MoodleDocs - User contributions [en]

Installing Moodle

2007-01-31T05:06:42Z

Cepler: /* Using a hosted server */

'''Firstly don't panic! :-)'''

This guide explains how to install Moodle for the first time. For some of these steps it goes into a lot of detail to try and cover the majority of possible web server setups, so this page may look long and complicated. Don't panic, once you know how to do it you can install Moodle in minutes!

If you have problems please read this page carefully - most common issues are answered in here. If you still have trouble, you can seek help from the Moodle community via [http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5 moodle.org Using Moodle].

Another option is to contact a [http://moodle.com/hosting/ Moodle Partner providing Moodle hosting] who can completely maintain Moodle for you, so that you can ignore all this and get straight into educating!

If you want to run Moodle on your own computer and this page looks a bit daunting, then please see our guides: [[Installing AMP |Installing Apache, MySQL and PHP(AMP)]] or [[Complete install packages| how to install one of Moodle's complete packages]]. They provide alternative instructions to install all this on most popular platforms.

==Requirements==

Moodle is primarily developed in Linux using [[Apache]], [[MySQL]] and [[PHP]] (also sometimes known as the LAMP platform), but is also regularly tested with Windows XP/2000/2003 (WAMP), Solaris 10 (Sparc and x64), Mac OS X and Netware 6 operating systems. Support for PostgreSQL, Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server is also available.

The requirements for Moodle are as follows:

* Hardware (unless you are using a hosted server).
** Disk space: 160Mb free (min). You will require more free space to store your teaching materials.
** Memory: 256Mb (min), 1Gb (recommended). The general rule of thumb is that Moodle can support 50 ''concurrent'' users for every 1Gb of RAM, but this will vary depending on your specific hardware and software combination.
* Software
** Web server software. Most people use [[Apache]], but Moodle should work fine under any web server that supports [[PHP]], such as [[IIS]] on Windows platforms. PHP does impose requirements on versions of web servers, however these are complex and the general advice is to use the newest version possible of your chosen web server.
** PHP scripting language (version 4.1.0 or later). PHP 5 (version 5.1.0 or later) is supported as of Moodle 1.4. (Please note that there have been issues installing Moodle with [http://www.php-accelerator.co.uk PHP-Accelerator]). From Moodle version 1.6 or later, the minimum version of PHP will be 4.3.0 (or 5.1.0).
** A working database server: [[MySQL]] or [[PostgreSQL]] are completely supported and recommended for use with any version of Moodle. Support for Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle has been added in Moodle 1.7. MySQL is ''the'' choice for many people because it is very popular, but there are some [[Arguments in favour of PostgreSQL|arguments in favour of PostgreSQL]], especially if you are planning a large deployment. The minimum version of MySql required for Moodle 1.5 is 3.23. Moodle 1.6 or later requires MySQL 4.1.16 (4.1.12 if you use latin languages only). The minimum version of PostgreSQL is 7.4 and it is widely used with 8.0 and 8.1. Note that currently the MySQL setting "strict mode" should be OFF (set to "" or "MYSQL40") in the MySQL configuration file.
* Additional PHP requirements
** Safe mode needs to be OFF (check in your php.ini or Apache configuration file).
** memory_limit to be at least 16M (32M is recommended for Moodle 1.7 or later).
** The mbstring extension is required for multi-byte string handling.
** session.save_handler needs to be set to files
** The iconv extension is also recommended for Moodle 1.6 or later.
** [http://www.boutell.com/gd/ GD library] and the [http://www.freetype.org/ FreeType 2] library on Linux/Unix boxes to be able to look at the dynamic graphs that the logs pages make.
** The mysql extension is required if you are using the MySql database. Note that in some Linux distributions (notably Red Hat) this is an optional installation.
** The pgsql extension is required if you are using the PostgreSQL database.
** The zlib extension is required for zip/unzip functionality
** Other PHP extensions may be required to support optional Moodle functionality, especially external authentication and/or enrolment (e.g. LDAP extension for LDAP authentication and the sockets extension for Chat server)

'''Note if you are using a hosted account''': Most web hosts support all of these requirements by default. You should contact your web host's support desk to check that this is the case '''before''' signing-up with them. If you are already signed up with one of the few web hosts that does not support these features ask them why, and consider taking your business elsewhere if they do not change.

== How many users? ==

In addition to the hardware and software requirements, you will also need to think about the capacity of your Moodle installation in terms of the number of users it can handle. There are two numbers to plan for:

* '''Browsing users''': the maximum number of users able to browse your Moodle site. This is the number of computers in your organization or on your course (whichever is greater).
* '''Concurrent database users''': the maximum number of concurrent database users (needed for Moodle activities such as quizzes). This is the number of users who will be using Moodle at the same time. In an educational institution, use your timetable/roster to obtain this figure.

Once you know these figures for your users, you can start work out if your Moodle installation can support this capacity. The exact number of users depends on your hardware/software/network combination. Usually the amount of memory installed (RAM) is the deciding factor but a faster overall processor speed will also help in reducing waiting times for pages to load.

The general rule of thumb for a single server is that the approx max concurrent users = RAM (Gb) * 50 and the approx max browsing users = Approx max concurrent users * 5. As an example, a university with 500 total computers on campus and 100 concurrent users at any time will need approx 2Gb of RAM on the one server to support the number of concurrent users.

'''Note if you are using a hosted account''': Ask your provider what limits are placed on the number of concurrent database connections and the processor load. This will give a good estimate of the number of users your Moodle install can manage.

== Download and copy files into place ==

There are two ways to get Moodle, either as a compressed package or via CVS.
* There are two types of compressed packages on the [http://download.moodle.org/ download page: http://download.moodle.org/], the standard distribution with Moodle only files and the [[Complete install packages|complete install]], which contains programs to operate Moodle in a web environment.
* To use CVS, helpful instructions are available at the [[CVS_for_Administrators | CVS for Administrators]] page. The full [http://moodle.cvs.sourceforge.net/moodle/moodle/ Moodle Sourceforge CVS repository] is also available for browsing.

After downloading, unpack the archive using either
tar -zxvf [filename]
or
unzip [filename]
as appropriate.

If using CVS, run the CVS Checkout command.

You will now 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 '''<nowiki>http://yourwebserver.com/moodle</nowiki>''', or you can copy all the contents straight into the main web server documents directory, in which case the site will be simply '''<nowiki>http://yourwebserver.com</nowiki>'''.

If you are downloading Moodle to your local computer and then uploading it to your web site, it is usually better to upload the whole archive as one file, and then do the unpacking on the server. Even web hosting interfaces like cPanel allow you to uncompress archives in the "File Manager".

=== Structure of moodle directory ===

You can safely skip this section, but here is a quick summary of the contents of the Moodle folder, to help get you oriented:

:''config.php'' - contains basic settings. This file does not come with Moodle - you will create it.
:''install.php'' - the script you will run to create config.php
:''version.php'' - defines the current version of Moodle code
:''index.php'' - the front page of the site
:''admin/'' - code to administrate the whole server
:''auth/'' - plugin modules to authenticate users
:''blocks/'' - plugin modules for the little side blocks on many pages
:''calendar/'' - all the code for managing and displaying calendars
:''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 the main Moodle course modules are in here
:''pix/'' - generic site graphics
:''theme/'' - theme packs/skins to change the look of the site.
:''user/'' - code to display and manage users

== Setting-up your system==
To ensure that Moodle will install successfully, you need to check that the web server settings are correct, then create a blank database for Moodle to use and finally create a directory on your hard disk for Moodle to save your materials and other files you upload into your courses.

=== Check web server settings ===

Firstly, make sure that your web server is set up to use index.php as a default page (perhaps in addition to index.html, default.htm and so on). In Apache, this is done using a DirectoryIndex parameter in your httpd.conf file. Mine usually looks like this:

'''DirectoryIndex''' index.php index.html index.htm

Just make sure index.php is in the list (and preferably towards the start of the list, for efficiency).

Secondly, '''if you are using Apache 2''', then you should turn on the ''AcceptPathInfo'' variable, which allows scripts to be passed arguments like <nowiki>http://server/file.php/arg1/arg2</nowiki>. This is essential to allow relative links between your resources, and also provides a performance boost for people using your Moodle web site. You can turn this on by adding these lines to your httpd.conf file.

'''AcceptPathInfo''' on

Thirdly, Moodle requires a number of PHP settings to be active for it to work. '''On most servers these will already be the default settings'''. However, some PHP servers (and some of the more recent PHP versions) may have things set differently. These are defined in PHP's configuration file (usually called '''php.ini'''):

magic_quotes_gpc = 1 (preferred but not necessary)
magic_quotes_runtime = 0 (necessary)
file_uploads = 1
session.auto_start = 0
session.bug_compat_warn = 0

You may also want to set other, optional php.ini file settings while you are already editing it. For instance, you may want to reset the maximum upload size of file attachments, which usually defaults to 2M(egabytes). For instance, to set these to 16 Megabytes:

post_max_size = 16M
upload_max_filesize = 16M

==== How to Set Overrides ====

Use the above if you can directly edit your server's files, but if you don't have access to '''httpd.conf''' or '''php.ini''' on your server, or you have Moodle on a server with other applications that require different settings, then don't worry, you can often still OVERRIDE the default settings.

To do this, you need to create a file called '''.htaccess''' in Moodle's main directory that contains lines like the following. This only works on Apache servers and only when Overrides have been allowed in the main configuration.

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm

<IfDefine APACHE2>
'''AcceptPathInfo''' on
</IfDefine>

php_flag magic_quotes_gpc 1
php_flag magic_quotes_runtime 0
php_flag file_uploads 1
php_flag session.auto_start 0
php_flag session.bug_compat_warn 0

You can also do things like define the maximum size for uploaded files:

LimitRequestBody 0
php_value upload_max_filesize 2M
php_value post_max_size 2M

The easiest thing to do is just copy the sample file from lib/htaccess and edit it to suit your needs. It contains further instructions. For example, in a Unix shell:

cp lib/htaccess .htaccess

=== Creating an empty database ===

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). You could use the "root" user if you wanted to for a test server, but this is not recommended for a production system: if hackers manage to discover the password then your whole database system would be at risk, rather than just one database.

::'''Warning''': Bear in mind that currently (as of 1.5.x) Moodle doesn't work with MySQL 5.x's new strict mode (STRICT_TRANS_TABLES and/or STRICT_ALL_TABLES) setting. So if you are using MySQL 5.x, edit MySQL's configuration file (called "my.ini" in Windows and "my.cnf" on Unix/Linux) and comment out that option or set it to sql-mode="" (single quotes). You have to restart MySQL after changing this setting. If you do not have access to your server, use PHPMyAdmin (or another MySQL client) and enter the command SET @@global.sql_mode="" (single quotes); (note the semi-colon).

====Using a hosted server====
If you are using a webhost, they will probably have a control panel web interface for you to create your database.

The '''[http://www.cpanel.com/ cPanel]''' system is one of the most popular of these. To create a database in cPanel,

# Click on the "'''MySQL Databases'''" icon.
# Type "moodle" in the database field and click "'''Add Database'''".
# Type a username and password (not one you use elsewhere) in the respective fields and click "'''Add User'''".
# Now use the "'''Add User to Database'''" button to give this new user account "'''ALL'''" rights to the new database.
# Note that the username and database names may be prefixed by your cPanel account name. When entering this information into the Moodle installer - use the full names.

====Using the command line====

If you have access to Unix or Windows command lines then you can do the same sort of thing by typing commands. You should do this using the MySQL Client program

Here are some example MySQL client command lines (the red part is for Moodle 1.6 and later, leave it out for Moodle 1.5.x or earlier):

# mysql -u root -p
> CREATE DATABASE moodle DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;
> GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,DROP,INDEX,ALTER ON moodle.*
TO moodleuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword';
> quit
# mysqladmin -u root -p reload

If you are using MySQL 4.0.2 or later, you need to specify CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES as well in the GRANT statement:

> GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES,
DROP,INDEX,ALTER ON moodle.*
TO moodleuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword';

And some example command lines for PostgreSQL:

# su - postgres
> psql -c "create user moodleuser createdb;" template1
> psql -c "create database moodle with encoding 'unicode';" -U moodleuser template1
> psql -c "alter user moodleuser nocreatedb;" template1
> psql -c "alter user moodleuser with encrypted password 'yourpassword';" template1
> su - root
# /etc/init.d/postgresql reload

If the Postgres create database command above (>psql -c "create database moodle...") gives an error message you may want to try:
psql -c "create database moodle with template=template1 encoding = 'unicode' owner = moodleuser location = '/var/mydata';"

=== Creating the data directory (moodledata) ===

Moodle will also need some space on your server's hard disk to store uploaded files, such as course documents and user pictures.

The Moodle installer tries hard to create this directory for you but if it fails then you will have to create a directory for this purpose manually.

For security, it's best that this directory is NOT accessible directly via the web. The easiest way to do this is to simply locate it OUTSIDE the web directory, but if you must have it in the web directory (and you are using Apache) then protect it by creating a file in the data directory called '''.htaccess''', containing this line:

deny from all

To make sure that Moodle can save uploaded files in this directory, check that the web server software has permission to read, write and execute in this directory. On Unix machines, this means setting the owner of the directory to be something like "nobody" or "apache", and then giving that user read, write and execute permissions. To do this you could use:

chown -R nobody:nobody moodledata

Remember by default, mysql won't accept moodle data directories created under ROOT, but otherwise can be located where you wish. You can later move or change the location of this directory, but if you do, be sure to edit the setting in the '''config.php''' file that sets this; e.g. if moodledata is under a directory called data, then it would look like this:

$CFG->dataroot = '/data/moodledata';

On cPanel systems you can use the "File Manager" to find the folder, click on it, then choose "Change Permissions". On many shared hosting servers, you will probably need to restrict all file access to your "group" (to prevent other webhost customers from looking at or changing your files), but provide full read/write access to everyone else (which will allow the web server to access your files).

Speak to your server administrator if you are having trouble setting this up securely. In particular it will not be possible to create a usable data directory on sites that use a PHP feature known as "Safe Mode."

== Run the installer script to create config.php ==

To run the installer script (install.php), just try to access your Moodle main URL using a web browser, or access '''<nowiki>http://yourserver/install.php</nowiki>''' directly.

(The Installer will try to set a session cookie. If you get a popup warning in your browser make sure you accept that cookie!)

Moodle will detect that configuration is necessary and will lead you through some screens to help you create a new configuration file called '''config.php'''. At the end of the process Moodle will try and write the file into the right location, otherwise you can press a button to download it from the installer and then upload '''config.php''' into the main Moodle directory on the server.

Along the way the installer will test your server environment and give you suggestions about how to fix any problems. For most common issues these suggestions should be sufficient, but if you get stuck, check in the Installation Forum for more help.

== Go to the admin page to continue configuration ==

Once the basic config.php has been correctly created in the previous step, trying to access the front page of your site will take you the "admin" page for the rest of the configuration.

The first time you access this admin page, 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 (in green or red) that look like this:

{| border=1
|<nowiki>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</nowiki>

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".

If (and only if) you find yourself getting stuck on this page, unable to continue, then your server probably has what I call the "buggy referrer" problem. This is easy to fix: just turn off the "secureforms" setting, then try to continue again.

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 is one very important thing still to do (see the next section on cron).

== Set up cron ==

Please refer to the [[Cron|Cron instructions]].

== Set up backups ==

Please refer to the [[Backup | Backup instructions]].

== Create a new course ==

Now that Moodle is running properly, you can try creating a new course to play with.

Select "Create a new course" from the Admin page (or the admin links on the home page).

Fill out the form, paying special attention to the course format. You don't have to worry about the details too much at this stage, as everything can be changed later by the teacher. Note that the yellow help icons are everywhere to provide contextual help on any aspect.

Press "Save changes", and you will be taken to a new form where you can assign 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 "Add a new user" on the Admin page.

Once done, the course is ready to customize, and is accessible via the "Courses" link on the home page.

==See also==

* [[Installation FAQ]]
*[[Complete install packages]] might be an easier first time installs on some systems
* [[Installing Apache, MySQL and PHP]] - Open source programs that can run Moodle on the web or on a desktop
* [[Upgrading Moodle]]
* Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=42688 Selecting a web host for Moodle] forum discussion
* [[masquerading|Masquerading]] - Running Moodle behind a masquerading/NAT firewall

[[Category:Core]]
[[Category:Administrator]]
[[Category:Installation]]

[[cs:Instalace]]
[[de:Installieren von Moodle]]
[[es:Instalación de moodle]]
[[fr:Installation de Moodle]]
[[ja:Moodleのインストール]]
[[nl:Installatiegids]]
[[ru:Установка Moodle]]
[[zh:安装Moodlezh:]]

Installing Moodle

2007-01-31T05:04:52Z

Cepler: Misc spellcheck etc adjustments

'''Firstly don't panic! :-)'''

This guide explains how to install Moodle for the first time. For some of these steps it goes into a lot of detail to try and cover the majority of possible web server setups, so this page may look long and complicated. Don't panic, once you know how to do it you can install Moodle in minutes!

If you have problems please read this page carefully - most common issues are answered in here. If you still have trouble, you can seek help from the Moodle community via [http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5 moodle.org Using Moodle].

Another option is to contact a [http://moodle.com/hosting/ Moodle Partner providing Moodle hosting] who can completely maintain Moodle for you, so that you can ignore all this and get straight into educating!

If you want to run Moodle on your own computer and this page looks a bit daunting, then please see our guides: [[Installing AMP |Installing Apache, MySQL and PHP(AMP)]] or [[Complete install packages| how to install one of Moodle's complete packages]]. They provide alternative instructions to install all this on most popular platforms.

==Requirements==

Moodle is primarily developed in Linux using [[Apache]], [[MySQL]] and [[PHP]] (also sometimes known as the LAMP platform), but is also regularly tested with Windows XP/2000/2003 (WAMP), Solaris 10 (Sparc and x64), Mac OS X and Netware 6 operating systems. Support for PostgreSQL, Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server is also available.

The requirements for Moodle are as follows:

* Hardware (unless you are using a hosted server).
** Disk space: 160Mb free (min). You will require more free space to store your teaching materials.
** Memory: 256Mb (min), 1Gb (recommended). The general rule of thumb is that Moodle can support 50 ''concurrent'' users for every 1Gb of RAM, but this will vary depending on your specific hardware and software combination.
* Software
** Web server software. Most people use [[Apache]], but Moodle should work fine under any web server that supports [[PHP]], such as [[IIS]] on Windows platforms. PHP does impose requirements on versions of web servers, however these are complex and the general advice is to use the newest version possible of your chosen web server.
** PHP scripting language (version 4.1.0 or later). PHP 5 (version 5.1.0 or later) is supported as of Moodle 1.4. (Please note that there have been issues installing Moodle with [http://www.php-accelerator.co.uk PHP-Accelerator]). From Moodle version 1.6 or later, the minimum version of PHP will be 4.3.0 (or 5.1.0).
** A working database server: [[MySQL]] or [[PostgreSQL]] are completely supported and recommended for use with any version of Moodle. Support for Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle has been added in Moodle 1.7. MySQL is ''the'' choice for many people because it is very popular, but there are some [[Arguments in favour of PostgreSQL|arguments in favour of PostgreSQL]], especially if you are planning a large deployment. The minimum version of MySql required for Moodle 1.5 is 3.23. Moodle 1.6 or later requires MySQL 4.1.16 (4.1.12 if you use latin languages only). The minimum version of PostgreSQL is 7.4 and it is widely used with 8.0 and 8.1. Note that currently the MySQL setting "strict mode" should be OFF (set to "" or "MYSQL40") in the MySQL configuration file.
* Additional PHP requirements
** Safe mode needs to be OFF (check in your php.ini or Apache configuration file).
** memory_limit to be at least 16M (32M is recommended for Moodle 1.7 or later).
** The mbstring extension is required for multi-byte string handling.
** session.save_handler needs to be set to files
** The iconv extension is also recommended for Moodle 1.6 or later.
** [http://www.boutell.com/gd/ GD library] and the [http://www.freetype.org/ FreeType 2] library on Linux/Unix boxes to be able to look at the dynamic graphs that the logs pages make.
** The mysql extension is required if you are using the MySql database. Note that in some Linux distributions (notably Red Hat) this is an optional installation.
** The pgsql extension is required if you are using the PostgreSQL database.
** The zlib extension is required for zip/unzip functionality
** Other PHP extensions may be required to support optional Moodle functionality, especially external authentication and/or enrolment (e.g. LDAP extension for LDAP authentication and the sockets extension for Chat server)

'''Note if you are using a hosted account''': Most web hosts support all of these requirements by default. You should contact your web host's support desk to check that this is the case '''before''' signing-up with them. If you are already signed up with one of the few web hosts that does not support these features ask them why, and consider taking your business elsewhere if they do not change.

== How many users? ==

In addition to the hardware and software requirements, you will also need to think about the capacity of your Moodle installation in terms of the number of users it can handle. There are two numbers to plan for:

* '''Browsing users''': the maximum number of users able to browse your Moodle site. This is the number of computers in your organization or on your course (whichever is greater).
* '''Concurrent database users''': the maximum number of concurrent database users (needed for Moodle activities such as quizzes). This is the number of users who will be using Moodle at the same time. In an educational institution, use your timetable/roster to obtain this figure.

Once you know these figures for your users, you can start work out if your Moodle installation can support this capacity. The exact number of users depends on your hardware/software/network combination. Usually the amount of memory installed (RAM) is the deciding factor but a faster overall processor speed will also help in reducing waiting times for pages to load.

The general rule of thumb for a single server is that the approx max concurrent users = RAM (Gb) * 50 and the approx max browsing users = Approx max concurrent users * 5. As an example, a university with 500 total computers on campus and 100 concurrent users at any time will need approx 2Gb of RAM on the one server to support the number of concurrent users.

'''Note if you are using a hosted account''': Ask your provider what limits are placed on the number of concurrent database connections and the processor load. This will give a good estimate of the number of users your Moodle install can manage.

== Download and copy files into place ==

There are two ways to get Moodle, either as a compressed package or via CVS.
* There are two types of compressed packages on the [http://download.moodle.org/ download page: http://download.moodle.org/], the standard distribution with Moodle only files and the [[Complete install packages|complete install]], which contains programs to operate Moodle in a web environment.
* To use CVS, helpful instructions are available at the [[CVS_for_Administrators | CVS for Administrators]] page. The full [http://moodle.cvs.sourceforge.net/moodle/moodle/ Moodle Sourceforge CVS repository] is also available for browsing.

After downloading, unpack the archive using either
tar -zxvf [filename]
or
unzip [filename]
as appropriate.

If using CVS, run the CVS Checkout command.

You will now 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 '''<nowiki>http://yourwebserver.com/moodle</nowiki>''', or you can copy all the contents straight into the main web server documents directory, in which case the site will be simply '''<nowiki>http://yourwebserver.com</nowiki>'''.

If you are downloading Moodle to your local computer and then uploading it to your web site, it is usually better to upload the whole archive as one file, and then do the unpacking on the server. Even web hosting interfaces like cPanel allow you to uncompress archives in the "File Manager".

=== Structure of moodle directory ===

You can safely skip this section, but here is a quick summary of the contents of the Moodle folder, to help get you oriented:

:''config.php'' - contains basic settings. This file does not come with Moodle - you will create it.
:''install.php'' - the script you will run to create config.php
:''version.php'' - defines the current version of Moodle code
:''index.php'' - the front page of the site
:''admin/'' - code to administrate the whole server
:''auth/'' - plugin modules to authenticate users
:''blocks/'' - plugin modules for the little side blocks on many pages
:''calendar/'' - all the code for managing and displaying calendars
:''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 the main Moodle course modules are in here
:''pix/'' - generic site graphics
:''theme/'' - theme packs/skins to change the look of the site.
:''user/'' - code to display and manage users

== Setting-up your system==
To ensure that Moodle will install successfully, you need to check that the web server settings are correct, then create a blank database for Moodle to use and finally create a directory on your hard disk for Moodle to save your materials and other files you upload into your courses.

=== Check web server settings ===

Firstly, make sure that your web server is set up to use index.php as a default page (perhaps in addition to index.html, default.htm and so on). In Apache, this is done using a DirectoryIndex parameter in your httpd.conf file. Mine usually looks like this:

'''DirectoryIndex''' index.php index.html index.htm

Just make sure index.php is in the list (and preferably towards the start of the list, for efficiency).

Secondly, '''if you are using Apache 2''', then you should turn on the ''AcceptPathInfo'' variable, which allows scripts to be passed arguments like <nowiki>http://server/file.php/arg1/arg2</nowiki>. This is essential to allow relative links between your resources, and also provides a performance boost for people using your Moodle web site. You can turn this on by adding these lines to your httpd.conf file.

'''AcceptPathInfo''' on

Thirdly, Moodle requires a number of PHP settings to be active for it to work. '''On most servers these will already be the default settings'''. However, some PHP servers (and some of the more recent PHP versions) may have things set differently. These are defined in PHP's configuration file (usually called '''php.ini'''):

magic_quotes_gpc = 1 (preferred but not necessary)
magic_quotes_runtime = 0 (necessary)
file_uploads = 1
session.auto_start = 0
session.bug_compat_warn = 0

You may also want to set other, optional php.ini file settings while you are already editing it. For instance, you may want to reset the maximum upload size of file attachments, which usually defaults to 2M(egabytes). For instance, to set these to 16 Megabytes:

post_max_size = 16M
upload_max_filesize = 16M

==== How to Set Overrides ====

Use the above if you can directly edit your server's files, but if you don't have access to '''httpd.conf''' or '''php.ini''' on your server, or you have Moodle on a server with other applications that require different settings, then don't worry, you can often still OVERRIDE the default settings.

To do this, you need to create a file called '''.htaccess''' in Moodle's main directory that contains lines like the following. This only works on Apache servers and only when Overrides have been allowed in the main configuration.

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm

<IfDefine APACHE2>
'''AcceptPathInfo''' on
</IfDefine>

php_flag magic_quotes_gpc 1
php_flag magic_quotes_runtime 0
php_flag file_uploads 1
php_flag session.auto_start 0
php_flag session.bug_compat_warn 0

You can also do things like define the maximum size for uploaded files:

LimitRequestBody 0
php_value upload_max_filesize 2M
php_value post_max_size 2M

The easiest thing to do is just copy the sample file from lib/htaccess and edit it to suit your needs. It contains further instructions. For example, in a Unix shell:

cp lib/htaccess .htaccess

=== Creating an empty database ===

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). You could use the "root" user if you wanted to for a test server, but this is not recommended for a production system: if hackers manage to discover the password then your whole database system would be at risk, rather than just one database.

::'''Warning''': Bear in mind that currently (as of 1.5.x) Moodle doesn't work with MySQL 5.x's new strict mode (STRICT_TRANS_TABLES and/or STRICT_ALL_TABLES) setting. So if you are using MySQL 5.x, edit MySQL's configuration file (called "my.ini" in Windows and "my.cnf" on Unix/Linux) and comment out that option or set it to sql-mode="" (single quotes). You have to restart MySQL after changing this setting. If you do not have access to your server, use PHPMyAdmin (or another MySQL client) and enter the command SET @@global.sql_mode="" (single quotes); (note the semi-colon).

====Using a hosted server====
If you are using a webhost, they will probably have a control panel web interface for you to create your database.

The '''cPanel''' system is one of the most popular of these. To create a database in cPanel,

# Click on the "'''MySQL Databases'''" icon.
# Type "moodle" in the database field and click "'''Add Database'''".
# Type a username and password (not one you use elsewhere) in the respective fields and click "'''Add User'''".
# Now use the "'''Add User to Database'''" button to give this new user account "'''ALL'''" rights to the new database.
# Note that the username and database names may be prefixed by your cPanel account name. When entering this information into the Moodle installer - use the full names.

====Using the command line====

If you have access to Unix or Windows command lines then you can do the same sort of thing by typing commands. You should do this using the MySQL Client program

Here are some example MySQL client command lines (the red part is for Moodle 1.6 and later, leave it out for Moodle 1.5.x or earlier):

# mysql -u root -p
> CREATE DATABASE moodle DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;
> GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,DROP,INDEX,ALTER ON moodle.*
TO moodleuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword';
> quit
# mysqladmin -u root -p reload

If you are using MySQL 4.0.2 or later, you need to specify CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES as well in the GRANT statement:

> GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES,
DROP,INDEX,ALTER ON moodle.*
TO moodleuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword';

And some example command lines for PostgreSQL:

# su - postgres
> psql -c "create user moodleuser createdb;" template1
> psql -c "create database moodle with encoding 'unicode';" -U moodleuser template1
> psql -c "alter user moodleuser nocreatedb;" template1
> psql -c "alter user moodleuser with encrypted password 'yourpassword';" template1
> su - root
# /etc/init.d/postgresql reload

If the Postgres create database command above (>psql -c "create database moodle...") gives an error message you may want to try:
psql -c "create database moodle with template=template1 encoding = 'unicode' owner = moodleuser location = '/var/mydata';"

=== Creating the data directory (moodledata) ===

Moodle will also need some space on your server's hard disk to store uploaded files, such as course documents and user pictures.

The Moodle installer tries hard to create this directory for you but if it fails then you will have to create a directory for this purpose manually.

For security, it's best that this directory is NOT accessible directly via the web. The easiest way to do this is to simply locate it OUTSIDE the web directory, but if you must have it in the web directory (and you are using Apache) then protect it by creating a file in the data directory called '''.htaccess''', containing this line:

deny from all

To make sure that Moodle can save uploaded files in this directory, check that the web server software has permission to read, write and execute in this directory. On Unix machines, this means setting the owner of the directory to be something like "nobody" or "apache", and then giving that user read, write and execute permissions. To do this you could use:

chown -R nobody:nobody moodledata

Remember by default, mysql won't accept moodle data directories created under ROOT, but otherwise can be located where you wish. You can later move or change the location of this directory, but if you do, be sure to edit the setting in the '''config.php''' file that sets this; e.g. if moodledata is under a directory called data, then it would look like this:

$CFG->dataroot = '/data/moodledata';

On cPanel systems you can use the "File Manager" to find the folder, click on it, then choose "Change Permissions". On many shared hosting servers, you will probably need to restrict all file access to your "group" (to prevent other webhost customers from looking at or changing your files), but provide full read/write access to everyone else (which will allow the web server to access your files).

Speak to your server administrator if you are having trouble setting this up securely. In particular it will not be possible to create a usable data directory on sites that use a PHP feature known as "Safe Mode."

== Run the installer script to create config.php ==

To run the installer script (install.php), just try to access your Moodle main URL using a web browser, or access '''<nowiki>http://yourserver/install.php</nowiki>''' directly.

(The Installer will try to set a session cookie. If you get a popup warning in your browser make sure you accept that cookie!)

Moodle will detect that configuration is necessary and will lead you through some screens to help you create a new configuration file called '''config.php'''. At the end of the process Moodle will try and write the file into the right location, otherwise you can press a button to download it from the installer and then upload '''config.php''' into the main Moodle directory on the server.

Along the way the installer will test your server environment and give you suggestions about how to fix any problems. For most common issues these suggestions should be sufficient, but if you get stuck, check in the Installation Forum for more help.

== Go to the admin page to continue configuration ==

Once the basic config.php has been correctly created in the previous step, trying to access the front page of your site will take you the "admin" page for the rest of the configuration.

The first time you access this admin page, 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 (in green or red) that look like this:

{| border=1
|<nowiki>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</nowiki>

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".

If (and only if) you find yourself getting stuck on this page, unable to continue, then your server probably has what I call the "buggy referrer" problem. This is easy to fix: just turn off the "secureforms" setting, then try to continue again.

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 is one very important thing still to do (see the next section on cron).

== Set up cron ==

Please refer to the [[Cron|Cron instructions]].

== Set up backups ==

Please refer to the [[Backup | Backup instructions]].

== Create a new course ==

Now that Moodle is running properly, you can try creating a new course to play with.

Select "Create a new course" from the Admin page (or the admin links on the home page).

Fill out the form, paying special attention to the course format. You don't have to worry about the details too much at this stage, as everything can be changed later by the teacher. Note that the yellow help icons are everywhere to provide contextual help on any aspect.

Press "Save changes", and you will be taken to a new form where you can assign 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 "Add a new user" on the Admin page.

Once done, the course is ready to customize, and is accessible via the "Courses" link on the home page.

==See also==

* [[Installation FAQ]]
*[[Complete install packages]] might be an easier first time installs on some systems
* [[Installing Apache, MySQL and PHP]] - Open source programs that can run Moodle on the web or on a desktop
* [[Upgrading Moodle]]
* Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=42688 Selecting a web host for Moodle] forum discussion
* [[masquerading|Masquerading]] - Running Moodle behind a masquerading/NAT firewall

[[Category:Core]]
[[Category:Administrator]]
[[Category:Installation]]

[[cs:Instalace]]
[[de:Installieren von Moodle]]
[[es:Instalación de moodle]]
[[fr:Installation de Moodle]]
[[ja:Moodleのインストール]]
[[nl:Installatiegids]]
[[ru:Установка Moodle]]
[[zh:安装Moodlezh:]]

User:Chris Epler

2007-01-30T19:46:21Z

Cepler:

[[Image:chris-epler-profile.jpg]]

----

I'm a geek, gadget freak and photography enthusiast. I enjoy testing out various LAMP applications so that I can apply them in the future for various clients or workplaces.

I'm currently living in Columbus, Ohio with my wife and daughter (Above) having recently relocated from Wilmington, Delaware. My professional background is computer related usually working in a role as Systems Administrator or Network Engineer for various companies with an emphasis on Internet facing companies such as ISPs.

User:Chris Epler

2007-01-30T19:43:47Z

Cepler:

File:chris-epler-profile.jpg

2007-01-30T19:41:52Z

Cepler: Correct filename with more generic name.

Correct filename with more generic name.

User:Chris Epler

2007-01-30T19:32:55Z

Cepler: Just some initial text.

I'm a geek, gadget freak and photography enthusiast. I enjoy testing out various LAMP applications so that I can apply them in the future for various clients or workplaces.

Sandbox

2007-01-30T19:29:05Z

Cepler: /* Is a 1st level header - the larger header topic */

i AM HERE

Very nice :-) 
Moodle is Great! 

==Here is another section==

''eBETSH''
D
D
DS
D
D
DS
DS
DS
DS
DS
DS
DS
SD
SD[[Media:Example.ogg]]

==Aesthetic buggery to follow!==
<hr size=5>
<hr size=10>
<hr size=20>
... well, that's too bad: <tt> I was expecting to be able to make larger headers! [pout!]</tt>

:Interesting. Don't know much about HTML but
#remember this is a Mediawiki.
#When I want to try something off the beaten track in MoodleDocs, I [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing#Templates start here with a search on editing tips].
#Since I am a clutz, I created a web page using a word processor. Then opened my browser and revealed the page code. Then placed it below. So you can make larger headers several ways.
::see examples below

==This is 26.opt test==

Notice it still is a header just not the default font

===This is a 3rd level - a little smaller===

====This is a 4th level header - Probably no difference====

=Is a 1st level header - the larger header topic=

=This is a 40.opt font test

just to see what would happen

=This is a 400.opt font test

Hmm...

Installation FAQ

2007-01-30T19:22:02Z

Cepler: /* PHP - is it installed and what version do I have? */

{{FAQ}}

==PHP - is it installed and what version do I have?==

Make a new file on your web site called ''info.php'', containing the following text, and call it from your browser:

<?PHP phpinfo() ?>

If nothing happens then you don't have PHP installed or your webserver is not configured to handle .php files properly. See the installation docs for some information about where to download it for your computer. See the [[phpinfo]] page for details about the content of this page.

== System information needed for Installation Forum ==
When posting questions to the installation forum, try to provide as much background information as possible about your moodle system. Use this template to copy and paste into your post:
* Server OS name (version also if possible):
* Browser name (version also if possible):
* Moodle version:
* Moodle config.php attached?(Y/N):
* Phpinfo attached? (Y/N):

For the last two items, try to include the following in your post as an attachment:
* A copy of your phpinfo output as shown in your browser (see the instructions above for an explanation of how to obtain this).
* A copy of the Moodle configuration file. This is located in the directory moodle and is named config.php
: '''Warning''': Make sure you edit this file and delete any passwords and usernames before posting onto the forum.

Copy and paste both of these into a single text file (using vi, Notepad, etc) and attach this to your post.

If you cannot provide your phpinfo, try to copy & paste and complete these in your post:
* Apache version:
* MySQL version:
* PHP version:

For installation on web hosting accounts: contact your support desk who should be able to tell you this information.

==What & where are Moodle's configuration settings stored?==
Configuration settings are stored in the config.php file stored in your moodle folder. This file is created during the installation process. If there is a problem and the installation cannot create the file, you can try creating it manually from the [[Configuration file]] docs. Please remember that manually editing the file is not recommended and may lead to blank pages, especially if there are additional spaces and/or lines after the final php closing tag "?>".

==Any text I add with an apostrophe (') or a quote (") causes errors or comes up with a slash added==

Problems caused by apostrophes are caused by incorrect "magic quotes" settings. Moodle requires the following settings in the php.ini file (which are usually the default):

magic_quotes_gpc = On
magic_quotes_runtime = Off

Please see [[Installing Moodle]] for more details.

==Email copies are not being sent from my forums==

You ''must'' set up cron properly if you want Moodle to send out automatic email from forums, assignments etc. This same process also performs a number of clean-up tasks such as deleting old unconfirmed users, unenrolling old students and so on.

Basically, you need to set up a process to regularly call the script <code><nowiki>http://yoursite/admin/cron.php</nowiki></code>. Please refer to the [[Cron|cron instructions]].

'''Tip:''' Try the default setting in Moodle variables page. Leave the smtphost blank. This will be acceptable for the majority of users.

==Error: database connection failed==

If you get errors like "database connection failed" or "could not connect to the database you specified", here are some possible reasons and some possible solutions.

* Your '''database server''' isn't installed or running. To check this for MySQL try typing the following command line
$telnet database_host_name 3306
:You should get a cryptic response which includes the version number of the MySQL server.
* You don't have the '''PHP mysql or postgresql extensions''' installed (please refer to FAQ re. whether PHP is installed).
* You haven't created a '''Moodle database and assigned a user''' with the correct privileges to access it.
* The '''Moodle database settings''' are incorrect. The database name, database user or database user password in your Moodle configuration file ''config.php'' are incorrect. Use phpMyAdmin to set up and check your MySQL installation.
* Check that there are no apostrophes or non-alphabetic letters in your MySQL username or password.
* You are using MySQL version 4.1 or higher, whose '''default password hashing algorithm''' is incompatible with that available in PHP versions 4.x.x. See http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/old-client.html for further information on how to deal with this.
* You are using Fedora core 3 or some other Linux system with '''SELinux installed''' and enabled. See the following URL for information on how to disable SELinux: http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/selinux/
* Mac OSX users -- if you are running MySQL on a Mac OSX, try changing '''$CFG->dbhost''' from 'localhost' to '127.0.0.1'

==I can't log in - I just stay stuck on the login screen==

The most common cause for this is that your own computer (not your Moodle server) has a firewall that is stripping referrer information from the browser. Here are some instructions for fixing [http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nip.nsf/46f26a2d6dafb0a788256bc7005c3fa3/b9b47ad7eddd343b88256c6b006a85a8?OpenDocument&src=bar_sch_nam Norton firewall products].

The server admin can also fix this for everyone by changing the ''secureforms'' variable to 'No' in the security section of Administration >> Configuration >> [[admin/config|Variables]].

Another possible cause of this problem is that sessions are not configured properly on the server. You can test this by calling the script <nowiki>http://yourserver/moodle/lib/session-test.php</nowiki>.

==I keep getting this error: Failed opening required '/web/moodle/lib/setup.php'==

In your ''config.php'', the setting that you use for the dirroot variable must be the complete path from the root of your server's hard drive.

Sometimes people only use the path from their home directory, or relative to the root of the web server directory.

==I login but the login link doesn't change. I am logged in and can navigate freely.==

Make sure the URL in your <code>$CFG->wwwroot</code> setting is exactly the same as the one you are actually using to access the site.

==My pages show fatal errors such as : Parse error, call to undefined function: get_string()==

If you see errors like:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in /path/to/moodle/config.php on line 94
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: get_string() in /path/to/moodle/mod/resource/lib.php on line 11

then you have probably left out a semi-colon or closing quote from a line in ''config.php'' (previous to line 94).

Another possibility is that you edited ''config.php'' in a program like Word and saved it as a HTML web page, instead of using a plain text editor like Notepad.

Another thing to check, particularly if you are using 3rd party modules or plugins, is whether any of the php scripts use short open tags (<? ?>) instead of proper ones (<?php ?>). Short tags are bad for various reasons, so first contact the author of that extension to tell them about the problem. Then either replace short tags with conventional ones, or set this line in php.ini:

short_open_tag = On

You should never find short tags in core moodle code. If you do, please file a bug in the bug tracker.

==Serious Error! Could not set up the site!==

Please refer to the Using Moodle forum discussion [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=32071 Serious Error! Could not set up the site!].

==Uploaded files give "File not found"==

For example: Not Found: The requested URL /moodle/file.php/2/myfile.jpg was not found on this server.

Your web server needs to be configured to allow the part of the URL after a script name to be passed directly to the script. This is usually enabled in Apache 1, but is usually disabled by default in Apache 2. To turn it on, add this line to your ''httpd.conf'', or to a ''.htaccess'' file in your local directory (see [[Installing Moodle]] for more details):

'''AcceptPathInfo''' on

Note, this will ONLY work for Apache versions 2.x.

If you are not using Apache 2 and you still have this problem (unlikely) then you can switch Moodle to use an alternative method. The disadvantages are a slight loss of performance for your users and you won't be able to use relative links within HTML resources.

To use this alternative method, you should change the ''slasharguments'' variable in the Operating System section of Administration >> Configuration >> [[admin/config|Variables]]. You should now be able to access your uploaded files.

==When I go to the admin page, I get told to make dirroot blank!==

If you see errors like this:

Please fix your settings in config.php: You have: $CFG->dirroot = "/home/users/fred/public_html/moodle";
but it should be: $CFG->dirroot = "";

then you have encountered a small bug that occurs on some servers. The problem is with the error-checking mechanism, not with your actual path. To fix it, find this line (line 66) in the file ''admin/index.php'':

if ($dirroot != $CFG->dirroot) {

and change it to this:

if (!empty($dirroot) and $dirroot != $CFG->dirroot) {

==When trying to add a resource I receive error messages==

Assuming you are using Apache, then it's quite likely that your setting in ''config.php'' for <code>$CFG->wwwroot</code> is different from the actual URL you are using to access the site. Also try turning off the ''secureforms'' variable in the security section of Administration >> Configuration >> [[admin/config|Variables]].

==Why are all my pages blank?==

Check the dirroot variable in ''config.php''. You must use complete, absolute pathnames e.g.

$CFG->dirroot = "d:\inetpub\sites\www.yoursite.com\web\moodle";

Another reason might be that PHP has not been configured to support MySQL. This is common on Redhat and OpenBSD installations. In this case, an error is generated, but since error displays are often disabled by default, all that is seen on the browser is a blank screen. To enable PHP error displays, set these lines in your ''php.ini'' file and reload the web page.

display_errors = On
display_startup_errors = On

To determine if MySQL support is your problem, insert this as the second line in your ''config.php'' file

phpinfo();

then reload the web page. Examine the output closely to see if MySQL is supported. If not look for a package you are missing.

== Why is a particular page blank or incomplete? ==

Check your web server log files!!

If a particular page is blank or incomplete (it doesn't display the footer), before you do anything else check your error logs.

PHP can be set up to log errors in a variety of different ways. These settings are contained in the php.ini file on the server. If you don't know were that is, edit your Moodle ''config.php'' and add the following as the second line

phpinfo();

then reload the web page. Look for the entry '''Configuration File (php.ini) Path'''.

When you have located php.ini open it in your favorite text editor. Find the '''Error handling and logging''' section of the php.ini file. Make sure that both '''display_errors = On''' and '''log_errors = On''' are present and uncommented. Check the value of '''error_log''' - this tells you the location of the file errors are logged to. If it is commented out then errors will be sent to the web server error log file. Remember, if you make any changes to this file you will need to restart the web server (or just reboot the server).

Having established that logging is working, reproduce the error. Immediately check the error log file right at the end. Hopefully you will see a PHP error message at or very near the end of the file. This may solve your problem directly or makes it a lot easier to diagnose the problem in the Moodle forums.

==Why can't I upload a new image into my profile?==

If you don't see anything on your user profile pages to let you upload user images then it's usually because GD is not enabled on your server. GD is a library that allows image processing.

1. Make sure GD has been included in your PHP installation. You can check this by going into Administration >> Configuration >> [[Variables]] and looking for the gdversion setting. This setting is chosen automatically every time you visit that page. If it shows GD version 1 or version 2 then everything should be fine. Save that configuration page and go back to your user profile.

2. If Moodle thinks GD is not installed, then you will need to install it. On Windows this is usually a matter of "turning on" the module in PHP (see the [[Installing AMP|installation instructions]] for help). On Unix you may need to re-compile PHP with arguments something like this:

./configure --with-apxs=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs --with-xml --with-gd
--with-jpeg-dir=/usr/local --with-png-dir=/usr --with-ttf --enable-gd-native-ttf
--enable-magic-quotes --with-mysql --enable-sockets --enable-track-vars
--enable-versioning --with-zlib

3. Remember to re-visit the Moodle configuration page after making any changes to PHP so it can pick up the correct version of GD.

Please see the Using Moodle forum discussion [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=44271 Profile pictures] for additional information.

==Why do I keep getting error messages about "headers already sent"?==

If you see errors like this:

Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by (output started at /webs/moodle/config.php:87)
in /webs/moodle/lib/moodlelib.php on line 1322
Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by (output started at /webs/moodle/config.php:87)
in /webs/moodle/lib/moodlelib.php on line 1323
Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by (output started at /webs/moodle/config.php:87)
in /webs/moodle/login/index.php on line 54

you have blank lines or spaces after the final <code>?></code> in your ''config.php'' file. Sometimes text editors add these - for example Notepad on Windows - so you may have to try a different text editor to remove these spaces or blank lines completely.

== Why doesn't my Moodle site display the time and date correctly? ==

Each language requires a specific language code (called a '''locale''' code) to allow dates to be displayed correctly. The language packs contain default standard codes, but sometimes these don't work on Windows servers.

You can find the correct locale codes for Windows on these two pages: [http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vclib/html/_crt_language_strings.asp Language codes] and [http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vclib/html/_crt_country_strings.asp Country/region] codes (e.g. "esp_esp" for spanish)

These new locale codes can be entered on the Administration >> Configuration >> [[admin/config|Variables]] page, where they override the ones in the currently chosen language pack.

==I can't Login with message "Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct" ==
[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=55925#254596 See this Using Moodle Forum Summary]

==How do I uninstall Moodle?==
'''Moodle package installation''': If you have downloaded a Moodle package, simply uninstall using your system commands. On Windows PCs, you should access the Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs. Select the package name and click Change or Remove Programs.

'''Webhost/manual installation''': If you have installed Moodle manually or have installed onto a webhost, follow these steps:
*Delete the moodle database using this mysql command (or delete using your mysql client, e.g. PHPMyAdmin):
<pre>sql>DROP DATABASE moodle;</pre>
:In the above example replace 'moodle' with the name of the moodle database you created when installing.
*Delete the moodledata directory. If you, or your users, have uploaded materials into this directory take a copy of these before deleting this directory.
*Delete the moodle directory itself. This will delete all of the moodle PHP script files.

[[Category:Core]]
[[Category:Administrator]]
[[Category:FAQ]]
[[Category:Installation]]

[[es:FAQ Instalación]]
[[fr:FAQ d'installation]]
[[nl:Installatie FAQ]]
[[ja:インストールFAQ]]
[[ru:Установка FAQ]]

Moodle manuals

2007-01-30T19:14:14Z

Cepler: Link to Pakt Publishing, price update

__NOTOC__
This page contains some links to manuals, tutorials and other multimedia documentation produced by moodlers all over the world. Please feel free to submit your contribution by adding a link to this page or sending the file to ''docs AT moodle DOT org''.

==Teacher manuals==

===English===
*[http://download.moodle.org/docs/moodle_1.4.3_for_teachers_and_trainers.pdf Moodle 1.4.3 For Teachers and Trainers] - by '''Bryan Williams''' (PDF, 2.4MB)
*[http://moodle.org/other/Using-Your-Moodle.pdf Using Your Moodle (1.4.3)] by [https://docs.moodle.org/en/User:Darren_Smith Darren Smith] (PDF, 2MB, Published Jan 2005)
*[http://download.moodle.org/docs/teacher-manual.pdf Moodle 1.4 Teacher Manual] - by '''Matt Riordan''' (PDF, 3.5MB)
*[http://www.staff.sbc.edu/tmarcais/classfiles/moodle/Moodle1.5.3.pdf Moodle 1.5.3 Teacher Manual] - Original Documentation by '''Matt Riordan''', updated to version 1.5.3 by '''Tom Marcais''' (PDF, 9.1MB)
*[http://www.packtpub.com/moodle/book Moodle E-Learning Course Development] - by William Rice, [http://www.packtpub.com/ Packt Publishing], May 2006, 250 pages, €33.29/$35.99
*[http://moodle.fct.unl.pt/mod/resource/view.php?id=24107 A Visual Introduction to Moodle - for teachers and page creators] - by '''João Fernandes''' (PDF, 4MB), 43 pages, [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ Creative Commons Non-Comercial Share Alike 2.5 License]

===Other Languages===
*[http://download.moodle.org/docs/teacher-manual-1.5-nl.pdf Moodle 1.5 Teacher Manual (Dutch)] - (PDF, 3MB)
*[http://download.moodle.org/docs/teacher-manual-it.pdf Moodle 1.3 Teacher Manual (Italian)] - (PDF, 3.1MB)
*[http://download.moodle.org/docs/teacher-manual-fr.pdf Moodle 1.3 Teacher Manual (French)] - (PDF, 5MB)
*[http://download.moodle.org/docs/teacher-manual-es.pdf Moodle Teacher Manual (Spanish)] - by '''Enrique Castro''' (PDF, 5.4MB)
*[http://www.lasalle.es/descargas/ManualMoodle2006.zip Moodle 1.5 Teacher Manual (Spanish)] - by '''Jesús Martín''' (PDF, 5.2MB)
*[http://moodle.de//mod/resource/view.php?id=1191 Moodle 1.5 Trainerhandbuch (German) Inhaltsverzeichnis/Content] - von Renate Jirmann und Ralf Hilgenstock 30,- € (gedruckt 140 Seiten)
*[http://moodle.de//mod/resource/view.php?id=1294 moodle @ work (German) Praxisberichte /Use Cases Inhaltsverzeichnis/Content] 12,50 €(gedruckt 150 Seiten)
*[http://moodle.de/mod/resource/view.php?id=1645 moodle- Praxisbuch (German) Info] - von Fredi Gertsch, Addison&Wesley 540 pages, 44,95 €
*[http://file024r.mylivepage.com/chunk24/390895/255/Arb_MOODLE.pdf Moodle Teacher Manual (Arabic)] - by '''Jamil Itmazi''' (PDF, 6.4MB) استعمال موودل للمعلمين باللغة العربية من إعداد: د.جميل إطميزي
*[http://moodle.fct.unl.pt/mod/resource/view.php?id=24107 Uma introdução visual ao Moodle - pa] - by '''João Fernandes''' ra professores e criadores de páginas (PDF, 4MB), 43 pages, [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ Creative Commons Non-Comercial Share Alike 2.5 License]
*[http://www.open.hr/request.php?5 Moodle 1.6 Teacher Manual (Croatian)] - by '''Ivana Bosnić''' (PDF, 3MB)

==Administration manuals==
*[http://moodle.de//mod/resource/view.php?id=1191 Handbuch Installation und Administration (German) Inhaltsverzeichnis/Content] - von André Krüger, Urs Hunkler, Ralf Hilgenstock 30,- € (gedruckt 110 Seiten)
*[http://moodle.org/file.php/16/moddata/forum/160/234243/Install_Moodle.pdf Moodle Administrator Manual (Arabic)] - by '''Jamil Itmazi''' (PDF, 0.3MB) تنزيل موودل باللغة العربية من إعداد: د.جميل إطميزي

==Student manuals==

*[http://download.moodle.org/docs/user_manual_es.pdf Moodle User Manual (Spanish)] - by '''Enrique Castro''' (PDF, 3.1MB)
*[http://moodle.de//file.php?file=/1/Bestellblatt.pdf Teilnehmerhandbuch (German) Info und Bestellformular] - von Ralf Hilgenstock und Renate Jirmann (gedruckt 63 Seiten)
*[http://jamildepalestina.mylivepage.com/file/?fileid=882 Moodle Student Manual (Arabic)] - by '''Jamil Itmazi''' (PDF, 3 MB) استعمال موودل للطلاب باللغة العربية من إعداد: د.جميل إطميزي

==See also==
*[[Presentations]]
[[Category:Teacher]]

[[es:Manuales de Moodle]]

Moodle myths

2007-01-30T19:10:36Z

Cepler: Addition of William Rice's Packt Publishing book link

The top 10 list started life in [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=33044 a post by Josie Fraser], as part of the 2005-6 [http://helpusgettobett.com HUGToB campaign].

{{About Moodle}}

==Once Moodle is stable, it will be put under licence. If it were any good, they’d already be charging for it==
Martin Dougiamas is [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=41253 on record] that Moodle will always be free and under the GPL. Even if it weren't, the community could take the latest GPL code and continue development from there. One of the reasons why Moodle's so good is that it's open source code, and so the world wide educational community can contribute to making it better still.

==There’s no point in looking at Moodle unless you have a full time, php developer on your staff. At the very least you need a lot of technical support to run it in house==
There are ''plenty'' of institutions running Moodle as is, without any php developers in sight. You don't need to know any programming if you just want to run an out of the box, feature rich Moodle site.

That said, PHP is actually a fairly easy language to pick up, and the Moodle code is well documented, so if you did want to help with development, it's a fairly gentle learning curve.

It is also fair to say you need a certain amount of technical know-how to run any program on the web securely. But this has more to do with getting a web-server, SQL database and scripting language up and integrated than a Moodle instance itself. If you can run your own webserver, you should be OK to run Moodle on it.

You don't actually have to run Moodle in house though - there are well respected [http://moodle.com Moodle Partners] who'll run Moodle for you, some of the more enlightened Local Authorities and Regional Broadband Consortia (in the UK) will provide Moodle hosting, and Moodle will work on plenty of commercially hosted webspaces too.

==Moodle won’t be compatible with our other systems/software==
Moodle will run on FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. It's compatible with a huge range of databases through ADODB integration. There's a whole host of authentication and enrollment mechanisms, including LDAP. Moodle will allow teachers to integrate content in a range of different formats, including SCORM, Flash, MP3s and RSS feeds. On the [[Roadmap]] for future releases is a Web API which will allow easy integration with other web-based applications.

Finally, remember that this is open source software, with a well documented data and file structure. If Moodle's not compatible with a particular application at the moment, then you can pay a developer to code up that integration, or develop it in-house.

==Moodle just doesn’t have the commercial experience we’re looking for==
Check out the [http://moodle.com partners]. Moodle is currently used by some big name corporate clients for in-house CPD.

==You can’t just use Moodle out of the box – the basic Moodle install just isn’t that sophisticated==
Have a look at the [[Features|feature list]], all of which comes as standard. Additional themes, blocks and activities are easy to integrate and the vast majority are free, open source code too. It is true that is basically easy to [https://docs.moodle.org/en/Complete_install_packages#Install_complete_package install] all those features out of the box as a standalone desktop or on a web server.

==There’s no documentation, training or technical support available – you’re on your own==
There's excellent (and expanding) documentation [https://docs.moodle.org/en/Main_Page online], provided by the user and developer community. The Open University's [http://moodle.org/user/view.php?id=9318&course=5 Jason Cole] has written an excellent introduction to Moodle for teachers, available as a [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596008635/ proper book] from O'Reilly. In addition William Rice has written a Moodle book [http://www.packtpub.com/moodle/book Moodle E-Learning Course Development] available from [http://www.packtpub.com/ Packt Publishing].

Most users find the Moodle interface intuitive and this helps reduce the training requirements. It's possible for institutions to run in-house training and many have successfully adopted this approach. Some Moodle Partners [http://moodle.com/training/ moodle.com] also specialize in training.

High quality, timely technical support is available from the user and developer community in the Using Moodle course on [http://moodle.org moodle.org]. Some LAs and RBCs (Local Authorities and Regional Broadband Consortia in the UK) support Moodle in their areas. Commercial support contracts are available from authorized Moodle Partners [http://moodle.com/support/ moodle.com].

==The total Cost of Ownership is actually higher for Moodle than it would be with a wholly commercial platform==
Stop and think for a moment. With both Moodle and commercial platforms, you'll still need to pay for hosting, support, training and content, one way or another: with Moodle, more of these costs ''can'' be brought in-house, because the code's open source and Moodle's great at providing the tools teachers need to write online activities themselves, but that doesn't mean you have to.

The difference is that with Moodle, there are '''no''' licence fees to pay. None. The money you do spend can go back into making the software better, or remain within the educational community for the common good. None of it needs to go to meet shareholder dividends or pay back the venture capitalists. Furthermore, you're not exposed to the risks of commercial suppliers unilaterally increase their licence fees, or going out of business.

It's therefore not that surprising that when the UK government agency [http://www.becta.org.uk Becta] examined the [http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/publications/documents/BEC5606_Full_report18.pdf Total Cost of Ownership of open-source software] on desktops in UK schools, they found significant savings compared to commercial alternatives. The savings on support costs were particularly impressive. It's likely that these savings would have been greater still had they examined web-based applications like Moodle.

==Moodle is just no good for an institution as large as mine==
So, that would be one larger than the UK's Open University, with 180,000 students, yes? The OU has [http://www3.open.ac.uk/events/7/2005118_40887_nr.doc announced] that they're moving to Moodle as their institutional VLE, and there are plenty of other [[Large_installations|large institutions]] officially using Moodle, and a good number of others where sections are.

==Moodle is just not designed to cope with my specific group of learners or customers==
Moodle's being used successfully from elementary education, including early years provision, up to higher education, in all subject areas including art, languages, the humanities and mathematics. It's also established itself in the world of life-long learning, teachers' CPD, corporate and government training environments.

==We have all our stuff on *******, it’s just not worth the hassle of switching to Moodle==
The switch may not be that much of a hassle, as Moodle will happily import content in a wide range of standard formats, including SCORM, Blackboard and WebCT questions. There are an increasing number of Further and Higher Education institutions that are making the move.

Pedagogically, there's much to be gained from moving to a VLE which puts social, collaborative learning at the centre, and acknowledges the vital role that learners have to play, as well as providing teachers with the tools that they need to build effective on-line learning communities, rather than just presenting resources and activities.

From a financial perspective, the costs involved in switching to Moodle should be quickly recouped through savings in licence fees.
[[Category:Core]]
[[es:Los 10 mitos de Moodle]]
[[fr:Mythes sur Moodle]]
[[zh:Moodle十大流言]]

Moodle myths

2007-01-30T19:06:21Z

Cepler: /* Moodle won’t be compatible with our other systems/software */

The top 10 list started life in [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=33044 a post by Josie Fraser], as part of the 2005-6 [http://helpusgettobett.com HUGToB campaign].

{{About Moodle}}

==Once Moodle is stable, it will be put under licence. If it were any good, they’d already be charging for it==
Martin Dougiamas is [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=41253 on record] that Moodle will always be free and under the GPL. Even if it weren't, the community could take the latest GPL code and continue development from there. One of the reasons why Moodle's so good is that it's open source code, and so the world wide educational community can contribute to making it better still.

==There’s no point in looking at Moodle unless you have a full time, php developer on your staff. At the very least you need a lot of technical support to run it in house==
There are ''plenty'' of institutions running Moodle as is, without any php developers in sight. You don't need to know any programming if you just want to run an out of the box, feature rich Moodle site.

That said, PHP is actually a fairly easy language to pick up, and the Moodle code is well documented, so if you did want to help with development, it's a fairly gentle learning curve.

It is also fair to say you need a certain amount of technical know-how to run any program on the web securely. But this has more to do with getting a web-server, SQL database and scripting language up and integrated than a Moodle instance itself. If you can run your own webserver, you should be OK to run Moodle on it.

You don't actually have to run Moodle in house though - there are well respected [http://moodle.com Moodle Partners] who'll run Moodle for you, some of the more enlightened Local Authorities and Regional Broadband Consortia (in the UK) will provide Moodle hosting, and Moodle will work on plenty of commercially hosted webspaces too.

==Moodle won’t be compatible with our other systems/software==
Moodle will run on FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. It's compatible with a huge range of databases through ADODB integration. There's a whole host of authentication and enrollment mechanisms, including LDAP. Moodle will allow teachers to integrate content in a range of different formats, including SCORM, Flash, MP3s and RSS feeds. On the [[Roadmap]] for future releases is a Web API which will allow easy integration with other web-based applications.

Finally, remember that this is open source software, with a well documented data and file structure. If Moodle's not compatible with a particular application at the moment, then you can pay a developer to code up that integration, or develop it in-house.

==Moodle just doesn’t have the commercial experience we’re looking for==
Check out the [http://moodle.com partners]. Moodle is currently used by some big name corporate clients for in-house CPD.

==You can’t just use Moodle out of the box – the basic Moodle install just isn’t that sophisticated==
Have a look at the [[Features|feature list]], all of which comes as standard. Additional themes, blocks and activities are easy to integrate and the vast majority are free, open source code too. It is true that is basically easy to [https://docs.moodle.org/en/Complete_install_packages#Install_complete_package install] all those features out of the box as a standalone desktop or on a web server.

==There’s no documentation, training or technical support available – you’re on your own==
There's excellent (and expanding)documentation [https://docs.moodle.org/en/Main_Page online], provided by the user and developer community. The Open University's [http://moodle.org/user/view.php?id=9318&course=5 Jason Cole] has written an excellent introduction to Moodle for teachers, available as a [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596008635/ proper book] from O'Reilly.

Most users find the Moodle interface intuitive and this helps reduce the training requirements. It's possible for institutions to run in-house training and many have successfully adopted this approach. Some Moodle Partners [http://moodle.com/training/ moodle.com] also specialize in training.

High quality, timely technical support is available from the user and developer community in the Using Moodle course on [http://moodle.org moodle.org]. Some LAs and RBCs (Local Authorities and Regional Broadband Consortia in the UK) support Moodle in their areas. Commercial support contracts are available from authorised Moodle Partners [http://moodle.com/support/ moodle.com].

==The total Cost of Ownership is actually higher for Moodle than it would be with a wholly commercial platform==
Stop and think for a moment. With both Moodle and commercial platforms, you'll still need to pay for hosting, support, training and content, one way or another: with Moodle, more of these costs ''can'' be brought in-house, because the code's open source and Moodle's great at providing the tools teachers need to write online activities themselves, but that doesn't mean you have to.

The difference is that with Moodle, there are '''no''' licence fees to pay. None. The money you do spend can go back into making the software better, or remain within the educational community for the common good. None of it needs to go to meet shareholder dividends or pay back the venture capitalists. Furthermore, you're not exposed to the risks of commercial suppliers unilaterally increase their licence fees, or going out of business.

It's therefore not that surprising that when the UK government agency [http://www.becta.org.uk Becta] examined the [http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/publications/documents/BEC5606_Full_report18.pdf Total Cost of Ownership of open-source software] on desktops in UK schools, they found significant savings compared to commercial alternatives. The savings on support costs were particularly impressive. It's likely that these savings would have been greater still had they examined web-based applications like Moodle.

==Moodle is just no good for an institution as large as mine==
So, that would be one larger than the UK's Open University, with 180,000 students, yes? The OU has [http://www3.open.ac.uk/events/7/2005118_40887_nr.doc announced] that they're moving to Moodle as their institutional VLE, and there are plenty of other [[Large_installations|large institutions]] officially using Moodle, and a good number of others where sections are.

==Moodle is just not designed to cope with my specific group of learners or customers==
Moodle's being used successfully from elementary education, including early years provision, up to higher education, in all subject areas including art, languages, the humanities and mathematics. It's also established itself in the world of life-long learning, teachers' CPD, corporate and government training environments.

==We have all our stuff on *******, it’s just not worth the hassle of switching to Moodle==
The switch may not be that much of a hassle, as Moodle will happily import content in a wide range of standard formats, including SCORM, Blackboard and WebCT questions. There are an increasing number of Further and Higher Education institutions that are making the move.

Pedagogically, there's much to be gained from moving to a VLE which puts social, collaborative learning at the centre, and acknowledges the vital role that learners have to play, as well as providing teachers with the tools that they need to build effective on-line learning communities, rather than just presenting resources and activities.

From a financial perspective, the costs involved in switching to Moodle should be quickly recouped through savings in licence fees.
[[Category:Core]]
[[es:Los 10 mitos de Moodle]]
[[fr:Mythes sur Moodle]]
[[zh:Moodle十大流言]]