PerlWiz - Installation Details

Click here for the perlwiz.biz documentation home page

Contents

Prior Page

Next Page

Read this page to find out how to install PerlWiz, and also how to install the ActivePerl tools and the MySQL database server to use with the PerlWiz IDE (if required) and also the PHP tools (if required).

Installation

Once you have downloaded the installation program, open the installation program (the latest version is called perlwiz_setup.exe) - typically by choosing the Open option when you download the program, or by double-clicking on it from Windows Explorer if you chose to save the program when downloading.

Here are two versions of the installation instructions - brief and comprehensive:-

Brief Installation Instructions

• Click on the Yes button to start the installation program.
• Click on Next>, read the license agreement, click on I accept... if you are happy to proceed, and click on the Next> button again.
• Click Next> three times more to skip the About text and Installation Directory / Folder options
• Check that the files are OK to be associated as shown, and click on the Next> button and then the Install button to start installation.
• Once installation has completed, click on Finish to complete installation.
• Click here for details of how to install the ActivePerl tools if you have not done so already. This is required for executing and testing Perl programs from PerlWiz.
• Click here for details of how to install the MySQL Server if you have not done so already. Note that this is optional. PerlWiz will work fine without MySQL Server, but without the extra functionality that this brings.

Comprehensive Installation Instructions

When you open the installation application:-

• A dialog box pops up saying This Will Install PerlWiz. Do you wish to continue?
• Click on the Yes button to start the installation program.
• Read the notice giving you version information and advice about shutting down other running program, and click on the Next> button
• Read the License agreement that pertains to you - two versions are included for the Unregistered and Registered versions of the program. When you have read and agreed to the license agreement and its terms and conditions for use of the product, click on the I accept the agreement radio button, and click on the Next> button.  If you do not agree to the terms and conditions, and do not wish to continue installing PerlWiz, click the Cancel button at this point to terminate installation.
  This information is also available from the Help | About menu within the PerlWiz application and within the on-line help documentation.
• A screen showing About text, which gives an overview of PerlWiz, and support details is then shown for your information. This information is also available from the Help | About menu within the PerlWiz application.
• Click on the Next> button when you have finished with the About screen.
• Select a directory on your computer's hard drive where you would like the PerlWiz application to be stored. This defaults to C:\Program Files\PerlWiz.  If you are happy to leave this as the default, click on the Next> button, otherwise navigate to the directory where you would like the program to be installed.  You will also see a reminder of how much disk space an installation of PerlWiz takes up.
• You will be asked what folder to store the PerlWiz icons under - i.e. the name of the folder that appears to the right, when you click the Start button in Windows and then click on the Programs menu. If you are happy to leave this as the default of PerlWiz, click on the Next> button to continue with the installation.
• The final interactive screen asks if you wish to create an icon on the desktop (checked by default), whether you wish to create a Quick Launch icon (unchecked by default), and whether you wish to associate perl program files to the PerlWiz application, so that when you double-click on them from Explorer, they are viewed using the PerlWiz application. This is checked by default.
• Click on the Next> button to view details about the installation
• Click on the Install button to commence installation
• If you have previously installed PerlWiz onto your computer, you will see a dialog box on the screen asking if you wish to replace the default.pwp file. This is the default setting file that you would typically use for default configuration settings. If you wish to overwrite this with the latest version, thus removing any customizations you may have made to this file, click on Yes, otherwise click on No.  If you are under any doubt, click on No.  You will receive a similar message for the codetmpl.pwt file, which holds the details of the code templates stored for PerlWiz. If you have created any code templates of your own, you may wish to save the templates somewhere else and move them back after installation, or choose not to accept new code templates.
• When installation has completed, you will see a final screen showing that the Setup has been completed.
• If you do not wish to launch PerlWiz at this time, uncheck the Launch PerlWiz option.
• Click on the Finish button to complete installation. 

Registration

If within the thirty days trial period, you decide you wish to carry on using the PerlWiz application, you will need to register the product. To do this, you will need to visit the PerlWiz web site and pay a registration fee to obtain an unlock code. Click here to see how to do this, and the benefits that this gives you.

When you receive your unlock code, follow these instructions to unlock the program:-

• Check that you agree to the Registered Version License Agreement
• Start up the PerlWiz application
• Click on the Help menu and click on the Unlock using registration key option.
• If you have read and agreed to the license agreement, click on the Yes button.
• Enter the registration unlock key from the registration purchase confirmation email that was sent to you. Alternatively, if you have already copied the unlock key from your email into the clipboard, then PerlWiz detects this and automatically uses this key without you having to type anything.
• Click on the OK button.
• You should see the following message which indicates that PerlWiz is now unlocked. The trial period reminder splash screen will now stop functioning, and the Unlock using registration key option disappears from the Help menu.

• The registration will work across different login IDs - you do not need to enter it for each user of your PC.
• If you need to reinstall the application again, the unlock key is maintained until the next major/minor release of the application. If the release is available within the twelve months of your registration support period, then you will be emailed an unlock code for any new releases - use the unlock code appropriate to the version you are installing.
• Remember to keep us informed of any changes of email address, so that we can email you any new keycodes - Email regperlwiz@simonhuggins.com with your Name and old and new email address.

Installation of ActivePerl tools

PerlWiz utilises the ActivePerl implementation of Perl from ActiveState software, the standard implementation of Perl for the Microsoft Windows platform.

In order to perform functions such as Syntax Check, and Execute to Text and Browser, you will need to install a copy of this software on your computer. Here are some brief instructions on how to do this:-

• Visit the ActiveState ActivePerl web site.
• Click on the Download option (located in the left margin at the top).
• You will be asked to fill in your Email address, name and company name (if applicable). You only need to enter this information if you wish to be informed of updates etc.
• Click on the Next button
• You will be given the option of a number of different versions. You would typically choose the first build number given (the latest stable release), choose the Windows platform, and choose the MSI option (Microsoft Installer).  However, if you wish to use the Module installer, choose a version starting with 5.6, (or 5.8.3 or later). There was a problem with this in version 5.8 to 5.8.2 (N.B. Also, if you wish to use Ctrl-Z input of multiple lines into a Perl array, use version 5.6.)  If you do not have version 2 or above of Microsoft installer, then you may need to install this first - a link is given from the ActivePerl download page for Windows 9x/Me and NT Versions. Windows XP users will not need to install this.
• There is an installation guide available for ActivePerl on the web site.

Linking PerlWiz to ActivePerl

In order for PerlWiz to pick up the location of the Perl tools, it needs to know the directory in which these tools are installed.

When you launch PerlWiz, the installation directory will be picked up automatically if you have not previously selected the Perl tools directory, or that installation is no longer active. The following dialog will appear (the location will depend on where you have installed ActivePerl):-

Alternatively, you can click on the Properties button () on the PerlWiz toolbar, open the Language heading, open the Perl sub-heading, and choose the Compiler / Tools sub-heading. You can select the Perl Executable location as follows:-

Use the ellipses button (...) to select using a file selection dialog box, or type the location directly into the text box.

If you ever wish to use the default ActivePerl location in the future, delete the contents of this box, save the Project, close and re-open the application to pick up the location again.

Installation of MySQL Server

Note that PerlWiz does not require you to have MySQL server installed in order to operate - this is an additional feature for anybody that requires the extra functionality that databases bring to application development.

MySQL is an open-source (distributed via the General Public License) database server product which is free to use for applications that will not have any part of MySQL distributed with them (e.g. great for people trying it out at home, or in a test environment).  If your ISP gives you access to database services, there is a good chance it will be using MySQL under this license. Commercial licenses are available if you wish to distribute any part of MySQL itself with your application, or if you would like to benefit from support from MySQL AB, the company that develops MySQL.

A database server handles the storage, retrieval and manipulation of structured data - for example a list of users and their associated details. It handles problems such as several users wishing to access / amend the data simultaneously, accessing portions of data from large volumes of information quickly, and transaction issues - e.g. what if you are half way through storing some details and the user shuts his browser, or the server on  which your data sits reboots itself mysteriously!  If you are seriously wishing to use a large-volume data storage / retrieval application on the web (or even within a company), you would be well advised to get to know the DBI, and a cheap and easy way to do this is to install MySQL on your computer, and try things out using the tools available in PerlWiz.  Perl can use data from a MySQL database using the aforementioned DBI library functionality. There is a separate tutorial in these on-line pages to help you get into DBI programming and executing SQL scripts (a standardised Database query / manipulation language also worth getting to know) directly on MySQL server.

You will need a tool for extracting from a .zip file archive program before performing this installation procedure – try the ShareWare product http://www.winzip.com for WinZip or the FreeWare product FreeZip from http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/index.html

Follow these instructions to install MySQL Server:-

• Navigate to http://www.mysql.com/downloads/index.html
• Scroll down until you reach the heading MYSQL database server & standard clients:
• Choose the release you require – typically, choose the top option, which will give the latest production release, or the one below typically gives the latest non-production release (i.e. could have bugs) but with the latest extra functionality. At the date of writing, this was MySQL 4.0.16 which is 22.7Mb in size – direct URL link to this is http://www.mysql.com/downloads/mysql-3.23.html
• Scroll down to the Windows Downloads section and click on the Pick a Mirror link or just Download.
• If you chose to pick a mirror, choose a mirror location close to you.  If in doubt, choose site from North America, which is most likely to have good cable links to/from your country. Click on either the FTP or HTTP link – if FTP doesn’t work, try HTTP – you’re still downloading the same thing whichever route you take.
• You would typically install to a file on your disk, in case you need to re-install MySQL at some point in the future:-

• Once you give a location where you wish the file to be saved, downloading will commence.
• Click on the Open button once the file has been downloaded.

• If you are using WinZip, the file will be opened automatically. Click on the Install button on the toolbar to commence installation and click the OK button on the dialog box that pops up. Otherwise, you will need to extract all files to a temporary directory, and execute the setup.exe file from this directory. When installation is complete, you can delete this directory.
• Now, just keep clicking the Next> button until the program has installed. The default location for MySQL is c:\mysql. Click on the Finish button once installation has completed. No need to reboot.
• If you used WinZip, You will be left with the following dialog box from the WinZip installer:-

• Just click on the OK button and close down the WinZip application.
• MySQL is now installed and ready to use. It was that simple!

Note that if you chose to install MySQL to a path other than the default of c:\mysql you may need to change the path in the Project Properties of PerlWiz in order for PerlWiz to find the MySQL tool set. See the next section for details of how to do this.

Linking PerlWiz to MySQL

In order for PerlWiz to pick up the location of the installed MySQL database server, it needs to know the directory in which the MySQL tools are installed. This works very similarly to the auto-detection of an ActivePerl installation.

When you launch PerlWiz, the installation directory will be picked up automatically if you have not previously selected the MySQL tools directory, or that installation is no longer active, as long as you chose the default MySQL installation directory of c:\mysql\bin (n.b. c:\program files\mysql\bin and c:\phpdev\mysql\bin can also be auto-detected).

The following dialog will appear (the location will depend on where you have installed MySQL):-

Alternatively, you can click on the Properties button () on the PerlWiz toolbar, select the Language heading, then the SQL sub-heading, then the MySQL Tools sub-heading. You can select the MySQL tools (BINaries) location as follows:-

Use the ellipses button (...) to select a directory using a directory selection dialog box, or type the location directly into the text box.

If you ever wish to use the default MySQL location in the future, delete the contents of this box, save the Project, close and re-open the application to pick up the location again.

Installation of PHP

Note that PerlWiz does not require you to have PHP installed in order to operate - this is an additional feature for anybody that requires this method of embedding Perl-like scripts into web pages.

PHP (PHP: Hypertext Processor) is a scripting language, much like Perl to look at. It can be used as a server-side scripting language within HTML pages, so that the HTML page is output as normal, but the PHP script parts are replaced with the text that is output during the creation of the page.

This is in contrast to Perl, which is a program which can embed the output of web pages within the program (the opposite way around).

PHP has gained much popularity in recent years, as it allows you to concentrate on building web pages, and adding dynamically created content at the relevant places within pages as you go. This is a very interactive way of developing web pages, and very intuitive to many people.  If you like the object-oriented way of programming found in languages such as Java and C++, then PHP extends the syntax of Perl to include a proper treatment of objects and classes (especially with PHP5). 

Many ISPs now include PHP support as well as (or instead of) Perl support.

PHP is very similar to the Microsoft equivalent, known as ASP (Active Server Pages) in concept, but the language used is quite different.

At the time of writing, PHP was up to version 4.3.4.  An experimental version (PHP5 Beta 4) is also available. It is expected that PHP5 will become the standard very shortly.

You can either download the ZIP package of either version (which includes a lot of extra modules), or the Microsoft Installer version (which is CGI only but still includes support for MySQL). We would recommend the full ZIP package install for PerlWiz, as PerlWiz will update the required settings within PHP to interact with it. The following instructions detail this method:-

• Visit the PHP web site
• Click on the downloads option at the top of the screen
• Choose either the Latest Stable version of PHP or PHP 5 Beta section, according to what you wish to use - the stable version is recommended if you are developing for web sites now.
• Choose the Windows Binaries section, and click on the zip package version
• Choose a download location and click on the name of a hosting site to start downloading.
• You would typically install to a file on your disk, in case you need to re-install MySQL at some point in the future.  You may get a security message - ignore this and continue:-
  
• Once downloaded, open the ZIP file, and (if you are using WinZip) click on the Extract button on the toolbar, and (ensuring All Files is selected, and Use Folder Names is checked), type c:\ (or c:\program files\ if you wish to keep it in the program files directory with other installed applications) in the Extract To: box and click on the Extract button.
• This will extract the contents with the base at the root of your hard disk drive. The files will be installed into a folder called php-version-Win32
• That's it! Installed. If you ever want to uninstall, simply delete the directory!
• N.B. You can install as many versions of PHP as you want onto your computer using this method, and choose which version you wish from within PerlWiz at will. So you can use the current version and try out features of the new version at the same time!

Downloading PHP Documentation

You can link to PHP documentation from PerlWiz by downloading the PHP Help file and placing it into a directory called doc in the root of the PHP installation directory as follows:-

• Visit the PHP Extended CHM Format documentation web page
• At the left hand side is a link to the latest download (#12 at the time of writing)
• Select a download server - one or more close to you should be suggested to you
• Click on the link. You can choose the Open option if you want, as this is downloaded as a ZIP archive file.
• Once downloaded, open the ZIP file (if not already opened by using the Open button when downloading) and (if you are using WinZip) click on the Extract button on the toolbar.  Ensure All Files is selected, and Use Folder Names is checked. If you used directory (for example) c:\ to install PHP, and it was placed in the c:\php-4.34-Win directory, then in the Extract To: box you would type c:\php-4.34-Win\doc and click on the Extract button.
• Next time you run WinZip, if this is the version of PHP you will be using, then the help will be picked up automatically.

This is highly recommended, as the PHP Documentation is not only a guide to the language, but has some very good selection of tutorials and links to other sites too.

Linking PerlWiz to PHP

In order for PerlWiz to pick up the location of the installed PHP toolset, it needs to know the file location for the installed PHP tools. This works very similarly to the auto-detection of an ActivePerl installation.

When you launch PerlWiz, the installation directory will be picked up automatically if you have not previously selected the PHP tools directory, or that installation is no longer active, as long as you chose the suggested PHP installation directory of c:\php-version-Win32 (n.b. c:\program files\php-version-Win32 can also be auto-detected).

The following dialog will appear (the location will depend on where you have installed MySQL):-

Alternatively, you can click on the Properties button () on the PerlWiz toolbar, select the Language tab, and then the PHP tab, and then the Compiler / Tools tab under this. You can select the PHP executable location as follows:-

Use the ellipses button (...) to select the php.exe file using a file selection dialog box, or type the location directly into the text box.

If you ever wish to use the default PHP location in the future, delete the contents of this box, save the Project, close and re-open the application to pick up the location again automatically.

The Ensure php.ini files updated to enable CGI execution should be kept checked to ensure that the php.ini exists in the right place, and is updated to interact with PerlWiz properly. If you wish to change any of the settings in this file manually, it may be a good idea to take this option off to ensure the settings will not be overwritten.

Using Auto-Update to obtain the latest version of PerlWiz

If you wish to check to see if there is a newer copy of PerlWiz available, you can either manually check the web site at http://www.simonhuggins.com/arctan/perlwiz/download.html or use the auto-update facility built into PerlWiz, described here.

To check for the latest update, ensure first that you are connected to the internet either through your network, using a cable modem, or using a dial-up adaptor (i.e. connected to a telephone line via an internal modem). Note that at present, this will not work with firewalls that require a userid / password to gain FTP access - check first, as many internal networks only restrict web access, but allow client access to external FTP servers.

To start the auto-update process:-

• Start PerlWiz
• Click on the Tools menu followed by the Check for New Version menu option.
• The install directory will default to the temporary directory you have set up in the currently active project. If you do wish the application to be downloaded to a different location, change the directory in the Install Directory text box, or click on the ellipses (...) button to select a directory from a dialog box.
• As default, when the program is downloaded, PerlWiz will close, and the installation program will commence immediately. If you do not want this to happen automatically, click on the Install Immediately on download checkbox to take the check out of the box.
• When you are ready to commence the check, click on the Start button.
• The computer will attempt to download the latest version via an XML update history descriptor available on the web site.
• If the latest version is not the same major or minor version as the current version that you are using, then you will need to obtain a new keycode - this should be provided to you for free during the twelve month registration period, otherwise you will see the splash-screen again and need to re-register to obtain a keycode and remove the splash screen again (along with other associated benefits of being registered). If you will need another keycode to unlock the latest version, you will be warned prior to installation and have the choice to cancel before downloading the install file.
• If you have the latest version already, a dialog box will tell you that "Your installation of PerlWiz is up to date" and nothing will be downloaded.
• Otherwise, downloading will commence with a progress bar showing how near the download is to completion.
• Upon completion, any open files will be saved, and the installation program will be started (either automatically if you chose this option, or otherwise you will be prompted to see whether you wish to commence installation straight away).
• Install as described above, and run PerlWiz again as normal.

(c) Copyright 2003-8 Arctan Computer Ventures Ltd.   All Rights Reserved.
If you have any issues regarding this on-line help, please contact the author by clicking here.
Alternatively, you can leave a voice message on +44(0)7050-618-297 or fax on +44(0)7050-618-298
This Page was last updated: 01 February 2007 00:45