Re: [Koha-win32] Install on IIS / MS-SQL Server / W2K ?

[robweir]

Hi Jeff:
Forgive me for trying to squelch your adveturesome spirit. I speak from the
position of administering a small network, and I know I wouldn't want any of
my users making such changes. With that said, let me give you a few items to
think about.

1- I assume you've found the KohaOnWindows wiki pages at
http://www.saas.nsw.edu.au/wiki/index.php?page=KohaOnWindows. That's were
most of the information about koha installs on windows is located. If you're
not familar with the wiki concept, be advised you can edit and improve those
pages with what you learn in the process.

2. What is your end use for Koha? Be forwarned that moving existing data
from another system can be quite a challenge in itself. Review some of the
recent messages on the lists about data imports and I think you'll find the
MARC configuration for Koha is a science in itself. I'm finding it even more
challenging to try to migrate non-MARC data from an old system into Koha.
Starting fresh and entering data from scratch probably will not be too bad.
Sadly, to date there has not been a good set of properly configured sample
data made available to play with or use as an example. The data currently
included in the windows install has problems and is not properly configured
for MARC. If as you say, you're looking for a learning experince, you've
come to the right place.

3. The stable V1.2.3 version is just that - stable. But also lacking in some
important features such as full support for MARC and templating that allows
you to customize your user interface. All the current development is focused
on the upcoming V2.0 release and that's probably the version you should test
with as long as you realize it is still a pre-release test version.

4. You're right. Koha should work with almost any webserver and database.
It's only been recently that a couple of us got the Apache-MySQL-Perl
combination working on windows. To the best of my knowlege, no one has
attempted IIS and SQLserver. This being an open source project, I doubt
there would be much interest in such an incarnation. But if you like being a
trail blazer, give it a try.

5. It really should not be hard to work with Perl at another location. It
just made writing the windows install a lot easier if I could count on it
being at a fixed location. All of the perl scripts have a Shebang line or
whatever they call it that specifies the recommended location. I don't know
if that is really used with Active perl on windows or not.

6. There are a some differences in the directory structure between the
windows install and the linux install. I made a couple changes in the
windows directory structure to allow installing more than one version and
switching between them.

7. I'm the one who put together the windows install. I can probably tweak it
for you if it gets stuck or fails because all the supporting apps aren't
installed in the correct locations. Just let me in on what you learn in the
process.

Hope some of this helps.

Rob

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeff Cave" <address@hidden>