Tiki Installation on Android

Experimental but working


No rooting of the Android device necessary - works on non-rooted standard Androids (at least on Android 4.x, ARM7, 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage ... tested in June 2013 on an ASUS MemoPad 7" , which is not the last state of the art power machine like Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 or so)

This guide does not only apply to Tiki and can mainly be used for any webapplication / CMS / WIKI like Tiki, WordPress, Joomla! etc., given it is a PHP/MySQL app and once you know the specific setup procedures of your software. Once you have setup the Android servers, it is pretty much the same than on any linux system ... even better: chances to work without root access.

Initial Steps

Quick overview about the steps and prerequisites

  • Download, Install and Configure an Android Server App,
  • Create directories either to the external SDcard or to the internal SDcard (depending on the Android App)
  • Set the www root in the Android application
  • Download Tiki, Unpack and Upload
  • Connect to the phpMyAdmin on the Android
  • Create a database either from the Android device or via LAN
  • Connect to Tiki either from the Android device or via LAN to start the installer

  • Maybe you need an app to use a shell / terminal on the Android device and run sh setup.sh or you use a filemanager app to change directory and file permissions if needed on your device


We do not know any Apache/PHP/MySQL app for Android right at the moment (June 2013), but the apps we know do use the Lighttpd Server.
Tiki is running on a default Lighttpd server, but without any .htaccess options, as these options are configured differently on Lighttpd than on Apache.

Lighttpd does NOT use .htaccess at all ... here a starter to get Clean URLs / SEFURL on a Lighttpd based Tiki: Lighttpd Clean URLs.

Hints

Before you get started with Tiki it's a good idea to

  • Have setup the servers on the Android device
  • Set a password for MySQL 'root', but NOT delete him! 😉
  • Use an individual user for each database (not 'root')
  • Know your database name, database user name and password
  • Know the Android server app's specific serverports (ex. :8080, :8082, :3306, ...)
  • Use a wireless lan (WLAN) to access phpMyAdmin and the Tiki Installer / Tiki website via a desktop workstation or a laptop if available

To get any web application running on an Android device, you will need a webserver first - here are some suggested apps, which could help you getting there

AndroPHP

A slim App, that simply provides what is needed to get a standard PHP/MySQL web application running on the Android device. (see here)

Personal opinion of me (Torsten): very cool and useful app, if you only need PHP/MySQL. Then strongly recommended.

AndroPHP provides as well PHP with Lighttpd Server, a MySQLServer and phpMyAdmin to create and configure the databases.

Get AndroPHP for free in the Google Playstore or from other Sources.
Coder is Ömer Ayan (ayansoft) mail

  • Size :13.93MB
  • Requirements : Android 2.2 or higher

Servers Ultimate / Servers Ultimate Pro

Free trial for 14 days and then paid pro version. Price in June 2013 was 6,99€.
Exceptional is, that this application has a vast amount of features and the ability to setup nearly 40 different types of servers (see here)

Very personal opinion of me (Torsten) is that this app is absolutely worth the price.

The software is not as slim and simple as AndroPHP, but still easy to understand and mostly intuitive. More features and options surely need a bit of more time to get around with.

You need to install 'Servers Ultimate' for Trial or 'Servers Ultimate Pro' with full licence - sadly you need a Google Account with an added credit card to buy and install. Good point is, that you can install/uninstall/install as often, as you need, once you purchased it. I do not know, if there are different sources to purchase the app.

Additionally to the core App 'Servers Ultimate`/ 'Servers Ultimat Pro' you need the appropriate 'Server Pack', which can be downloaded for free.

At the moment there are three 'Server Packs': A, B and C

For MySQL/PHP/Lighttpd you need at least 'Server Pack C'

Coder: Icecoldapps website mail

More information