[Typo3-windows] Success at last 3.8.1 Quickstart

[F. X. Flinn]

Getting the Quickstart version of Typo 3 running on one of my W2K/IIS 5 
boxes wound up taking about 25 hours spread over 4 days. This included 
the time necessary to install PHP, MySQL, and Imagemagick, so anyone who 
already has one or more of those components in place is ahead of the game.

As a developer who has been chiefly using the Microsoft toolset, i.e. 
SQL Server, ASP, ASP.NET, VB, C++, FrontPage and the like for intranet 
solutions in Fortune 1000 environments, I am interested in the 
PHP/MySQL/Apache/Linux space as a way of providing solutions to smaller 
organizations for whom the MS licenses are often impediments to saying 
yes to a project.

So I took the advice to proceed with a completely manual installation, 
and picked my way through the process. Here are a few notes:

-- Installing PHP

	Installed both 4 and 5, and wound up running 5. Getting the ISAPI 
version running properly was a matter of being careful about the php.ini 
and the two locations in IIS where you point to the php dlls. PHP has a 
big problem with a space in the pathname, so don't bother to try to put 
it into \Program Files\PHP or try to path it as \Progra~1\PHP. I know it 
is a pain to have the executables off on their own, but that's just how 
it is.

-- Installing MySQL

	Installed 5 to begin with, but ultimately this proved to be a bad 
choice for Typo3. Stick to the latest 4.1.x you can find. The Windows 
installation files (msi) in distribution work well. EMS SQL Manager is a 
nice front end that MS SQL users will instantly relate to.

-- Installing Imagemagick

	This program is a little fussy but once I got over trying to get it to 
work from \Program Files\Imagemagick and parked it in a 
no-spaces-in-the-path name directory, all went smoothly. One little 
gotcha was forgetting to activate the G2 extension in php.ini, but the 
instruction was right in the Typo3 docs, can't fault them.

-- Installing Typo3

	The biggest hassles were getting the read and execute permissions right 
(see my post yesterday); fighting over the pathing issues to PHP and 
Imagemagick; working through the configuration list (probably the single 
biggest timesink of the installation, since you really have to 
comprehend each item and there are scores of them); getting everything 
in place and seeing the frontend but not being able to log in 
because...because...because...damn!...it really isn't compatible with 
MySQL 5!!!....back to 4.1.16....
	At this point I'd lost the Quickstart data load (from fussing around 
trying to get v5 going) and after a few tries from the Configuration 
panel at creating and loading the database I just poked around, realized 
database.sql in the typo3conf of the Quickstart distribution had a 
script for the whole enchilada including data, and simply ran that 
script directly in MySQL, then came back to the configuration panel, 
created a new admin, and presto, everything was working as advertised.

Now comes the learning curve on Typo3. We'll see how it goes.

F. X.