|
Installation Questions: Unofficial Guide written by: daniel EDWARDS Thank you for choosing Invision Power Board, the greatest Forum software on the Internet. Many of you may have questions installing it and putting things into motion, but this page will give you a general idea of how to install and setup your Forum. This is not for the newbie, but I will write this in newbie terms, so that everyone can understand. DOWNLOAD IT If you're reading this file right now, you've probably got this covered. You also know how to extract files, so we'll move on. GENERAL GUIDE Creating The Directory The first thing you want to do is create a new directory in your root site for your Forum. This basically means making a new folder where you will contain your Forum files. You can do this best through FTP (file transfer protocol), although I'm aware that you can use a file manager as well. FTP is the easiest way to do it, so ensure from your host that you have FTP enabled for editing and managing files through your site. You can access FTP through a number of FTP programs, but seeing as how you've downloaded this free version of Invision Power Board, you're not in the interest of paying for professional programs. Try SmartFTP or CoreFTP Lite for starters. You can type in those words into the Google.com search engine to obtain the url, download it, and get it moving. Log in to your FTP account (which requires a username, a password, and a domain name). Your FTP account should be something like: Address: ftp://yoursite.com Username: moocher@yoursite.com Password: ****** Once you have logged in, create a new directory in your root directory. Basically, your root directory would normally have the following url in the FTP address bar: /var/www/html/public_html/. Your root directory is where all your site files are stored, including your index.html page. So create a new folder or make a new directory in this spot and name it something simple like "forum". Uploading The Files Now, go into that folder and upload all the contents necessary for your Invision Power Board. You should only upload the contents you find in the "upload" folder that you unzipped to your Desktop. Most FTP programs support "drag-and-drop", a system where you can drag programs from a source folder into your FTP client and have it manually copy all directories and files. If you are running an older version, you may have to manually create each directory in your Forum directory, and then upload the corresponding files. Since this is going to take a while, you can start focusing on database information. Creating A MySQL Database IPB runs directly on PHP and MySQL. You will need MySQL access in order to create an Invision Power Board forum. Most Web hosts will provide you with MySQL access, but if you're not sure you have it, contact your web host immediately. MySQL operates through a series of confusing code and what we call "datbases". Databases store more detailed information than a cookie (a file stored on your computer that remembers login information, page details, etc.). You will automatically write information to your database while installing Invision Power Board. It will record user registrations, your installation information, general configurations, etc. So MySQL is really handy, even though you have no clue what it means. Don't worry, I don't either. So what you want to do now is Create a Database for installing IPB. Login to your MySQL control panel (only your host can give you this information). A database requires only three pieces of information to be created: a name, your username, and a password. As simple as that. So create a database named "iAm_moocher" or whatever you want to call it, then supply a username and password. Record this information, because if you lose it, you will be screwed. Write it on a piece of paper and tape it to your monitor if you have to, just don't lose that login information. Now that you have created your database, you can check on the contents being uploaded to your site. Everything should have completed now, but if it didn't, you'll have to wait. Once everything has finished uploading, you'll have to do some CHMOD'ing. Changing And Modifying (CHMOD) File Permissions Don't panic, young squire. CHMOD means "change/modify directory permissions", or something like that. And what I mean by permissions is basically who can access your files. You can change permissions of files so that only you can read, write, and execute specific files, or so that everyone can read, write, or execute files. CHMOD'ing is defined using three octal number components that specify access limitations for the owner, the owner's user group, and to the general public not currently in the owner's user group. Each component can be calculated by adding up the required permissions for each target user base. The number 1 allows you to execute, the number 2 allows you to write, and the number 4 allows you to read. Adding up these number values reveal the allowed rights. For example, to allow a sort of "administration" perspective on a file, you want to enable the file to be readable, writeable, and executable. By adding up the numbers 4, 2, and 1 respectively, you are given the number 7. If you allow the owner, user group, and public "administration" rights, you are given the three-digit of "777". The table below is an example of how this system of file permissions is set up: So IPB will require you to change some file permissions on several files and folders in order to allow the automatic installer to write to all files and enable administration and user-level access. In order to install IPB using the self-installer, you will need to change file permissions for several files. View the Installation Guide provided by Invision Power for the permissions you need to set on the files. After all, this is only a guide to Invision Power's guide, so I'm not going to waste time entering more information that you can already find in their guide. So after you've changed those necessary file permissions, refer to this checklist and ensure that you completed each task: - Uploaded all files in the "upload" folder - Created a MySQL database - CHMOD'ing of specific files Once this is all out of the way, it's time to begin the installation. Automatic Installer You can access IPB's built-in installer that will build your configuration file and all tables in your database automatically. You must, however, ensure that all information you enter in the fields are correct. Begin by running the installer directly from your Web browser. Type in http://www.yoursite.com/forum/install/index.php, but ensure that you replace the "www.yoursite.com" with your own URL. The installer will present you with critical information, and it will also verify that specific files are correctly CHMOD'ed. Click the "Proceed" button to reach the next step. This page will ask you for your MySQL database information. Enter all required information in the fields using the MySQL database you just created. For the "host" field, enter "localhost". For the "database name" field, enter the name of the database you just created. For the "username" and "password" fields, enter your username and password for your MySQL database. Scroll down further and enter your administration username and password for your Forum. Ensure that you do not forget your login information, or else you'll have to start over from scratch, as you cannot get into the Administration Control Panel. Once you have entered all information correctly, click next to reach the self-install pages. These next pages that you cycle through will automatically create IPB and write information into your database. After you have reached the last step, you will receive a warning to delete the install directory you used to install IPB. It is highly recommended that you do, because people can write over all your information through it. Go back into your FTP client and delete the installer files, and then go back to your Web browser and click the "proceed" button to launch your board. DO NOT REFRESH THE PAGE. Administration Control Panel You can now login to your Forum using that login information you just created in the Forum installer. Once you are logged in as the administrator, click the "Admin CP" link found in the navigation bar to login and edit your board's configuration. Play around and have some fun with your new IPB board! |