Sunday, September 20, 2015

Install Greenstone Digital Library Software on a Apple Mac running 10.10

Version 10.10 of OSX breaks some things, this post details how to install Greenstone.

1.      Download Greenstone-2.86-MacOS-intel-Leopards.dmg from greenstone.org
(Do not get the LION version, it does not work. It used to be there were two versions, one was dynamic and the other static and the dynamic version was supposed to work on the more recent versions of OSX. Somewhere apple updates to OSX broke that and now the older version works better)
2.      For OSX 10.7 and higher, select System Preferences, click the lock and enter your password and select the Anywhere radio button under the Allow Apps Downloaded From Anywhere option
3.      Double-click the downloaded greenstone.dmg file to mount the disk image
4.      Double-click the greentstone2.86.app to install
5.      Accept all the default settings by clicking NEXT
It installs to /Users/yourusername/greenstone where yourusername is your user name
(IF it puts in usr/local/ edit the text box to be /Users/yourusername/greenstone) It is unknown why this sometimes occurs, there seems to be no constant for this behavior.

6.      When the install is finished click Go, Home and your user folder is displayed

7.      Click on the Greenstone folder and Double-Click the gli.app icon to run the Librarian Interface and you should see this error:

What this means is that the GLI relies on the ImageMagick library to process images but that it cannot seen to locate it or that the version it installed is not working. We don't know what causes this but we do have a workaround.

Replace ImageMagick

Navigate to Users/yourusername/Greenstone/bin/darwin and drag the imagemagick folder to the trash. This removes the version installed with Greenstone.


Download Imagemagick from http://cactuslab.com/imagemagick/by selecting the first download option:



Once the file is downloaded double-click the ImageMagick installer pkg file  and install ImageMagick. Do not change the defaults and it will install to /opt

Edit Greenstone Prefs

Navigate to the Greenstone/gli folder
Right-click on gli.sh and choose Open With TextEdit
Insert this text on line 108 (after fi and before # --- check that the GLI has been compiled ----)

export MAGICK_HOME="/opt/ImageMagick"

Then save the file. 


The GLI will now run and process image files. You can tick the checkbox to turn off the imagemagick warning message when the gli loads.

TESTED on OSX 10.10.3 and 10.10.5


Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Install of MAMP and OMEKA on OS X 10.10.5

MAMP for OS X downloaded from  https://www.mamp.info/en/downloads/ which has the documentation here:

https://documentation.mamp.info/en/documentation/mamp/

We are testing this as we have used it before and we had php errors with the xampp bitnami version on OS X.


  1. Download the pkg file and double-click to run the installer which installs to the Applications folder.
  2. We customize the install to de-select the mamp pro option
  3. Once installation is complete we copy the omega folder into Applications/MAMP/htdocs
  4. Now we double-click the MAMP app which loads the control panel
  5. Click Start Servers


Setup Omeka Database

The MAMP install runs a web browser and goes to http://localhost:8888 which means the web server is running on a non-standard port.

Click on Tools, phpMyadmin
Enter omega_db as the database name with a UTF8 unicode collation and click Create
Every database needs a user so we have to create one for the Omeka app (so it can be installed) and this will user account can be used by the app to create additional users inside the application. 
Note: The Linux instructions from Omeka use the mysqladmin client to set up the database.

  1. Click the SQL tab
  2. Enter the following SQL statements:

    insert into user(host, user, password)
    values('localhost','omeka_user',password('zx8180'));

    insert into db(host,db,user,Select_priv, Insert_priv, Update_priv, Delete_priv, Create_priv, Drop_priv)
    values ('localhost','omeka_db','omeka_user','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y');
  3. Click GO to execute the SQL

Set Privileges

We issue this sql, which is a quick hack instead of setting up them the right way...

use mysql;
grant all privileges on omeka_db 
to 'omeka_user'@'%' identified by 'zx8180';

What is odd is when we browse the records in the user table we still don't see the correct privs associated with the omega_user account either from localhost or from the network.


Perhaps the problem with xampp was the lack of privileges, the php install script may have failed because of this. So we edit the localhost omega_user row and change the N's to Y's and then refresh the database.

Configure Apache Web Server

  1. Navigate to Applications/mamp/apache/
  2. Right-click http.conf and open in a text editor 
  3. Change the default setting in the  to be:

    AllowOverride All
    Allow from all
    Order allow,deny

Now save the file.

Set Omeka Database Configuration

This ini file is used by the app to find its database so it must match exactly what you set up in mySQL.

  1. Navigate to Applications/mamp/htdocs/omeka/
  2. Right-click on db.ini and edit with a text editor 
  3. Add the exact values for the database that you set up earlier and add port 8888 (although since apache conf looks there it is like you can leave it alone

[database]
host     = "localhost"
username = "omeka_user"
password = "zx8180"
dbname   = "omeka_db"
prefix   = "omeka_"
charset  = "utf8"
port     = "8888"

Select file,save and save the file.

Run the Omeka Installer

To install an 'amp' app, you go to its install web page, which usually runs some php scripts.

Run a web browser and go to http://localhost/omeka/install

OK same php database error message we got with xampp. 

Let's take a look at the folder permissions. snickers has read/write access to applications/mamp/htdocs/omeka but the rest are read only. Lets change that to read/write.

nope same error as with omega on xampp


php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: nodename nor servname provided, or not known

looks like some digging in the omega docs or forums is needed!

UPDATE

Looks like apache mod_rewrite is not enabled on xampp or mamp for OSX. But it must be on xampp for windows as omega installed ok without having to manually configure mod_rewrite.

Todo

- test adding mod_rewite to apache on OS X and rerun the install

UPDATE

Not the problem as the httpd.conf file loads the rewrite module:

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Reading the forums reveals problems installing omeka on mamp, particulry with imagemagick. We had solved imagemagick problems in 10.10.x before with greenstone but why go thru this again?  Several posters suggested xampp solves the mamp problems. Problem is the discussion is from 2 years ago. There was also postings of imagemagick problems with the windows install. 

Options 

- retry omeka on XAMPP but i am losing confidence in omeka as a replacement for greenstone. never had any problems installing a 'amp' app before.  

- test out the online free account option to see if a student could do a project there. The downside is they do not get the learning about installing lamp apps and the benefits of amp tech installed locally for learning. Of course having it all online will make it easier for someone to take over the course when i retire...



Install of Omega on OS X

System: Mac Pro
OSX: 10.10.5
Stack: XAMPP 5.6.12-0
Omeka: 2.3.1

Downloaded omeka 2.31 .zip file from the omega web site and unziped to Applications/XAMPP/htdocs/omeka. Htdocs is the root level of the web server.

  1. Next we navigate to /Applications/XAMPP and double-click the manager-osx icon which runs the XAMPP control panel. 
  2. Click the Manage Servers tab and START the mySQL server and START the Apache web server.
  3. Run Safari and go to http://localhost and select the phpMyAdmin link
Set up the Database and User
  1. Click the Databases tab
  2. Enter omeka_db in the create database text box
  3. Select uff8_unicode_ci from the collation pull-down menu
  4. Click CREATE
  5. Select the SQL tab
  6. Enter the following SQL:
use mysql;
insert into user(host, user, password) 
values('localhost','omeka_user',password('zx8180'));

insert into db(host,db,user,Select_priv, Insert_priv, Update_priv, Delete_priv, Create_priv, Drop_priv) 
values ('localhost','omeka_db','omeka_user','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y');


Click GO and then Return to the XAMPP control panel and STOP and then START the mySQL server

Configure Apache

Navigate to Applications/XAMPP/xampfiles/apache2/conf
Right-click on httpd.conf and open in a text editor or textedit if you have to

The default order is:

AllowOverride All
Allow from all
Order allow,deny

So you do not have to change  anything!  Close the file. Next i checked the omeka folder permissions and it seems fine.


Set Omeka Database Configuration

This ini file is used by the app to find its database so it must match exactly what you set up in mySQL.
  1. Navigate to /xampp/xamppfiles/htdocs/omeka/
  2. Right-click on db.ini and edit with a text editor or textedit
  3. Add the exact values for the database that you set up earlier
[database]
host     = "localhost"
username = "omeka_user"
password = "zx8180"
dbname   = "omeka_db"
prefix   = "omeka_"
charset  = "utf8"
port     = ""

Select file,save and save the file.

Note: by leaving the port value empty it uses the default port 80. If you are running on a non-standard port you will want to change this.

So now back to the web browser and phpMyAdmin to install the omeka app.

Install Omeka

Run a web browser and go to http://localhost/omeka/install and the installer php script runs.

we get a php error

php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: 
nodename nor servname provided, or not known

This looks like a database connect error. Wonder if this is the same problem we had on windows with the omeka_user not having priviledges?

Back to myPhpAdmin to add privileges, click on the SQL tab and we do:

use mysql;
grant all privileges on omeka_db 
to 'omeka_user'@'%' identified by 'zx8180';

and we restart the mysql server. ok back to the web browser and try the install again:

same error - looks like a problem in the php configuration?  Wondering if this OSX XAMPP which is the bitnami version has issues?  We used vanilla xampp for the windows install - let's backtrack and see if we can do a vanilla xampp for osx.

Todo

Delete existing XAMPP in applications
Download and install new non-bitnami xampp











Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Omeka 2.3.1 install on native Ubuntu 14.04 LTS



 Sources:


 Background:

This documentation details my install procedure of a LAMP stack and Omeka 2.3.1. It does not cover certain steps (like installing Unzip) which are seen in other guides because these packages were already installed on my machine.

There were 5 major steps:
  1.  Set up LAMP stack and ImageMagick
  2.  Download and install Omeka
  3. Set-up web user and permissions
  4. Create and modify database
  5.   Enable mod_rewrite (worst part)

Step 1- Set up LAMP stack and ImageMagick


1.Install PHP5:
sudo apt-get install php5

2.Install PHP-MySQL:
sudo apt-get install php5-mysql

3.Install Apache2:
sudo apt-get install apache2

4.Install MySQL server:
sudo apt-get install mysql-server

5. Install ImageMagick (image software used by Omeka):
sudo apt-get install imagemagick


To test go to your IP
(see image)


Step 2- Download and install Omeka


6. Download Omeka to home directory:
cd

wget http://omeka.org/files/omeka-2.3.1.zip

unzip omeka-2.3.1.zip

7. Move unzipped files to web directory
sudo mv omeka-2.3.1/* /var/www/

sudo mv omeka-2.3.1/.htaccess /var/www/

8. If there is an old index.html file in www remove it:
sudo rm /var/www/index.html



Step 3- Set up web user and permissions


9. Create a web group and user:
sudo groupadd webdev

sudo usermod -a -G webdev your_ubuntu_username

cd /var

sudo chown -R root.webdev www 

10. Give the newly created user permissions to directories needed:
sudo chmod 775 www

cd /var/www 

sudo find . -type d | xargs sudo chmod 775

sudo find . -type f | xargs sudo chmod 664

sudo find files -type d | xargs sudo chmod 777

sudo find files -type f | xargs sudo chmod 666



Step 4- Create and modify database


11. Open MySQL from appropriate location
mysql -u root -p

12. Create the database (keep ‘’ punctuation)
create database omeka;

grant all privileges on omeka.* to 'username from step 9'@'localhost'     identified by 'insertpasswordhere';

flush privileges;

quit;

13. Open db.ini in terminal to modify
sudo nano /var/www/db.ini

14.  Adjust values to reflect newly created settings from step 12 and save file.
[database]

host = "localhost"

username = "username"

password = "password"

dbname = "omeka"

prefix = "omeka_"



Step 5- Enable mod_rewrite in for Apache


15. Enable mod_rewrite and restart the server:
sudo a2enmod rewrite

sudo service apache2 restart

16. Open apache2.conf file in gedit (easier to see than if in nano)
sudo gedit /etc/apache2/apache2.conf 

17. Modify apache2.conf (append to the end of the file), then save and close
ServerName localhost

# Enable mod_rewrite

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

RewriteEngine On

</IfModule>

18. Open 000-default.conf file in gedit
sudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf 

17. Modify 000-default.conf (append below line DocumentRoot /var/www), then save and close
<Directory ”/var/www/html”>

AllowOverride All

</Directory>

18. Restart server
sudo service apache2 restart


To test: localhost/admin/users/login/

If you see the following, you know you have a problem (check out the support forums)
Different people have solved it different ways, depending on their system:













If you see the following, you know you have succeeded:


Thursday, September 10, 2015

Install of Omeka on XAMPP

OS: Windows 7 x64
XAMPP: v 3.2.1
Omeka: v 2.3.1

The instructions for Omeka install assume a linux server but we are installing on a windows machine using XAMPP so the install is somewhat different but similar to all 'amp' applications.

Get Omeka

We download the latest version from http://omeka.org/download/. The release notes are here. We unzip the omeka-2.3.1 archive to an omeka folder at the root level of the XAMPP web server which is located at /xampp/htdocs

You have to be careful - windows native unarchiving tends to create a folder inside a folder, you need to have an omeka folder under htdocs containing the files. (7zip is a better option).


Create Omeka Database

All 'amp' apps store data in a database. So we need to create a mySQL database for omeka. This can be done using a mySQL client to connect to the mySQL server, or thru a web app like phpMyAdmin.

  1. Navigate to /xampp/xampp-control.exe and double-click to run the control panel
  2. Start the mySQL database server and the Apache web server
  3. Click on the phpMyAdmin link
  4. Click the Databases Tab
  5. Create an omeka_db database with collation of utf8_unicode_ci

NOTE: we originally named the database omeka but we noticed the Omeka documentation refers to it as omeka_db (we feel the db is redundant but...) so we redid is as omeka_db and we recommend you do as well. This database will be used by the Omeka app.

Create Omeka User

Every database needs a user so we have to create one for the Omeka app (so it can be installed) and this will user account can be used by the app to create additional users inside the application.
Note: The Linux instructions from Omeka use the mysqladmin client to set up the database.

  1. Click the SQL tab
  2. Enter the following SQL statements:

    insert into user(host, user, password)
    values('localhost','omeka_user',password('zx8180'));

    insert into db(host,db,user,Select_priv, Insert_priv, Update_priv, Delete_priv, Create_priv, Drop_priv)
    values ('localhost','omeka_db','omeka_user','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y');
  3. Click GO to execute the SQL


One thing i noted about this statement is the omeka user sql does not set up privileges for connecting. By default it should be able to connect only from localhost. Normally when setting up users who have to have access from all locations we would do something like:

use mysql;
grant all privileges on omeka_db 
to 'omeka_user'@'%' identified by 'zx8180';

And when setting up a user you want to refresh/reload the database so the client picks up the changes. The easiest way to do this in XAMPP would be to STOP and then START the mySQL server. We forgot to do this step which may be the reason for the problem noted later on....

Configure Apache Web Server

  1. Navigate to /xampp/apache/conf/
  2. Right-click http.conf and open in a text editor or use notepad if you must
  3. Change the default setting in lines 222-229 to be:


    AllowOverride All
    Allow from all
    Order allow,deny

Now save the file.

Note: the ServerRoot directive is hard-coded, for example: ServerRoot "I:/xampp/apache" so this would have to be changed if later you copy the xampp folder from current drive to another
location. Also hard coded is DocumentRoot.

Set File Permissions

The Linux instructions note that the apache user must have rights to the omeka folder. This is because many linux apps create a user account in the OS that has rights only to specific items or functions, a much more secure approach than Windows with its administrator account.

  1. Navigate to  /xampp/htdocs
  2. Right-click on the omeka folder
  3. I set the properties not to be read-only

Not sure this step is even required...

Set Omeka Database Configuration

This ini file is used by the app to find its database so it must match exactly what you set up in mySQL.

  1. Navigate to /xampp/htdocs/omeka/
  2. Right-click on db.ini and edit with a text editor or notepad
  3. Add the exact values for the database that you set up earlier

[database]
host     = "localhost"
username = "omeka_user"
password = "zx8180"
dbname   = "omeka_db"
prefix   = "omeka_"
charset  = "utf8"
port     = ""

Select file,save and save the file.

Note: by leaving the port value empty it uses the default port 80. If you are running on a non-standard port you will want to change this.

Run the Omeka Installer

To install an 'amp' app, you go to its install web page, which usually runs some php scripts.

Run a web browser and go to http://localhost/omeka/install

The first time i did this i got the mySQL error message:

"Access denied for user 'omeka_user'@'localhost' (using password: YES)"

It may be that because i did not refresh the database tables?  The error message indicates that user does not have privileges to the database from localhost. We could go back to SQL and issue a statement like this:

use mysql;
grant all privileges on omeka_db 
to 'omeka_user'@'%' identified by 'zx8180';

but we can also use phpMyAdmin. 
  1. Go back to phpmyadmin 
  2. Click the users tab and slect the omeka_user@localhost entry
  3. CHECK ALL and click GO
Normally you would not do this! But we are lazy. The privileges needed by omeka_user are not extensive.


We need to research this - when we install on OSX we can do it a little differently.
  1. Use the xampp control panel to STOP and then START the mySQL server
  2. Go to http://localhost/omeka/install and you should see the install page
 

Add an admin user and password. The admin account can access the back-end or dashboard of Omeka.

Note: PHP does not have the fileinfo module loaded and thus the installer will
disable file upload validation. Research how to set this up in php before running the installer.

We accept the defaults for most of the setting. Note it asks for the ImageMagick path so we should install that before installing omeka, although we assume we can later edit the Omeka configuration to add the path.

Click INSTALL and if ok the success page is displayed
Navigate to /xampp/htdocs/omeka and delete the install folder


You can now check out the default public site that users see, or log into the back-end as the admin user.




You now have omeka running but is only accessible from localhost, the machine you are on.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Install of OMEKA 2.3.1

Downloaded from http://omeka.org/download/ and the documentation is located at http://omeka.org/codex/Documentation

The instructions assume a linux server but we have an XAMPP setup. The usual steps to install a lamp app are to:

Open a mySQL client or use the phpmyadmin web app to create an database account and password for the app such as omeka. The SQL commands can also be put in a text file and executed. 

Set up the omeka user

use mysql;
insert into user(host, user, password) 
values('localhost','omeka_user',password('chosen password'))
insert into db(host,db,user,Select_priv, Insert_priv, Update_priv, Delete_priv, Create_priv, Drop_priv) 
values ('localhost','omeka_db','omeka_user','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y','Y');


Set up the omeka database

Their documention uses mysqladmin to do this, not sure why....

mysqladmin -u root -p create omeka_db
mysqladmin -u root -p reload

Then they use a mysql client again to set the collation:

ALTER DATABASE omeka_db DEFAULT CHARACTER SET 'utf8' DEFAULT COLLATE 'utf8_unicode_ci';

Wonder why they did not create the database in the client and set the char set and collation then. 

Then run a text editor and edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and change the AllowOverride directives in the  block as follows:


Then restart the apache server. Unpack the omeka files from the .zip archive to /var/www/html/omeka

The apache user must have ownership of that directory, on linux you can do:

chown -R apache /var/www/html/omeka

On windows/mac it will be different. You then have to edit /var/www/html/omeka/db.ini with the following:


[database]
host     = "localhost"
username = "omeka_user"
password = "chosen password"
name     = "omeka_db"
prefix   = "omeka_"
;port     = ""

Open a web browser and go to http//localhost/omeka. If successful you can delete the install directory at /var/www/html/omeka/install

Alternative

This install process needs to be an easy local install to xampp, wamp or mamp for FIMS students. This is how i think it could go:
  • Create an omeka folder under the web root
  • Run phpadmin and create a new database called omeka using UTF8 and unicode
  • Edit omeka/db.ini with the database info shown above
  • Edit apache httpd.conf file to enable mod_rewrite as shown above
  • Change permissions for all files in the omeka/files directory
  • On OSX open a terminal and do: sudo chmod -R 755 /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/omeka/files
  • In windows you would have to select the folder and set the properties
  • In browser go to http://localhost/omeka or locahost/omeka/install
  • The dashboard is located at http://localhost/omeka/admin

Another option is that each student has to sign up for the free plan at omeka.net and build their digital collection there. The free account provides one (1) site and 500 MB of storage space. 



Saturday, September 5, 2015

XAMPP Install - Windows 7

Go to https://www.apachefriends.org/download.html and download the latest windows version. Note their is only 32bit versions now. The installer is a windows .exe binary executable.


This download includes: Apache 2.4.16, MySQL 5.6.26, PHP 5.6.12, phpMyAdmin 4.4.14, OpenSSL 1.0.1, XAMPP Control Panel 3.2.1, Webalizer 2.23-04, Mercury Mail Transport System 4.63, FileZilla FTP Server 0.9.41, Tomcat 7.0.56 (with mod_proxy_ajp as connector), Strawberry Perl 7.0.56 Portable.

Double-click the xampp install file in your downloads folder:


When the installer runs it displays a warning message:



We go to http://apachefriends.org/en/faq-xampp-windows.html#antivirus to see what the issue is. If you are using an aggressive anti-virus app these warnings will apply, for example the windows firewall is a likely culprit.

If you are installing a XAMPP application on a Windows machine with an antivirus app enabled, this may slow down the installation significantly, and there is also a chance that one of the servers (web server, database server) may be blocked by the antivirus software. If you have an antivirus tool enabled, check the following settings for running XAMPP without performance issues:
  • Add exceptions in the firewall: for Apache, MySQL or any other server.
  • Scan files when executing: If you have enabled the antivirus scan for all files, the executable files for the servers may slow down.
  • Scan the traffic for different URLs: If you are developing with XAMPP on your own machine, you can exclude "localhost" traffic in the Antivirus settings.
We continue with the installation. Now an UAC warning is displayed:



This is interesting as this machine has a long time WAMP installation and i don't remember and UAC problems, but that was years ago. What the message implies is that you should not select an installation target of Program Files (x86) as the account does not have write permissions. Possibilities:


  • We are installing under our own account (gnickers) which does not have write permissions to that folder. Unlikely as our account is part of the administrator group. 
  • Installs that have to write stuff and need administrator privileges can ask for it which is usual behavior
So do we proceed and see what happens or stop the install and run the installer as admin (right click on the windows installer and select run as admin). We need more info before making a decision (a common problem with many installers is that you cannot know the downstream consequences of a decision during the install and many do not allow you to go backwards). A quick search reveals this is also an issue with windows 8, which makes sense as that is how the UAC works.

The solutions seem to be:

  1. turn off UAC - which would seem to pose a security risk
  2. install xampp to another folder instead of Program Files (x86) which makes sense

Since one of our project goals is portability it makes sense to NEVER install to Program Files, installing to an external hard drive or USB stick (usb 3) makes a lot more sense. Most of my external drives are e-Sata or Firewire but i have some 2.5" usb 2 ones. Wonder if they will work ok. IF not we can always copy the XAMPP folder to a faster interface for work.

Ok let's go with the external hard disk install so it will get installed to the root of a hard drive. In windows this means drive letters so something like E:\XAMPP is where it should end up. We assume all .ini files use relative paths (although years ago we had a problem with Joomla settings that were hard coded by default). OK, external hard disk formatted as FAT32 (do not use NTFS!)

Back to the install we click OK at the UAC warning message to continue the install.


The install includes a lot of functionality that is not normally needed for a local install, things like the mail server, ftp server, tomcat, perl, webalizer etc. If you are installing to a USB stick and space is limited these can be skipped. For the sake of completeness we accept the defaults and click NEXT.

The default folder for install is C:\xampp which is the root of the system disk. Of course if your system drive dies you lose everything, which is why a better option is to an external disk.

We select I:\xampp as the destination which is an external drive. When the install is complete we can test out copying the xampp folder from I to other locations like E: or G: or over the network to another machine such as a laptop to make sure it works. Click NEXT and the install starts.

When the installation is complete we get a warning message about the windows firewall. This was expected...



You have to click the Allow Access button so your XAMPP works. Then click FINISH to complete the install. The default is to run the XAMPP Control Panel when the installation is complete, this allows you to check that everything is ok. The control panel is located in the XAMPP folder (in this case I:\xampp\xampp-control.exe). It indicates a problem with some ports.


It looks like apache is already running. Odd. So we exit the xampp control panel and run the currports portable app to check our tcp/ip connections:


And there is a web server running! Very odd. Let's take a look at it so we run a web browser and go to htpp://localhost and we see....


The xampp home page! So the apache web server is running...but the xampp control panel does not list any services as started...we check the mySQL service using a mySQL client to connect to localhost but it says the mySQL server is not running. We confirm this. Windows lists as a process httpd.exe *32 Apache web server is running. How? The installer must have started it but the control panel does not know it was running as it can't stop it - so it launched outside the control panel.

Not impressed. We kill the windows process. We run the xampp control panel again. Everything is ok now.


So it works but the process will be confusing for FIMS students as many do have not a lot of computer experience.

We start up the mySQL database service.


We get a warning message from windows firewall that it is blocking the connection:


So we allow access. We run a database client and confirm the mySQL database server is working ok.



UPDATE  9/6/2015:

Test of install of same xampp to an external USB disk.

OK - we can confirm the installer runs apache during the install process. The control panel checkbox has no effect.

So what the student will have to do is to uncheck the Run Control Panel checkbox during the intstall and then exit the install and run the Windows Task Manager, go to the Processes tab and right-click on the httpd entry for the Apache web server and End the Process.


This is not optimal but it is a workaround we can live with.

You can always TEST if the web server is running by opening a browser and going to http://localhost

And the test of the xampp control panel on the external usb is OK. So now we can move to phase 2 which is the installation of OMEKA.

UPDATE 9/7/2015

The OSX install on the mac pro running OSX 10.10.5 has some differences from the windows install. There is no option to install to a different target, the install defaults to /Applications/xampp and cannot be changed.

Once the install is completed it auto launches the apache web server but not the mySQL server, so phpadmin cannot be used immediately. But since it also auto launches the xampp control panel (which is slightly different that the windows version) it is easy to start the database server.

The Linux install on the quad code bolen running Linux Mint 17.2 x64 cinnamon is different that both mac and windows.

You have to open a terminal and:

cd /Downloads
sudo ./xampp-linux-x64-5.6.12-0-installer.run 

to make the installer file executable and run it with admin privileges. Once this is done the graphical installer launches and is the same as the win/osx versions. However, the install defaults to opt/xampp and cannot be changed.

When the installer completes it auto runs the web server but not the mySQL server but since the xampp control panel is also launched it is easy to start.

NOTE: by default XAMPP does not allow connections except from localhost so we have to edit the configuration on the mac pro and the linux box to allow connections from clients on the documentation machine...

Conclusion

Despite some consistences between the versions and a problem with the auto started apache server in windows the installers basically work as they should and the differences are trivial. So the use of XAMPP for FIMS students is certainly doable.

The next step is to install OMEKA on all three platforms.