Config problems in XAMPP 1.4.3 and XAMPP perl add-on 1.4.2

Problems with the Windows version of XAMPP, questions, comments, and anything related.

Config problems in XAMPP 1.4.3 and XAMPP perl add-on 1.4.2

Postby kswartz » 25. June 2004 23:12

I recenly insalled XAMPP 1.4.3 along with the Perl add-on 1.4.2 on my Win2K box, and discovered several configuration issues with the packages.

1. The installer (.exe) version does not allow you to install to a top-level directory, e.g.: "D:\". It requires a directory -- BUT it always adds the xampp directory below that. This means, for instance, I can't install to D:/xampp, but only D:/something/xampp.

Either it should allow a top-level directory, or it should not add the subdirectory without the user's knowledge.

2. The README file says that mysql_installservice.bat is in the apache directory, when it is actually in the mysql directory.

In the perl add-on:

1. Config.pm is hardcoded with locations like c:/perl, and is not reconfigured to point to where xampp installs perl. Can a batch file be included that fixes this file, so packages that depend on it work?

2. All bat files either:
a) assume that perl has been added to the path (but this was not mentioned in the README file as a necessary step), or
b) in the case of ppminst.bat hardcodes a directory that is certain to be wrong, e.g.: c:/wampp2

I recommend that any hardcoded paths (like in ppminst.bat) be removed, and the directions be amended to suggest the user add <xampp>\perl\bin to their PATH.

3. ppm won't work because of the previous two issues. Even after fixing the hardcoded location, ppminst.bat fails because the ActiveState packages are not included.

Can ppm be made to work at all? If not, I would recommend removing it from the distribution (but I would prefer you added the necessary pieces to make it work!)

Hopefully these can be addressed in the next patch revision.
kswartz
 
Posts: 11
Joined: 25. June 2004 22:48

Re: Config problems in XAMPP 1.4.3 and XAMPP perl add-on 1.4

Postby free69 » 27. June 2004 07:32

kswartz wrote:1. The installer (.exe) version does not allow you to install to a top-level directory, e.g.: "D:". It requires a directory -- BUT it always adds the xampp directory below that. This means, for instance, I can't install to D:/xampp, but only D:/something/xampp.

Either it should allow a top-level directory, or it should not add the subdirectory without the user's knowledge.

Okay,
It is not so differcult but inconvenience that to change D:\something\xampp to D:\xampp.
I did it with phpeditor, by serching something\xampp with windows search engine and changing to xampp.
free69
 
Posts: 35
Joined: 02. June 2004 05:52

Re: Config problems in XAMPP 1.4.3 and XAMPP perl add-on 1.4

Postby kswartz » 28. June 2004 19:20

free69 wrote:Okay,
It is not so differcult but inconvenience that to change D:\something\xampp to D:\xampp.
I did it with phpeditor, by serching something\xampp with windows search engine and changing to xampp.


Well, true, it's not that it's difficult to fix any of these issues after the fact if you know what you're doing. My goal was to point out some errors in the install and setup in the hopes that they could be fixed in the next version, and improve the overall usability experience of the product.

I am working on an open source PHP/MySQL project that will cater to novice Windows users. For those people, I need to recommend a quick-and-easy *AMP installation with minimal fuss. I was hoping to recommend xampp for this task, but I would need to see these issues resolved first. I wouldn't expect, say, my Aunt Tillie from Key West to know how to manually edit configuration files and such.

Thanks,
Keith
kswartz
 
Posts: 11
Joined: 25. June 2004 22:48

Re: Config problems in XAMPP 1.4.3 and XAMPP perl add-on 1.4

Postby kswartz » 29. June 2004 00:05

By the way, the ppm issues are actually easily fixed, after all. There are no missing packages, just messed up paths.

1. Change all occurences of c:/perl to <xampp>/perl in <xampp>/perl/lib/Config.pm

2. Do the same for all occurences in <xampp>/perl/site/lib/ppm.xml.

3. Change the value for BUILDDIR on line 4 (presumably to whatever TEMP is set to on the system) in aforemetioned ppm.xml

All of this should be doable in a simple setup-xampp-perl.bat script, which does not exist now, but can easily be created and run upon extraction of the perl addon code.


Oh, and also, there is one more installation issue I forgot to mention: it can't be cancelled. At least, this was the case on my Win2K machine : the Cancel box was greyed out, and there was absolutely no way to stop the extraction process once it began -- you can't even forcibly close the window!

Thanks...
kswartz
 
Posts: 11
Joined: 25. June 2004 22:48


Return to XAMPP for Windows

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 99 guests