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phpFox

Updated:

January 16, 2012

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Getting Started with phpFox

Installing the Product

This guide will help you through the installation process of phpFox.

Installation is very straight forward, only taking about 15 minutes from uploading the files to logging into your Administration Control Panel (AdminCP).

If you want to save the hassle of installing the product, you're always welcome to order the "Installation Service" and our technicians will do it for you!

We advise that you read this entire documentation to get a greater idea on how to handle the package and solve any issues should they occur.

You will need an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client, if you do not have one you can download Filezilla for Windows/Linux or InterArchy for Mac.
You do not need an in-depth knowledge of PHP programming to install phpFox, but a working knowledge of FTP functions is a plus.

This guide assumes that you have successfully downloaded the latest release from phpFox and have the ZIP file "unzipped".

Preparation & Uploading of phpFox

At this point you should have the zip archive "unzipped", which should have contents similar to those shown in this structure guide:

tools/
upload/
readme.html

Go into the folder "upload/", which should have contents similar to those shown in this structure guide:

file/
include/
install/
module/
static/
theme/
favicon.ico
htaccess.txt
index.php
robots.txt

Rename the file

include/setting/server.sett.php.new

include/setting/server.sett.php

Next, upload the files and folders within the "upload/" folder to your site using an FTP client. Be sure to overwrite any old files. Do not upload the folder or the contents of the folder "tools" and do not upload the file readme.html

Once that is completed we can move on to the next step.

CHMOD & File Permissions

With the phpFox package there are certain folders and files that need write permission in order to execute certain tasks.

Below you will find the files and folders that must have full write permission and set to 0777 in order for the script to be installed:

file/attachment/
file/cache/
file/css/
file/log/
file/music/
file/pic/ad/
file/pic/emoticon/
file/pic/emoticon/default/
file/pic/event/
file/pic/group/
file/pic/icon/
file/pic/marketplace/
file/pic/music/
file/pic/pages/
file/pic/photo/
file/pic/poll/
file/pic/app/
file/pic/egift/
file/pic/quiz/
file/pic/subscribe/
file/pic/user/
file/pic/video/
file/pic/watermark/
file/static/
file/session/
file/video/
file/gzip/
include/setting/server.sett.php

Once you have completed CHMODING all the needed files and folders continue to the next step.

Using the Web-Installer

An installer is provided to assist you in entering the information phpFox needs to connect to your SQL database.

Run the installer file through your web browser by entering the URL into your browser address bar (if you have followed our example, type in http://www.domain.com/install/index.php , naturally substituting 'domain.com' for your web address.)

Then follow these steps:

Step 1: Verification

We first check if the domain you are attempting to install the product on currently has a valid product license. There are several ways you can run a licensed product. You can run it on a licensed domain, which you provide the full path to where the software will be installed. You can also run a test site only for development purposes in a folder, sub-domain or localhost. The folder or sub-domain name must be called "phpfoxdev" or "development" and must be access protected. Here are some examples:

http://www.yoursite.com/phpfoxdev/  or http://www.yoursite.com/development/  (Live Development Server)
http://phpfoxdev.yoursite.com/  or http://development.yoursite.com/  (Live Development Server)
http://localhost/  or http://127.0.0.1  (Local Server)
http://209.85.135.104/  (IP to Your Development Server)

Step 2: License Agreement

Abide to the License Agreement to continue to the next step.

Step 3: Requirement Check

Step 3 will consist of checking your server if it meets the software requirements and all the required files/folders have the correct permissions.

Step 4: Configuration

This step is where you will need to know your SQL username and password. If you do not know it, please ask your web host - in most cases it is different from the FTP log in information.

The form is very straightforward, with only the following points needing closer examination. If you do not know what your "SQL Host" is, try "localhost" (without the quotes). If the SQL server is on the same server as your website (and in most cases it is) this will suffice. If you have created a new database for phpFox, or wish to use an existing database, enter the name of the database in the appropriate field.

Video Module Configuration

These settings are optional and only should be filled if you plan to use the video module. The script will attempt to find the correct paths for both FFMPEG and MENCODER, however you should verify if they are correct with your host. If at any time these settings are incorrect you can change them directly from the AdminCP at a later time.

Step 5: Installer

The installer will now be automated until the final step. It will install all the required database tables and insert any data into each of the tables depending on what modules are being installed.

Step 6: Administrators Account

Fill out the form to create your administrators account.

Step 7: Complete

Congratulations phpFox is installed!

Comments

Only verified clients can post comments on our community. If you have any questions feel free to contact us here.

DMAN wrote at October 13, 2011, 11:05 am

0 Votes

Posted October 13, 5:51 at http://www.phpfox.com/forum/troubleshooting-and-pr...

“From the blog posts
Documentation
Our documentation can be found here. Note that the documentation for installing the product for v3 is the same as v2. The guide is missing certain files that need to have "write" permission, however the installer will guide you on those extra folders that need to be updated.”

Last Update on October 13, 2011, 11:07 am by DMAN

TheFurryDrifter wrote at September 7, 2011, 4:06 pm

1 Vote

file/gzip/:
file/pic/app/:
file/pic/egift/:

These need set permissions for v3 - maybe update the article to include this

GCL wrote at September 2, 2011, 7:31 pm

0 Votes

I cant install phpfox, please help
www.mydomainname.com/install/index.php white page :S no data no entry

tested: ie, firefox, safari, opera

Last Update on September 3, 2011, 3:10 am by GCL

Divinity wrote at October 16, 2011, 12:56 pm

0 Votes

How did you get passed the white page when trying to use the web-installer? I cant seem to find any answers for anything!

jd1 wrote at June 21, 2011, 6:15 am

1 Vote

Just set up development site using MAMP Pro for Macintosh (MacbookPro quad core i7)... it doesn't get any easier! I do second VBT's comment regarding addendum to the install instruction of the need to create a database prior installation. Also, Filezilla 3.5 is an excellent FTP client for the new Macs.

Last Update on June 21, 2011, 6:16 am by jd1

Linus wrote at June 13, 2011, 5:30 am

1 Vote

If you get a blank screen after filling the database details, you can try to add the line:
error_reporting(E_ALL);

at the top in the file located in /install/include/installer.class.php to get error information. In my case some file(s) was corrupted during upload.

phpArthur wrote at February 3, 2012, 3:32 pm

0 Votes

Yes, I get errors.
Anybody here who can fix it?

phpArthur wrote at February 3, 2012, 1:13 pm

0 Votes

Thank you! I will try right now

Matthew Shannon wrote at June 5, 2011, 8:06 pm

1 Vote

I cant install phpfox, where do i find help.

GCL wrote at September 2, 2011, 12:26 pm

1 Vote

yes me to, blank (white) page , no text ne entry :S

View replies (1) to this comment.

Matthew Shannon wrote at June 4, 2011, 4:10 am

1 Vote

after starting the installer, I can only get to the final step "create admin account", after entering the data and submitting, the page goes white and displays "failed". whats going on?

jackparr52 wrote at April 10, 2011, 6:19 am

0 Votes

In the install directions, you forgot to add changing the .htaccess.txt to .htaccess

Agent Design wrote at February 2, 2011, 6:50 pm

3 Votes

Here some tips regarding installation if you plan on installing a development copy first, or at least what worked for me. I did try requesting a dev license first but I was to impatient to wait for the email.

1. When entering your domain in the license setup only enter the host part e.g. mysite.com not phpfoxdev.mysite.com or development.mysite.com as the license agreement kinds of suggests. This might still work if you put www.example.com, but haven't tried. Also I don't what the "Not Assigned" is all about as this didn't work for me.

2. Create your subdomain - I created a subdomain called phpfoxdev.mysite.com

3. Copy all the files from the extracted upload directory into the web root of your sub/local domain

4. What they mean by "access protected" is protecting your web root (httpdocs, public_html or equivalent) with apache basic authentication (.htpasswd file) - there are any number of articles on the internet to guide you on how to do this.

Here are some example paths which might help the unexperienced user;

Document Root: /var/www/vhosts/mysite.com/subdomains/phpfoxdev
Web Root: /var/www/vhosts/mysite.com/subdomains/phpfoxdev/httpdocs
Protected Dir: /var/www/vhosts/mysite.com/subdomains/phpfoxdev/private - Not accessible from a browser

Other common document roots
/home/www/htdocs/mysite
/home/www/mysite.com
/var/www/vhosts/mysite.com
C:/xampp/htdocs

Other common web roots
/home/www/htdocs/mysite/public_html
/home/www/mysite.com/httpdocs
/var/www/vhosts/mysite.com/htdocs
C:/xampp/htdocs/mysite
The .htpasswd file should be created in a protected directory

Along with the .htpasswd you need to add the following to your .htaccess or vhost.conf file

<Files ~ "^\.ht">
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
</Files>

<Directory "/var/www/vhosts/mysite.com/subdomains/phpfoxdev/httpdocs">
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

Options Indexes
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Private Access"
AuthUserFile "/var/www/vhosts/mysite.com/subdomains/phpfoxdev/private/.htpasswd"
Require valid-user
</Directory>

5. Setting permissions - if you have shell access then you just need to type the following rather than doing it for each sub directory of files;
cd /var/www/vhosts/mysite.com/subdomains/phpfoxdev/httpdocs
chmod -R 777 files/*
chmod 755 files/index.html (Reset perms on the index.html file)

Alternatively if you are using an ftp client select everything below the files directory excluding the index.html and set writtable permissions.

Don't forget to chmod 777 include/setting/server.sett.php which you should change to 644 after installation is complete (chmod 644 include/setting/server.sett.php)

6. Create your empty mysql database before proceeding to the install url

7. Delete your install directory after installation is complete.

8. When editing your license there is no need to download and extract the zip file again as nothing gets changed in the files itself (as far as I could tell). I think it looks at both the $_SERVER<'HTTP_HOST'> and $_SERVER<'REMOTE_ADDR'> global variables and checks their system for a matching domain or ip. (just a guess).

Last Update on February 2, 2011, 6:59 pm by Agent Design

CMac55 wrote at February 1, 2011, 5:45 am

1 Vote

Wow...after much battling with everything, mostly the FTP server, I was able to get through your directions with success. Daunting as they are - and I have zero computer background - the directions are on point.

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