License: Public domain

                                 Deploy LAMP stack
                                 - taiprogramer -

                                                      Date created: Oct 19 2021
                                                     Last modified: Oct 21 2021

I. Introduction

1. What is LAMP?

- L(Linux): everyone likes to call it an operating system.  But more accurately,
  it's GNU/Linux (to respect the people behind it). Ya, you can call some
  distribution like Alpine Linux is Linux because It's just Linux.

- A(Apache): Webserver - You serve your website at port 80. Then, everybody on
  the Internet can access it. (Try taiprogramer.xyz if you can)

- M(MySQL): Database Management System - it's a software you use to manage your
  database (but what is a database? database is a database)

- P(PHP): It's cool to hate PHP. It's a programming language used on your web
  server (you can see index.php). It contains logical for your site, for
  example, connecting to the database, loading dynamic content (profile page of
  a specific user)

2. What steps are needed to deploy a LAMP stack?

Here is a list of steps you have to perform to deploy a LAMP stack:

2.1 Install Apache Webserver

Expected result:

- Can access the default index page of Apache via a Web browser (Lynx, surf,
  qutebrowser, Firefox, Brave, PaleMoon, and more). (http://localhost)

- Know where index.html is stored.

2.2 Integrate PHP to Apache

Expected result:

- Can run PHP script on the webserver. For example, index.php with the following
  content below.

--index.php
<?php
	echo "<h1>taiprogramer</h1>";
	echo "<i>- An old-fashioned guy</i>";
?>
--

2.3 Integrate MySQL

Expected result:

- Can connect to our running MySQL server with PHP script served by the
  webserver. (http://localhost/mysql_test.php)

--mysql_test.php
// script to connect to MySQL server
--

II. Make it works! (KISS principle)

We are working on GNU/Linux operating system called Debian (version 11).

1. Install Apache Webserver

`sh
sudo apt install apache2
`

Check the status of the Apache service.

`sh
systemctl status apache2
`

You can use Lynx to access your site.

`sh
lynx http://127.0.0.1/
`

Ok, let's summarize.

You can host more than one site on a single Apache server. Your site config file
is stored at /etc/apache2/sites-available/. If you want to enable your site,
create a symbolic link from /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/ to your site config
file or use the a2ensite (apache2 enable site) tool.

`sh
sudo a2ensite YOUR_SITE.conf
`

To disable specific site, go to /etc/apache2/sites-available/ and use the
a2dissite (apache2 disable site) tool. For example, disable the default site.

`sh
sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
sudo systemctl reload apache2 # to apply new configuration
`

You can see the Webroot (where the default website is stored) by displaying the
content of the default config file. In my case, this is
/etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

Before integrating PHP to our Webserver, let's talk about VirtualHost (We will
create our site). Think about YOUR_DOMAIN (anything). I choose "thuyeu.us" (no
need to register for a domain name, we use 127.0.0.1. so make sure YOUR_DOMAIN
is not a public one)

1.1 What is VirtualHost?

Virtual Host lets you create more than one site on a single server. For example,
you have two domain names that point to the same IP. And you want to serve
different content based on the domain name. Then, you will need VirtualHost. For
more and complete information, checkout Apache2 documentation about VirtualHost.

1.2 Setup VirtualHost

Create our site config file in /etc/apache2/sites-available/.

--thuyeu.us.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
	# We will create /var/www/thuyeu.us/ folder later.
	# This is the root folder of our site.
	# It contains something likes index.php, ...
	DocumentRoot "/var/www/thuyeu.us"
	# When users access your site via domain name thuyeu.us, serve
	# DocumentRoot folder.
	ServerName thuyeu.us
</VirtualHost>
--

Create DocumentRoot folder.

`sh
sudo mkdir /var/www/thuyeu.us
# change ownership to $USER (current user).
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/thuyeu.us
`

Create an index.html file in /var/www/thuyeu.us/ to test our site. To keep
everything simple, you can use Vim or ed.

--index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
	<head>
		<title>Make Website Fun Again!</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<p>America is the greatest country in the world.</p>
	</body>
</html>
--

Enable our site with a2ensite tool.

`sh
sudo a2ensite thuyeu.us
sudo systemctl reload apache2 # reload configuration
`

1.3 Set up local domain name resolution

Edit /etc/hosts file and append the following content bellow.

--hosts
127.0.0.1	thuyeu.us
--

Now, you can use lynx to access our site. Hope it works!

`sh
lynx thuyeu.us
`

2. Integrate PHP to Apache Server

Just install the PHP module on the repository.

`sh
sudo apt install libapache2-mod-php
`

After installing, Apache2 should enable the module by default. If not, we can do
it with the a2enmod (Apache2 enable module) tool.

`sh
sudo a2enmod php7.4 # Your version may be different. But, you know the key.
`

Create an index.php file in our site directory /var/www/thuyeu.us/ for
testing.

--index.php
<?php
	echo "<h1>taiprogramer</h1>";
	echo "<i>- An old-fashioned guy</i>";
?>
--

You can use lynx again.

`sh
lynx thuyeu.us/index.php
`

3. Integrate MySQL

[TODO] [ALL PULL REQUESTS ARE WELCOME]

If this article is helpful, consider donating to support me. More information
can be found at https://www.taiprogramer.xyz

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