root/releases/0.1.2a/INSTALL

Elgg version 0.1.2 alpha installation instructions

Ben Werdmuller <ben@elgg.net>
23rd April, 2005


1. BEFORE YOU BEGIN

1.1 Requirements

Elgg currently requires the Apache web server with mod_rewrite
installed and the ability to send emails, plus PHP 4.3+ and MySQL 
3.23+.  It has currently been tested on Apache installations running 
Red Hat Linux and Microsoft Windows XP.

In your Apache configuration, you must have AllowOverride set to
All for the virtual server where Elgg is installed.

Elgg must be installed on the root of a domain - for example,
at http://elgg.net/, as opposed to http://elgg.net/subdirectory/.

You must have a database on the MySQL server ready for use by Elgg.

IF YOU ARE UPGRADING FROM 0.1.1a, you do not need to alter the database
schema (and can ignore section 3 of these instructions).

IF YOU ARE UPGRADING FROM EARLIER VERSIONS, you must drop any existing
database tables and insert the new database schema.


1.2 Recommendations

For this release, it is recommended that MySQL has cacheing enabled.
Please see the MySQL documentation for instructions, or ask your
system administrator.


1.3 Time estimate

Assuming you have satisfied the requirements in 1.1, the installation
should not take longer than 20 minutes. This may vary depending on
the connection speed to your web server.



2. INSTALLING FILES


2.1 Deploy Elgg framework

Move all files aside from README, LICENSE, INSTALL and the
"distribution" directory from the distribution package to your web 
server directory.  Files in the root of the distribution must be in 
the root of your web server account.

IF YOU ARE UPGRADING, you may wish to retain your existing
includes.php file.


2.1 Set permissions on special directories

Some directories need to be written to during Elgg's normal operation
- specifically the directory for uploaded files, and the directory
for uploaded icons.

From your root directory, navigate to /_icons.  On Linux / Unix, you 
must change the access privileges for /_icons/data to 777 or 
equivalent.  To do this you may be able to right click on the folder 
and set the "CHMOD" value, or you may have to use your command line
terminal, navigate to the _icons folder, and type:

        chmod 777 data

Repeat this process for /_files/data.



3. SETTING UP THE DATABASE


3.1 Open database schema

There is a database schema supplied in the /distribution/database
folder.  You must install this into the database you have set aside
for elgg.

If you are running phpMyAdmin, a third-party tool for easily
maintaining MySQL databases, go to 3.2; otherwise go to 3.3.


3.2 Setting up the database with phpMyAdmin

In phpMyAdmin, click on the database you wish to use for Elgg on the 
left hand side of the screen.  Click on the "SQL" tab at the top of
the screen, and on the page that turns up, click "Browse" to pick a
textfile to import.  Navigate to /distribution/database in the
distribution package and select elgg.sql.  Click "Go".


3.3 Setting up the database with command line MySQL

Using your command line terminal, navigate to /distribution/database
in the distribution package. Type the following:

        mysql -u [username] -p [password] [databasename] < elgg.sql
        
Where [username] and [password] are your MySQL access details and
[databasename] is the name of the database you have set aside for
Elgg.

Once you have done this, you should delete the /distribution 
directory.



4. SETTING UP ELGG


4.1 Edit includes.php

Load "includes.php".  There are eight variables that must be
set at the top of the file - all of them are important, and they are
clearly described within the file.  Each of them is of the form:

        define("name","value");
        
You must enter your values within the second set of quotation marks.
To include a quotation mark within a value (e.g. if you wanted 
My University's "Elgg" Trial to be your site title), prefix it with
a backslash ("\").


4.2 Customise your default homepage

We have included a basic default homepage, but you can alter index.php
as you wish.  If you would like to alter the text but maintain the
position within Elgg's flexible templating system, you will need to
alter the file /content/mainindex/content_main_index.php.


4.3 Log in

We have included a default user, "news". This user owns all the
public custom templates. Its login name is "news" and its default
password is "password"; you should log in and change this as soon
as possible. All new users will automatically list the news account
as a friend, so you should not delete it.



5. FURTHER CUSTOMISATION AND DEVELOPMENTS

Please keep an eye on http://elgg.net/development/index.php for
forthcoming developments within Elgg, including documentation on how
to alter your default templates and writing new functionality into
the system.