Can I install WebMO on my laptop or desktop?
Yes!
Although WebMO is designed as multi-user software to be installed on a server, it can easily be installed on a single-user system to provide a graphical interface to locally installed computational chemistry programs.
Follow the Windows or Apple OS X installation installation instructions, as appropriate.
What directories should I install WebMO into?
For Linux/unix installations, it is strongly recommended that you create a normal user into which you install WebMO software. It might be your ordinary user directory, e.g., /home/smith, or it might be a new webmo user dedicated to running WebMO jobs, e.g., /home/webmo.
Do not install WebMO in main webserver directory, e.g., not in /var/www/html. Otherwise, WebMO might run as the webserver or root user.
Thus, if you create a 'webmo' user, we recommend installing WebMO as follows:
- HTML directory: /home/webmo/public_html/webmo
- HTML URL: /~webmo/webmo
- CGI Directory: /home/webmo/public_html/cgi-bin/webmo
- CGI URL: /~webmo/cgi-bin/webmo
- User Directory: /home/webmo/webmo
Other default directory locations are suggested for Apple OS X and Windows installations.
How do I configure Apache to allow run CGI scripts?
WebMO is a web-based interface to computational chemistry programs. As such, it must must be installed on a webserver (e.g., Apache) that supports CGI (Common Gateway Interface) scripts for interaction with the end user.
For Linux/unix systems, small adjustments to the default configuration of the Apache webserver are needed to allow regular users to run CGI scripts.
For Windows or Apple OS X computers, instructions are provided for running CGI scripts on their webservers.
Apple iOS and Android apps are clients (not servers), and no additional configuration is needed.
Where are the Computational Engines?
WebMO is an interface to various computational engines. It does not provide those engines. (That said, WebMO does include rudimentary molecular mechanics, Huckel molecular orbital, and symmetry calcutions.)
You must install your desired computational engines on your computer as described by the engine provider.
Important: You must be able to perform calculations from the command line before you can expect WebMO to support your installed computational engine.