Moodle
From DreamHost
Moodle is a free software e-learning platform (also known as a Course Management System (CMS), or Learning Management Systems (LMS), or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)). It is designed to help educators create online courses with opportunities for rich interaction. Its open source license and modular design means that people can develop additional functionality. It is available from DreamHost as a one-click installation.
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Cronjob
Moodle uses the cron facility to get things done (deleting files, sending forum emails, etc.) You should use cron to process moodle work every 5 or 10 minutes.
Generally
You can set up a cron job manually (you need to use the shell to edit a crontab file and that is a bit beyond the purpose of this section but you can find additional information but you may want to read the rest of this entry first) and you can run the cron job manually (type the following url in your browser: http://mydomain.com/moodle/admin/cron.php). But, the easiest way to manage any cron job at Dreamhost is to use the Dreamhost cronjob interface.
Historical Usage
First: change the users rights for the user that should perform the cronjob: > users, > Manage users, > Edit
Second: go to the Dreamhost > Goodies (> Cron Jobs).
Add new Cron Job.
Follow instructions on the screen:
Use the DH user with the correct rights. Set the time at 5 minutes or so. And
use the following command:
wget -q -O /dev/null http://mydomain.com/moodle/admin/cron.php
Moodle 1.9
Moodle now has the ability to both password "protect" access to cron.php and limit access to command line usage. While command line usage may a bit more secure, it is by default open to anyone on your shared host.
Should you wish to use command line invocation you will need to use the following command from your Control Panel if you are using php5:
/dh/cgi-system/php5.cgi /home/my_dreamhost_user/my_domain.com/moodleroot/admin/cron.php
Note that if you install Moodle on DH the default is to install in your webroot, which is not the typical Moodle install as typically moodle is installed in webroot/moodle.
Link to original Moodle docs: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Cron.
Directory Structure
On installation, Moodle code will be placed in one directory (typically in the root of your domain if you use 1-click installs, as in /home/username/moodle.mydomain.com), a data structure will be create in another directory (typically "_moodledata" is appended to the first directory as in /home/username/moodle.mydomain.com_moodledata) and Moodle will employ a mysql database (typically created by 1-click when you create a new moodle installation.)
Configuration
htaccess
In the directory with your moodle code there should be a .htaccess file with the following content:
deny from all
AllowOverride None
When using DreamHost one-click installation this is done for you (it worked with Moodle 1.9 installation).
php.ini
You will also probably want to set up a custom php.ini. To do that you will need to create a cgi-bin directory in your Moodle code directory and follow the directions in thsi wiki for creating a custom php.ini
PHP Issues
Dreamhost as yet does not support all the required Moodle php settings (all you Moodlers out there should be requesting changes!!) Most importantly Dreamhost does not provide access to the socket or xmlrpc extensions. Unfrotunately, it appears that while Dreamhost does provide access to PEAR so as to use similar PEAR extensions, Moodle will not employ those extensions. This is an area for Dreamhost Moodle users that requires some attention. Either access to PEAR extensions needs to be such as it can be easily accessed, or Dreamhost needs to provide access to the extensions.
The alternative is to compile your own version of PHP. While there are extensive wiki articles here about doing that, some are inconsistent and not all suggestions are vetted. There has been some discussion as far as makefiles or other tools that Moodle might make available for assisting users in compiling their own version of PHP and if this is something you support you should sound off in the Moodle forums.
