Local development environments are an important aspect for successful web development. They are in essence a self-contained web sever which runs locally on your computer – essentially allowing you to do anything that you could with an “online” server, just… “offline”.
It can all sound a bit complicated, but don’t fret. Over the coming weeks I will be running a series of articles covering the basics, sharing my personal advice and tips, and giving you a step by step guide on how to set up your own local development environment on OS X.
Why it’s important to have a good local development environment
Any seasoned web developer will tell you how useful and often life saving it is to have a solid development environment on your computer. Here are just a few of the reasons why you should be using one:
- The cost – Running a local web environment can be accomplished with open-source software
- Control – You are in full control of all the settings and files
- Security – You’re not exposed to search engines and unsavoury characters, especially important during the early stages of development
- Saving time – Local development is extremely quick. It saves you the hassle of having to constantly upload files to a remote location using FTP
- Peace of mind – Sometimes the internet or your web host goes down, it happens. You don’t need to worry about this with a local environment. If your computer is running, then the server is running
There aren’t any reasons why you shouldn’t be developing with one!
What you’ll be learning
Over the series I’ll be demonstrating a variety of topics, including:
- Setting up a local web server using MAMP
- Making use of development URLs
- Developing with multiple browsers
- Configuring the big web development apps to get the most out of them
- Version control with Subversion
At the end you’ll have a fully functional, time-saving and just plain awesome local development environment.
What to expect
This series is aimed at beginners to advanced developers as the concept is beneficial to everyone. For this reason I will be keeping the articles concise and to the point, covering the relevant areas in detail, and using (while also explaining) relevant jargon along the way.
Let’s get the ball rolling
Keep your eyes peeled for the first article: Setting up a local web server on OS X with MAMP. You could even subscribe to the feed if you don’t want to miss it!