0 Can I install Rock RMS on Windows 7 or 10? How? 9 Frank Franklin posted 8 Years Ago Can I install and test Rock on a Windows 7 or 10 computer? I tried downloading Rock RMS from GitHub but the size of the file was intimidating - it was more than 500 Mega Byte. Does it mean that to test Rock on a computer, one has to download that large file? What if after downloading the large file and after testing, how possible is it to move such a huge file from the computer to the Web host server? Is there no better way of installing and testing Rock on the computer first. How can a Windows 7 or 10 be configured in order to install and test Rock? What if the computer already has Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition installed on the computer, is this enough to install and configure Rock on the PC?
Michael Garrison 8 years ago I'm not sure that it downloads all of that- there is a lot more in GitHub than is necessary to run Rock. That said, I don't know myself how large the download actually is, nor can I answer how large Rock is once installed- I have backups and misc files in my own directory so it's somewhat larger than a vanilla installation would be. I cannot answer myself as to the "how" or whether an interrupted connection will simply continue once restored rather than restarting.As to the "What is the difference" question: the biggest thing off the top of my head is that you need to have the installation routines run so that your church's information gets put in correctly ahead of time (url, name, org e-mail, etc) and perhaps more importantly, the database tables get created during the OOBE. I don't think that simply syncing the files down will do that.Once Rock is installed, all of the files are indeed on your computer and you could edit them. HOWEVER, it's usually not necessary to do so. Indeed, it's usually rather ill-advised to do so unless you're going to create pull requests to get your changes back into core, as the files can and will be overwritten at the next update.Rather, Rock customization is usually done from WITHIN rock, rather than editing files. You create new pages, add blocks to the pages, add content and people, etc, from the web interface, and those changes are stored in the SQL database, not in the C# source files you see on the computer.So it depends on how much you're expecting to be customizing. Start with working on the customizations available from within Rock itself, and when you hit a snag (and after you've confirmed there's no "normal" way to do what you need from within Rock), consider writing a plugin in Visual Studio, rather than modifying core files.Which brings me to another link: http://www.rockrms.com/Developer =)Visual Studio is not enough to install and test Rock on your PC. Indeed, it's not a requirement at all. You need IIS and SQL Server (express is fine, and is free, but again check the licensing as I'm unsure whether it's only licensed for server OS or not). Read through the "Internal Hosting" manual I linked to previously for more information on the installation.
Michael Garrison 7 years ago FYI I just had an opportunity to install Rock fresh on a new server- the vanilla installation came in at around 140mb for me. I know it downloads a series of .zip files though so it's entirely possible the actual download is even less than the actual installation.
Michael Garrison 8 years ago Sorry, OOBE=Out-of-box-experience (setup)1: That's just an HTML block, using the "Blocks" button on the Admin toolbar, you can add content there. Consider leaving the Spark credit there though, since it includes a link to the licenses which you may need to refer to, and since this is a page only for your internal use, it's not hurting anything. It will REALLY help you as you explore Rock to have read the manuals as I recommended above.2: Powered by Rock- see the answer above. Address: will be set during setup, or can be removed as above.3: Yes, it can be changed- it's all block settings.See http://rock.rocksolidchurchdemo.com/page/150 for a list of what file types are stored where. It looks like the default is that everything except audio and video files are stored in the Database. So yes, in general you would just need to restore your backup to a fresh Rock installation (of matching version number), re-load any plugins you've created or purchased through the shop, upload any video/audio files (unless you change those to be stored in the database as well), you'll be good to go.Note that I believe there are plugins to add file locations, such as AWS, so that the files would actually not need to be transferred, nor add size to your database- you may want to look into that.Yes, look at the developers link above- if you know C#, you'll be able to create plugins. But I think you may be surprised at how extensible Rock is even without plugins.
Michael Garrison 7 years ago FYI = For Your InformationVanilla installation means initial installation, no plugins, data or edits. It's a "pure" untouched fresh install.Yes, I downloaded a new copy of Rock to a new server (web host) from rockrms.com, and after installation was done I checked the size of the directory on the server and it was just 140MB.
Michael Garrison 7 years ago Quite right. To install Internet Information Services (IIS), you'll need to go to "Add and Remove Programs" and then click "Turn Windows Features on or off" and check the box next to IIS. Be sure to get any of the sub-items that are listed in the documentation too. The .NET 3.5 features it lists may be in that dialogue as well, or you may just need to download it directly from Microsoft.
Michael Garrison 7 years ago Probably not- Rock is designed to run on Windows Server, not the client editions of Windows. At this point I think you'll be better off abandoning the idea and look into hosted options instead.