How To Host, Run And View Your Website On Localhost

In order for your website to be accessible from any part of the world, it must be deployed after development. It is possible to fully develop your website on line, but it is also a common practice to entirely finish a project offline for complex projects that usually take time to develop.

Such projects can be accessed and tested on localhost.

In order to host, run and view your website on localhost, there are a few important steps you'd need to take:

Step 1 - Download Wampserver

The first step to building, testing , hosting, running, and viewing your website and its files on localhost is to download the necessary application to do so. There are various applications that enable you to do this. Depending on your programming language, you may be able to view changes to your website directly in your browser. For PHP however, a popular program is Wamp server. Wamp server installs the necessary software with the configurations necessary for running your PHP code as is obtainable on servers online. This puts the power of the hosting servers right in your palms, and enables you to run a local server. To download Wampserver, head on to https:www.wampserver.com/en

Step 2 - Install WampServer

Install Wampserver on your computer. The installation process is simple. You'd need to install the configuration type for your OS version.

Step 3 - Run WampServer

Go to start -> Program files -> All Programs -> Wampserver -> Run Wampserver. Depending on your version of Windows or your operating system, the steps to running the program may be different. Head on to the location you normally run your programs from, locate the wampserver folder, double click on the wampserver file to run.

Step 4 - Run WampServer Services

By now, your wampserver icon should be visible on the system tray. Click on the green wampserver icon then click "start all services". Now your wampserver services are running, and you are all set to view your coding on localhost.

Locate the location of your website files usually 'c:/wamp/www'. You'd usually create a folder in this directory depending on your project and project title.

Step 5 - Write Your Code and Develop Your Website

The next step is to write the actual code for your website. Create a folder with the name of your project in the www directory. This folder should contain all the files for the project.

Step 6 - View Your Website On Local Host

The final step is to view your website on local host. You don't actually need data to be able to view your localhost files. This is one of the advantages of this method, as you actually save on data consumption while developing your website. To view your website, open your browser and on the address bar, type 'localhost/yourwebsitename'. This will automatically direct you to the index page. Your could also have access via 'localhost/yourwebsitename/index.php'. This will only work if you actually have a file named 'index.php'. To access any file for the website, replace index.php with the name of the file you want to access.

Alternatively you can replace localhost with 127.0.0.1 the localhost ip address.

Happy coding!