Question

• TWiki version: current
• Perl version: Perl 5.0
• Web server & version: IIS 5.0
• Server OS: WINDOWS 2000
• Web browser & version: IE 6.0
• Client OS: Windows 2000

Have there been any TWiki installtions on IIS?

-- NancyTurner - 28 Mar 2003

Answer

Yes, quite a few - see Google:twiki+IIS and TWikiOn. However, IIS installations of TWiki are by all accounts quite difficult compared to using Apache.

-- RichardDonkin - 29 Mar 2003

Richard, you're assuming that people know how to work with Linux and Apache. What if they don't? For those, familiar Windows might be less confusing. Take me for instance: I don't know the first thing about Linux and Apache, but I installed Red Hat 8 anyway. I was amazed at how quickly it installed and how pretty it was - but after that, there was absolutely nothing I knew how to do... sad but true. Now I've spent a while with Windows+IIS and I got a great deal further: a running TWiki site, though I'm still wondering how to get the authentication to work (not corporate intranet, but on public Internet).

Just my thoughts, if anybody cares. (I've seen that the requirements for TWiki include an experienced operator, but I tried anyway...)

-- TorbenGB - 27 May 2003

No, I'm not assuming Linux+Apache skills (but I am making some AdminSkillsAssumptions ). Lots of people manage to install TWiki using the WindowsInstallCookbook without knowing anything about Linux/Cygwin and Apache, and the same is true for Linux+Apache systems. The people I've seen trying to install on IIS have had some significant issues - MaryDeMarco seems to have quite a lot of background in this area and ended up converting from IIS to Apache. The CookbookWindowsIISSetup topic seems less clear-cut, so I still think that it's easier to use Linux+Apache, or maybe Windows+Apache.

I'm mainly going by support requests here - I have no access to IIS myself, and most installations appear to be on Apache using either Linux or Windows.

-- RichardDonkin - 27 May 2003

Granted, I've now felt firsthand that ISS really is more difficult than Apache - if you're trying to set up a TWiki site that's publicly available on the Internet. For users running TWikiOnIIS as an intranet website, it's probably not that much more difficult than it would be to use Apache.

On public Internet, you can still use IIS but there's no way to get user authentication to work - everybody will be known as TWikiGuest.This is because TWiki relies on the .htaccess and httpd.conf files which IIS ignores but Apache uses. This is as per release 01Feb2003 at least; perhaps a future release will be different (though this is not likely).

For LAN-based TWiki sites, IIS is still a valid option, and it's reasonably documented throughout twiki.org.

-- TorbenGB - 29 May 2003

TWiki doesn't actually rely on .htaccess and httpd.conf, otherwise it would not work at all on IIS. It does rely on some sort of HTTP authentication (e.g. Basic Authentication). The only real Apache dependency is in register and friends, when creating a new user or resetting a password. I don't agree that IIS is a simple option for LAN-based sites but it does provide integrated Windows client authentication which is quite handy; however, IIS is also known for requiring frequent security patches.

-- RichardDonkin - 29 May 2003