i-doit via XAMPP#

This article describes how to install i-doit on the Windows operating system with XAMPP.

All commands in this guide are run in PowerShell as administrator.

Step 1: Install XAMPP#

Download the installation package xampp-windows-x64-8.2.12-0-VS16-installer.exe from https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html and start it. Confirm the warning about User Account Control (UAC) with OK.

Select only Apache and PHP as components. Clear all other components, in particular MySQL and phpMyAdmin.

The default folder is kept → C:\xampp. Do not install XAMPP under C:\Program Files, because write permissions are missing there.

We keep the language at English.

Next > starts the installation. On the last page, you can clear the check box for the Control Panel, because we run Apache as a Windows service. Finish completes the installation.

Step 2: Update PHP#

XAMPP ships PHP 8.2.12. Replace PHP right after the installation with the current 8.2.x version (Thread Safe), as described in the XAMPP section of the guide PHP security update on Windows. Since Apache is not running yet, nothing needs to be stopped beforehand.

Then check the version:

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C:\xampp\php\php.exe -v

Step 3: Configure PHP and Apache#

PHP#

Open the file C:\xampp\php\php.ini in an editor.

Under Dynamic Extensions, enable the following extensions by removing the semicolon at the beginning of the line:

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extension=gd
extension=intl
extension=ldap
extension=soap
extension=sockets
extension=zip

The line ;extension=openssl stays commented out. XAMPP already loads OpenSSL at the end of the file via extension=php_openssl.dll.

Then add the following settings at the end of the file and save:

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allow_url_fopen = On
file_uploads = On
max_execution_time = 300
max_file_uploads = 42
max_input_time = 60
max_input_vars = 10000
memory_limit = 256M
post_max_size = 128M
register_argc_argv = On
short_open_tag = On
upload_max_filesize = 128M
display_errors = Off
display_startup_errors = Off
error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT
log_errors = On
default_charset = "UTF-8"
default_socket_timeout = 60
date.timezone = Europe/Berlin
session.gc_maxlifetime = 604800
session.cookie_lifetime = 0

date.timezone must match the Windows time zone. Otherwise i-doit reports a time difference between PHP and MariaDB in the system overview under System Config Check.

The file libsasl.dll for LDAP does not need to be copied. XAMPP already ships it in C:\xampp\apache\bin.

Apache#

For Apache to load the PHP extension curl, it needs some libraries from the PHP folder. Open the file C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-xampp.conf and add these four lines directly below the line LoadFile "C:/xampp/php/libsqlite3.dll":

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LoadFile "C:/xampp/php/brotlicommon.dll"
LoadFile "C:/xampp/php/brotlidec.dll"
LoadFile "C:/xampp/php/libssh2.dll"
LoadFile "C:/xampp/php/nghttp2.dll"

Without these lines, the Apache log logs\error.log shows the message Unable to load dynamic library 'curl', and i-doit cannot establish connections over HTTPS, for example for the update check.

Set up Apache as a Windows service and start it:

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C:\xampp\apache\bin\httpd.exe -k install
Start-Service Apache2.4

The service Apache2.4 then starts automatically with Windows. A Windows Firewall prompt may appear.

Step 4: Install MariaDB#

Download MariaDB 10.11 as an MSI package for Windows (mariadb-10.11.x-winx64.msi) from https://mariadb.org/download/ and install it. In the wizard, set a password for the user root and let MariaDB install as a service named MariaDB on port 3306.

Alternatively, the package can be installed without the wizard. Replace <password> with your own password and the file name with the downloaded version:

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msiexec /i mariadb-10.11.19-winx64.msi /qn SERVICENAME=MariaDB PASSWORD=<password> PORT=3306

Then open the file C:\Program Files\MariaDB 10.11\data\my.ini. The [mysqld] section already contains datadir, port and innodb_buffer_pool_size. The setup sets innodb_buffer_pool_size according to the available memory; keep it. Add the following settings below it, before the [client] section, and save:

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innodb_log_file_size = 512M
innodb_sort_buffer_size = 64M
sort_buffer_size = 262144
join_buffer_size = 262144
max_allowed_packet = 128M
max_heap_table_size = 32M
query_cache_min_res_unit = 4096
query_cache_type = 1
query_cache_limit = 5M
query_cache_size = 80M
tmp_table_size = 32M
max_connections = 200
innodb_file_per_table = 1
innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 1
innodb_flush_method = O_DIRECT
innodb_lru_scan_depth = 2048
table_definition_cache = 1024
table_open_cache = 2048
innodb_stats_on_metadata = 0
table_open_cache_instances = 8
sql-mode = ""

Restart MariaDB:

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Restart-Service MariaDB

Step 5: Download and extract i-doit#

Download the latest version of i-doit from the customer portal. Extract idoit-xx.zip into the new folder C:\xampp\htdocs\idoit. The folder then directly contains the subfolders admin, src, setup and so on.

Step 6: Check the installation#

Open http://<i-doit-host>/idoit/ in a browser. The i-doit installation page with the check of the system requirements appears. During setup, enter 127.0.0.1 with port 3306 as the database server and the MariaDB user root with the password from step 4.

Next Step#

The operating system is now prepared so that i-doit can be installed:

Continue to Setup

For later PHP updates, use the guide PHP security update on Windows. The lines in httpd-xampp.conf from step 3 remain valid, because the libraries are replaced together with the PHP folder.