Now that you have the FUDforum installation script, install.php, copy the script into a web browseable directory. It is recommended to copy the script into the web directory where you intend to install the forum. To begin the installation of the forum, use your browser to access the install.php file.
Once you've accessed the script, you will see the 1st step of the installation wizard, which consists of five steps.
During the 1st step of the FUDforum installation, you get the opportunity to specify where you want the forum's files to be installed, as well as the URL of the forum. The install script will automatically put some default values for the options asked, you can use those values, or you can change them.
If your PHP has safe_mode enabled, you'll see an indicator that it is enabled in red on top of the install wizard. If safe_mode is enabled, you CAN NOT use specify the directory where you've placed install.php as Server Root or Forum Data Root.
The Server Root option allows you to specify the directory path where the forum's browseable files will be stored on your server's hard-drive. You will need to specify the full path to the directory. For example:
*NIX: /home/user/public_html/forum/ Windows: c:\\web\\my website\\forum\\
You need to enter \\ as directory separator on Windows because normally, \ is interpreted as an escape character. Since PHP is smart enough to convert / to \ internally, on Windows, you may want to use / as the directory separator and save yourself the hassle of having to deal with \\.
This is the location on your server's hard-drive where the forum's data files will be stored. It is highly recommended not to keep this directory inside a web browseable directory, since sensitive files such as messages bodies will be stored in it. For example:
*NIX: /home/user/public_html/forum/ Windows: c:\\web\\my website\\forum\\
You need to enter \\ as directory separator on Windows because normally, \ is interpreted as an escape character. Since PHP is smart enough to convert / to \ internally, on Windows, you may want to use / as the directory separator and save yourself the hassle of having to deal with \\.
If you for whatever reason, you choose to keep this directory in a location where it can be accessed with a web browser, consider using your webserver's security settings to block access to regular users to this directory. For example, .htaccess rules on Apache such as:
Example 3.5. Securing directory with .htaccess
<Location /> Order Deny,Allow Deny from all </Location>
The directories that you have specified as Forum Data Root and Server Root must exist and the webserver must have the permission to write to those directories before you click on the next link on the install wizard.
On *NIX systems there are several ways you can assign proper permissions to the directories you intend to use. The simplest method is to run command chmod 777 /home/user/directory in your shell account.
If you do not not have a shell account you can assign proper permissions to a directory by using your FTP client.
Example 3.6. Changing permissions with CuteFTP
Select the directory
Press CTRL+SHIFT+A
Enter 777 in the manual textbox
Press OK
Example 3.7. Changing permissions with WS_FTP
Right click on the directory
Choose the chmod UNIX option
In the dialog that appeared check all the checkboxes
Press OK
Enter the URL to your forum, after the forum is installed, visitors will be able to access the forum by going to this URL. Any files places inside Server Root should be accessible by going to this URL.
Once you've entered all the values, click on the next link to proceed to step #2 of the installation.
Now that the forum's files were successfully decompressed, you will now need to specify the database settings for your forum.
This is the IP address or a UNIX domain socket that will be used to connect to the database server you intend to use.
For optimal performance, we recommend using UNIX domain sockets.
Example 3.8. Database Server
Standard IP 127.0.0.1
UNIX Domain Socket :/tmp/mysql.sock
A alphanumeric string that will be prepended to all FUDforum's table names. This is done to prevent conflicts with your existing tables, which may share same names as the tables used by FUDforum. As well as allow you to install multiple forums into a single SQL database by specifying a different prefix.
By default, this option has a value of "fud2_", if you are not sure, leave this value as is.
Cookies are little bits of information that are stored on the user's computer, which are sent by the browser to the website which set them. Unless otherwise specified, FUDforum 2.3 uses cookies to track the currently logged in users, thus the user is not required to login every time.
In order for the cookie to be set properly it needs to have a correct domain specified for which you are sending a cookie. The installation script automatically figures out the most optimal cookie domain based on the URL you've entered in step #1.
If you decide to change this value make sure the domain has no less the 2 '.' in it, for example:
.mydomain.comThis is necessary because many browsers will not accept a cookie unless the domain has at least 2 dots in it.
Due to the nature of cookies, cookies cannot be set for IP address' or domains without any dot's in them. In this case, the forum will revert to using URL based sessions to keep track of users. The downside of this, is that after certain period of inactivity, usually 30 minutes, the session will expire and the user will be required to re-login.
In this step you get to choose the language that your forum will be in, the list of available languages is listed in the select box. This setting is not permanent and if you so desire you will be able to change it later once the forum has been installed.
The last step of the installer involves the creation of the 1st administrator account. You will need to enter the login name, password and the email address into the specified text boxes.
You will be able to make additional Administrators once the forum is installed.
The forum installation has now been completed, if you click on the next button you will be taken to a login form that will allow you to login into the administrator account you've created on step #5
It is of critical importance that you remove the install.php file once the installation process has been completed. Otherwise someone could re-install over the forum you have created.