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Version: 3.1.X

🪟 Windows Installation Guide

This guide covers the manual installation of ABCD 3.1+ on Windows using a standard WAMP stack (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP).

1. Prepare the Environment (WAMP)​

Since ABCD is a web application, you need a web server environment. We recommend XAMPP or WampServer.

  1. Download and install XAMPP (recommended PHP 8.x version).
  2. Install it in the default location (usually C:\xampp).
  3. Open the XAMPP Control Panel but do not start the services yet.

2. Download and Extract ABCD​

  1. Download the latest ZIP release from the ABCD Releases Page.
  2. Extract the ZIP file directly to your C: drive root to keep paths short.

After extraction, ensure you have the following structure. We will use C:/ABCD/ as our base for this guide.

  • C:\ABCD\www\htdocs (Web application files)
  • C:\ABCD\www\bases (Database files)
  • C:\ABCD\www\cgi-bin (Executables)
Cleanup

The package might contain multiple cgi-bin folders.

  • Rename cgi-bin_Windows to cgi-bin.
  • Delete cgi-bin_Linux.

3. Initial Configuration (config.php)​

You must activate the main configuration file.

  1. Navigate to C:\ABCD\www\htdocs\central\.
  2. Duplicate the file config.php.template.
  3. Rename the copy to config.php.

4. Configure PHP (php.ini)​

ABCD requires specific extensions.

  1. Open the XAMPP Control Panel.
  2. Click Config next to Apache and select PHP (php.ini).
  3. Search for and uncomment (remove the ; at the start) the following lines:
extension=curl
extension=gd
extension=mbstring
extension=mysqli
extension=openssl
extension=soap
extension=xml
extension=zip

  1. Save and close the file.

5. Configure Apache (httpd.conf)​

We need to enable CGI execution and URL rewriting.

  1. In XAMPP Control Panel, click Config next to Apache and select Apache (httpd.conf).
  2. Ensure the following modules are uncommented (active):
LoadModule cgi_module modules/mod_cgi.so
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Virtual Host Integration​

Instead of editing the main config file, we will tell Apache to load the ABCD configuration.

  1. Scroll to the very end of httpd.conf.
  2. Add the following line:
# Load ABCD Configuration
Include "C:/ABCD/www/vhost_abcd.conf"
  1. Save and close httpd.conf.

6. Create the Virtual Host File​

Now create the file we just referenced.

  1. Create a new text file at C:\ABCD\www\vhost_abcd.conf.
  2. Paste the following content (derived from the official template):
# Define the Port (Standard for ABCD is 9090)
Define ABCD_PORT 9090

# Listen on this port
Listen ${ABCD_PORT}

<VirtualHost *:${ABCD_PORT}>
    ServerName localhost
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    
    # --- PATH DEFINITIONS ---
    # Adjust this if you installed ABCD elsewhere
    Define ABCD_ROOT "C:/ABCD/www"

    DocumentRoot "${ABCD_ROOT}/htdocs"

    # --- MAIN DIRECTORY PERMISSIONS ---
    <Directory "${ABCD_ROOT}">
        Options +Indexes -FollowSymLinks 
        AllowOverride All 
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    # --- CGI-BIN CONFIGURATION ---
    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "${ABCD_ROOT}/cgi-bin/" 
    <Directory "${ABCD_ROOT}/cgi-bin">
        AllowOverride None
        Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
        AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
        AddHandler cgi-script .exe
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    # --- BASES ALIAS (For Images/PDFs) ---
    Alias /docs/ "${ABCD_ROOT}/bases/"
    <Directory "${ABCD_ROOT}/bases/">
        Options -Indexes -FollowSymLinks +MultiViews
        AllowOverride None
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    # --- LOGGING ---
    ErrorLog "logs/abcd_error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/abcd_access.log" combined
</VirtualHost>

7. Start and Test​

  1. In XAMPP, click Start next to Apache.
  2. Watch the log window for errors. If it turns green, you are good.
  3. Open your browser and go to: http://localhost:9090/admin

Login Credentials:

  • Username: abcd
  • Password: adm
Security

Change the default password immediately after the first login in the Users module.