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Architecture / Installation

Architecture / Installation


Mysql error, can't even create database!

posts: 20 United Kingdom

Hello,

I tried posting this on the installation troubleshooting page but it went all funny... can't see it there.

I'm trying to install TikiWiki for the first time on my XP laptop as an offline wiki (but I hope to use it for all my websites as it looks ace).

I already have Mysql 5.0, and PHP, and WAMP; but I installed the EasyPHP 2.0b1 anyway.
When I launch it shows Apache and Mysql as "on" (i.e. green light on the traffic light icon); yet when I tried to go to http://127.0.0.1/mysql (via /Configuration/PhpMyAdmin/), I get a 404 with:
"Not Found
The requested URL /mysql/ was not found on this server."

I tried to do a restart and I can't get to that address; but I can get to these ones
http://127.0.0.1/home/
http://127.0.0.1/home/index.php
http://127.0.0.1/home/mysql/

I also got this funny error:0 thing (see attachment) when reconfiguring Mysql... I don't really know what I'm doing do I!
I can't even remember how I got to that, and I need to put a root password on (so it says)!

Question 1. Is this a problem?


I found a page that purported to be installation instructions for an offline TikiWiki, yet there weren't actually any installation instructions on it; so I'm not entirely sure where to put the TikiWiki files.

Question 2. Is there a page with step-by-step instructions for doing an offline install like this one:
http://doc.tikiwiki.org/tiki-index.php?page=Install+by+FTP&bl=y

Sorry if I've broken any forum conventions, I'm a bit thick like that.

posts: 289 United States

There are other ways of getting to MySQL, but MyPHPAdmin is really the easiest. You need to be able to get into MySQL to create an empty database for TikiWiki to use. This is required, not optional! If you can't get to that (using MyPHPAdmin) then you might want to remove everything and start again.

I have personally used XAMPP, which has MySQL and PHP (and other stuff) bundled together in one easy to install package (particularly for Windows). I wasn't quite clear whether you've downloaded all the components separately or using a similar package to XAMPP, perhaps WampServer?

The TikiWiki files should be unzipped into your Apache web folder which will probably be called something like htdocs, public, www or some combination of those or similar terms. It will reside somewhere inside the main Apache (web server) installation folder.

I wouldn't even bother unzipping the Tiki files until you know for sure that Apache, PHP and MySQL are all functioning correctly and you've set up a new, empty database for Tiki to use.

As for security, probably any package you use will tell you that you need to set a root password (for the web server) and this is generally a good idea, but if you are only ever planning on using this on your laptop then it's not crucial to the success of getting everything to work.

Incidentally, you'll probably be asked to set up all kinds of passwords, one for the webserver, one for the MySQL database, one possibly for web server admin web pages and others. You'll also need one for the specific TikiWiki database and, of course a TikiWiki administration password for the application itself. Pen and Paper is your friend, if only at least temporarily.

Be warned TikiWiki is NOT for the feint of heart, it does have a steep learning curve. I'm not advising you to not use it, because the more users that use it the better, but expect to take things real slow, until you get comfortable with everything. With that in mind, and again I'm not turning you away, but you might want to consider other less intensive options if you are just looking for a personal Wiki, such as the excellent TiddlyWiki, which requires very little in the way of expertise.

If you still want to install TikiWiki, then good for you, hopefully we can help you in getting started. In answer to your second question, I don't think a good guide exists but I could be wrong. Regardless, I'm sure there would be people like myself willing to give you a guiding hand to get you up and running.


posts: 20 United Kingdom

Well, I seem to have made it in, and I made a database I called "mytiki" and another user called "admin"... It's just not exactly as described in the installation instruxions, so I'm a bit lost (being new and that!).

Yes, I follow the unzipping of TikiWiki into a htdocs folder (I've made one in preparation)... but this sounds like Filezilla instruxions... where does it all go for an offline job?

I've tried TWiki... but nothing seemed to work beyond the basic install (I couldn't get LaTex up and running)
I've tried DokuWiki, but similar probs.

I think TikiWiki ssems much better if all the sales pitch is true... I want to use it for engineering notes both off and online (I'm a 3rd year MEng electronics student, so ought to be learning how to do this I reckon), amongst other things (I want to build a forum and use the graphic and CMS features on future websites).

I've got various latex installation files and GraphViz & Imagemagic installed from my earlier attempts (in answer to your question as to why I've got WAMP and Python on board etc...)... I just hope I get this bugger running, as I'm finding Mambo a little restricting.

posts: 289 United States

First off, I don't want to insult your intelligence so tell me if I'm being too simplistic, but it sounds like you don't have a good handle on how things work. Perhaps having a better understanding of the bigger picture might help you. (and you are totally right, better documentation, although that is a community effort and a work in progress).

First off, in essence having TikiWiki installed on your computer is absolutely no different to having it on a webserver, accessible through the Internet. The only difference being that YOUR computer IS the webserver (AND will also be used as the client, when you access TikiWiki through your browser) and that nobody else on the Internet will be able to see your computer (unless you configure it otherwise).

The TikiWiki application, in an oversimplification is really just a collection of web pages that reference a database (there is of course more to it than that, but that is what happens at the most basic level). In particular the web pages are PHP pages, which is simply server side (remember your computer is the server AND the client) programming language that interacts with the web server.

So to recap, to use TikiWiki we need a webserver (Typically Apache) to send web pages to the browser. PHP to understand the code and tell the webserver what pages need to be sent to the browser, and what information needs to be stored or retrieved from the database and MySQL, the database that stores all the information that can then be accessed by PHP. This is where the term "WAMP" comes in because it typically stands for Windows Apache (web server) MySQL PHP (I say typically because now you can find "LAMP", which is the same thing but for the Linux operating system and in the case of "XAMPP", this runs Windows, Linux and other operating systems, so it is cross-platform, hence the 'X'.)

Now to address your question about where the Tiki files go, as I mentioned previously, in the WAMP installation that you are using there must be installed files somewhere on your PC. Typically, within the installation folder for the WAMP you will find a subfolder which is designated as the "root" for all web pages, so that any web pages you place in that "root" folder, will be accessible when you browse to http://127.0.0.1/

So you might have something like this:
C:\Program Files\WAMP\htdocs\

(I'm guessing here, it's different for different WAMP packages)

You should unzip your Tiki files to that path given above. If you want to, you can create a sub folder in htdocs as in:
C:\Program Files\WAMP\htdocs\tikiwiki

What this means is that when you browse your Tiki in your browser instead of using just http://127.0.0.1 you will need to go to ''http://127.0.0.1/tikiwiki/

Once you've unzipped your files simply browse to the appropriate folder in your browser but add tiki-install.php to the end of the localhost address as in:
http://localhost/tikiwiki/tiki-install.php

You should then be guided on what to do next but it essentially involves telling Tiki the database username and password, and then administerting your Tiki (which is where the real fun begins... turning features on or off, setting up the look and feel etc etc.)

As a small aside you can usually use http://localhost in place of the IP address (http://127.0.0.1). That IP address or the term "localhost" simply tells you browser to look on your computer rather than going out to the Internet.

And I urge anyone else in the community to correct me if I have got something wrong.

As for Latex, I've not used that with Tiki so I defer to somebody else on that issue, but I would say that you probably want to check the features first and get a feel for the application before you start adding other "mods" (custom modifications).


posts: 3665 United States

If you're trying to install Tiki locally on your PC, I strongly suggest using EASYPHP.

There are detailed instructions here:
http://doc.tikiwiki.org/tiki-index.php?page=Windows+Local+Install+EasyPhp&bl=y

From your error, it sounds like your DB is not running. Your screen shot shows that MYSQL has not been started.

HTH,

-Rick
Need more help? Try TikiWiki for Dummies Smarties or read my Tiki Blog or visit my UserPage


posts: 20 United Kingdom

Hiya,

Not quite used to this bulletin board system!

--
Darkbee
No, I understand all what Darkbee has written... it's very similar to how I got TWiki and DokuWiki working on the desktop.
The first bit is the sort of level of explanation I think should be in the installation notes.
The WAMP info is new (though I know what it stands for and what the components do ...more or less)

I don't mind the explicit explanation; although I'm an electronics student and a P/T university IT "helper"... I'm not brilliant at computers (well the software side anyway!).
I am dyslexic, and very into making explanations explicit and clear for maximum accessibility for all - not just nerds like us wink! I'll do all I can to ask specific and constructive questions to get the installation guide nailed.

--
Rick99:
The trouble is that I already DID install EasyPHP, and it IS running, ...I'm looking at a funky French interface here:
http://127.0.0.1/home/index.php

I am logged into the MySQL interface via PHPmyAdmin, where I've managed to make a DB and a user, here:
http://127.0.0.1/home/mysql/

I dunno what that error message is for, that's all!


Thanks for the input lads... I'll 'ave a good go at fettlin' 'er reet and report back!

posts: 289 United States

Agreed the forums threw me at first. Original post always sits at the top and then the newest post is always underneath that (by default), and the rest of the posts go back in reverse chronological order until you get to the original reply.

So I'm kinda lost at this point... what is the error you're getting?

To my mind, if you've got the database set up now, the next step is to get your Tiki files in the right place and try to access tiki-install.php in your browser. I'm thinking that you don't yet have the Tiki files in the right place (where your WAMP setup expects them to be).

posts: 20 United Kingdom

I think your with me I just need to get the Tiki files slotted in (I don't think the error message matters at the moment - early days)
...gunna be a bit slow in getting it set up, as I've got a chilled bottle of Ardbeg in the 'fridge, and it's beckoning me!

...how do I get a flag next to my name!!?

What they ought to do is colour-code the posts... at least make the original one different; then number the rest... but I can read it in my Gmail so I don't go cock-eyed!

posts: 289 United States

and I forgot to add, judging by what you've put there, you're looking for a folder called "home". You can either unzip the Tiki files straight into "home" or create a sub folder called "tikiwiki" (or whatever you would like) and then extract the Tiki files to that folder instead. So then you would initialize the Tiki installation by going to http://localhost/home/tikiwiki/tiki-install.php (or http://127.0.0.1/home/tikiwiki/tiki-install.php)

I personally would recommend, at least for now, creating a sub folder to avoid over-writing any potentially important files. You should check the documentation that comes with the WAMP you are using to find out where exactly your web files should be placed.


posts: 20 United Kingdom

I just thought I'd show you a screenshot (a picture paints a 1000 words and all that)... there's htdocs folder in my Wamp!

any thoughts?

posts: 20 United Kingdom
sorry, there's NO htdocs (!!!)evilredface
posts: 289 United States

It's most likely www.

I sent you a private message too. To check that look on the right hand side of this website for the "new messages" box.


posts: 289 United States
Forget the home folder. Sorry, I may have mislead you. It looks like the www' folder is where you need to put your files. As I said before, it if were me, I would create a folder inside www called something like tikiwiki'' and unzip the files there.
posts: 20 United Kingdom

Right, well, in my quest to produce some simple step-by-step installation instruxions (with the anticipation of a working install of tikiwi occurring as a by-product!), here's my current status debriefing:

I've extracted the tikiwiki-2.0.zip into here:
C:\wamp\www\tikiwiki-2.0
(the last folder was created by the extraction and contains all the files)

Hence I tried entering various permutations into the browser address space along these lines:
http://127.0.0.1/www/tikiwiki-2.0/tiki-install.php
(to no avail)

So... please could someone fill in the blanks?mrgreen

posts: 289 United States

I have an implementation of Tiki 2.0 running XAMPP for Linux at home... that was a little tricky. I also set up a version under Windows and it took about 15-20 minutes including download time for XAMPP and Tiki.

Perhaps WAMP is not quite so 'out-of-the-box' ready.

I'd be curious to see how XAMPP works out for you.

posts: 20 United Kingdom

Well,

I used WAMP for running TWiki and Dokuwiki, and had absolutely no trouble with them ...until it came to trying to get LaTex to render.

I've installed XAMPP this aft' and although Apache, MySQL 5.0, and Filezilla were all running initially; when I switched them off, and later started them up again, I've been unable to get MySQL to start up again!

could it be because I already had it installed (I haven't removed WAMP yet)?
So, although that installation TikiVid is very nice, I've not yet been able to get into PHPmyADMIN via XAMPP (although I did do via WAMP the other day).

Why these things have to be so bloody complicated I'll never understand (cue Steely Dan!)

posts: 289 United States

Unless WAMP auto starts Apache and/or MySQL (when Windows loads up), you shouldn't have any problems having both WAMP and XAMPP installed. You will have problems if you try to run them at the same time, which is why you should check that WAMP isn't running, which would explain why XAMPP can't then run.

And as far as why things have to be so complicated; Taking something complicated and making it easy, isn't easy! :-)

Are you just looking to try out Tiki? You could try using a LiveCD first, so you can get a feel for what Tiki is like, without having to install anything (Everything runs from the CD without modifying your computer)

posts: 20 United Kingdom

Alright, I'll spend some time on it again tomorrow and see how it goes.

I'm not just looking to try it out; I'm more into it than TWiki (it's nearest competitor IMO), and I want to have a good go at setting it up both on desktop/offline/on a USB; as well as on a webhost, and see if I get any more joy with getting Latex working.

If I get the Latex working then I'll stick with it; if it proves too much of a chew, then I might go back to the drawing board with TWiki (warts and all).

As far as I can tell the faff involved in installing Tiki seems to be worth it if the marketing is to be believed; I just need to get my head round setting it up with all the bells and whistles I'm looking for. I know what TWiki does (and have my grumbles), and for the most part it is in theory no more fussy... it's too soon to pass judgment on Tiki.


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