Geany PHP Web Server

Revised 6 minutes, 30 seconds read By Edward

Geany View PHP Code In Web Browser

Geany was reviewed as part of a series of lightweight programming editors. To select a reviewed lightweight programming editor read the Ojambo.com Lightweight Programming Editors.

Geany is a small IDE that loads quickly. Geany comes with an optional project management feature. Each project can have project-specific build features.

This tutorial uses the Geany. Once the build menu item is selected, the project will open in the specified web browser.

    Tools are required:

  • Geany text editor.
  • Geany project management.
  • Web browser.

Optional Download and install Geany

Geany is required in order to follow this tutorial. For more information about Geany read Ojambo.com Lightweight Programming Editors.

How to Use:

    Open Geany

  • Project -> New -> Name = webphp, Base path = /project/webphp.
  • Build -> Set Build Commands -> Execute Commands -> Execute = php -S localhost:8000 & sensible-browser localhost:8000/”%f”.
  • File -> New(with Template) -> file.php
  • File -> Save As -> Name = index.php

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Ojambo.com Geany New Project

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Ojambo.com Geany New Project Path

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Ojambo.com Geany Project Properties

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Ojambo.com Geany New File Template

More information about the PHP built-in web browser can be read at Ojambo.com PHP Web Development Without Web Server. The ampersand indicates another command to run. Sensible-browser is the name of the web browser.

The Geany character sequence “%f” is substituted by the name of the current file without the path. The default path is the current project path.

PHP Index File

<?php
/*
 * index.php
 * 
 * Copyright 2013 edward <http://Ojambo.com>
 * 
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.
 * 
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 * 
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston,
 * MA 02110-1301, USA.
 * 
 * 
 */

?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xml:lang="en" lang="en">

<head>
	<title>Ojambo.com Geany PHP Web Server Index</title>
	<meta charset="utf-8" />
</head>

<body>
	<h1><?php echo "This is the Index Page"; ?></h1>
	<p><a href="tester.php">Tester Page</a></p>
</body>

</html>

The PHP code is embedded in the h1 HTML tags. If the document is a PHP file then PHP embedded code can be interpreted by a web server. The anchor link points to another PHP file called “tester.php”.

PHP Tester File

<?php
/*
 * tester.php
 * 
 * Copyright 2013 edward <http://Ojambo.com>
 * 
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.
 * 
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 * 
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston,
 * MA 02110-1301, USA.
 * 
 * 
 */

?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xml:lang="en" lang="en">

<head>
	<title>Ojambo.com Geany PHP Web Server Tester</title>
	<meta charset="utf-8" />
</head>

<body>
	<h1><?php echo "This is the Tester Page"; ?></h1>
	<p><a href="index.php">Index Page</a></p>
</body>

</html>

The PHP file is loaded as a new page. The PHP embedded code inside the h1 tags is interpreted by a web server. The anchor link points to a separate PHP file called “index.php”.

How To Use:

    Open Browser For Speed

  • Build -> Execute.
  • Alternate method is to click the run icon in the toolbar or F5
  • Close terminal to close web server.

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Ojambo.com Geany Execute Menu

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Ojambo.com Geany Execute Toolbar

Demonstration:

Ojambo.com Geany PHP Web Server Tutorial

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Ojambo.com Geany PHP Web Server Index

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Ojambo.com Geany PHP Web Server Tester

Conclusion:

Geany is a powerful editor that has features only available in much larger IDEs. An important tool that PHP application developers need is project-specific execution. Each project can have custom menu labels and commands.

The build menu configuration for a project can override the system defaults. A new execute command can be created to use the PHP built-in web server and open in a web browser.

    Recommendations:

  1. Create projects for PHP web applications.
  2. Override the default execution command in order to use the toolbar execute icon
  3. Create a custom execute command if your will use non web-specific PHP code.