfully installed XAMPP:

2. Configure XAMPP to enable multi-sites and clean URLs

1. Edit C:\xampplite\apache\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf (I usually make a backup of all edited files called [filename].original) by appending the following to the end of the file:
   

   # theneemies _
    
   NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80
   <VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80>
       DocumentRoot "C:/xampplite/htdocs"
       ServerName localhost:80
   </VirtualHost>
    
    
   <VirtualHost sandbox.local:80>
       DocumentRoot "C:/xampplite/htdocs/drupal6"
       ServerName sandbox.local
       ServerAlias <a href="http://www.site1.local" title="www.site1.local">www.site1.local</a>, <a href="http://www.site2.local" title="www.site2.local">www.site2.local</a>, randwick.local 
   </VirtualHost>
    
   # _ theneemies	
    

2. Include the domain names you've listed in httpd.conf in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts:
   

   127.0.0.1       localhost
   127.0.0.1       randwick.local
   127.0.0.1       sandbox.local
    
    

3. Edit C:\xampplite\apache\conf\httpd.conf by uncommenting (remove the leading #) LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so.
4. Configure Drupal for multi-site by creating the folders randwick.local and sandbox.local within C:\xampplite\htdocs\drupal6. The result should be C:\xampplite\htdocs\drupal6\randwick.local and C:\xampplite\htdocs\drupal6\sandbox.local folders.
5. Restart XAMPP for your changes to take effect:
   
6. You should see the XAMPP splash page when viewing http://localhost and the Drupal install page when viewing http://sandbox.local. Install Drupal and ensure that clean URLs are working.

2. Install and configure Stunnel to send emails using your GMail account.

1. Edit C:\xampplite\apache\bin\php.ini:
   

   ; theneemies (uncomment this line) _
   extension=php_smtp.dll
   ; _ theneemies
    
   ...
    
   [mail function]
   ; For Win32 only.
   SMTP = localhost
   smtp_port = 25
    
   ; For Win32 only.
   sendmail_from = admin@sandbox.local
    
   ; For Unix only.  You may supply arguments as well (default: "sendmail -t -i").
   sendmail_path = "C:\xampplite\sendmail\sendmail.exe -t";
    

2. Edit C:\Program Files\stunnel\stunnel.conf and replace with:
   

   cert = stunnel.pem
   socket = l:TCP_NODELAY=1
   socket = r:TCP_NODELAY=1
   debug = 7
   output = stunnel.log
   client = yes
    
   [smtpg]
   accept = 127.0.0.1:25
   connect = smtp.gmail.com:465

3. Edit C:\xampplite\sendmail\sendmail.ini to use your GMail account:
   

   [sendmail]
    
   ; you must change mail.mydomain.com to your smtp server,
   ; or to IIS's "pickup" directory.  (generally C:\Inetpub\mailroot\Pickup)
   ; emails delivered via IIS's pickup directory cause sendmail to
   ; run quicker, but you won't get error messages back to the calling
   ; application.
    
   smtp_server=localhost
    
   ; smtp port (normally 25)
    
   smtp_port=25
    
   ; the default domain for this server will be read from the registry
   ; this will be appended to email addresses when one isn't provided
   ; if you want to override the value in the registry, uncomment and modify
    
   default_domain=gmail.com
    
   ; log smtp errors to error.log (defaults to same directory as sendmail.exe)
   ; uncomment to enable logging
    
   ;error_logfile=error.log
    
   ; create debug log as debug.log (defaults to same directory as sendmail.exe)
   ; uncomment to enable debugging
    
   ;debug_logfile=debug.log
    
   ; if your smtp server requires authentication, modify the following two lines
    
   auth_username=[youremail]@gmail.com
   auth_password=[yourpassword]
    

4. Start Stunnel, restart XAMPP, and use Drupal to send an email (send a notification when creating a new user, the new user should receive an email).