Setting Up a PHP Project with Docker Using PDO and MySQLi Drivers

The my_php_project directory is the location where your PHP project files will reside. This directory is mounted as a volume in the Docker container and maps to /var/www/html inside the PHP container. Here are the key details:

• Place all your PHP project files, such as .php scripts, assets (like CSS, JavaScript), and HTML templates, inside my_php_project.
• Any changes made in this directory on your host machine will automatically reflect in the Docker container.
• Example
• Access the project via http://localhost/ in your browser.

directory structure:

docker-compose.yaml
|
php/
├── Dockerfile
my_php_project/
├── index.php
├── phpinfo.php
└── assets/
    ├── styles.css
    └── script.js

1. Create the Docker Environment

docker-compose.yml

version: "3.8"
services:
  mysql:
    image: mysql:8.0
    container_name: mysql_container
    restart: always
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root_password
      MYSQL_DATABASE: your_database
      MYSQL_USER: user
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: user_password
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"
    volumes:
      - mysql_data:/var/lib/mysql

  phpmyadmin:
    image: phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin
    container_name: phpmyadmin_container
    restart: always
    environment:
      PMA_HOST: mysql
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root_password
    ports:
      - "8080:80"

  php:
    build:
      context: ./php
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    container_name: php_container
    restart: always
    volumes:
      - ./my_php_project:/var/www/html
    ports:
      - "80:80"

volumes:
  mysql_data:

2. Create the Dockerfile

Inside a php folder, create a Dockerfile with the following content:

FROM php:8.2-apache

# Install PDO MySQL and MySQLi extensions
RUN docker-php-ext-install pdo pdo_mysql mysqli

# Enable Apache mod_rewrite
RUN a2enmod rewrite

3. Build and Start the Docker Containers

• Run the following commands to build and start the containers:

  docker-compose build php
  docker-compose up -d

• Check the running containers using:

  docker ps

4. Verify PHP Extensions

1. Create a phpinfo.php file in your project directory:

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

2. Access it in your browser at http://localhost/phpinfo.php.
3. Confirm that both PDO and mysqli extensions are installed.

5. Test Database Connections

PDO Connection Test

<?php
$dsn = 'mysql:host=mysql;dbname=your_database;charset=utf8';
$username = 'user';
$password = 'user_password';

try {
    $pdo = new PDO($dsn, $username, $password);
    echo "PDO connection successful!";
} catch (PDOException $e) {
    echo "PDO connection failed: " . $e->getMessage();
}
?>

MySQLi Connection Test

<?php
$host = 'mysql';
$username = 'user';
$password = 'user_password';
$database = 'your_database';

$mysqli = new mysqli($host, $username, $password, $database);

if ($mysqli->connect_error) {
    die("MySQLi connection failed: " . $mysqli->connect_error);
}
echo "MySQLi connection successful!";
?>

Place these PHP scripts in the my_php_project folder and access them via http://localhost/test_pdo.php or http://localhost/test_mysqli.php.

6. Notes

• Ensure the database credentials in the PHP scripts match those defined in the docker-compose.yml file.
• Use phpmyadmin at http://localhost:8080 to manage your database visually.