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