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What is phpBB?
phpBB is a standalone dissussion board (forum) written in PHP. It includes features such as posting/replying/editing messages, private messages, private forums, user and anonymous posting, robust theming, user ranking by posts or by special, admin definable ranks, and much more.
http://www.phpbb.com
This guide will take you step by step installing phpBB3 on your Freeola Hosted web site.
Requirements
Freeola Web Hosting (Free or VIP Hosting)
MySQL Database (Freedom MySQL or VIP MySQL)
How to
1. Login to your MyFreeola account.
2. Select 'Optional MySQL Database' from the left-hand menu. On the following page select which type of database you currently have (either VIP MySQL or Freedom MySQL) or if needed sign up for the relevant service. You can then select to View or Edit your current databases.
3. You will now been shown your MySQL database information (Username and Password), you will need to make a note of these details, as they will be required to set up phpBB.
4. Whilst we are logged into your MyFreeola account, we will need to obtain your FTP details. You can find all of your FTP details from the 'My Websites' page, and then selecting the web site you wish to install phpBB on. If you do not have a site already you can add one by pressing the "Add New Web Site" button, once you follow the appropriate steps you will be given your FTP information.
5. You're now ready to download the phpBB installation files, these can be obtained from the phpBB web site (http://www.phpbb.com/downloads/). Once you have downloaded them, extract them to a local directory on your computer.
6. We now need to upload the files that you have just extracted on your computer. You will need to upload the files to the 'htdocs' folder, you can upload the files to a sub-directory if you wish. We generally suggest to upload your files using FileZilla.
For instructions of using FileZilla to upload your files please refer to our FileZilla FTP guide (http://freeola.com/support/ftp_filezilla.php)
7. You will only need to complete this step if you are using the VIP Hosting. If you are using the free hosting service, please skip to step 8.
Once the files have uploaded successfully, you will need to change the permissions of the "config.php" file. You can do this by right clicking on the file in FileZilla and selecting 'File Attributes...'. You will then need to change the number that you can see to '666'and click 'Ok'.
You will also need to change the permissions of the following directories to the numerical value of "777": store/, cache/, files/ and images/avatars/upload/.
8. Now you will need to visit your web site the phpBB3 Install folder location. If you've just uploaded the files to the htdocs folder then you would need to visit http://yourdomain.com/, if you uploaded to a sub directory then it would be http://yourdomain.com/yourfolder/.
9. You will now be shown the phpBB installation page, you will need to choose the 'Install' tab from the top menu. The requirements page will ensure that your web space is suitable for the phpBB installation, if you have completed the above tasks then you will see the 'Start Install' button from the bottom of the page. You will be prompted for the following information.
Option Description
Database type: Generally you can leave this at the default setting (MySQL/MySQL with MySQLli Extension)
Database server hostname or DSN: For VIP MySQL with VIP Hosting you can set this to "localhost", for Web Freedom this needs to be "mysql.freeola.net".
Database server port: This field can be left blank.
Database name: You should have written your database name down earlier, if you havn't you can find it from the VIP Hosting page of your MyFreeola account. If you are using Freedom MySQL this will be your SR number, which can be found on the "Optional MySQL database" page of your MyFreeola account.
Database password: This password would have been supplied at the same page in your MyFreeola account as your database name/username.
Prefix for tables in database: This is very useful if your looking at having multiple installations of phpBB on your web site. You can leave this as default if you just want one installation.
Once you are happy that you have supplied the correct information, press the 'Proceed to next step' button at the bottom of the page. Once you have done so, you will be told whether the connection was successful, or whether information needs correcting.
Once completed, you will now be asked a few questions regarding the Administrator for the account, however the all the configuration and installation of phpBB3 has been completed.
Enjoy :)
phpBB is a standalone dissussion board (forum) written in PHP. It includes features such as posting/replying/editing messages, private messages, private forums, user and anonymous posting, robust theming, user ranking by posts or by special, admin definable ranks, and much more.
http://www.phpbb.com
This guide will take you step by step installing phpBB3 on your Freeola Hosted web site.
Requirements
Freeola Web Hosting (Free or VIP Hosting)
MySQL Database (Freedom MySQL or VIP MySQL)
How to
1. Login to your MyFreeola account.
2. Select 'Optional MySQL Database' from the left-hand menu. On the following page select which type of database you currently have (either VIP MySQL or Freedom MySQL) or if needed sign up for the relevant service. You can then select to View or Edit your current databases.
3. You will now been shown your MySQL database information (Username and Password), you will need to make a note of these details, as they will be required to set up phpBB.
4. Whilst we are logged into your MyFreeola account, we will need to obtain your FTP details. You can find all of your FTP details from the 'My Websites' page, and then selecting the web site you wish to install phpBB on. If you do not have a site already you can add one by pressing the "Add New Web Site" button, once you follow the appropriate steps you will be given your FTP information.
5. You're now ready to download the phpBB installation files, these can be obtained from the phpBB web site (http://www.phpbb.com/downloads/). Once you have downloaded them, extract them to a local directory on your computer.
6. We now need to upload the files that you have just extracted on your computer. You will need to upload the files to the 'htdocs' folder, you can upload the files to a sub-directory if you wish. We generally suggest to upload your files using FileZilla.
For instructions of using FileZilla to upload your files please refer to our FileZilla FTP guide (http://freeola.com/support/ftp_filezilla.php)
7. You will only need to complete this step if you are using the VIP Hosting. If you are using the free hosting service, please skip to step 8.
Once the files have uploaded successfully, you will need to change the permissions of the "config.php" file. You can do this by right clicking on the file in FileZilla and selecting 'File Attributes...'. You will then need to change the number that you can see to '666'and click 'Ok'.
You will also need to change the permissions of the following directories to the numerical value of "777": store/, cache/, files/ and images/avatars/upload/.
8. Now you will need to visit your web site the phpBB3 Install folder location. If you've just uploaded the files to the htdocs folder then you would need to visit http://yourdomain.com/, if you uploaded to a sub directory then it would be http://yourdomain.com/yourfolder/.
9. You will now be shown the phpBB installation page, you will need to choose the 'Install' tab from the top menu. The requirements page will ensure that your web space is suitable for the phpBB installation, if you have completed the above tasks then you will see the 'Start Install' button from the bottom of the page. You will be prompted for the following information.
Option Description
Database type: Generally you can leave this at the default setting (MySQL/MySQL with MySQLli Extension)
Database server hostname or DSN: For VIP MySQL with VIP Hosting you can set this to "localhost", for Web Freedom this needs to be "mysql.freeola.net".
Database server port: This field can be left blank.
Database name: You should have written your database name down earlier, if you havn't you can find it from the VIP Hosting page of your MyFreeola account. If you are using Freedom MySQL this will be your SR number, which can be found on the "Optional MySQL database" page of your MyFreeola account.
Database password: This password would have been supplied at the same page in your MyFreeola account as your database name/username.
Prefix for tables in database: This is very useful if your looking at having multiple installations of phpBB on your web site. You can leave this as default if you just want one installation.
Once you are happy that you have supplied the correct information, press the 'Proceed to next step' button at the bottom of the page. Once you have done so, you will be told whether the connection was successful, or whether information needs correcting.
Once completed, you will now be asked a few questions regarding the Administrator for the account, however the all the configuration and installation of phpBB3 has been completed.
Enjoy :)
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That's not a problem, glad it's all working now.
oooh looking good!
tvm for your help...perhaps I can now finally persuade people to move from that flaky FB!
tvm for your help...perhaps I can now finally persuade people to move from that flaky FB!
Sorry about the delay, I haven't been working the last couple of days. The absolute path to a htdocs directory on the standard hosting is as follows:
/freeola/users/X/Y/sr0011223/htdocs
Where X is the last number from your username, Y is the second from last number, and sr0011223 is your full username.
For your site, the absolute path to your database should be as follows with the details replaced as above.
/freeola/users/X/Y/sr0011223/data/sqlite/rhs_study_forum
After the path has been set, your database should be accessible from any location within your CMS.
/freeola/users/X/Y/sr0011223/htdocs
Where X is the last number from your username, Y is the second from last number, and sr0011223 is your full username.
For your site, the absolute path to your database should be as follows with the details replaced as above.
/freeola/users/X/Y/sr0011223/data/sqlite/rhs_study_forum
After the path has been set, your database should be accessible from any location within your CMS.
I have moved the db, and this does allow me to log in and see forum as a normal user so that was definitely part of the problem
it may have seemed like a silly error but in my defence I was looking at the relative path to where I was when I was installing phpBB !
I am still getting the same error when attempting to go to the admin
page
I think, however, it's what you said where I should not use a relative path as perhaps phpBB is then looking relative to the folder it moves into...
I have tried setting an absolute path like so
/data/sqlite/etc
however it doesn't seem to work - how do I declare the absolute path to the root?
it may have seemed like a silly error but in my defence I was looking at the relative path to where I was when I was installing phpBB !
I am still getting the same error when attempting to go to the admin
page
I think, however, it's what you said where I should not use a relative path as perhaps phpBB is then looking relative to the folder it moves into...
I have tried setting an absolute path like so
/data/sqlite/etc
however it doesn't seem to work - how do I declare the absolute path to the root?
Looking at your configuration file, it currently links to the following file as the sqlite database:
$dbhost = '../../data/sqlite/rhs_study_forum';
Which is looking for the file outside of htdocs. As the file is within htdocs, I would expect the following to resolve the issue.
$dbhost = '../data/sqlite/rhs_study_forum';
Although for security, it may be worth moving your data file outside of htdocs and leaving the path as it is. This would mean that the file cannot be directly accessed from the web.
As you are using sqlite, and there may be a possibility of the relative location to your database changing, if possible, it may we worth considering using an absolute path instead.
$dbhost = '../../data/sqlite/rhs_study_forum';
Which is looking for the file outside of htdocs. As the file is within htdocs, I would expect the following to resolve the issue.
$dbhost = '../data/sqlite/rhs_study_forum';
Although for security, it may be worth moving your data file outside of htdocs and leaving the path as it is. This would mean that the file cannot be directly accessed from the web.
As you are using sqlite, and there may be a possibility of the relative location to your database changing, if possible, it may we worth considering using an absolute path instead.
ah shame I spoke too soon. have noticed errors appearing re style data - see here
http://www.rhs-study.ukforum.com/phpBB3/
anyone else have any ideas about this. I have been to phpBB forum and haven't really figured it out - although other people had same problem their fix didn't work for me =:-(
perhaps this is some peculiarty of phpBB + freeola + sqllite
http://www.rhs-study.ukforum.com/phpBB3/
anyone else have any ideas about this. I have been to phpBB forum and haven't really figured it out - although other people had same problem their fix didn't work for me =:-(
perhaps this is some peculiarty of phpBB + freeola + sqllite
HYPERACTIVE, GLOBAL AND STYLING!
Freeola strikes again - just got it working.
thanks so much for your help with this...hopefully we will be able to persuade people to move from FB as it seems to be going loopy and personally I never much liked it anyway!
if anyone else wants to attempt that particular combo of phpBB + sqlite here is a summary of the steps (Dean etc please correct any mistakes!)
- use phpsqliteadmin to set up your database. this needs to be under the htdocs folder somewhere (e.g. mine is in htdocs/data/sqlite)
- just set up a database, don't add any tables
- leave phpsqliteadmin, you won't need it again
- go to phpBB3 folder, it will take you into the install process
- set db to sqlite
- DSN should be the full path to the sqllite db. this can be a relative path to the phpBB3 folder
- put the sqllite db name in the database name field
- otherwise follow instructions as per install
NOTE: phpsqliteadmin wasn't working, there were a few issues with it. not difficult to fix - if anyone wants the fixed version let me know
Freeola strikes again - just got it working.
thanks so much for your help with this...hopefully we will be able to persuade people to move from FB as it seems to be going loopy and personally I never much liked it anyway!
if anyone else wants to attempt that particular combo of phpBB + sqlite here is a summary of the steps (Dean etc please correct any mistakes!)
- use phpsqliteadmin to set up your database. this needs to be under the htdocs folder somewhere (e.g. mine is in htdocs/data/sqlite)
- just set up a database, don't add any tables
- leave phpsqliteadmin, you won't need it again
- go to phpBB3 folder, it will take you into the install process
- set db to sqlite
- DSN should be the full path to the sqllite db. this can be a relative path to the phpBB3 folder
- put the sqllite db name in the database name field
- otherwise follow instructions as per install
NOTE: phpsqliteadmin wasn't working, there were a few issues with it. not difficult to fix - if anyone wants the fixed version let me know
Apologies, some of the information in the initial forum post appears to only be relevant to the VIP Hosting. If you set all permissions to 755, or leave them as default, PHPBB3 should run normally. No permissions should be set to 777 on the free hosting.
To make sure that this works with 755 permissions, I've installed PHPBB3 here on the free hosting with the same configuration and it's all running as expected.
I'll add a note to the original post advising that step 7 is only relevant to the VIP Hosting to save any future problems.
To make sure that this works with 755 permissions, I've installed PHPBB3 here on the free hosting with the same configuration and it's all running as expected.
I'll add a note to the original post advising that step 7 is only relevant to the VIP Hosting to save any future problems.
dean5 wrote:
Webcity1, I can see what the problem is, although I'm reluctant to post the link here to access your PHPBB forum setup as it'll mean anyone viewing the forum will be able to access your setup page and maybe cause problems until you have finished the installation.
I'll send you a support ticket through to the login email address on your MyFreeola account which will have more details.
On a side note, I would advise against setting file permissions higher then 755 on the free hosting servers for security reasons.
thanks for that Dean I am changing my permissions and retrying
on a side note - the earlier instructions posted here include setting some folders to have permissions of 777 perhaps people should be told they should be 755
if the server won't run a script from a folder with permissions of 777 how do the instructions posted work (I presume there are no scripts in the folders given permission 777 ?)
Webcity1, I can see what the problem is, although I'm reluctant to post the link here to access your PHPBB forum setup as it'll mean anyone viewing the forum will be able to access your setup page and maybe cause problems until you have finished the installation.
I'll send you a support ticket through to the login email address on your MyFreeola account which will have more details.
On a side note, I would advise against setting file permissions higher then 755 on the free hosting servers for security reasons.
thanks for that Dean I am changing my permissions and retrying
on a side note - the earlier instructions posted here include setting some folders to have permissions of 777 perhaps people should be told they should be 755
if the server won't run a script from a folder with permissions of 777 how do the instructions posted work (I presume there are no scripts in the folders given permission 777 ?)
Webcity1, I can see what the problem is, although I'm reluctant to post the link here to access your PHPBB forum setup as it'll mean anyone viewing the forum will be able to access your setup page and maybe cause problems until you have finished the installation.
I'll send you a support ticket through to the login email address on your MyFreeola account which will have more details.
On a side note, I would advise against setting file permissions higher then 755 on the free hosting servers for security reasons.
I'll send you a support ticket through to the login email address on your MyFreeola account which will have more details.
On a side note, I would advise against setting file permissions higher then 755 on the free hosting servers for security reasons.
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