Apache Friends Support Forum

Hello, I'm a newbie regarding this matter, and I have a problem. I'm sorry if this was already posted, but I'm not sure what's the exact name of the problem that I have, so I couldn't figure out what to type in the search box

I was using Windows XP long time ago and I installed XAMPP to list my videos collection inside my computer, and it works well. Then I was about to format my comp to become windows 7 in April, my friend helped me to back up anything that I had worked and told me to keep it inside Drive D. Then after I formatted the comp, I didn't install XAMPP again (so practically I didn't use it) until recently in June. After I installed it and had everything running (Apache, MySql), put the back up datas in proper place, I open the http://localhost and it shows normal like this :



But when I browse other section under the Main Menu it becomes weird like this :



Same goes to the other section :




I showed this to my friend, then when he tried it in his computer (I gave him the XAMPP installer & folders of my backup datas) it worked just fine! Just like when I use it in my old Windows XP. And all the datas I had stored inside it showed up nicely.

And I'm afraid I can't fix it myself because I was just practically receive this program, I only need to store the list without superior knowledge regarding how the program works.

Any help will be so much appreciated. Thank you

Hi wole,

I've read through the link you gave me, and I'm afraid I don't really understand of what should I do. Is it means that I have to either downgrade/upgrade my XAMPP version or something else? Sorry I'm really worse at programming stuff, I only understand CSS a bit and that's it

xxgiga wrote:Is it means that I have to either downgrade/upgrade my XAMPP version or something else?

No, you have two possibilities:

1st: Change all <?= to <?php echo and all <? to <?php by hand or with a replace function of any text editor
2nd: switch the function short_open_tag in the php.ini to On, and restart your Apache

Altrea wrote:

xxgiga wrote:Is it means that I have to either downgrade/upgrade my XAMPP version or something else?

No, you have two possibilities:

1st: Change all <?= to <?php echo and all <? to <?php by hand or with a replace function of any text editor
2nd: switch the function short_open_tag in the php.ini to On, and restart your Apache

Hi Altrea,
I'm using the 2nd possibility (because I don't understand how to do the first @.@), I have the value ON already, but there are 3 values like this :
; short_open_tag
; Default Value: On
; Development Value: Off
; Production Value: Off

Should I change all of them to ON?

xxgiga wrote:but there are 3 values like this :
; short_open_tag
; Default Value: On
; Development Value: Off
; Production Value: Off

Should I change all of them to ON?

No! this is not the place as all those entries are comments or examples only.

Scroll down the php.ini file further until you see a section that looks like this

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Language Options ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

; Enable the PHP scripting language engine under Apache.
; http://php.net/engine
engine = On

; This directive determines whether or not PHP will recognize code between
; <? and ?> tags as PHP source which should be processed as such. It's been
; recommended for several years that you not use the short tag "short cut" and
; instead to use the full <?php and ?> tag combination. With the wide spread use
; of XML and use of these tags by other languages, the server can become easily
; confused and end up parsing the wrong code in the wrong context. But because
; this short cut has been a feature for such a long time, it's currently still
; supported for backwards compatibility, but we recommend you don't use them.
; Default Value: On
; Development Value: Off
; Production Value: Off
; http://php.net/short-open-tag
short_open_tag = Off

Change to On the last line that I have emphasized in red so it looks like this

short_open_tag = On

Then save the php.ini file and restart Apache (a must do).

Next, clear your Firefox browser's cache (Tools>Options>Advanced>Network>Offline Storage>Clear Now) so you do not get an old cached page instead of a fresh page.

Then try and load in your browser the page(s) that gave you this issue in the first place.

Thank you Sharley!
It works! Exactly like what it is before it went absurd.

Thank you so much for the help to everyone in this thread too