Installing PHPBB2

[radar]

The Idiot's Guide to Obtaining and Setting Up PhpBB2 (v2.0.17)

Last update: 12th October 2005.

Things You Might Need
A Web Browser
An FTP Client, Filezilla.
Access to PhpMyAdmin or some other way of adding in/manipulating a database.

So you want to use one of the world's best pieces of forum software but you're either too stupid or too lazy to learn how. Well, this is the guide for you. Instead of RTFM'ing or asking for help on the PhpBB forums, READ THIS GUIDE.

1. Obtaining the File

Obviously if you are reading this guide then you know what a web browser is, we hope. Well, to get the PhpBB software first you need to go to the PhpBB site and then to the PhpBB Download Page. Then you click on the download for the zip of all the files indicated by the icon shown in Figure 1.1.
[img]http://frozenplague.net/guide/phpbb/figure11.png[/img]

Figure 1.1

When the file is downloaded, navigate to where it has been downloaded to. If you do not know where this is, please promptly remove your computer from the Internet by removing all of the cables from the back of your computer. Then use Windows or something else to extract it to a directory called "PhpBB2". The state in Figure 1.2 is obtained by right clicking on the file and moving the mouse cursor down to "Extract Files...". The '...' means that it will bring up a dialog box with more options, as shown in Figure 1.3.

[img]http://frozenplague.net/guide/phpbb/figure12.png[/img]
Figure 1.2


[img]http://frozenplague.net/guide/phpbb/figure13.png[/img]
Figure 1.3

Remove the -2.0.17 from the end of the link and then click OK. Wait for all the files to be extracted. The completion of extraction will be signalled by a sound from your computer.

2. Uploading PhpBB2

Once all the files are extracted, load up an FTP client. I recommend using Filezilla. When your FTP Client is loaded, connect to the server. If you do not know how to do this, contact your website's administrator and they will be able to help you. Navigate to the root directory of your site or wherever you wish PhpBB to be placed.

If you are using Filezilla, in the left window navigate to the area where the PhpBB folder is located on your computer. DO NOT GO INTO THE FOLDER. Right click on the folder, and click upload. You should now see that a file list has begun at the bottom of the screen. This is a list of all the files it is uploading to the server. When this is done, check to see if there are any capital letters in the folder's name. If there is, right click on the folder of PhpBB in the right window and rename it to phpbb. This will make it easier to type for yourself and potential forum goers.

3. Setting up PhpBB2

This is the part that nearly EVERYBODY asks for help on and this is the reason why I wrote this guide. At the moment you should have a folder on your site named "phpbb". You can rename this to anything you want PRIOR (before) THE INSTALLATION, but if you change it afterwards it will not like it.

Navigate to PhpBB on your site using your web browser. The link would be something like [url=\"http://yoursite.com/phpbb\"]http://yoursite.com/phpbb[/url]. PhpBB's index page will automatically detect that it has not been already installed and will redirect you to the proper page which is located inside of the phpbb folder, then the install folder and is called install.php. Now before you go ahead and touch anything in there first you have to set up the database. To do this you can use a program called PhpMyAdmin or PMA for short. This may be accessible through your site's control panel, it is on most sites. Once you are in PhpMyAdmin, you might need to log in. When you have done that, look to the left of the middle of the page to see if there is a "Create database" option in there. If you cannot create a database, ask your website administrator for help.

Once you have created a database, return to the install page. The first field you want to look at is "Database Name" located under the second heading, second input box. This has to be the name you gave to the database that you just created. The next two fields, Username and Password, are the same username and password that you used to access the database. The prefix field is fine. The admin email field has to be either your email or some other administrator of the board's email address. The next three fields are fine, but pay attention to the third field (script path) this is the one I was talking about earlier. If you change your directory name, PHPBB still looks for this directory. The only way you can change it after the install is either through the admin panel or through the config.php page. Lastly, type in a username and password BUT DO NOT HIT START INSTALL. First you must check to see if the config file is writable.

Go back into your FTP client and inside the phpbb folder should be an empty file called "config.php". If you are in filezilla, right click on it and go to "File Attributes" and change your file's attributes to those shown in Figure 3.1.

[img]http://frozenplague.net/guide/phpbb/figure31.png[/img]

Figure 3.1

Now that your file is correctly altered, go back to the install page and click OK. If you have done it properly you should get the message:

"Your admin username has been created. At this point your basic installation is complete. You will now be taken to a screen which will allow you to administer your new installation. Please be sure to check the General Configuration details and make any required changes. Thank you for choosing phpBB 2."





If not, check what you have done and try it again. Click the "Finish Install" button.

Go back into your FTP client and delete the install and contrib directories out of the phpbb directory and right click on config.php and uncheck the write box under public permissions.

Congratulations, you have installed PHPBB2.
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