- 4Making “Sites” work (Optional)
- 5Making php, etc. work
Yosemite and above native OSX install
- The latest version of Moodle is 3.10 on Mac Informer. It is a perfect match for Teaching in the Education category. The app is developed by Moodle and its user rating is 3.9 out of 5.
- Download Moodle for Windows to use a learning management system for course web sites.
- Student Information. Faculty Information. Moodle Information.
- Moodle packages for Mac OS X These packages contain Moodle plus all the other software needed to make it run on a Mac: Apache, MySQL and PHP. They are built using MAMP. See the documentation Installation Package for OS X for details.
This page is for people who want to do an OSX install without using someone else's packaging. There are some warning to bear in mind. A native install of Moodle on an OSX machine is not really suitable as an internet linked live server but it is great for testing and development. The OS X install described here is essentially the same as a Linux install and so the advice there can be applied here. Also Apple does not cooperate with your changes when upgrading the OS.
Most of this work is via the cli which you can use in the ‘terminal’ application. To edit files, use nano or vi (vim). Mostly you need to be root to edit the files so precede your editor name by sudo. e.g sudo nano /etc/apache2/httpd.conf or sudo vi /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
Note 2: If you want a secure, public server with OS X, you may be interested to use the normal web server that comes preinstalled with every Mac Computer-see the Step-by-step Guide for Installing Moodle on Mac OS X 10.4 Client for Moodle. However, remember that the complete package Moodle4Mac is ready to use and no additional programs must be.
If you are doing any kind of development on an mac then consider an installation of XCode (you can get this from the app store) which will install all sorts of odds and ends that you are likely to need now and then such as libraries for php etc.
Apache on Mac
Since Mac OS X Yosemite Apache and PHP come packaged with the OS so you only need to enable PHP and install MySQL
Starting Apache
Since Apache is already installed you need to start it and to confirm it works. Start apache via command
If you want apache to start on boot then issue this command
Test apache by going to http://localhost in a browser. If you see a message saying 'It Works!!' , then apache is working correctly.
In case of issues to verify that apache is running search for httpd process (with approximate output)
To check port 80 with netstat (with approximate output)
Other apache related commands
Mac users are used to having a /Sites folder which publishes a local-users web site on http://<host url address>/~<UserName>
edit <username>.conf
with these contents. Don’t forget to change <username> for your username.
Apache configuration for /Sites folder
If you want to set up /Sites folder, which is one of possible setups, and there is no /Sites folder on your mac, create one. Also create folders for moodle and moodledata inside /Sites folder.
Configure Apache to point to /Sites directory. Backup your httpd.conf, just in case, then open httpd.conf to make some changes
Change DocumentRoot to point to /Sites folder and uncomment httpd-vhosts.conf
Update httpd-vhosts.conf
Pick up a url you would use locally for moodle site, for example 'mymoodle.dev.com', and add to the bottom of the httpd-vhosts.conf file
Update /etc/hosts
Add a url for a local moodle site, the same as in httpd-vhosts.conf, to the bottom of /etc/hosts
Restart Apache
After moodle set up you should be able to point a browser to
in /etc/apache2/httpd.conf uncomment all the following lines
Since Moodle 3.3 minimum PHP version is 7.0.0 with PHP 7.1.x and 7.2.x also supported. If you have PHP 7 then php module would be
Restart apache for the changes to take effect
Apache user permissions on /moodledata folder
The default Apache user is '_www' and so your /moodledata folder needs write permissions for the _www user.
In the finder, choose the folder and using the get info dialogue to give _www write access to the folder.
Test php
Make a file in the root of your webfolder ( The default DocumentRoot for Mac OS X Yosemite is /Library/WebServer/Documents ) called phpinfo.php and add this content.
Moodle For Mac
Then, visit the site by url
This should give you the well known phpinfo page. The most likely error will be a page just showing the text <?php phpinfo(); ?> which means php is not working.
php modules
To DoTemplate:update
Download your version of Mysql from the Mysql site http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/ and install it! The dmg install will allow you to start or stop the MySql server from your system preferences. If you tick the option to start on boot then it may not actually start on boot. This is an on-off issue with OSX.
If you are not running OSX Server then you will probably need to install Mysql again if Apple issues an upgrade of Yosemite.
dmg installed MySQL is in
After MySQL dmg installation if there is an issue with the MySQL PATH when mysql commands are run, add PATH to .bash_profile (if you are using bash)
Add path to mysql at the end of .bash_profile file you opened to edit
Reload .bash_profile
Start/stop/restart mysql
Connect to MySQL command line
Moodle For Mccann
Create moodle MySQL user, database and grant privileges
This is an easier alternative to installation of required packages. Homebrew is a package management tool like apt and yum which was created for OSX. Everything ends up in /usr/local or similar and when Apple does an upgrade, they shouldn't muck it up.The homebrew site is at http://brew.sh
Start with the command
Homebrew will download and install Command Line Tools for Xcode as part of the installation process.
Packages installed with Homebrew are in
PostgreSQL is one of the five databases supported by Moodle. You can use Homebrew to install PostgreSQL on OSX
Start/stop PostgreSQL manually
Start/stop PostgreSQL using brew
If there is an error on brew start/stop try running
Create a new database cluster (collection of databases), postgres user, start postgresql. By default user postgres will not have any login password.
Create a moodle user, database
PostgreSQL uses a client authentication file called 'pg_hba.conf' in PostgreSQL's 'data' folder. In this file, you'll find a list of which users are allowed to connect to which databases, the IP addresses they are allowed to connect from, and the authentication methods they can use to connect.
To grant permission for Moodle to connect to a PostgreSQL server on the same machine, add the following line, changing the DATABASE and USER columns to your actual database name and the username you set up above. The METHOD field should say 'password' - don't put your actual password here.
Download Moodle .tgz file of the version needed, for example https://download.moodle.org/download.php/stable36/moodle-latest-36.tgz, move it into /Sites folder
Point browser to url you have set up locally, for example, http://mymoodle.dev.com/. If there are errors in the browser
you might need to change the owner on just generated config.php file
Install database. Use Moodle admin password you have set up when running admin/cli/install.php script above.
If you are using PHP path /usr/bin/php when running above scripts and there is an error about PHP Intl extension php_intl try using /usr/local/bin/php which might be PHP installed with brew. To see what PHP you are using run