How to Install Access to Memory (AtoM) on Windows 10

Access to Memory (AtoM) is a web-based application for managing and providing access to archival descriptions and digital objects. In this tutorial, we will go through the steps to install AtoM on a Windows 10 machine.

Prerequisites

Before we start, make sure that you have the following prerequisites installed:

• Apache web server (version 2.4 or later)
• MySQL database (version 5.5 or later)
• PHP programming language (version 7.2 or later)

If you don't have any of the above prerequisites installed, you can download and install them from the official websites:

• Apache: https://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi
• MySQL: https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/installer/
• PHP: https://windows.php.net/download/

Steps

1. Download AtoM

Visit the official AtoM website at https://www.accesstomemory.org/download/ and download the latest stable version of AtoM. We recommend downloading the ZIP package.

2. Extract the ZIP package

Extract the downloaded ZIP package to a directory on your local machine, e.g., C:\atom.

3. Create a virtual host

AtoM requires a virtual host in Apache. Open the httpd.conf file located in C:\Apache24\conf and add the following lines at the end of the file:

# Access to Memory (AtoM)
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName atom.local
    DocumentRoot "C:\atom\atom"
</VirtualHost>

Save the file and restart Apache.

4. Create a MySQL user and database

Create a new MySQL user with all privileges and a new database. You can use a tool like phpMyAdmin to do this. Make sure to note down the username, password, and database name for later use.

5. Configure AtoM

AtoM comes with a sample configuration file config/Configuration.yml.sample. Copy this file to config/Configuration.yml and open it in a text editor like Notepad++.

Change the following lines:

databases:
  connection:
    dsn: 'mysql:host=localhost;dbname=atom;charset=utf8'
    username: 'root'
    password: ''

To:

databases:
  connection:
    dsn: 'mysql:host=localhost;dbname=[database_name];charset=utf8'
    username: '[mysql_user]'
    password: '[mysql_password]'

Replace [database_name], [mysql_user], and [mysql_password] with the actual values you noted down in step 4.

Save the file.

6. Visit the AtoM web installer

Open your web browser and visit http://atom.local/install. Follow the installation wizard to complete the installation.

7. Start using AtoM!

Once the installation is complete, you can use AtoM by visiting http://atom.local in your web browser.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have gone through the steps to install AtoM on a Windows 10 machine. With AtoM installed, you can manage and provide access to archival descriptions and digital objects.

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