How to Update to PHP 8 in WAMP Server Localhost

Since PHP version 8 has been released recently and you as a developer want to put your hands on to the exiting journey of PHP version 8, you must be wondering how to upgrade to PHP 8 in WAMP server. This article with a YouTube video will guide you to update WAMP server to PHP version 8.

As you can understand, You can use PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8 in a single WAMP installation. Also you can use multiple version of PHP of same release like PHP 7.2 and PHP 7.4 within the same WAMP server installation. This is a nice way to work on multiple PHP version and you just have to select the needed PHP version in WAMP.

Build Docker Container for PHP 7 and MySQL Based Application

Docker has given a different perception to application development and their run time environment. Containerization of application is very much essential now a days. Think about you have two different application in production server at same time and those applications are developed in PHP 7.2 and PHP 5.6 respectively. Now you can imagine how much trouble it could be to manage two different PHP version.

If you were using Docker, you could simply spin up another container, set the PHP version to 5.6 and put it right next to your other container that has PHP version 7.2 on it, running on the same server with no problems whatsoever. That flexibility, portability and the option to more efficiently use your server resources are what make Docker so compelling to use.

The below YouTube Video will tell you how to install Docker. Here we are using Ubuntu as OS but if you are an Windows user, you can create a virtual machine using Virtual Box and Install Ubuntu as Virtual OS. This approach is better as your primary or host OS is untouched from any activity required for your learning purpose. You may watch this YouTube video on How to Install Ubuntu as virtual machine (VM).

How to configure PHP 7 on WAMP server in localhost

Being a PHP developer you want to configure PHP 7 on your localhost for various reasons. You might want to explore the new features of PHP 7 or you might be upgrading your existing website to PHP 7 and want to test in your local machine first or you might be creating a brand new project on PHP 7. This blog will help you to configure PHP 7 for WAMP server in localhost.

(Note: You first check with your hosting server about PHP 7 is available or not. If yes, what version of PHP 7 is available.)

Very first thing to know is PHP 7 requires minimum Apache 2.4.x and also it needs WAMP Server 2.5. If you already have WAMP 2.5, ou do not have to uninstall anything. You can configure PHP 7 with WAMP 2.5. How to check your WAMP server version? Right click on the WAMP icon on your windows taskbar and click About... It will show your current WAMP version.