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+<HEAD>\r
+ <TITLE>Moodle Docs: Installation</TITLE>\r
+ <LINK REL="stylesheet" HREF="../theme/standard/styles.php" TYPE="TEXT/CSS">\r
+</HEAD>\r
+\r
+<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">\r
+<H2>Installing Moodle</H2>\r
+<P>This guide explains how to install Moodle for the first time. It goes into some detail\r
+ about some of the steps, in order to cover the wide variety of small differences between\r
+ web server setups, so this document may look long and complicated. Don't be put off by this \r
+ - I usually set Moodle up in a few minutes!</P>\r
+<P>Take your time and work through this document carefully - it will save you time later on.</P>\r
+<P>Sections in this document:</P>\r
+<OL>\r
+ <LI><A HREF="#requirements">Requirements</A></LI>\r
+ <LI><A HREF="#downloading">Download</A></LI>\r
+ <LI><A HREF="#site">Site structure</A></LI>\r
+ <LI><A HREF="#data">Create a data directory</A></LI>\r
+ <LI><A HREF="#database">Create a database</A></LI>\r
+ <LI><A HREF="#webserver">Check web server settings</A></LI>\r
+ <LI><A HREF="#config">Edit config.php</A></LI>\r
+ <LI><A HREF="#admin">Go to the admin page</A></LI>\r
+ <LI><A HREF="#cron">Set up cron</A></LI>\r
+ <LI><A HREF="#course">Create a new course</A></LI>\r
+</OL>\r
+<H3><A NAME="requirements"></A>1. Requirements</H3>\r
+<blockquote>\r
+ <p>Moodle is primarily developed in Linux using PHP, Apache and MySQL, and regularly \r
+ tested with PostgreSQL and in Windows XP and Mac OS X environments.</p>\r
+ <p>All you should need are:</p>\r
+ <ol>\r
+ <li>a working installation of <A HREF="http://www.php.net/">PHP</A> (version \r
+ 4.1.0 or later), with the following features enabled (most PHP installations \r
+ these days will have all of these):\r
+ <ul>\r
+ <LI>JPEG and/or PNG image editing support via the <A HREF="http://www.boutell.com/gd/">GD library</A></li>\r
+ <LI>Sessions support</LI>\r
+ <LI>File uploading allowed</LI>\r
+ </UL>\r
+</LI>\r
+ <li>a working database server: <A HREF="http://www.mysql.com/">MySQL</A> or <A HREF="http://www.postgresql.org/">PostgreSQL</A> are recommended. (MSSQL, Oracle, Interbase, Foxpro, Access, ADO, Sybase, DB2 or ODBC are also theoretically supported but will require you to manually set up the database tables).</li>\r
+ </ol>\r
+ <p>On a Windows platform, the quickest way to satisfy these requirements is \r
+ to download <A HREF="http://www.foxserv.net/">FoxServ</A>, \r
+ or <A HREF="http://www.easyphp.org/">EasyPHP</A> which will install Apache, \r
+ PHP, and MySQL for you. Make sure you enable the GD module so Moodle can process \r
+ images - you may have to edit php.ini and remove the comment (;) from this \r
+ line: 'extension=php_gd.dll'.</p>\r
+\r
+ <p>On Mac OS X I highly recommend the <a href="http://fink.sourceforge.net/">fink</a> \r
+ project as a way to download easily-maintainable packages for all of this.</p>\r
+\r
+ <p>If you're on Linux or another Unix then I'll assume you can figure all this out for yourself! ;-) </p>\r
+\r
+</blockquote>\r
+<P> </P>\r
+<H3><A NAME="downloading"></A>2. Download</H3>\r
+<blockquote>\r
+ <p>There are two ways to get Moodle, as a compressed package and via CVS. These \r
+ are explained in detail on the download page on <A HREF="http://moodle.com/">http://moodle.com/</A></p>\r
+ <p>After downloading and unpacking the archive, or checking out the files via \r
+ CVS, you will be left with a directory called "moodle", containing \r
+ a number of files and folders. </p>\r
+ <p>You can either place the whole folder in your web server documents directory, \r
+ in which case the site will be located at <B>http://yourwebserver.com/moodle</B>, \r
+ or you can copy all the contents straight into the main web server documents \r
+ directory, in which case the site will be simply <B>http://yourwebserver.com</B>.</p>\r
+</blockquote>\r
+<P> </P>\r
+<H3><A NAME="site"></A>3. Site structure</H3>\r
+<BLOCKQUOTE>\r
+ <p>Here is a quick summary of the contents of the Moodle folder, to help get \r
+ you oriented:</p>\r
+ <blockquote>\r
+ <p>config.php - the only file you need to edit to get started<br>\r
+ version.php - defines the current version of Moodle code<BR>\r
+ index.php - the front page of the site</p>\r
+ <ul>\r
+ <li>admin/ - code to administrate the whole server </li>\r
+ <li>auth/ - plugin modules to authenticate users </li>\r
+ <li>course/ - code to display and manage courses </li>\r
+ <li>doc/ - help documentation for Moodle (eg this page)</li>\r
+ <li>files/ - code to display and manage uploaded files</li>\r
+ <li>lang/ - texts in different languages, one directory per language </li>\r
+ <li>lib/ - libraries of core Moodle code </li>\r
+ <li>login/ - code to handle login and account creation </li>\r
+ <li>mod/ - all Moodle course modules</li>\r
+ <li>pix/ - generic site graphics</li>\r
+ <li>theme/ - theme packs/skins to change the look of the site.</li>\r
+ <li>user/ - code to display and manage users</li>\r
+ </ul>\r
+ <p> </p>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+</BLOCKQUOTE>\r
+<H3><A NAME="data"></A>4. Create a data directory</H3>\r
+<blockquote>\r
+ <p>Moodle will also need some space on your hard disk to store uploaded files, \r
+ such as course documents and user pictures.</p>\r
+\r
+ <p>Create a directory for this purpose somewhere. For security, it's best that \r
+ this directory is NOT accessible directly via the web. The easiest way to do this\r
+ is to simply locate it OUTSIDE the web directory, otherwise protect it \r
+ by creating a file in the data directory called .htaccess, containing this line:\r
+ <blockquote>\r
+ <PRE>deny from all</PRE>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+ \r
+ <p>To make sure that Moodle can save uploaded files in this directory, check that \r
+ the web server software (eg Apache) has permission to write \r
+ to this directory. On Unix machines, this means setting the owner of the directory \r
+ to be something like "nobody" or "apache".</p>\r
+\r
+ <p>On many shared hosting servers, you will probably need to restrict all file access \r
+ to your "group" (to prevent other webhost customers from looking at or changing your files), \r
+ but provide full read/write access to everyone else (which will allow the web server\r
+ to access your files). Speak to your server administrator if you are having \r
+ trouble setting this up securely.</p>\r
+\r
+</blockquote>\r
+<P> </P>\r
+<H3><A NAME="database"></A>5. Create a database</H3>\r
+<blockquote>\r
+<p>You need to create an empty database (eg "moodle") in your database system \r
+ along with a special user (eg "moodleuser") that has access to that database \r
+ (and that database only). You could use the "root" user if you wanted to, but \r
+ this is not recommended for a production system: if hackers manage to discover\r
+ the password then your whole database system would be at risk, rather than \r
+ just one database.\r
+</p>\r
+ <p>Example command lines for MySQL: </p>\r
+ <PRE>\r
+ # mysql -u root -p\r
+ > CREATE DATABASE moodle; \r
+ > GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,DROP,INDEX,ALTER ON moodle.* \r
+ TO moodleuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword'; \r
+ > quit \r
+ # mysqladmin -p reload\r
+</PRE>\r
+ <p>Example command lines for PostgreSQL: </p>\r
+ <PRE>\r
+ # su - postgres\r
+ > psql -c "create user moodleuser createdb;" template1\r
+ > psql -c "create database moodle;" -U moodleuser template1\r
+ > psql -c "alter user moodleuser nocreatedb;" template1\r
+</PRE>\r
+ <p>(For MySQL I highly recommend the use of <a href="http://phpmyadmin.sourceforge.net/">phpMyAdmin</a> \r
+ to manage your databases).</p>\r
+<p>As of version 1.0.8, Moodle now supports table prefixes, and so can safely share \r
+ a database with tables from other applications.</p>\r
+</blockquote>\r
+<P> </P>\r
+<H3><A NAME="webserver" id="webserver"></A>6. Check your web server settings</H3>\r
+<blockquote>\r
+ <p>Firstly, make sure that your web server is set up to use index.php as a default \r
+ page (perhaps in addition to index.html, default.htm and so on).</p>\r
+ <p>In Apache, this is done using a DirectoryIndex parameter in your httpd.conf \r
+ file. Mine usually looks like this:</p>\r
+ <blockquote>\r
+ <pre><strong>DirectoryIndex</strong> index.php index.html index.htm </pre>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+ <p>Just make sure index.php is in the list (and preferably towards the start \r
+ of the list, for efficiency).</p>\r
+ <p>Secondly, Moodle requires a number of PHP settings to be active for it to \r
+ work. <B>On most servers these will already be the default settings.</B>\r
+ However, some PHP servers (and some of the more recent PHP versions) may \r
+ have things set differently. These are defined in PHP's configuration\r
+ file (usually called php.ini):</p>\r
+ <blockquote>\r
+<pre>file_uploads = 1\r
+magic_quotes_gpc = 1\r
+short_open_tag = 1\r
+session.auto_start = 0\r
+</pre>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+ <p>If you don't have access to httpd.conf or php.ini on your server, or you \r
+ have Moodle on a server with other applications that require different \r
+ settings, then you can OVERRIDE all of the default settings.\r
+ \r
+ <p>To do this, you need to create a file called <B>.htaccess</B> in Moodle's\r
+ main directory that contains definitions for these settings.\r
+ This only works on Apache servers and only when Overrides have been allowed.\r
+ <BLOCKQUOTE><PRE>\r
+DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm\r
+php_value magic_quotes_gpc 1\r
+php_value file_uploads 1\r
+php_value short_open_tag 1\r
+php_value session.auto_start 0</BLOCKQUOTE></PRE>\r
+ <P>You can also do things like define the maximum size for uploaded files:\r
+ <BLOCKQUOTE><PRE>\r
+php_value upload_max_filesize 2M\r
+php_value post_max_size 2M\r
+ </BLOCKQUOTE></PRE>\r
+\r
+ <p>The easiest thing to do is just copy the sample file from lib/htaccess \r
+ and edit it to suit your needs. It contains further instructions. For \r
+ example, in a Unix shell:\r
+ <blockquote>\r
+ <pre>cp lib/htaccess .htaccess</pre>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+\r
+</blockquote>\r
+<p> </p>\r
+<H3><A NAME="config"></A>7. Edit config.php</H3>\r
+<blockquote>\r
+ <p>Now you can edit the configuration file, <strong>config.php</strong>, using a \r
+ text editor. This file is used by all other files in Moodle.</p>\r
+ <p>To start with, make a copy of config-dist.php and call it config.php. We \r
+ do this so that your config.php won't be overwritten in case you upgrade Moodle \r
+ later on. </p>\r
+ <p>Edit config.php to specify the database details that you just defined (including \r
+ a table prefix - notice this is REQUIRED for PostgreSQL), as \r
+ well as the site address, file system directory and data directory. \r
+ The config file has detailed directions.</p>\r
+ <p>For the rest of this installation document we will assume your site is at: \r
+ <u>http://example.com/moodle</u></p>\r
+</blockquote>\r
+<P> </P>\r
+<H3><A NAME="admin"></A>8. Go to the admin page</H3>\r
+<blockquote> \r
+ <p>The admin page should now be working at: <u>http://example.com/moodle/admin</u>. \r
+ If you try and access the front page of your site you'll be taken there automatically \r
+ anyway. The first time you access this admin page, you will be presented with \r
+ a GPL agreement with which you need to agree before you can continue with the setup.</p>\r
+ <P>(Moodle will also try to set some cookies in your browser. If you have \r
+ your browser set up to let you choose to accept cookies, then you <B>must</B>\r
+ accept the Moodle cookies, or Moodle won't work properly.)\r
+ <p>Now Moodle will start setting up your database and creating tables to store data. \r
+ Firstly, the main database tables are created. You should see a number of SQL statements followed by \r
+ status messages (in green or red) that look like this:</p>\r
+ <blockquote> \r
+ <p>CREATE TABLE course ( id int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, category \r
+ int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', password varchar(50) NOT NULL default \r
+ '', fullname varchar(254) NOT NULL default '', shortname varchar(15) NOT \r
+ NULL default '', summary text NOT NULL, format tinyint(4) NOT NULL default \r
+ '1', teacher varchar(100) NOT NULL default 'Teacher', startdate int(10) \r
+ unsigned NOT NULL default '0', enddate int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default \r
+ '0', timemodified int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', PRIMARY KEY (id)) \r
+ TYPE=MyISAM</p>\r
+ <p><FONT COLOR="#006600">SUCCESS</FONT></p>\r
+ <p>...and so on, followed by: <FONT COLOR="#FF0000">Main databases set up \r
+ successfully</FONT>. </p>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+ <p>If you don't see these, then there must have been some problem with the database \r
+ or the configuration settings you defined in config.php. Check that PHP isn't \r
+ in a restricted "safe mode" (commercial web hosts often have safe mode turned \r
+ on). You can check PHP variables by creating a little file containing <? \r
+ phpinfo() ?> and looking at it through a browser. Check all these and try \r
+ this page again.</p>\r
+ <p>Scroll down the very bottom of the page and press the "Continue" \r
+ link.</p>\r
+ <p>Next you will see a similar page that sets up all the tables required by \r
+ each Moodle module. As before, they should all be green.</p>\r
+\r
+ <p>Scroll down the very bottom of the page and press the "Continue" \r
+ link.</p>\r
+\r
+ <p>You should now see a form where you can define more configuration variables\r
+ for your installation, such as the default language, SMTP hosts and so on.\r
+ Don't worry too much about getting everything right just now - you can always \r
+ come back and edit these later on using the admin interface. Scroll down \r
+ to the bottom and click "Save changes".</p>\r
+\r
+ <p>If (and only if) you find yourself getting stuck on this page or the next \r
+ page, unable to continue, then your server probably has what I call the \r
+ "buggy referrer" problem. This is easy to fix: just edit\r
+ your config.php and set the variable buggy_referrer to <i>true</i>, then \r
+ try the page again.</p>\r
+\r
+ <p>The next page is a form where you can define parameters for your Moodle site and the \r
+ front page, such as the name, format, description and so on. \r
+\r
+ Fill this out (you can always go back and change these later) and then press \r
+ "Save changes".</p>\r
+\r
+ <p>Finally, you will then be asked to create a top-level administration user \r
+ for future access to the admin pages. Fill out the details with your own name, \r
+ email etc and then click "Save changes". Not all the fields are \r
+ required, but if you miss any important fields you'll be re-prompted for them. \r
+ </p>\r
+ <blockquote> \r
+ <blockquote> \r
+ <blockquote> \r
+ <blockquote> \r
+ <blockquote>\r
+ <p><strong>Make sure you remember the username and password you chose \r
+ for the administration user account, as they will be necessary to \r
+ access the administration page in future.</strong></p>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+ <p>Once successful, you will be returned to the main admin page, which contain \r
+ a number of links arranged in a menu (these items also appear on the home \r
+ page when you are logged in as the admin user). All your further administration \r
+ of Moodle can now be done using this menu, such as:</p>\r
+ <ul>\r
+ <li>creating and deleting courses</li>\r
+ <li>creating and editing user accounts</li>\r
+ <li>administering teacher accounts</li>\r
+ <li>changing site-wide settings like themes etc</li>\r
+ </ul>\r
+</blockquote>\r
+<P> </P>\r
+<H3><A NAME="cron"></A>9. Set up cron</H3>\r
+<blockquote> \r
+ <p>Some of Moodle's modules require continual checks to perform tasks. For example, \r
+ Moodle needs to check the discussion forums so it can mail out copies of posts \r
+ to people who have subscribed.</p>\r
+ <p>The script that does all this is located in the admin directory, and is called \r
+ cron.php. However, it can not run itself, so you need to set up a mechanism \r
+ where this script is run regularly (eg every five minutes). This provides \r
+ a "heartbeat" so that the script can perform functions at periods \r
+ defined by each module.</p>\r
+ <P>Note that the machine performing the cron <B>does not need to be the same \r
+ machine that is running Moodle</B>. For example, if you have a limited web hosting \r
+ service that does not have cron, then you can might choose to run cron on another \r
+ server or on your home computer. All that matters is that the cron.php file is \r
+ called every five minutes or so.</p>\r
+ <p>First, test that the script works by running it directly from your browser:</p>\r
+ <blockquote> \r
+ <PRE>http://example.com/moodle/admin/cron.php</PRE>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+ <p>Now, you need to set up some of way of running the script automatically and \r
+ regularly. </p>\r
+ <H4> Running the script from a command line</H4>\r
+ <p>You can call the page from the command line just as you did in the example \r
+ above. For example, you can use a Unix utility like 'wget':</p>\r
+ <blockquote>\r
+ <PRE>wget -q -O /dev/null http://example.com/moodle/admin/cron.php</PRE>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+ <p>Note in this example that the output is thrown away (to /dev/null).</p>\r
+ <p>The same thing using lynx:</p>\r
+ <blockquote>\r
+ <pre>lynx -dump http://example.com/moodle/admin/cron.php > /dev/null</pre>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+ <p>Alternatively you could use a standalone version of PHP, compiled to be run \r
+ on the command line. The advantage with doing this is that your web server \r
+ logs aren't filled with constant requests to cron.php. The disadvantage is \r
+ that you need to have access to a command-line version of php.</p>\r
+ <blockquote>\r
+ <PRE>/opt/bin/php /web/moodle/admin/cron.php\r
+\r
+\r
+(Windows) C:\apache\php\php.exe C:\apache\htdocs\moodle\admin\cron.php\r
+\r
+</PRE>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+ <h4>Automatically running the script every 5 minutes</h4>\r
+ <p>On Unix systems: Use <B>cron</B>. Edit your cron settings from the commandline \r
+ using "crontab -e" and add a line like:</p>\r
+ <blockquote>\r
+ <PRE>*/5 * * * * wget -q -O /dev/null http://example.com/moodle/admin/cron.php</PRE>\r
+ </blockquote>\r
+ <p>On Windows systems: The simplest way is to use my package <A TITLE="Click to download this package (150k)" HREF="http://moodle.com/download/moodle-cron-for-windows.zip">moodle-cron-for-windows.zip</A> \r
+ which makes this whole thing very easy. You can also explore using the built-in \r
+ Windows feature for "Scheduled Tasks".</p>\r
+ </p>\r
+</blockquote>\r
+<H3><A NAME="course"></A>10. Create a new course</H3>\r
+<blockquote>\r
+ <p>Now that Moodle is running properly, you can create a course. </p>\r
+ <p>Select "Create a new course" from the Admin page (or the admin \r
+ links on the home page).</p>\r
+ <p>Fill out the form, paying special attention to the course format. You don't \r
+ have to worry about the details too much at this stage, as everything can \r
+ be changed later by the teacher.</p>\r
+ <p>Press "Save changes", and you will be taken to a new form where \r
+ you can assign teachers to the course. You can only add existing user accounts \r
+ from this form - if you want to create a new teacher account then either ask \r
+ the teacher to create one for themselves (see the login page), or create one \r
+ for them using the "Add a new user" on the Admin page.</p>\r
+ <p>Once done, the course is ready to customise, and is accessible via the "Courses" \r
+ link on the home page.</p>\r
+ <p>See the "<A HREF="teacher.html">Teacher Manual</A>" for more details \r
+ on course-building.</p>\r
+</blockquote>\r
+<P> </P>\r
+<P ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="1"><A HREF="." TARGET="_top">Moodle Documentation</A></FONT></P>\r
+<P ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="1">Version: $Id$</FONT></P>\r
+\r
+</BODY>\r
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