Hi everyone,
I'll be presenting Moodle to our Department of Education this week, in an attempt to convince them to put the National Syllabus online.
I've prepared a PowerPoint presentation, though would also like to show them the actual site (www.thebarn.za.net).
I've never trusted live demos, so is there anyone who presented Moodle offline before? What software did you have to install (e.g. Apache), and what would be the best way of doing it?
TIA,
Chris
Hi Chris,
You can probably achieve what you want (assuming Windows based computer) by installing EasyPHP. This will install Apache/PHP/MySQL and creates a "web server". You then install moodle in the normal way (locally). Create a backup up your site / course and restore it to your local copy.
I like PHPDev at http://www.firepages.com.au/
Same type of local server setup Ray mentioned. I actually have a 4 gb mp3 player that I have my phpdev on. This allows me to carry around my entire local server... Moodle, PostNuke...etc, all I need is a computer with a USB port and I am good to go. Plus, I can listen to music while waiting to demo Moodle!!!
I use easyphp and xampp on different clients. Without problems.
I made also an CD with an installation (WAMP + moodle) on c:\ and copied it on the presentation client at the customer (80-100 MB) and. I delete all the files after the presentation. No problem
Hi All,
Using Ray's advice, I also had a look at the installation docs:
http://moodle.org/doc/?file=installamp.html
Through a bit of struggling, I finally got it Though to import my zip files, I need to run PHPINI.EXE (according to the manual), which is supposed to be located in my EasyPHP folder, except it isn't, because I need to enable zlib.
anyone got any ideas, or a copy of this file for me?
Thanks again,
Chris
Chris,
There has been extensive discussion on another forum of putting Moodle on a CD or USB flash drive, http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=5507. Many of the issues discussed there will be applicable to your situation.
If you have a Windows notebook, EasyPHP will be the easiest to setup and run as a service. While it takes a a little more effort to setup as a Windows service, XAMPP particularly mini-XAMPP does a good job and is the one recommended for running Moodle from a USB flash drive. Others have been recommending Knoppix to run from a CD.
I've never given a live demo with Moodle but I have given numerous live demos from a "server on a notebook" of another commecial CMS. Very handy if the organizer did not have an Internet connection or worse, a flaky one that would die 5 minutes before the presentation. And wireless is definitely not to be trusted when doing a live demo.
With many of the current notebook computers, you could even run a decent workshop of 15 participants.
Cheers,
Bob
Hi everyone,
I just wanted to say thanks for all the help, it is really appreciated. I'm running on EasyPHP, and just trying to find an easier way to copy (backup) the whole online website and put it on my Windows laptop... but alas... no success... have tried reading the docs, and gone through it, though it seems I'll have to do each course seperately.
The main question I wanted to ask: I've noticed on my laptop, running Moodle on EasyPHP, that I can't upload user pictures. It just doesn't have the upload option.
Is this a server related problem to EasyPHP, or is it a new Moodle 1.3.1 problem?
Thanks again,
Chris
Thanks Zbigniew!!
I'll be quite a Moodle Pro after this 
For the sake of completeness, for any other newbies reading this forum: After using Zbigniew's advice and ticking php_gd2 and php_zip, you have to go back to your Variables page, under the Administration section, to allow Moodle to re-detect that you have this GD2 version running.
