CURL on Windows

If you need to run curl on Windows you can download it form

the project's wbesite: http://curl.haxx.se/download.html

Then you have to unzip it, and copy culr.exe in "C:\Windows\System32".
If you will try to execute curl you will get an error because OpenSSL is mission.
You should download the installer form here: http://www.shininglightpro.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html

After running the OpenSSL installer, you can run curl from the command line.

If you want to test a page of a web application, for instance a generated xml file, you can use curl in this way:

curl -H "Accept: application/xml" http://localhost:3000/info/who_bought/3

In that example you specify, in the header, that you want an XML file,
than you pass the URI.

BitNami Project

BitNami is an Open Source project fousing in ready to install web applications. The software is provided with easy and not invasive installers. But there are more interesting features. The installers are provided for the man platforms, Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris. Another interesting aspect is that you can install an appication in your machine, your can get a Vmware/VirtualBox images or you can get an ready made image to deploy in a cloud.

The applications provided are endless and I think that is a very easy way to test a software.