Windows 1 computer many servers

This is going to be really dumb, but it works. I will be deleting both my wiki entries on multiple moodles by May 1 06.

I want to have two, independent versions of moodle on my desktop computer. Since I am challenged mentally, it has got to be simple and hard drive space is not an issue. I will be happy to run one version of moodle at a time, each with its own database.

Here is who I am and when I started this page: --Chris collman 2 23:49, 14 April 2006 (WST)

This will start off as a casual description of the process. I will figure out an outline later. There are two major phases. Phase one: copy an existing working moodle version to another place, so it works there. Phase two: update or create a new working moodle in the old space.

Better get familiar with wordpad. I found a free php editor. I am sure there are lots of them and this is not a recommendation, but I use PHP DESIGNER 2006 and none of its fancy features. It makes looking at a php file easier than wordpad, I use it to edit any text file but you don't need it, wordpad does the same thing.

I did the complete install for the latest and greatest 1.5.3. I installed it with all the defaults. I used it for 3 months. It rested in a folder called c:\moodle.

Phase One: 1.1 I made a new folder called c:\moodle15 1.2 I copied the entire contents of c:\moodle to the new folder called c:\moodle15. So once you open each folder, one looks like the other one.

1.3 Next find c:\moodle15\apache\conf\httpd.conf. Open it with wordpad. Now do a SEARCH for c:\moodle and replace it with c:\moodle15. I found are five places. If you see something like c:\moodle\moodle only change it to c:\moodle15\moodle . Simple. The most tricky part, when you save it in wordpad, save it as a text file and use the file name httpd.conf.

1.4 Next find c:\moodle15\moodle\config.php and open it with wordpad. You will see a section like this:

$CFG->wwwroot = 'http://127.0.0.1'; $CFG->dirroot = 'C:\\moodle15\\moodle'; $CFG->dataroot = 'C:\\moodle15\\moodledata'; $CFG->admin = 'admin';

Change the c:\\moodle to C:\\moodle15 like you did before, that is what is important.

If you have created data leave the wwwroot IP address the same.

1.5 There were two steps that may not. I will insert them here. 1.5.1 Using explorer, I double clicked on c:\moodle15\setup-xampp . If it told me it had nothing to do, fine. If it say "You want to refresh your Xampp?" I type 1 in the DOS window.

1.5.2 Using my text editor, I went to c:\moodle15\apache\config\extra\http-xammp.conf and looked at it. After running the setup-xammp, I believe it changes the paths in this file to read c:\moodle15. (As I looked around, there is a vhosts-http file which an expert is probably going to tell me is the file I want to edit, but nobody is talking so forget it).

1.6 Now we check it to see if it works. I use windows explorer and find Xampp start in c:\moodle15. Doesn't work, did you stop your old Xampp? Then I go to my browser and type 127.0.0.1 in my address bar, presto there is my good old Moodle 1.5.3.

1.7 Log in as administrator, go to configuration and Variables. Under operating system change your cookie to MoodleXV (for moodle15) so your browser does not get confused. Cookies with numbers at the end don't seem to hold, so I used XV.

1.8 I also like to change my homepage so I know where I am. I use the course site description block an put it up in one of the corners and merely put "My sandbox 1.5.3 version, cookie moodleXV " I also like to save this moodle homepage as a favorite in browser as Moodle15.

1.9 Close the Moodle window, shut Xampp .

Phase Two:

2.1 Do a quality control check. Go to c:\moodle and start the Xampp there and see if your browser can find the old home page. Yes, good.

2.2 Now you are ready to change to a different version. There is two ways. You can delete c:\moodle and do a complete new install of moodle. The second way, I wanted to go from 1.5.3 to 1.6 so I decided to download the latest standard version (way smaller file). Being lazy I made sure that when I unzipped the standard version, it replaced all files and created folders if it needed to.

For your info, this basically changed c:\moodle\moodle and what ever was in it.

2.3 started up Xampp, in my browser type in 127.0.0.1. Moodle knows something is different and is going to reconfigure files and change settings. Let it do what ever and follow its instruction. After 5 to 30 minutes is will be done. Things will look a little different. You should be able to go into a course and maybe into a lesson. There you will definately see things have changed.

I would change the cookie as you did before (1.6), this time I would call it moodleXVI. I would also make the homepage look different as I suggested before (1.7). Or used a different color theme.

2.4 Since you have the conversion process fresh in your mind. I would repeat the process you did with moodle15, that was 1.1 through 1.7 . This time everything is going to be Moodle 16 and I left the same default IP.

2.5 After you have made sure your c:\moodle16 install works, delete c:\moodle. You don't need it it is taking up space.

Now you have one computer, 2 servers and each server runs its own moodle. I have different looking short cuts on my desktop to the two different xampp starts, but you only need to point to one stop xampp program. The good thing and the bad thing is that you can only run one version of moodle at a time.

There is the straight line basic way for folks who have a standalone windows machine.

--Chris collman 2 23:49, 14 April 2006 (WST)