Why did no one answer Süreç's questions? They were good questions. OK, let me try.
We probably need to start with a little background. Like most pieces of software, Moodle requires some infrastructure - that is a platform - to run on. So, for example, to run Microsoft Word, or WIndows Media Player, you need Microsoft Windows to run it on.
Similarly, to run Moodle, you need three thing: 1. A web
server (for example,
Apache) with 2. a PHP interpreter attached, and 3. A
database server (for example
MySQL) for Moodle to store it's data in.
In fact, a lot of Open Source web applications (e.g. Wordpress, Drupal) need exactly the same three things, so some helpful person packaged them all together into XAMP that was easy to download and install. But it helps to remember that it is three separate things packaged together inside there.
Another thing to know is that each of these things has a configuration file that is used to control some of the settings. So for Apache, there should be a file called http.conf, for PHP there should be a file called php.ini, and for My
SQL there should be a my.cnf. If you are using XAMP, then hopefully all this has been pre-set for you, and you don't need to touch any of these files, but again, it may help to know this background, because sometimes in forum posts, people will suggest that you go and edit some setting in some configuration file.
So, that is generally what you need to run Moodle, and when you are doing development, it is helpful to get all this insatalled on you your own computer, so you have a version of Moodle entirely under your own contol, where you can develop and play around to your heart's content, without inconviniencing anyone else.
Once you have the platform in place, your version of Moodle comprises three things: 1. a copy of the code, this often goes in a folder called 'moodle' and you either check it out of
CVS or download it from download.moodle.org; 2. a moodledata folder. This is where Moodle will store any files; and 3. a database - MySQL can manage several databases for you (just like Word will let you edit several documents at once). You need a database for Moodle to use. Hopefully XAMP gives you an easy way to create a new database for Moodle.
Like the Apache, PHP and MySQL, Moodle has it's own configuration file called config.php in the top-level moodle directory. Actually, when you download it, there is a file called config-dist.php. You need to rename this then edit it with details of where you moodle and moodledata folders are, and how Moodle should connect to your database.
By the way, I just found
http://dalibor.dvorski.net/downloads/docs/InstallingConfiguringDevelopingWithXAMPP.pdf. This looks like an excellent HOW-TO on getting XAMPP installed and testing the various parts. If you are not very experienced at this sort of thing, I would recommend that you work through all the steps of this guide. Then, once you are confident that all the parts of your platform is working properly, then you can move on to installing Moodle.
One final bit of explaining: I said above that the Moodle code normally goes in a folder called 'moodle'. In order for XAMPP to be able to use these files that folder probably need to be called c:\xampplite\moodle. To develop Moodle, you need to be able to edit the files in this folder.
Now Eclipse, like most big editors, is a bit of a control-freak, and it normally likes all the files you are editing to be under it's control, for example in c:\Documents and settings\XXX\workspace. So to use Eclipse to edit the Moodle code, you need to persuade either Eclipse or XAMPP to look for the files somewhere else. It is probably easiest to tell Eclipse to put the files where XAMPP is expecting. You can do that when you crate the project in Eclipse. That is near the end of the section
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:Setting_up_Eclipse#Checking_out_the_Moodle_code, when you are calling your project moodle, or moodle 17, or whatever, on that screen there is an option for which folder to store the files in.
OK, so with all that background, the HOW-TO looks something like this:
1. Follow the instuctions in
http://dalibor.dvorski.net/downloads/docs/InstallingConfiguringDevelopingWithXAMPP.pdf to install XAMPP. Follow all the instructions there to make sure everything is working.
2. Follow the instructions in
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Development:Setting_up_Eclipse to get the code in an Eclipse project. On the screen where you make up the project name (which will default to moodle), change the folder from the default (which will be something like C:\Documents and settings\XXX\workspace\moodle, to c:\xampplite\moodle.
3. Create a folder c:\xampplite\moodledata.
4. Using the same procedure as in 1., create a new database for Moodle to use called moodledb.
5. In Eclipse, rename config-dist.php to config.php. Change the following settings:
$CFG->dbname = 'moodledb'; // database name, eg moodle
$CFG->dbuser = 'root'; // your database username
$CFG->dbpass = ''; // your database password
$CFG->
wwwroot = 'http://localhost/moodle';
$CFG->
dirroot = 'c:\xampplite\moodle';
$CFG->
dataroot = 'c:\xampplite\moodledata';
6. In your web browser, go to http://localhost/moodle/, you will be guided through as Moodle installs itself - you just have to click continue a lot.
I hope that works. As I said higher up this thread, I don't actually use XAMPP myself.
If this does work, please can someone transfer it to
MoodleDocs.