Although Mac has Apache, MySQL, and PHP baked in, I've decided to reinstall and manage them with Homebrew (makes it less of a pain when upgrading).

All of my projects live in separate folders in ~/Work/.

I create a separate virtual host file for every new site. My virtual host files live in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/ (They're symlinks from /etc/apache2/sites-available/, which is configured to work this way in httpd.conf)

I give each site a unique local servername (following the convention new-website.local, that way I can have a neat URL for every site (http://new-website.local), absolute paths work nicely, not worry about turning sites on/off, etc.

Once you get into a project folder, I use Grunt and Bower to handle my package management and automation. Here's a view of my typical, barebone project structure.

project-folder ├─ _orig (random source files) ├─ assets │ ├─css │ ├─images │ ├─js │ └─sass ├─ bower_components ├─ node_modules ├─ bower.json ├─ Gruntfile.js ├─ package.json └─ index.html

I have a pretty elaborate Sass structure, too. If you're interested in it, here's a screenshot of the structure from a previous project http://cl.ly/XNLx/how-i-organize-my-sass.png. I also open-sourced my personal site on Github https://github.com/jonsuh/jonsuh.com, which should give you a good idea of how I structure my projects.

Be sure to check out my blog post about this. Otherwise just read further.

I am using Yeoman for my front-end setups. When starting a project with a new technology I am trying to get a generator together or find on of the exisiting one's.

After finding the right generator and generating the project (mostly coming with grunt or gulp as task runner) I am serving it through grunt serve, grunt or anything like that (see the generator's documentation).

When this is done, I am almost finished with the setup of my new project. Grunt/Gulp starts the web server I am working on and everything works right out of the box (minification, concatening, etc.).

Advantages of the use of grunt against use of MAMP: - No need to go into a deep link like /project-name/html or something - Tasks automatically done with build Task - Optimization of images and loading time of your page

The only disadvantage is, that MAMP is offering PHP from the beginning. Didn't worked with Yeoman and PHP.

That's how I normally do front-end development.

Not a fan of CLI-tools? Try CodeKit or Anvil or another alternative

I use Gulp for everything. And have a couple of standard tasks that:

• Start a node server using gulp-connect
• Sets up live re-load
• Watches and auto compiles SASS

Project structure changes a bit depending on whether it's a mobile app or desktop, but generally:

Project-Folder ├---- bower-components ├---- node-modules ├---- scss ├---- css ├---- img ├---- app (app stuff, js and partial html files, go here) ├---- bower.json ├---- package.json ├---- gulpfile.js └── index.html

Seriously could not recommend Gulp enough. It's just so much easier to use and understand that Grunt.

Anyone using Hammer or Anvil for managing local websites?

Each time I want run a site locally I just use:

after I cd into the root of the site I'm working on. I just used this tutorial to setup php and mysql on my local machine http://www.createdbypete.com/articles/php-54-development-on-os-x-with-mysql-and-laravel-4/ Just miss out the laravel part.

»The Perfect Web Development Environment for Your New Mac« by Chris Mallinson helped me alot.

Sublime Text, iTerm 2, Codekit and GitX as the tools is what i settled on.

if you're into Wordpress checkout A WordPress & Git Workflow by Marc Jenkins

and finally if you're using git for your projects (you should) and do freelance work, clockout by Dan Hassin checks your git commits and gives you an nice timesheet plus customizable estimations

I made the switch recently from MAMP to Vagrant and I haven't looked back.

Vagrant is a little tricky to get set up, but the advantages are enormous. I love being able to partition things – if one Vagrant box breaks, it doesn't affect anything else. You can have completely independent instances of MySQL running for each project. Best of all, I love being able to go to "mysite.dev" or any other arbitrary address rather than localhost:8888. It just feels cleaner.

We use a custom gruntfile to serve our content, because we have a thick client. Our API runs in a separate process, started manually.

I've used MAMP before and wasn't too happy. I prefered to have more control and run closer to production by using a custom provisioned VM with Vagrant.

If you're looking to try something new, I would suggest using a Docker-based solution like Fig or even simpler, Bowery.

If you're working with static sites, I recommend Anvil which gives you nice clean URLs for local development and for other devices on the same network.

I'm just getting round to reading all these, thanks for all your reply's! Definitely got me thinking :)

Apparently I'm the only one here who likes using WebStorm \o/

I use the OS X server tool instead of MAMP or other server setups, mostly because i like pain.

I was used to work with MacOS' native server environment. But updating to another major version of MacOS was always a pain in the ass since you had to setup the server again from scratch and install MySQL again.

Today I'm using Vagrant and I love it. It is a bit of a learning curve to setup Vagrant properly, but once this is done it is easy as using MAMP oder the native server environment. The most tricky part is setting up the configuration in order to get a fully working server. I've prepared a proper Vagrant box for frontend developers and I'd like to share it with you. You'll find a fully documented repostiory over at github. https://github.com/weaintplastic/Vagrant-LAMP

I'm happy to help if you need some instructions or if you have any questions.

We used to run our stuff using the built in OS X Apache or MAMP, but have recently moved everything over to Vagrant, which is much much better.

My structure is essentially:

• Project Assets (PSDs etc.): ~/Documents/[project name]
• Website Code: ~/Sites/[project-name]/

Each site folder is its own Git repository (previously remotes were on Github but we've moved to BitBucket).

My VMs including one Vagrant box (soon to be two) live in ~/VMs/. I use Vagrant Manager to Up/Halt/SSH into it.

My entire ~/Sites/ folder is a synced folder to the Vagrant box's /var/www/ folder.

So, to set up a new site:

1. Create a new repository (or pick an existing one) and clone it into a new folder in ~/Sites
2. Launch the Vagrant box and SSH into it
3. Run the vhost script (our own variation of this one): sudo vhost -d /var/www/[project-name] -s [project-name].dev
4. On my Mac, edit the Hosts file to point the new domain to the Vagrant box (I use Gas Mask for this, it's great): 192.168.33.10 [project-name].dev

Then I can open http://[project-name].dev in my browser and see the site! I also have a generic host set up pointed at /var/www/ which allows me to visit http://vagrantbox.dev/[project-name]/ without having to set up the virtual host in the box itself.

Moving over to Vagrant was all a bit confusing at first but now that we're set up (and now that the set up is so easy) everything hums along nicely and it's nicer than the alternatives.

Edit: Formatting.

I love AMPPS. It's cross-platform and just like MAMP Pro but free. I do a lot of WordPress work and they have one click installs that sets up the database, downloads and configures the latest version of WordPress etc. etc. I would at least give it a whirl before considering MAMP Pro.

I just use Cactus, as it's more than plenty for my needs.

Some people here seem to use a zero-config development setup and I recommend it too. I just use MAMP or Vagrant, and have a folder structure like this:

• Sites --- company ------ project-name

I use DNSMasq for local resolving. If I want to start a new project, I just create new folder(s) and create some html or php files. I just have to browse to http://project-name.company.dev and everything works. No hassle with adding virtualhosts etc. DNSMasq will catch domains ending on *.dev (or configure it for .local) and resolve it to the local machine to your MAMP server. In the apache config I made a virtualhost config that uses the domain name to find the company and projectfolder.

Read more about it here and here. I use DNSMasq instead of Pow though

I'm at a agency with a lot of developers and frontenders, I can only talk from my experience, and what i observed through my colleagues.

I wouldn't advise ever using MAMP. It can cause much more headaches and customization can be a real pain. Vagrant is fine - but it's incredibly resource hungry. Most of the people who used Vagrant at our company have removed it again.

I'd suggest

• apache2
• mysql
• php
• dnsmasq

Documentation on how to set it up, if you'r on a mac. article 1article 2

I have my Mac setup to dynamically create virtual hosts using dnsmasq. You can see how to set it up here.

Folder structure/URL:

~ www ~~ ar (ar.dev) ~~~ project 1 (project1.ar.dev) ~~ wr (wr.dev) ~~~ project2 (project2.wr.dev) ~~~ project3 (project3.wr.dev)

(Wish that I had time to post a more substantive reply to the original poster's question.)

MAMP is overkill (assuming you are only doing front end).

Simply fire up a python server (in terminal) in your project directory -

python -m SimpleHTTPServer

That's it.

You don't need MAMP since you're only using the Apache part of the stack. Use a python server instead. There's less configuration (none) it ALWAYS works and is simple to understand.

I've got a React boilerplate that has an example of how to do this.

Personally, I like to use a combination of CodeKit and Grunt (CodeKit for simple stuff, Grunt for doing pretty much anything it can't do, still waiting on the ability to run bash commands on CodeKit reload). For source control, a combination of SourceTree and the command line, and for a text editor I use the always wonderful Atom (heavily customized).

As for project structure, I like to keep it as structured as possible:

My daily development tool is AMPPS + Sublime Text + CloudKit + Tower. For the local development setup I created two ssl enabled virtual hosts with AMPPS : https://projects.dev and https://playground.dev

I deploy all of my projects in a subfolder under projects.dev and using playground.dev for testing, debugging and playground purpose.

AMPPS allow me to deploy and update cms such as wordpress, joomla etc in one click. It also able to deploy frameworks such as YII, laravel, symphony etc easily in one click too.

MAMP and MAMP Pro are so unnecessary these days. The tools to do this stuff yourself are out there and they're not hard to use.

Here's a very good guide to setting up a local PHP environment: http://coolestguidesontheplanet.com/get-apache-mysql-php-phpmyadmin-working-osx-10-10-yosemite/#disqus_thread

For virtual hosts, just use virtualhost.sh.

My directory structure is very similar to yours. I also keep a www directory in my ~/Sites, and symlink the various domains to there.

All that said, I'm considering going the Vagrant route at some point in the future. It's mainly a matter of finding the time to get over the learning curve.

I'm using my own boilerplate for frontend work. It includes Gulp and Compass for quicker coding.

For backend I use this boilerplate from a classmate which is largely based on the one I threw together but has a PHP backend.

Also using MAMP and not sure if Vagrant is the correct fit for me, think it would be overkill.

I am using MAMP + gulp and my setup looks like this: - projects -- client --- project-name ---- _www ----- _dev ------ js ------- plugins ------ scss ----- css ------ layout ------ img ------ incl ------ js ------ vendor ---- assets ---- design ---- resources