Windows Installation using XAMPP XAMPP is a fully functional web server package. It is built to test web based programs on a personal computer. It is not meant for online access via the web on a production server. This document describes how to install the XAMPP webserver package of programs and how to install a Moodle standard package on the server which was created. This entire document has been prepared based on Moodle documentation present in the Moodle site. [1] 1. Overview An overview of the steps: Download the standard Moodle install package Download the latest version of XAMPP from Apachefriends.org Install XAMPP Start XAMPP, which will start Apache and MySQL Confirm webserver is operating with the browser Unzip Moodle into the htdocs folder Use browser to navigate to Moodle Install Moodle, perhaps pausing to update some configuration files Create Admin user and Front Page settings. 2. Preparation 2.1 Get Moodle Download the standard version of Moodle from Moodle.org Standard install packages. 2.2 Get XAMPP Go to apachefriends.org and download XAMPP for Windows. 3. Create XAMPP webserver 3.1 Installing XAMPP Run the installer, eventually there will be an option about where to install the package. Install it in a new folder called C:\xampp which XAMPP will create. The browse button can be used to point to a location as shown in figure 1.
Fig.1. Installing XAMPP in the specified location. Eventually there will be an option to install Apache, MySQL, Filezilla and Mercury as a service as shown in figure 2. Fig.2. Option to install XAMPP servers as service. 148
It s probably best not to check the options for now. These can always be enabled as services later. Continue with the installation as shown in figure 3. Fig.3. Installation of XAMPP. Next the installer will ask whether to start the XAMPP Control Panel as shown in figure 4. Fig.4. Option to start XAMPP Control Panel. Click the No button. 3.2 Launch XAMPP There are several ways to start the webserver. 149
(i) On the Desktop, locate the shortcut XAMPP icon and double click to launch the Control Panel. When the XAMPP Control Panel has launched, click the Start buttons for Apache and MySQL as shown in figure 5. Fig.5. XAMPP Control Panel. (ii) In the folder where XAMPP has been installed, look for the XAMPP_start, or XAMPP_restart icon as shown in figure 6. When XAMPP start has finished, both Apache and MySQL have been started. (iii) In the folder where XAMPP has been installed, look for the Apache start and MySQL start icons as shown in figure 6. 150
Fig.6. Server directory start/stop files. When Apache and MySQL start icons are used, two black windows command window should remain open. Then install the PHP curl library: 1. Open the php.ini file found in the php/php.ini folder (older versions of XAMPP use moodle/apache/bin folder). 2. Find the line: ;extension=php_curl.dll. 3. Remove the ; at the beginning of the line. 4. Restart Apache if necessary. 4. Create the MySQL database To create a MySQL database for the Moodle site use the phpmyadmin utility included with XAMPP. To access this launch the web browser, type http://localhost/xampp/ in the address bar. The XAMPP default page will be displayed, click the link for preferred language say, English. From the menu on the left, click on phpmyadmin as shown in figure 7. 151
Fig.7. phpmyadmin menu. When phpmy Admin has launched in the browser window, enter the name of database in the Create new database field as shown in figure 8. Fig.8. Entering the name of new database. From the "Collation" drop down list select "utf8_unicode_ci". Click the Create button to create the database. See the database on the left with the moodle MySQL database name without files in it and/or a notice that it was created as shown in figure 9. Fig.9. A phpmyadmin database list. Click on the moodle to add MySQL users. 152
4.1 MySQL security Security on a localhost may not be a big concern, but it is recommended. Click the moodle database, then on the privileges icon as shown in figure 10. Select one of the root users for editing. Create their passwords. Fig.10. Privilege for Moodle users. The best practice is to create a password for the root user. The "edit action" will give a place to do that. Another good practice is to copy the root user's privileges to another user. Here as shown in figure 11, the root user is changed to admin, a password is added and the user called root is kept. Fig. 11. Creating an admin MySQL user. TIP: On a localhost site, that has no internet security issues, use the same name and password for the user with the most privileges/permissions, usually "admin", for both MySQL and Moodle. 153
5. Prepare server for Moodle It is needed to extract the folders and files from the downloaded package and create the moodledata folder (where images, course and user data/files will be located). 5.1 Extract standard Moodle package files Locate the zip file of the standard install package downloaded from Moodle.org. The easiest method is to extract everything in the file to the htdocs folder that XAMPP just created. Most XP Windows operating systems come with a program that will recognize a zip file and ask where to extract the files. Extract the Moodle files to htdocs. A default folder named moodle is created with all the Moodle folders and files within it as shown in figure 12. 5.2 Moodledata folder Fig.12. Example of Moodle folder and files within it. It is a good practice to manually create the moodledata folder. In a standard default install, Moodle will look for it in the top most level of folders on the server, the same level as htdocs, apache, php and those folders. For example: "C;\X_server\moodledata" or "C:\apachefriends\151\moodledata". It may be required to change the permissions of the folder in some operating systems. For example, in Windows Vista, it is needed to manually create the moodledata folder and assign it permissions. To do this right click on the moodledata folder, select properties and the "Security" tab. Another box will pop up. Select "Users" and give them "Modify" and "Write" permissions, along with whatever existed already as shown in figure 13. 154
Fig.13. Windows Vista folder securities tab showing permissions. 6. Start of initial Moodle install Now a webserver has been installed. Next it is needed to get Moodle to install itself. 6.1 Go to moodle in web browser In web browser, type the path to the folder containing the Moodle files in the address bar for example http://localhost/moodle as shown in figure 14. 6.2 Select language Fig.14. Browser address. The initial install page will ask to choose preferred language as shown in figure 15. 155
Fig.15. Select language. 6.3 Diagnostic report A diagnostic report is displayed it will look like as in figure 16, if not it may be needed to address some issues. Fig.16. Initial diagnostic, it passed, no warnings. Click the Next button to continue. 156
6.4 Paths for Moodle installation The paths for Moodle installation are shown accept these or amend as desired. Click the Next button to continue as shown in figure 17. 6.5 MySQL database settings Fig.17. Paths to parts of Moodle. In this screen enter the database settings. The fields are populated with some suggested values. In this example the database created is moodle153. If a password has been created for root, place it here. If MySQL user admin wants to log into the moodle MySQL database, place that user and the password here as shown in figure 18. 157
Fig. 18. MySQL database settings screen. TIP: Do not use the root user without a password for production installations as this creates security vulnerability. 6.6 Server check Fig.19. Server check with minor issues. 158
The screen as shown in figure 19 will report any issues with the webserver settings. Typically the CURL settings and OpenSLL settings in a new XAMPP install will receive a mild or critical warning. TIP: It is possible to open Windows Explorer and edit the php/php.ini file using a plain text editor e.g. notepad at this point and then use the refresh button at the bottom of the server check page once the changes have been saved. However, exiting the Moodle install at this point is not the end; all the settings up to this point have been saved. Localhost\moodle will start the install again. 6.7 Moodle install confirmed Moodle will tell that it has installed the basics as shown in figure 20. Fig.20. Successful installation of Moodle. Click the Continue button to proceed. 6.9 Moodle copyright and license The Moodle copyright / license notices are displayed. Click the Yes button to continue. 6.10 Start using Moodle The user will be asked to create the admin user for his/her Moodle site. Then as the admin Moodle user, the user will be taken to the Front Page settings to start to build his/her new site. References [1] http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/windows_installation_using_xampp 159