Building a test environment

Hi all,

I'm in the process of putting together a testing environment for developing my website. Here's what I'm thinking.....

A Windows development system using Dreamweaver for page development.

A Linux server, running Apache, for testing the software before I move it to the live site.

So, as far as Zen Cart is concerned, I've been reading the Zen Cart eStart book, and I've gotten an idea from it that I want to confirm. I'm thinking that I need to install the XAMPP Windows installation set for Zen Cart (Zen Cart, Apache, MySQL, etc) on the Windows machine for development purposes, and then to test on the Linux Server, I'll need to install a parallel set of XAMPP software (Zen Cart, Apache, MySQL, etc) on the Linux server as well. Is that about right?

Thanks for any advice you guys might have.

Ron

Dreamweaver is nice... but not much help editing php.

I found NotePad++ to work best for editing. WinMerge for comparing files and such. Dreamweaver for doing tests with flash and javascripts.

I use Uniform Server as my testing server, I have XAMPP just haven't used it yet. You don't need to setup a linux server unless you have one running already. Both Uniform Server and XAMPP will act as Apache servers. Both are portable, I have Uniform Server installed on my portable drive so I can work on the run. Look to Portableapps.com for portable versions of all the apps I talk about, but dreamweaver.

If your using the eStart book, I think it will tell you how to setup XAMPP. I don't think their is one for Linux. Just install PHP, MySQL and run the Apache setup on your Linux box.