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- fixed (hopefully) all <img> tags - global replace on <br> to <br /> - & in URLs - got the forum module XHTML compliant Julian Sedding
422 lines
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422 lines
22 KiB
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<head>
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<title>Moodle Docs: Installation</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="docstyles.css" type="TEXT/CSS">
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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</head>
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<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
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<h1>Installing Moodle</h1>
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<blockquote>
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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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<p> </p>
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</blockquote>
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<h3 class="sectionheading"><a name="requirements"></a>1. Requirements</h3>
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<blockquote>
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<p>Moodle is primarily developed in Linux using Apache, MySQL and PHP (also
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sometimes known as the LAMP platform), but is also regularly tested with PostgreSQL
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and on Windows XP, Mac OS X and Netware 6 operating systems</p>
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<p>The requirements for Moodle are as follows:</p>
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<ol>
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<li>Web server software. Most people use <a href="http://www.apache.org/" target="_blank">Apache</a>,
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but Moodle should work fine under any web server that supports PHP, such
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as IIS on Windows platforms.</li>
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<li><a href="http://www.php.net/" target="_blank">PHP</a> scripting language (version 4.1.0
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or later), with the following settings:
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://www.boutell.com/gd/" target="_blank">GD library</a>
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turned ON, with support for JPG and PNG formats</li>
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<li>zlib library turned ON (if you want to use backup/restore on Windows)</li>
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<li>Sessions support turned ON</li>
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<li>File uploading turned ON</li>
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<li>Safe Mode must be turned OFF (see the forums on moodle.org for problems
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caused by Safe Mode)</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/" target="_blank">MySQL</a>
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or <a href="http://www.postgresql.org/" target="_blank">PostgreSQL</a> are
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completely supported and recommended for use with Moodle 1.1. All other
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databases will be supported fully in the next release.</li>
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</ol>
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<p>Most web hosts support all of this by default. If you are signed up with
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one of the few webhosts that does not support these features ask them why,
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and consider taking your business elsewhere.</p>
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<p>If you want to run Moodle on your own computer and all this looks a bit daunting,
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then please see our guide: <a href="http://moodle.org/doc/?file=installamp.html">Installing
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Apache, MySQL and PHP</a>. It provides some step-by-step instructions to install
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all this on most popular platforms.</p>
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<p> </p>
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</blockquote>
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<h3 class="sectionheading"><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: <a href="http://moodle.org/download/" target="_blank">http://moodle.org/download/</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 class="sectionheading"><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 class="sectionheading"><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 class="sectionheading"><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 - you can do all this via a web interface).</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 class="sectionheading"><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, <b>if you are using Apache 2</b>, then you should turn on the <i>AcceptPathInfo</i>
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variable, which allows scripts to be passed arguments like http://server/file.php/arg1/arg2.
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This is essential to allow relative links between your resources, and also
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provides a performance boost for people using your Moodle web site. You can
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turn this on by adding these lines to your httpd.conf file.</p>
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<blockquote>
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<pre><strong>AcceptPathInfo</strong> on </pre>
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</blockquote>
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<p>Thirdly, 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>magic_quotes_gpc = 1 (preferred but not necessary)
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magic_quotes_runtime = 0 (necessary)
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file_uploads = 1
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session.auto_start = 0
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session.bug_compat_warn = 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 settings,
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then don't worry, you can still 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>
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<pre>
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DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm
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<IfDefine APACHE2>
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<b>AcceptPathInfo</b> on
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</IfDefine>
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php_flag magic_quotes_gpc 1
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php_flag magic_quotes_runtime 0
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php_flag file_uploads 1
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php_flag session.auto_start 0
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php_flag session.bug_compat_warn 0</pre>
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</blockquote>
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<p>You can also do things like define the maximum size for uploaded files:
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<blockquote>
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<pre>
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LimitRequestBody 0
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php_value upload_max_filesize 2M
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php_value post_max_size 2M
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</pre>
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</blockquote>
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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 class="sectionheading"><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 <strong>config-dist.php</strong> and name it
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config.php. We do this so that your config.php won't be overwritten in case
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you upgrade Moodle later on. </p>
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<p>Edit <strong>config.php</strong> to specify the database details that you
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just defined (including a table prefix - notice that this is REQUIRED for
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PostgreSQL), as well as the site address, file system directory and data directory.
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The config file itself has detailed directions and examples.</p>
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<p>Once you have done this the rest of the installation is via a web interface.
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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 class="sectionheading"><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 "shrinkwrap" agreement with which you must agree before you
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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 your
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browser set up to let you choose to accept cookies, then you <b>must</b> accept
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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
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data. Firstly, the main database tables are created. You should see a number
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of SQL statements followed by status messages (in green or red) that look
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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="#006600">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 sometimes have safe mode
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turned 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
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try 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 <font color="#006600">green</font>.</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 to
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the bottom and click "Save changes".</p>
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<p>If (and only if) you find yourself getting stuck on this page, unable to
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continue, then your server probably has what I call the "buggy referrer" problem.
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This is easy to fix: just turn off the "secureforms" setting, then
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try to continue again.</p>
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<p>The next page is a form where you can define parameters for your Moodle site
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and the front page, such as the name, format, description and so on. Fill
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this out (you can always come 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>(If for any reason your install is interrupted, or there is a system error
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of some kind that prevents you from logging in using the admin account, you
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can usually log in using the default username of "<strong>admin</strong>",
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with password "<strong>admin</strong>".)</p>
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<p>Once successful, you will be returned to home page of your site. Note the
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administration links that appear down the left hand side of the page (these
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items also appear on a separate Admin page) - these items are only visible
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to you because 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 class="sectionheading"><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 or ten 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
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hosting service that does not have cron, then you can might choose to run
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cron on another server or on your home computer. All that matters is that
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the cron.php file is called regularly. </p>
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<p>The load of this script is not very high, so 5 minutes is usually reasonable,
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but if you're worried about it you can reduce the time period to something
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like 15 minutes or even 30 minutes. It's best not to make the time period
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too long, as delaying mail-outs can slow down activity within the course.</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><b>On Unix systems</b>: 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>Usually, the "crontab" command will put you into the 'vi' editor. You enter
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"insert mode" by pressing "i", then type in the line as above, then exit insert mode by
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pressing ESC. You save and exit by typing ":wq", or quit without saving using ":q!" (without the quotes).</p>
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<p><b>On Windows systems</b>: The simplest way is to use this little package <a href="http://moodle.org/download/moodle-cron-for-windows.zip" title="Click to download this package (150k)" target="_blank">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>On web hosts: Your web-based control panel may have a web page that allows
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you to set up this cron process. Ask your administrator for details on how
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|
it works.</p>
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<p></p>
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</blockquote>
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<h3 class="sectionheading"><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"
|
|
link on the home page.</p>
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<p>See the "<a href="./?file=teacher.html">Teacher Manual</a>" for more details
|
|
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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