User:MooMishka/Using GuildWiki-in-xampp

GuildWiki-in-xampp is a version of xampp (a ready-to-run windows distribution containing apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl, and others), to which MediaWiki, and windows-customized versions of the GuildWiki database dump and the GuildWiki images, have been preloaded. This makes for a very nice, ready-to-run windows setup.

However, as this is a complete webserver, complete with all of the associated security issues, it is strongly recommended that this be used only by people who have experience with running a webserver.

Note that displaying web pages can take several seconds to over a minute. This is because, the first time that a page is displayed, MediaWiki computes and caches it.

Quickstart

 * You need at least 2GB of free disk space (yes, that's "two gigabytes"). Initially, only 1.6-1.7GB will be used, but this will increase as MediaWiki computes and caches GuildWiki web pages as they are displayed.


 * cd to the root directory of any drive. If you have multiple drives, it doesn't matter which drive you use, as long as it has enough disk space.  Example:     cd \


 * Unzip the GuildWiki-in-xampp distribution, preserving the directory structure (i.e., do not use the "-j" option of unzip). This will create a directory called, "xampp", and everything else will be extracted into this directory or below.


 * You can start apache and MySQL by running "xampp/xampp_start.exe". Note that this will pop-up a console window.  Do not close this window, as closing it will also kill apache and MySQL.


 * Once apache and MySQL have started, you can browse to the Main Page by going to (this can take several seconds to display):    http://localhost/guildwiki   Note that, instead of the GuildWiki Main Page, this will display a "Readme" page that contains important information.  Please read this page.  The bottom of this page contains instructions on how to display the actual GuildWiki Main Page.


 * You can stop (shutdown) apache and MySQL by running "xampp/xampp_stop.exe".

Other notes

 * The original xampp readme files can be found as "xampp/readme_en.txt</tt>" (English) and "xampp/readme_de.txt</tt>" (German).


 * The windows xampp home page is:    http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html</tt> See the "docs" link in the above page for more documentation.


 * You cannot run this from a DVD. Apache and MySQL need a writable filesystem.


 * It's strongly recommended that this be run from a hard disk, and not something slow like a USB drive. If you run this from a USB drive, you can expect to wait a long time for page displays.