1 Installation Instructions
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4 OSI Certified Open Source Software
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8 I...................Overview of Directories
9 II..................Unpacking
10 III.................Setup
11 IV..................Setting up Access Control
12 V...................Upgrading
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16 I. Overview of Directories
18 NOTE: Most recent documentation can be found on the online documentation at
19 http://www.open-emr.org .
21 accounting - Contains information and scripts to support SQL-Ledger
22 contrib - Contains many user-contributed encounter forms and utilities
23 custom - Contains scripts and other text files commonly customized
24 Documentation - Contains useful documentation
25 interface - Contains User Interface scripts and configuration
26 library - Contains scripts commonly included in other scripts
27 sql - Contains initial database images
28 gacl - Contains embedded php-GACL (access controls)
32 NOTE: Most recent documentation can be found on the online documentation at
33 http://www.open-emr.org .
35 The OpenEMR release archive should be named as follows:
37 openemr-<version>.tar.gz -or- openemr-<version>.zip
39 To extract the archive, use either of the following commands from the command line:
41 bash# tar -pxvzf openemr-<version>-release.tar.gz
42 bash# unzip openemr-<version>-release.tar.gz
44 Be sure to use the -p flag when using tar, as certain permissions must be preserved.
46 OpenEMR will be extracted into a directory named openemr.
48 Alternatively a Debian package may be available as a file named
49 openemr-<version>.deb. This may work with some other Debian-like
50 Linux distributions such as Ubuntu.
54 NOTE: Most recent documentation can be found on the online documentation at
55 http://www.open-emr.org .
57 To run OpenEMR, MySQL and Apache or another PHP-capable webserver must be configured.
58 To download Apache, visit www.apache.org
59 For information on how to install MySQL, visit www.mysql.com
60 PHP may be downloaded from www.php.net
62 OpenEMR requires a number of webserver and PHP features which may not be
63 enabled on your system. These include:
65 - PHP Index support (ensure that index.php is in your Index path in httpd.conf)
67 - PHP libcurl support (optional for operation, mandatory for billing)
69 Copy the OpenEMR folder into the root folder of the webserver. On Mandrake
70 Linux, for example, use the command:
72 bash# mv openemr /var/www/html/
74 Make sure the webserver is running, and point a web-browser to setup.php located
75 within the openemr web folder. If you installed OpenEMR in the root web
76 directory, the URL would read: http://localhost/openemr/setup.php.
77 The setup script will step you through the configuration of the OpenEMR.
79 The first screen of the setup script will ensure that the webserver user
80 (in linux, often is "apache", "www-data", or "nobody") has write privileges on
81 certain file and directories. The file is openemr/sites/default/sqlconf.php.
82 In linux, this can be set by "chmod a+w filename"
83 command to grant global write permissions to the file. The directory is
84 openemr/sites/default/documents. In
85 linux, if the webserver user name is "apache", then the command
86 "chown -R apache:apache directory_name" will grant global write permissions
87 to the directories, and we recommend making these changes permanent.
88 Should the page display errors related to file or directory writing privileges you
89 may click the 'Check Again' button to try again (after fixing permissions).
91 In step 1, you need to tell setup whether it needs to create the database on
92 its own, or if you have already created the database. MySQL root privileges will
93 be required to create a database.
95 In step 2, you will be presented with a number of fields which specify the MySQL
96 server details and the openemr directory paths.
98 The "Server Host" field specifies the location of the MySQL server. If you
99 run MySQL and Apache/PHP on the same server, then leave this as 'localhost'.
100 If MySQL and Apache/PHP are on separate servers, then enter the IP address
101 (or host name) of the server running MySQL.
103 The "Server Port" field specifies the port to use when connecting to the MySQL
104 server over TCP/IP. This should be left as 3306 unless you changed it in your
107 The "Database Name" field is the database where OpenEMR will reside. If you
108 selected to have the database created for you, this database will be created,
109 along with the user specified in "Login Name". If this database exists, setup
110 will not be able to create it, and will return an error. If you selected that
111 you have already created the database, then setup will use the information you
112 provide to connect to the MySQL server. Note that setup will not accept a
113 password that is not at least one (1) character in length.
115 The "Login Name" field is the MySQL user that will access the OpenEMR database.
116 If you selected to have the database created for you, this user will be
117 created. If you selected that you have already created the database,
118 then setup will use the information you provide to connect to the MySQL server.
120 The "Password" field is the password of the user entered into the above
121 "Login Name" field. If you selected to have the database created for you,
122 this user and password will be created. If you selected that you have already
123 created the database, then setup will use the information you provide to connect
126 The "Name for Root Account" field will only appear if setup is creating the
127 database. It is the name of the MySQL root account. For localhost, it is
128 usually ok to leave it 'root'.
130 The "Root Pass" field will likewise only appear if setup is creating the
131 database. It is the password of your existing root user, and is used to acquire
132 the privileges to create the new database and user.
134 The "User Hostname" field will also only appear if setup is creating the
135 database. It is the hostname of the Apache/PHP server from which the user
136 ("Login Name") is permitted to connect to the MySQL database. If you are setting
137 up MySQL and Apache/PHP on the same computer, then you can use 'localhost'.
139 The "UTF-8 Collation" field is the collation setting for mysql. If the language
140 you are planning to use in OpenEMR is in the menu, then you can select it.
141 Otherwise, just select 'General'. Choosing 'None' is not recommended and
142 will force latin1 encoding.
144 The "Initial User" is the username of the first user, which is what they will
145 use to login. Limit this to one word only.
147 The "Initial User Password" is the password of the user entered into the above
148 "Initial User" field.
150 The "Initial User's First Name" is the value to be used as their first name. This
151 information may be changed in the user administration page.
153 The "Initial User's Last Name" is the value to be used as their last name. This
154 information may be changed in the user administration page.
156 The "Initial Group" is the first group, basically name of the practice, that
157 will be created. A user may belong to multiple groups, which again, can be
158 altered on the user administration page. It is suggested that no more than
159 one group per office be used.
161 Step 3 is where setup will configure OpenEMR. It will first create the database
162 and connect to it to create the initial tables. It will then write the mysql
163 database configuration to the openemr/sites/default/sqlconf.php file.
164 Should anything fail during step 3, you may have to remove the existing database or
165 tables before you can try again. If no errors occur, you will see a "Continue"
166 button at the bottom.
168 Step 4 will install and configure the embedded phpGACL access controls. It
169 will first write configuration settings to files. It will then configure the
170 database. It will then give the "Initial User" administrator access.
171 Should anything fail during step 4, you may have to remove the existing database
172 or tables before you can try again. If no errors occur, you will see a
173 "Continue" button at the bottom.
175 Step 5 gives instructions on configuring the PHP. We suggest you print these
176 instructions for future reference. Instructions are given to edit the php.ini
177 configuration file. If possible, the location of your php.ini file
178 will be displayed in green. If your php.ini file location is not displayed,
179 then you will need to search for it. The location of the php.ini file is dependent
180 on the operating system. In linux, php.ini is generally found in the /etc/
181 directory. In windows, the XAMPP 1.7.0 package places the php.ini file in
182 the xampp\apache\bin\ directory. To ensure proper functioning of OpenEMR
183 you must make sure that settings in the php.ini file include
184 "short_open_tag = Off", "display_errors = Off", "log_errors = On"
185 "max_execution_time" set to at least 60, "max_input_time = -1",
186 "max_input_vars" set to at least 3000, "post_max_size" set to at least 30M,
187 "upload_max_filesize" set to at least 30M, "memory_limit" set to at least 512M,
188 and "file_uploads = On". In order to take full advantage
189 of the patient documents capability you must make sure that "upload_tmp_dir"
190 is set to a correct value that will work on your system.
192 Step 6 gives instructions on configuring the Apache web server. We suggest
193 you print these instructions for future reference. Instructions are given to
194 secure the "openemrwebroot/sites/*/documents"
195 directory, which contain patient information. This can
196 be done be either placing pertinent .htaccess files in this directory
197 or by editing the apache configuration file. The location of the apache
198 configuration file is dependent on the operating system. In linux, you can
199 type 'httpd -V' on the commandline; the location to the configuration file
200 will be the HTTPD_ROOT variable plus the SERVER_CONFIG_FILE variable.
201 In windows, the XAMPP 1.7.0 package places the configuration file at
202 xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf. To configure Zend and to secure the /documents,
203 directory you can paste following to the end of the apache
204 configuration file (ensure you put full path to directories):
205 <Directory "openemrwebroot">
206 AllowOverride FileInfo
208 <Directory "openemrwebroot/sites">
211 <Directory "openemrwebroot/sites/*/documents">
216 The final screen includes some additional instructions and important
217 information. We suggest you print these instructions for future reference.
219 Once the system has been configured properly, you may login. Connect to the
220 webserver where the files are stored with your web browser. Login to the system
221 using the username that you picked (default 'admin' without quotes), and the
222 password. From there, select the "Administration"
223 option, and customize the system to your needs. Add users and groups as is
224 needed. For information on using OpenEMR, consult the User Documentation located
225 in the Documentation folder, the documentation at http://www.open-emr.org, and
226 the forums at https://community.open-emr.org/.
228 Reading openemr/sites/default/config.php is a good idea. This file contains some
229 options to choose from including themes.
231 To create custom encounter forms, see the files
233 openemr/Documentation/3rd Party Form API.txt
234 openemr/interface/forms/OpenEMR_form_example-rev2.tar.gz
236 and read the included documentation and online documentation at www.openemr.org.
237 Many forms exist in contrib/forms as well as in interface/forms and may be used
240 Other configuration settings are stored under includes/config.php.
241 Everything should work out of the installation without touching those, but if
242 you want fax integration you will need to adjust some parameters in that file.
244 General-purpose fax support requires customization within OpenEMR at
245 Administration->Globals and custom/faxcover.txt; it also requires
246 the following utilities:
248 * faxstat and sendfax from the HylaFAX client package
249 * mogrify from the ImageMagick package
250 * tiff2pdf, tiffcp and tiffsplit from the libtiff-tools package
254 IV. Setting Up Access Control
256 Since OpenEMR version 2.9.0.3, phpGACL access controls are installed and
257 configured automatically during OpenEMR setup. It can be administered
258 within OpenEMR in the admin->acl menu. This is very powerful
259 access control software. To learn more about phpGACL
260 (see http://phpgacl.sourceforge.net/), recommend reading the phpGACL manual,
261 the /openemr/Documentation/README.phpgacl file, and the online documentation at
262 http://www.open-emr.org . Also recommend reading the comments at top of
263 src/Common/Acl/AclMain.php .
267 NOTE: Most recent documentation can be found on the online documentation at
268 http://www.open-emr.org .
270 Be sure to back up your OpenEMR installation and database before upgrading!
272 Upgrading OpenEMR is currently done by replacing the old openemr directory with
273 a newer version. And, ensure you copy your settings from the following old openemr
274 files to the new configuration files (we do not recommend simply
275 copying the entire files):
277 openemr/sites/default/sqlconf.php
278 --Also in this sqlconf.php file, set the $config variable (found near bottom
279 of file within bunch of slashes) to 1 ($config = 1;)
280 openemr/sites/default/config.php
282 The following directories should be copied from the old version to the
285 openemr/sites/default/documents
286 openemr/sites/default/era
287 openemr/sites/default/edi
288 openemr/sites/default/letter_templates
290 If there are other files that you have customized, then you will also need
291 to treat those carefully.
293 To upgrade the database, run the sql_upgrade.php script from your web
294 browser (for example http://openemr.location/sql_upgrade.php). It will
295 prompt you to select the old release number, and will display the SQL
296 commands issued as the upgrade occurs.