First, don’t be intimidated. While web servers are complex with all sorts of options, there are common configurations that almost everyone uses. Your university probably has resources available where you can set up your server. The Quickcheck module (the web application that runs the question database talked about in the paper) depends upon a content management system called Zikula. Zikula itself relies on the Symfony framework, an industry standard that runs many of the websites that you visit. The server requirements for Quickcheck are essentially the requirements of Zikula. These can be found in the Zikula documentation page. Briefly they are:
The PHP language and a webserver capable of serving web pages based on PHP code. PHP is a programming language that accesses data (most often text) in a database, performs whatever manipulations are asked for, and then serves the resulting html text back to a web server. The web server then displays the page to the user.
Zikula requires PHP version >= 8.1.
A memory limit set to 128 MB for PHP. This can be set in your php.ini file. The PHP script that executes each web page request uses memory and the total amount of memory any request can use it set to a max limit. The php.ini file is a configuration file for using PHP with a web server. It has all sorts of configuration options.
Zikula requires that date.timezone be set in the php.ini configuration file.
A database to store text. Most often this will be either mariaDB or mysql.
Zikula requires AllowOveride All for your server and the mod_rewrite module installed.
If all of this sounds like a foreign language to you, don't be alarmed. Talk to your friendly local website provider at your location, and they can help you get this set up correctly.
Installing Zikula
Detailed instructions on installing Zikula are available. I breifly go over some steps here.
Make sure your web server has a database installed and that you have created a database to store Zikula's data. Write down the name of the database, the user that has access to it, and the password of that user to log into the database. You will need this data when you install Zikula.
Log into your web server and upload the Zikula core file (zikula.tar.gz) to your web server folder. This is normally done via FTP (file transfer protocol) and there are many good clients that can help you with this. I use Transmit by Panic software.
You will need access to the command line (tutorial here) by using a terminal application. On macOS this program is called Terminal, go figure.
Launch your terminal application (also called a console) and type the following command to log into your web server ssh yourusername@your.website.edu
Obviously don't type this exactly, yourusername is your username on the server. your.website.edu is your website. (Note that these are different than the database username and password I asked you to set up earlier.) Your web site administrator will be able to give you this information.
Once you are in, navigate to the folder where you uploaded the Zikula file (cd /path/to/your/zikula/folder)
Type the command tar -xpf zikula.tar.gz. This will extract the compressed file and create a folder name zikula with the entire Zikula framework in it.
If you like rename, this folder to a name that suits you.
From here, follow the rest of the installation instructions at the Zikula Site.
Installing Quickcheck
You are through the hard part. If you have Zikula up and running, installing Quickcheck will be a breeze. Here I describe specifically how to install the QuickcheckModule to expand Zikula's functionality. There are many other modules that can be added to Zikula to expands its capabilities.
Place the module inside your Zikula installation at /PathtoZikulaFolder/src/extentions/Paustian. You may have to create the Paustian folder.
Extract the module by typing tar -xpf QuickcheckModule-4.3.0.tar.gz in the Terminal. The version number may be slightly different different depending on whether improvements have been made.
Once the file is extracted, rename the folder it creates to QuickcheckModule.
Load up the front page of your Zikula site and log in as adminstrator. Navigate to the extensions module.
Find the QuickcheckModule which should now appear in the list. Click on the Run Preinstall Checks button and then follow the directions.
To get to the QuickcheckModule, click on the Uncategorized menu and choose Quickcheck.
Check out the menus at the top of the module (Create New Exam, Modify Exam, Questions, Processing, etc. Their functionality should be self-explanatory.
If you ever have any questions, please contact me.