Installing Basmati with Microsoft's IIS and ODBC

This document is intended for someone familiar with Microsoft's IIS (version 4.0 or 5.0). If you have little or no experience with IIS, you may need to contact your Basmati distributor for extended installation support. I would also strongly suggest the use of MySQL as the database server rather than using ODBC. Consult the Linux installation guide for details on configuring the software to run with MySQL instead of ODBC. As of July, 2001, I will no longer be developing additional components for the ODBC version... there are already several features available only in the MySQL version.

This version of Basmati uses PHP as its primary development language -- this enables development on multiple platforms (including Windows [IIS and Apache] and Linux). You are welcome to modify the source code to meet your particular security needs or use some of the security features of your web-server. You are entirely responsible for securing your web-sites.

Here are the steps to install Basmati...

1. Obtain PHP from http://www.php.net. Download the latest stable version and install according to the directions provided by PHP. To test that the installation was successful, create a text-document in a web-shared folder (call it test.php) and insert the following code into it:

    <? phpinfo() ?> 

   Open this file through your web server (e.g., http://localhost/test.php). If you see a page with LOTS of information describing your PHP capabilities, you were successful. If not, please consult the FAQs or online help at www.php.net. If everything worked, you may delete this test file.

2. Download the Basmati script files and unzip them into a temporary directory.

3. Before proceeding any further -- it is time to change the administrator password! Locate the script file called example_basmaticonstants.php and make a copy of this file. Rename the copy to "basmaticonstants.php". Open this file with any text editor (notepad will do the job). Locate the following 2 lines of code:

   
   $admuser = "adminuser";
   
   $admpass = "adminpass";
   
   

   Change the "adminuser" username and "adminpass" password to whatever you like, but please -- just change them! Be certain that both are enclosed in quotes.

   You will also want to modify the line

   $datamethod = "mysql"; 

   so that it says

   $datamethod="odbc";

   This will instruct Basmati to use ODBC data-sources instead of a MySQL database server.

4. Basmati can be installed into a single directory if you desire. For improved security, however, it is a good idea to either secure administrator and faculty related files either using NTFS or by creating separate web-shares. For more details, contact your Basmati distributor. Create a new directory and place all of the Basmati files except basmatidb.mdb into this directory. Assign appropriate permissions to this directory so that an anonymous web-user has read-only priveleges to these files.

5. Create a web-alias for this directory. Be certain that PHP functionality is added to each of these directories. (If necessary, you can test PHP functionality by repeating the test in step 1.) I strongly encourage the use of SSL on this alias to further secure your entire system. If you know how to implement it (and can obtain a security certificate), do so!

6. Next, you'll want to create a folder on your server that cannot be accessed via the web or your network. This folder will contain the database file which should be secured from public access. Copy the file "basmatidb.mdb" into this folder. This file (basmatidb.mdb) is simply a Microsoft Access (97) database file and can be opened with MS Access. If you don't own a copy of MS Access (or don't want it on your server), don't despair, you won't need it!

7. Create a folder called "tmp" on the root of the drive that contains the PHP script files. For example, if your files are on the D:\ drive, you need to create the folder "D:\tmp". This folder is used to store temporary session information from the users. You may need to check this folder periodically for build-up of temporary files and remove them. PHP is supposed to flush these files out on its own, but I have seen mixed results.

8. Finally, you'll want to create an ODBC connection to this database file (basmatidb.mdb). From control panel, locate the ODBC Data tool (if you're using Windows 2000, you'll find it in the Administrative Tools as "Data Sources (ODBC)"). Once the ODBC Data Administrator tool is open, click on the SYSTEM DSN tab. Click the Add button. Choose the "Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)" (be sure you use the correct language). A dialog box will appear. The Data Source Name that you should use is "basmatidb" -- this can be changed later if you wish... just be certain to edit the "basmaticonstants.php" file if you decide to use a different name. Then, click the "Select" button in the Database section. Locate the "basmatidb.mdb" file. Click OK (twice).

9. That's it! You've installed Basmati on your system. Your next step is to create a school account and faculty login-accounts and use your electronic gradebook to post grades to the site -- this signals a new set of instructions!