openEMR on Windows Server 2003

OpenEMR Development
1

nightwolf76 wrote on Wednesday, November 15, 2006:

Im not sure if this is experimental still or not, but I am hereby making an effort using all my knowledge and skills, to help those attempting this. Please do not hesitate to seek help from me or let me know anything I may have missed.

First off, here is what you need:

1)Windows server 2003 or Windows XP Professional
2)XAMPP version 1.4.16 (This includes Mysql4 and php4)
3)MySQL Conector Driver (mysql-connector-odbc-3.51.12-win32)
4)OpenEMR version 2.8.1
5)Internet Explorer 6

This XAMPP version is not the latest but I beleive is the most stable -install it on the server as an Administrator:

Make sure you say yes to installing Apache and MySQL as services

If you get an error on Server 2003 with ports, it is probroly because IIS- The built in Microsoft Web Server, is using port 80 for wither ‘companyweb’ or Exchange. These ports will have to be changed in the IIS management

Once XAMPP is up and running, open the XAMPP control panel and stop the Apache server.

Go to the start menu under Apachefriends Xampp and run the php-switch. Follow the directions and enter 4 to force Apache to use the php4.ini configuration. Restart Apache.

In IE 6 go to localhost. Open the phpmyadmin page and go to privledges. Set a password for the root user.

On the XAMPP control panel, open MySQL admin. If it asks you for a password enter the same as you did in phpmyadmin. Check the .ini tab to make sure that the bind address is the local address of your server.

Shut down MySql window and stop MySql in the Xampp Control Panel

Download mysql-connector-odbc-3.51.12 for win32 and install. Start Mysql again. This should get rid of errors and show the appropraite info in the MySQL manager.

Download OpenEMR 2.8.1.

Rename the extracted folder to ‘openemr’. Put this in the htdocs folder in your xampp directory.

Run localhost/openemr in IE.

On the page where passwords are asked for, choose openemr and make up a password for the part where it explains that this password is used when openemer uses php to acccess Mysql.

For the database password, type the same password you used for the root user.

On the last page it asks you to change the path in openemr/interface/globals.php.
this refers to the line
$webserver_root = "C:/Program Files/xampp/htdocs/openemr";

The path here HAS to be EXACT, even capitalizations or it will not work properly.
Change this to your install path and save.

Back in phpmyadmin, go to priveledges, you will see an openemr user. Change the password on this to the password you chose above for openemr to access mysql using php.

This works perfectly.

Joe
PHP Developer
jmayes@misfl.com

2

markleeds wrote on Thursday, November 16, 2006:

These instructions should be posted on the wiki for future reference.  It’s always useful to the author and other users to have these step by step installation instructions for a particular platform.

One minor issue is the use of IE as a browser.  I don’t know if things have changed in version 7, but there are a few issues of standards implementation that may affect rendering and function in unexpected ways. 

Firefox is the officially recommended browser. 

I know for certain that in one of my forms there is one javascript feature which will work in any browser but IE. 

It’s not that big of a deal really.  Up until recently, I still used IE occasionally on one machine, but the minor differences (for example, what happens when I scroll up and down with the mouse scroll wheel) were enough to throw off my concentration.  Now, I only use Firefox.

3

drbowen wrote on Thursday, November 16, 2006:

In my experience on Windows 2003 Server, the browser doesn’t seem to make any difference.  We use mostly Firefox but a number of our machines are Windows 2000/XP professional where some of the insurance functions (connecting ot certain carriers) requires the IE.  There is connectivity issues with IE 7 so we have not upgraded these browsers.

I haven’t tryed to go back and reinstall with the OpenEMR2.8.2-dev yet. It will be nice to know if OpenEMR2.8.2-dev can be run with PHP 5 and MySQL 5.  Rod has  OpenEMR2.8.2-dev running on Fedora Core with PHP 5 and MySQL 5.

We need help testing different types of installations to find out what OSs are working with PHP/MySQL 5.

By-the-way the wiki is sick right now.  I am in the process of reinstalling the oemr.org server.

Sam Bowen, MD

4

nightwolf76 wrote on Thursday, November 16, 2006:

Yeah I have yet to see any reason o use IE7. I have not tried to use the software in Firefox. I know that I have been developing applications in IE6 with PHP/MySQL 5 without problems. Since we are using Microsoft server hosted networks I kind of got stuck with it because users dont like “change”. It makes them panic, one thing I don’t need anymore of.

One thing is for sure though…if you havnt done so check out PGPGTK2 at http://gtk.php.net/ . We can now make our own windows. Not only is it a groundbreaking step forward for php it reduces the risk of users manipulating Firefox in ways that obscure the browser and how the view of your application…like downloaded toolbars for example.

Php architect…greatest PHP mag in the world, had an article on this back in July and August that almost gave me a heart attack. When openEMR is stable with PHP5 I plan on taking it and putting into into my own application interface.

P.S.: How do I get on the Wiki??

Joe

5

bradymiller wrote on Saturday, December 02, 2006:

I put your instructions on the wiki at:
http://www.oemr.org/modules/wiwimod/index.php?page=WindowsServer2003&back=OpenEmrInstallHowtos

If you want to be able to edit or add content to the wiki let us know your user name at oemr.org so we can give you wiki editing priviledges.

-brady

6

nightwolf76 wrote on Thursday, December 07, 2006:

Thanks Brady!

So far so good on additional testing with this setup. We are having another client test out the system this week so I will post the results of that experiment.

Thus far we are most involved with the scheduling portion.

One flaw I have seen is in the patient file upload. There is an issue with the path to files because of the way it removes the slashes…there are many forumn sections on this but none seem to have had any solid positive outcome. I am attempting to rewrite the file upload portion as I have done something similar in the past. It may be a matter of just har code manipulating it so that the final path is correct, in other words manipulating the path in the database.

Joe
PHP Developer
jmayes@misfl.com