This guide explains how to install Moodle for the first time.
Sections in this document:
Moodle is primarily developed in Linux and MacOSX environments using PHP, Apache and MySQL. However, it has been designed to run on as many platforms as possible.
All you should need are:
The quickest way to satisfy these requirements on Windows platforms is to download PHPTriad or FoxServ, which will install Apache, PHP, and MySQL for you.
There are two ways to get Moodle, as a compressed package and via CVS. These are explained in detail on the download page on http://moodle.com/
After downloading and unpacking the archive, or checking out the files via CVS, you will be left with a directory called "moodle", containing a number of files and folders.
You can either place the whole folder in your web server documents directory, in which case the site will be located at http://yourwebserver.com/moodle, or you can copy all the contents straight into the main web server documents directory, in which case the site will be simply http://yourwebserver.com.
Here is a quick summary of the contents of the Moodle folder, to help get you oriented:
config.php - the only file you need to edit to get started
index.php - the front page of the site
- admin/ - code to administrate the whole server
- course/ - code to display and manage courses
- doc/ - help documentation for Moodle (eg this page)
- files/ - code to display and manage uploaded files
- lang/ - texts in different languages, one directory per language
- lib/ - libraries of core Moodle code
- login/ - code to handle login and account creation
- mod/ - all Moodle course modules
- pix/ - generic site graphics
- theme/ - theme packs/skins to change the look of the site.
- user/ - code to display and manage users
Moodle will also need some space on your hard disk to store uploaded files, such as course documents and user pictures.
Create a directory for this purpose somewhere away from the web server documents directory (we don't want these files to be accessible from the web), and ensure that the web server software has permission to write to this directory. On Unix machines, this means setting the owner of the directory to be something like "nobody" or "apache".
You need to create an empty database (eg "moodle") in your database system along with a special user (eg "moodleuser") that has access to that database (and that database only. For example, don't use the "root" user for the moodle database - it's a security hazard).
eg for MySQL:
# mysql -u root -p
> CREATE DATABASE moodle;
> GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,DROP,INDEX,ALTER ON moodle.*
TO moodleuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword';
> quit
# mysqladmin -p reload
Now you can edit the configuration file, config.php. This file is used by all other files in Moodle.
To start with, make a copy of config-dist.php and call it config.php. We do this so that your config.php isn't overwritten in case you upgrade Moodle later on.
Edit config.php to specify the database details that you just defined, as well as the site address, file system directory, data directory and so on. The config file has detailed directions.
For the rest of this installation document we will assume your site is at: http://example.com/moodle
The admin page should now be working at: http://example.com/moodle/admin
Go to this page using your favourite web browser.
The first time you access this page, Moodle will set up your database and prompt you for more information.
Firstly, the main database tables are created. You should see a number of statements like this (in green):
SUCCESS: CREATE TABLE course ( id int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, category int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', password varchar(50) NOT NULL default '', fullname varchar(254) NOT NULL default '', shortname varchar(15) NOT NULL default '', summary text NOT NULL, format tinyint(4) NOT NULL default '1', teacher varchar(100) NOT NULL default 'Teacher', startdate int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', enddate int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', timemodified int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', PRIMARY KEY (id)) TYPE=MyISAM
...and so on, followed by: Main databases set up successfully.
If you don't see this, then there must have been some problem with the database or the configuration settings you defined in config.php. Check that PHP isn't in a restricted "safe mode" (commercial web hosts often have safe mode turned on). You can check PHP variables by creating a little file containing <? phpinfo ?> and looking at it through a browser. Check all these and try this page again.
Press the "Continue" link at the bottom of the page.
Next you will see a similar page that sets up all the tables required by each Moodle module. As before, they should all be green, otherwise you may be a problem in the module code.
Press the "Continue" link at the bottom of the page.
You should now see a form where you can define more parameters for your Moodle site, such as the name, the description shown on the front page, and so on. Fill this out (you can always go back and change these later) and then press "Update the site".
Finally, you will then be asked to create an administration user for future access to the admin pages. Fill out the details with your own name, email etc and then click "Update this user". You will be returned to the main admin page, which contain a number of links arranged in a menu.
Make sure you remember the username and password you chose for the administration user, as they will be necessary to access the administration page in future.
All your further configuration of Moodle can now be done using the administration page menu, which includes tasks such as:
Some of Moodle's modules require continual checks to perform tasks. For example, Moodle needs to check the discussion forums so it can mail out copies of posts to people who have subscribed.
The script that does all this is located in the admin directory, and is called cron.php. However, it can not run itself, so you need to set up a mechanism where this script is run regularly (eg every five minutes). This provides a "heartbeat" so that the script can perform functions at periods defined by each module.
For security reasons, this script defines a required password. Edit cron.php with a text editor and change the password to something unique. eg
$PASSWORD = "pword";
Test that the script works by running it directly from your browser:
http://example.com/moodle/admin/cron.php?p=pword
Now, you need to set up some of way of running the script automatically. There are two main ways of doing this, 'externally' and 'internally'.
External cron
You can set up a program to call the page just as you did in the example above. For example, you can use a Unix utility like 'wget':
wget -q -O /dev/null 'http://example.com/moodle/admin/cron.php?p=pword'Note in this example that the output is thrown away (to /dev/null).
To automate the running of this script every 5 minutes you can use Unix cron. Edit your cron settings from the commandline using "crontab -e" and add a line like:
*/5 * * * * wget -q -O /dev/null 'http://example.com/moodle/admin/cron.php?p=pword'On non-Unix platforms you will need to find another way to do this (and let me know so I can update this documentation!)
Internal cron
To run the cron.php script internally, you need a version of PHP compiled to be run from the command-line, also called a "cgi" version. On a Unix machine, you can now run the script with your password as the first parameter, something like this:
/opt/bin/php /web/moodle/admin/cron.php pwordAs before you can automate this using Unix cron (or the equivalent on your OS):
*/5 * * * * (/opt/bin/php /web/moodle/admin/cron.php pword) &> /dev/null
The advantage with running the script internally is that your web server logs aren't filled with constant requests to cron.php. The disadvantage is that you need to have access to a command-line version of php.
Now that Moodle is running properly, you can create a course.
Start on the admin page ( http://example.com/moodle/admin ) and select "Create a new course".
Fill out the form, paying special attention to the course format.
If you choose a "weekly" format, then course modules will be arranged by "weeks". The weeks in your course are defined by the start and end dates you choose on this form. The idea is that the next time you run this course, you can just change the dates and keep the essential course format.
The "non-weekly" format is for courses that don't have a start or finish, and so any start/end dates you choose will be ignored.
Press "Update this course", and you will be taken to a new form where you can add teachers to the course. You can only add existing user accounts from this form - if you want to create a new teacher account then either ask the teacher to create one for themselves (see the login page), or create one for them using the "Create a user account" on the Admin page.
Once done, your course is ready to customise, and is accessible via the "Courses" link on the home page.
See the "Teacher Manual" for more details on course-building.
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