Virtual Web Platform - Installation Instructions
From VNetWiki
These are the step by step instructions for installing the Virtual Web Platform (VWP).
Contents |
Download a complete version of the platform
1. Download a copy of a platform release from www.vnetpublishing.com. Select a full version and not an upgrade version. The upgrade versions require that you have a version of the platform installed and functional.
Upload the platform to your server
1. Verify that your web host provides a file manager with the ability to extract compressed files. If your web host does not provide this feature you will need to extract the package on your computer before uploading it.
2. Upload the package or pre-extracted files to your web server via FTP or a file manager and extract the contents of the package if you have not already done so.
3. Move the contents of the package to the web site folder where you plan on accessing it from. This can be the root folder or can be any other folder accessible by the web.
4. Open the application from your web browser. You should see various warnings and notices, they are informing you that the system is not fully configured.
Main Configuration
1. First Click one of the configuration links or enter the direct url in your web browser. The direct URL is in the format of [WEB_ROOT]/index.php?app=vwp for example: www.example.com/vwp/index.php?app=vwp
2. From this page you should be able to start configuring your platform. The configuration settings will be written to the vwp_config.php file located in the root directory of your installation.
- Site Name - This is the name of your site
- Default Database - This is the ID of the database you will create using the database tab. The ID should only consist of letters with no spaces or punctuation.
- Path Separator - This is what your server uses to separate directories. For unix or linux it will be / and for windows it will be
- Default application - This is the ID of your default application which will be run as the home page. In most cases this should be set to 'content' which is the content management application
- Default Document Type - In most cases this should be 'html' for HTML or XHTML documents. Other document types are possible but changing this to anything other than 'html' may cause your platform to become unusable.
- Default language - This should be 'en' for english unless another language has been installed
- Temporary Directory - This is where temporary files are stored relative to the installation directory. This should normally be set to /tmp
- Shared Path - This is a place to find libraries being shared between applications, in most cases this field should be left blank.
- Timezone - Enter your servers timezone here, a list of timezones can be found at http://www.php.net/manual/en/timezones.php The default timezone is set as Asia/Singapore.
- SEF URLS - This is where you can set search engine friendly url's. The rewrite feature is available but not supported unless you have version 1.0.2 or above.
Note: After changing the configuration options click the save button to save the configuration changes.
Database setup
Note: You may need to manually create a new database if you will not be working from an existing database.
1. The next thing to do is to setup your default database using the Name provided in the configuration. From the configuration page click the databases tab to configure your databases.
2. Click the new button to register a new database
- Name - This is the database ID which can be any word you like as long as the word does not contain punctuation or spaces
- Type - This is the database type, currently MsSQL is only partially supported, and MySQL is fully implemented
- Server - This is the domain of the database server, normally localhost
- Username - This is the username you will access the database with, many applications require that the user can create tables
- Password - This is the password for the provided username
- Database - This is the name of the database to connect to
3. Click save to save your database. You may also add more database at this time if you plan on using the platform to access multiple databases
Enable administrator accounts
1. Click the events tab in the configuration section
2. You will notice many disabled events. You will want to check the box next to each event of type 'user', do not enable the auth events or session events at this time or you will likely be locked out of the system. After checking the boxes for all of the user events click the enable button.
Note: If you do get locked out of the system you can manually uninstall events. You can do this using FTP or a file manager by going to the [SITE_ROOT]/var/vwp/events folder. There you will see folders for each event type. Inside each folder are files ending in .txt and .php, delete the files ending in .txt to disable all events of that type.
Setup administrator accounts
1. Click the User Administration link on the left hand side of the configuration page
2. Click the Configure tab and select your database and enter a table prefix such as vwp_. You can also setup your password recovery email settings here. When you are done changing your configuration click the save button.
3. Click the Users tab and then click the new button to create a new user
- Username - This is your login username, the name must start with a letter and should not contain spaces or punctuation. The username should be in all lower case as some user systems are case sensative.
- Name - This is the name to use for the administrator account
- Email - This is the acount email address, used by user systems which support email recovery
- Administrator - This is where you may grant site administrator status to a user. Select yes to make the administrator account.
- Password - This is the administrator password which is case sensative, some systems may place limitations on this field.
- Confirm Password - Type the same password again that you typed in the password field
3. Click the save button to add the user. When you are done configuring the users account click the close button to return to the user administration page.
Activate the user system
1. Now that you have setup an administrator account you may activate the user system. You can do this by clicking the system configuration link on the top of the page, and then clicking on the events tab.
2. Check the boxes for events of type auth and session and click the enable button. You are now logged out of the system. You should click the configure tab to confirm you are logged out.
Verify the installation
1. You should now log into the system using the administrator account you created to confirm that you still can access the system.
2. You should visit the home page to confirm that everything is configured properly. The only warning you should see is a warning informing you that the content registry key cannot be opened. This is because you have not yet configured the content management system. The platform is now successfully installed. You may now start configuring your site and installing or developing applications and themes.
