Install on Windows

Windows Prerequisites

Installation instructions are given for the XAMPP default install environment only. WAMPP will also work if you prefer it. The steps will be a little different.

Downloading software and preparing your system

  • Download - XAMPP
  • Install XAMPP
Note
You need to run MariaDB 10 and PHP 7.2, if there are various XAMPP options available, get the one with these package versions!!
  • Download - OpenCATS-0.9.6-FULL. You can not install this yet.
  • Extract the file to C:xampp\htdocs

Start Xampp

  • Click the Windows start button and type xampp
  • Hit enter. This will open the XAMPP control panel.
  • On the right side of Apache and MySQL, click start for each one.
Note
ONLY start the Apache and MySql services. You do NOT need any of the other services.
_images/start-services-xampp.png
  • Stop the apache service (lower right corner, right click XAMPP, stop apache)
  • Start the apache service

OPTIONAL - Renaming your OpenCATS directory

The current default directory name for the OpenCATS files is OpenCATS-0.9.6. This will result in the web address in your browser being http://localhost/OpenCATS-0.9.6
If you want to rename the main OpenCATS directory to something else, you can do it now.
  • Simply navigate to C:\xampp\htdocs
  • Right click on the OpenCATS directory
  • Click rename
  • Rename the directory whatever you want (example: ATS)
Now, to access it, your browser address will be http://localhost/ATS

Launch phpMyAdmin

Note
If phpmyadmin does not load in this screen, stop and start your apache service again per the instructions above.
  • On the left side, click new to create a new database
_images/phpmyadmin-main.png
  • In the box labelled database name type opencats.
  • Hit create
NOTE: The default encoding for new databases in MariaDB is latin-1 which will have problems with non-english characters. If you will encounter any non-english characters, please create your databases and select UTF-8 encoding and collation; CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATION utf8_general_ci;
_images/phpmyadmin-newdb.png
You should now see “opencats” listed among the databases on the left.
  • Click the opencats database
  • In the top row of tabs, on the right side of the screen, click privileges
  • Click add user account
_images/phpmyadmin-newuser.png
  • User name, make sure use text field is selected, in the empty box next to it type opencats
  • Host name: In the first box, select local from the drop-down options. The second box should say localhost
  • Type opencats for the database password twice
  • In the “database for user account section”, confirm that the third checkbox Grant all privileges on database "opencats" is checked.
  • Scroll down to the bottom and click go
_images/phpmyadmin-newuser2.png
Now go to Run the installer