Install Moodle with installer script
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Once the basic config.php has been correctly created, accessing the front page of your site for the first time will take you to the "admin" page for the rest of the configuration.
The first you will be presented with a GPL "shrink wrap" agreement with which you must agree before you can continue with the setup.
Now Moodle will start setting up your database and creating tables to store data. Firstly, the main database tables are created. You should see a number of SQL statements followed by status messages that look like this:
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; SUCCESS
...and so on, followed by: "Main databases set up successfully."
If you don't see these, 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 sometimes have safe mode turned on). You can check PHP variables by creating a little file containing <?php phpinfo() ?> and looking at it through a browser. Check all these and try this page again.
Scroll down the very bottom of the page and press the "Continue" link.
You should now see a form where you can define more configuration variables for your installation, such as the default language, SMTP hosts and so on. Don't worry too much about getting everything right just now - you can always come back and edit these later on using the admin interface. The defaults are designed to be useful and secure for most sites. Scroll down to the bottom and click "Save changes".
Next you will see more pages that print lots of status messages as they set up all the tables required by the various Moodle module. As before, they should all be green.
Scroll down the very bottom of the page and press the "Continue" link.
The next page is a form where you can define parameters for your Moodle site and the front page, such as the name, format, description and so on. Fill this out (you can always come back and change these later) and then press "Save changes".
Finally, you will then be asked to create a top-level administration user for future access to the admin pages. Fill out the details with your own name, email etc and then click "Save changes". Not all the fields are required, but if you miss any important fields you'll be re-prompted for them.
Make sure you remember the username and password you chose for the administration user account, as they will be necessary to access the administration page in future.
(If for any reason your install is interrupted, or there is a system error of some kind that prevents you from logging in using the admin account, you can usually log in using the default username of "admin", with password "admin".)
Once successful, you will be returned to the home page of your new site! Note the administration links that appear down the left hand side of the page (these items also appear on a separate Admin page) - these items are only visible to you because you are logged in as the admin user. All your further administration of Moodle can now be done using this menu, such as:
- creating and deleting courses
- creating and editing user accounts
- administering teacher accounts
- changing site-wide settings like themes etc
But you are not done installing yet! There are a couple very important things still to do: Cron and Backups parameters.
See also
- Complete install package for windows has screen shots used in the installer script.
