index.php is not opening and running as download the file

Question

When I attempt to navigate to the PHP script at http://localhost/project/admin, I expect to see the script results in my web browser.

Instead, I see a dialog box for downloading the file with the message below:

You have chosen to open <filename>, which is a: application/x-httpd-php from: http://localhost
What should Firefox do with this file? Open with... • Save... • etc.

Any idea what is going on?

Answer 1

PHP is not correctly installed on the server or Apache is not using mod_php

In the case of this happening in IIS. I would say that the mimetype is not setup correctly and that the server doesn't know how to handle the extension ".php"

Answer 2

It sounds like an incorrect Content-type header is being sent. This header sets the mime-type for the data the browser receives and, if the browser doesn't have a handler to render that specific mime-type, it will ask to open/save the file instead.

I would start by checking your PHP file for a header() statement and a mis-typed content-type.