Installation Manual

1. Introduction
2. Download
3. Database Setup
4. Script Upload
5. Permission Adjustments
6. Installation

1. Introduction

This installation manual was created to help you install eSyndiCat Web Directory Software on your site.

The whole installation process can be divided into following steps:

• Download the script
• Setup a MySQL database
• Upload the script to your server
• Make some pre-installation adjustments
• Run installation script

Let's start!

2. Download

You can download the script here: http://www.esyndicat.com/downloads/

3. Database Setup

If you already have a database setup (i.e. the one your site already makes use of) and you don't want to setup the directory software into separate database you can skip this step and proceed to script upload. Otherwise, keep up reading to learn how to create a new database on your server.

Basically, there is one of three ways to create a new database on your server:

• via CPanel
• via phpMyAdmin
• via SSH

Creating new database using CPanel (you hosting account control panel) is the easiest and fastest way and is considered the default way. If you are not experienced in installing scripts, please stick to this method.

phpMyAdmin is another way to create new database. But you must have enough permissions to do that in phpMyAdmin.

The last alternative method is via your SSH account. This is the most sophisticated method.

If you are not sure what CPanel, phpMyAdmin, or SSH is, please contact your hosting company. They will give you at least one of those accounts.

Below is the detailed description of each method described.

Method #1: CPanel

• Go to MySQL Databases section.
• Enter database name and click Add Db button. This will create new database.
• Enter username and password and click Add User button. This will create new user. Please remember these credentials since you will need them later when running installation script.
• Add newly created user to the newly created database with ALL privileges.

Method #2: phpMyAdmin

• Open phpMyAdmin in your browser. If you're not sure what the URL is, please contact your hosting company.
• Enter database name into Create new database field and click Create button. This will create new database.
• Select newly created database and go to SQL section.
• In the query text field enter this query:

  GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON database_name.* TO database_username@localhost
  IDENTIFIED BY 'password' WITH GRANT OPTION;

  IMPORTANT! Don't forget to replace database_name, database_username, and password with actual database name, username, and password when running this query.
• Go to SQL section again.
• Run this query:

  FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Method #3: SSH

• Connect to your server via SSH.
• Run the command below to enter MySQL environment:

  mysql -u username -p

  Replace username with actual database username. You will be prompted to enter password.
• Run the command below to create new database:

  CREATE DATABASE database_name;

  Replace database_name with actual database name.
• Run the command below to grant privileges to the user:

  GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON database_name.* TO database_username@localhost
  IDENTIFIED BY 'password' WITH GRANT OPTION;

  IMPORTANT! Don't forget to replace database_name, database_username, and password with actual database name, username, and password when running this query.
• Run the command below:

  FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

By following the instructions of one of the methods abouve you should now have a new database created on your server.

4. Script Upload

To upload the script to your server you need an FTP client program. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and FTP client is a program that allows to transfer remote files via this protocol. If you want to learn more about FTP, please search Google for it.

Connect to your server via FTP and upload the script.

5. Permission Adjustments

For the installation script to run successfully you need to set some file permissions. By setting permissions you actually tell the server to allow the script make some actions with some files.

To start changing permissions do the following:

• Connect to the server with either FTP or SSH client program.
• Go to the directory where you uploaded the script.
• Run the command below to make ads directory writable (your banners will be uploaded in this directory):

  chmod 777 ads

• Run the command below to make backup directory writable (your backups will be saved in this directory):

  chmod 777 backup

• Run the command below to make configuration file writable:

  chmod 777 includes/config.inc.php

• Run the command below to make temporary directory writable:

  chmod 777 tmp

• Run the command below to make cache directory writable:

  chmod 777 tmp/cache

• Run the command below to make Smarty cahce directory writable:

  chmod 777 tmp/smartycache

• Run the command below to make logs directory writable:

  chmod 777 tmp/log

• Run the command below to make uploads directory writable (files will be uploaded here from additional fields):

  chmod 777 uploads

6. Installation

To install eSyndiCat Directory Software you have to run installation file. In the example below we will use mysite.com as a fake domain name. Whenever you see this name you have to substitute it with your actual domain name. We will also use dir/ as the script root directory. If your directory differs from this one you also have to change it to your actual directory.

To start installation run the installation script by typing the following URL in your browser: http://www.mysite.com/dir/install/ (remember to substitute mysite.com with your actual domain name and dir/ with your directory name).

eSyndiCat installation process is divided into three simple steps. They are: Pre-installation check, License, Configuration. Let's review these steps in details.

a. Pre-installation check

This steps checks your server configuration and explains if your server suits all the requirements for running our software. Besides, you can download Server Requirements Checker from eSyndiCat downloads area. Just run it on your server and you will understand if you can go on using our directory software.

Pre-installation check is divided into several groups:

• Server Configuration
• Recommended Settings
• Directory & File Permissions

Let's review all these groups in details.

Server Configuration

MySQL Version	MySQL version that is used on your server. eSyndiCat requires MySQL 4.0 or above.
PHP Version	Version of PHP on your server. It should be greater than 4.3.0
PHP XML Support	XML lib is used to parse RSS feeds.
PHP MySQL Support	This module is used to connect to MySQL database engine from php scripts.
PHP GD Extension	This extension is used to generate captcha and for images and banners resizing. We highly recommend to install it in case you do not have it.
PHP Mbstring extension	Used for UTF8 strings operations.

Recommended Settings

We highly recommend to set correct values for all settings here. Anyhow, the script will still operate in case you have some of them configured in a different way. Safe Mode, Allow URL Fopen must match required configuration.

Directory & File Permissions

Set correct permissions for all your directories and configuration file. Installation process can not be completed until you set writable permissions for tmp/, tmp/cache/, tmp/smartycache/ and tmp/log/ directories.

b. eSyndiCat License

Please read eSyndiCat License Agreement. By clicking Next button you confirm you agree with the terms of use mentioned in the license agreement.

c. Configuration

This step configures your script. It's divided into several groups: Database configuration, Common Configuration, Administrator configuration.

Database Configuration

Here you should input correct database details. Also you can configure your eSyndiCat tables prefix.

Common Configuration

No need to change any values here. They are generated automatically.

Administrator Configuration

Please set your admin panel username and password. Later you can change all these values in admin panel. Also set your email. It will be assigned to default admin account that is created during installation.

After you fill in the forms click Next button. Your script should be successfully installed.
Note: if you install the script on local server it will take about one minute to run the query as the script checks for updates from eSyndiCat site.

If you have any problems during installation process you should ask for help in our support forums or submit a ticket in our helpdesk under Installation Requests section.

IMPORTANT! After installation is complete remove install/ subdirectory in your links exchange script directory.