Other Installation Options <a name="other-installation-options"></a>
--------------------------
The above installation instructions show how to install Yii, which also creates a basic Web application that works out of the box.
This approach is a good starting point for small projects, or for when you just start learning Yii.
But there are other installation options available:
* If you only want to install the core framework and would like to build an entire application from scratch,
you may follow the instructions as explained in [Building Application from Scratch](tutorial-start-from-scratch.md).
* If you want to start with a more sophisticated application, better suited to team development environments,
you may consider installing the [Advanced Application Template](tutorial-advanced-app.md).
Verifying the Installation <a name="verifying-installation"></a>
--------------------------
After installation, you can use your browser to access the installed Yii application with the following URL:
```
http://localhost/basic/web/index.php
```
This URL assumes you have installed Yii in a directory named `basic`, directly under the Web server's document root directory,
and that the Web server is running on your local machine (`localhost`). You may need to adjust it to your installation environment.
![Successful Installation of Yii](images/start-app-installed.png)
You should see the above "Congratulations!" page in your browser. If not, please check if your PHP installation satisfies
Yii's requirements. You can check if the minimum requirements are met using one of the following approaches:
* Use a browser to access the URL `http://localhost/basic/requirements.php`
* Run the following commands:
```
cd basic
php requirements.php
```
You should configure your PHP installation so that it meets the minimum requirements of Yii. Most importantly, you should have PHP 5.4 or above. You should also install
the [PDO PHP Extension](http://www.php.net/manual/en/pdo.installation.php) and a corresponding database driver
(such as `pdo_mysql` for MySQL databases), if your application needs a database.
Configuring Web Servers <a name="configuring-web-servers"></a>
-----------------------
> Info: You may skip this subsection for now if you are just test driving Yii with no intention
of deploying it to a production server.
The application installed according to the above instructions should work out of box with either
an [Apache HTTP server](http://httpd.apache.org/) or an [Nginx HTTP server](http://nginx.org/), on
Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.
On a production server, you may want to configure your Web server so that the application can be accessed
via the URL `http://www.example.com/index.php` instead of `http://www.example.com/basic/web/index.php`. Such configuration
requires pointing the document root of your Web server to the `basic/web` folder. You may also
want to hide `index.php` from the URL, as described in the [URL Parsing and Generation](runtime-url-handling.md) section.
In this subsection, you'll learn how to configure your Apache or Nginx server to achieve these goals.
> Info: By setting `basic/web` as the document root, you also prevent end users from accessing
your private application code and sensitive data files that are stored in the sibling directories
of `basic/web`. Denying access to those other folders is a producent security improvement.
> Info: If your application will run in a shared hosting environment where you do not have permission
to modify its Web server configuration, you may still adjust the structure of your application for better security. Please refer to
the [Shared Hosting Environment](tutorial-shared-hosting.md) section for more details.