How to Install Moodle on Mac OS X 10.4 Client?

Step-1: You have to prepare your Server.

·         You need to get a global IP address and a domain name assigned to your server.

·         Go to System Preferences and then go to Sharing and then in Sharing go to Services and then click on Personal Web Sharing and turn it On, this will turn on Apache.

·         Then you have to turn off the energy saving by going to System Preferences and then in Energy Saver and changing the computer sleep time to Never and then uncheck the hard disk sleep box as well.

·         Then you need to download the Tinkertool to turn on the hidden files because many of the files in Mac OS X are hidden in the system from ordinary users.

·         You need to Upgrade your Mac OS X to the latest version and the latest Security Releases.

Step-2: You need to Install PHP on your System.

·         Download the latest PHP for Apache 1.3

·         After Installing the PHP do the test.php to check if your PHP and Apache are running.

Step-3: You need to install MySQL into your system.

·         Download the latest MySQL standard version for the Mac OS X.

·         Install the MySQL into your system and then click on the MySQLStartupItem package and follow the instructions.

·         Then Make a new folder in /Library called “PreferenncePanes” and drag the MySQL,prefPane file into that folder.

·         Restart your computer and click on the System Preferences of OS X.

·         Now open the preference pane active at the bottom of the System Preferences and make sure that the check box for automatic MySQL startup is checked.

Step-4: You need to make a Secure Database for Moodle.

·         Open the terminal and make a password for the MySQL root user.

·         Now make a database foe moodle in Terminal.

·         Now to make a secure setup, you first make a database and then make a new user and password for using that database, then flush and quit.

Step-5: Now you need to install Moodle.

·         Download the latest version of Moodle and unzip it.

·         Now make it accessible to the public by moving it to: /Library/WebServer/Documents/moodle.

·         Now make another folder for moodledata and store it in any another non-public area so that is inaccessible.

·         Now you can set the read and write permissions for apache.

Step-6: Now you can make a cron job.

·         You can send out email messages from forums by making a cron job.

·         You can download Cronnix, for editing the crontab in Mac OS X.

Step-7: Now you need to turn on the Postfix Mail Server.

·         To turn on the mail server of OS X, that is the Postfix Mail Server you may need to download WitiSMTP and turn on the outgoing mail server.

·         After you download WitiSMTP, you need to click on Enable Postfix and then go into your Mail application and in it go to Preferences and then go to Accounts to rename the SMTP mail server as “localhost”.

Step-8: Now you must adjust the PHP and Moodle Settings.

·         In a text editor such as the TextWrangler open the files to make typical adjustments.

·         Now you need to change some of the PHP settings, first increase the PHP memory limit from a default 8M to 16M.

·         To increase the limit you need to find the php.ini file and then find the line that says php_value_memory_limit and change the value from 8M to 16M.

·         Now, secondly increase the limit for file uploads, increase t to about 20MB or higher.

·         For best performance close all the other programs and log out all the other users.