Fixing a Fantastico installation of Moodle
I fell prey to temptation and went for the one-button click method to install Moodle on my web server. Big mistake, as I learned soon enough.
Fantastico, on my server, installed version 1.8.2. No problem, I figured. I'll just install the newest version of Moodle right over 1.8.2. Big problem - I got an error right away, saying it could not find $libdir/adminlib.php.
After searching through Moodle forums at www.moodle.org, I found the admonition that you should never, never, never use Fantastico to install Moodle. As others have discovered before (and probably since) I did it, Fantastico installs make it very difficult to upgrade Moodle manually.
I was already in the process of developing my Moodle site, so I did not want to trash that work and start over. So, I attempted to install a parallel Moodle site, using the Moodle-developer-approved upload method, and wrest control of my site from Fantastico's version 1.8.2. My goal was to recreate the site using a manually installed version 1.8.6.
To make a long short, it worked. (I should say here that none of my 1.8.2 files were altered in any way. I had a plain vanilla 1.8.2 installation.) So here's what I did.
SUMMARY:
Fantastico -- Moodle 1.8.2 root directory: /public_html/moodle; database: mdle1; data directory: /moodle/uploaddata (I did later change this config.php setting to /moodledata and moved the location outside /public_html, per Moodle recommendations.)
Manual install -- Moodle 1.8.6 root directory: /public_html/moodle186; database: moodle; data directory: /moodledata186
Procedure -- Backup existing moodle database. Create new empty moodle database. Upload Moodle 1.8.6 files to /public_html/moodle186 directory. Install Moodle 1.8.6 using empty moodle database. Use the same username and password for admin account as Moodle 1.8.2 installation. Ensure 1.8.6 works. Alter 1.8.6 config.php to point to the 1.8.2 database (mdle1) and moodledata. Reload the 1.8.6 homepage. Comply with notification to update the database. Moodle 1.8.6 now looks exactly like previous 1.8.2 installation. Change directory names and config.php to point users to version 1.8.6 (moodle186 --> moodle; moodle --> moodle182). Fantastico site is now out of commission. "Official" site is now default.
DETAILS
First, the preliminaries.
1. Database character set encoding. One problem with Fantastico is that it frequently does not use utf-8 charset encoding and collation for the MySQL databases it creates. Official Moodle installations, however, do use utf-8. My Fantastico Moodle database, mdle1, was using the latin1_swedish charset. I figured that would cause problems during the database handoff, so found this php script at http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=682119 to convert all my tables' charset encoding and collation.
code---------
<?php
// your connection
mysql_connect("localhost","root","***");
mysql_select_db("db1");
// convert code
$res = mysql_query("SHOW TABLES");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($res))
{
foreach ($row as $key => $table)
{
mysql_query("ALTER TABLE " . $table . " CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci");
echo $key . " => " . $table . " CONVERTED<br />";
}
}
?>
-----------/code
<?php
// your connection
mysql_connect("localhost","root","***");
mysql_select_db("db1");
// convert code
$res = mysql_query("SHOW TABLES");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($res))
{
foreach ($row as $key => $table)
{
mysql_query("ALTER TABLE " . $table . " CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci");
echo $key . " => " . $table . " CONVERTED<br />";
}
}
?>
-----------/code
To see if all was well, I reloaded the Moodle 1.8.2 page. Other than an advisory to reload and log in again, there were no worries. (I suppose clearing my browser cache would have simplified matters.)
2. Moodle's data directory. Fantastico creates the user upload data directory (which it calls uploaddata) within the Moodle root directory. The official Moodle advice, however, is to keep this data directory outside the web root (/public_html in my case) for security reasons. So I had manually created a /moodledata directory, copied the folders and files from Fantastico's ./uploaddata into it, and edited the config.php file to reflect the new location. Probably unnecessary, given my upgrade plans, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
3. Moodle upgrade version. From previous experience with CMS applications, I knew an incremental upgrade would be easier than a major version jump. Fantastico installed Moodle 1.8.2, and the Moodle download site has 1.8.6. So, I went with that one. I figured there would be minimal database changes from 1.8.2 to 1.8.6, allowing me to reassign databases without too much grief.
4. Upload Moodle 1.8.6 and install it. Not much to say here. Use a reliable FTP client like FileZilla and make sure all the files get uploaded. Or conversely, upload the archive and expand it on the webserver. Once all the files were in place, I proceeded to install Moodle 1.8.6 in its own directory using its own database. I used the same admin username and password as the 1.8.2 installation to eliminate any possible login problems.
Let's catch our breath and look at what I did. I had an existing Moodle 1.8.2 website up and running, installed by Fantastico. Upgrading it to (eventually) 1.9.2 looked near impossible, because of Fantastico's quirky installation methods, so I installed a separate Moodle 1.8.6 website with its own database and root directory. Two Moodle sites side by side.
Now, here's the potentially dangerous part. It's why you have to have a backup of your existing Fantastico-created database. I used phpMyAdmin for that. cpanel also has its own backup apps, but a standard MySQL export is foolproof. It's also a good idea to backup your existing Moodle root directory when doing upgrades, but since I was running two Moodles concurrently, I did not plan to change the existing Moodle 1.8.2 root at all.
5. Edit Moodle 1.8.6's config.php. You want the new, pristine Moodle to use the existing database (mdle1 for me) instead of the nearly empty new database (moodle in my case). Here is where I figured it would be a good idea to have both databases using the same charset. So, I opened the 1.8.6 config.php and changed the configuration to point to the 1.8.2 database and the 1.8.2 /moodledata location. Then I reloaded the 1.8.6 home page, got another advisory about a database server error, reloaded again and logged in as the admin. (Remember, I used the same admin account on both sites!)
6. Update the 1.8.2 database. Version 1.8.6 advised me I had to update the database. I took a deep breath -- this step is a one-way street without a db backup -- and clicked "continue." Eventually, I ended up with a version 1.8.6 site that looked exactly like my 1.8.2 site. I emptied the cache to eliminate some duplicate images, and voila! My upgrade worked!
7. Point users to the correct version. You could do this with a redirect page, or by telling them the new URL. I chose to rename the directories and alter the 1.8.6 config.php accordingly. So, /public_html/moodle became /public_html/moodle182, and /public_html/moodle186 became /public_html/moodle. I changed the 1.8.6 config.php to reflect the changes.
8. Once I am sure everything is working OK, I will delete the moodle182 directory and virtually empty moodle database, since neither is necessary.
I am assuming, though I will wait to find out, that upgrading to 1.9.2 will now be a piece of cake with an "official" Moodle installation.
which will no doubt be of help to others. I've added a link to this discussion on a couple of pages in 