Installing Moodle on MAC OSX.

Installing Moodle on MAC OSX.

by Ahmed Hussein -
Number of replies: 5

I am new to moodle. I am trying to install it on an iMac running OSX 12.11.6. I also have MAMP 5.2 installed and running. When I tried to to drag moodle to applications, I was to either replace MAMP or merge moodle and MAMP.

Will merging destroy anything from my MAMP setup and will moodle work?

Thank for any help.

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In reply to Ahmed Hussein

Re: Installing Moodle on MAC OSX.

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

I am not exactly sure what you are trying to do.  In particular, I don't understand what you mean by "merge." Others might know, but I'll start with a few questions.  I run MAMP 5.1 on my Mac, but only for experimental purposes.

It appears that you have MAMP5.2 successfully running on your Mac? Right?  If you go to localhost in your browser, you get the MAMP Welcome screen.

No, dragging Moodle to your Mac's application area won't do anything.  Moodle needs to be in your htdocs folder within MAMP.

Before installing Moodle in MAMP, you need to create a Moodle database, typically/simply using phpMyAdmin.  And then you should create a folder called moodledata in your "data" folder of MAMP.

Finally, go to localhost/moodle, and moodle's install will start.

Moodle is not a Mac application.  It runs in a web server environment.

Hope this helps.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Installing Moodle on MAC OSX.

by Ahmed Hussein -

Thank you for your reply and the info.

I downloaded moodle 3.6 and  expanding it create a folder call MAMP which identical to the MAMP 5.2 I already have in my applications folder.  Tried to move the entire moodle MAMP into the application folder created the error message of  giving me the choice of replacing my existing MAMP or merging the tow MAMPS together. I realized that was a stupid mistake on my part I stopped the moving process. 

I took your advice and moved the entire contents of the htdocs of moodle MAMP into my MAMP5.2 htdocs. It seems that there many issues I have to try to resolve them but I am afraid that moodle will conflict with all my web application that reside in my MAMP5.2.

I hope I explained the situation more clearly this time.

In reply to Ahmed Hussein

Re: Installing Moodle on MAC OSX.

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

In my own experience, the MAMP folder is not one that can easily be moved around.  I am sure that if you have a lot of skills with Apache, etc., you could do it.  But not I.  On my Mac, when I install MAMP, I let the install do its thing.  I don't touch it.  Upgrades are always challenging.

For upgrades, I tend to install a new MAMP (by renaming my old), I backup each database and restore it.  I can move my various moodles in htdocs, this seems to work.  And I also have success moving moodledata folders.

I find that this is a bit of work, and I only do it about once a year or so.

All of this is a good experience, but it is not easy to explain to others.  Fortunately, it's only a local install so you don't clobber your production moodle.

In reply to Ahmed Hussein

Re: Installing Moodle on MAC OSX.

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

If you have MAMP on your Mac already, then you should just download the regular moodle zip, not the mac installer.  You already have MAMP so you don't need the installer part.  Download the regular moodle zip and unzip the folder somewhere - then set up a new host in MAMP pointing to the moodle folder.

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In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Installing Moodle on MAC OSX.

by Ahmed Hussein -

Thank you. Following your advice I got moodle running on my iMac.