How Do You Get A Smf? Help, I've tried the tutorials and it doesn't help

	How Do You Get A Smf? - Help, I've tried the tutorials and it doesn't help
	Discussion by Running With Scissors with 14 Replies. Last Update: September 24, 2008, 5:50 pm

Running With Scissors

I must be a complete newbie when it comes to ftp and such. I have been trying to upload the latest simple machines forum (smf) to my astahost site since I have been hosted and have followed all the steps located on simplemachines.org but still no luck and no forum. Yes I could use fantastico but fantastico only has 1.1.4 and I want to test out the latest beta called 2.0 beta 4.
Well first things first I download the full install. Done. Now what do I do to prepare for the upload using FileZilla FTP Client? (which I already have installed)
Like I said I have tried the online tutorials and stuff that I found but I don’t understand them.
Thanks in advance and sorry for the noob question.

Fri Sep 12, 2008 Reply New Discussion

Mordent

I'll field this one if no one else has by tomorrow. Sleep beckons now.

Sat Sep 13, 2008 Reply New Discussion

Running With Scissors

QUOTE (Mordent)

I'll field this one if no one else has by tomorrow. Sleep beckons now.

Link: view Post: 128228

I made sure I set the certain files to 777 and still nothing. Everyone says its so easy to upload forums but I can seem to figure it out on my own so thanks in advance.

Sat Sep 13, 2008 Reply New Discussion

Mordent

QUOTE (Running With Scissors)

Right, so you've got FileZilla working and connecting to your site? I'm guessing you have (else this is just a question of getting FileZilla working), and can navigate through your site's folders in the directory tree on the right? Firstly, you need to work out where you want to install SMF.

Let's say your domain is foobar.com, and you want it so that whenever someone goes to foobar.com they see the forum. In this case, you'll be wanting to install it in home/<your username>/public_html/.

If you want it in a subdomain instead (so something like forum.foobar.com) you need to set that up first (if that's the case let me know and I'll go in to more detail).

If you want it in, for instance foobar.com/forum (or something similar, basically in a subfolder of your main domain) you need to create the relevant folder(s). Again, if you need to know where you're supposed to create them just let me know, I'm assuming you're a "complete newbie" (your words, not mine

) at pretty much everything and over-explaining rather than not explaining enough, so that other people can learn a little as well.

So, once you've identified which folder you need to install it in you can go and get SMF itself. SMF comes in several different packages, although in each box (despite the fancier ribbons of some, and chains of others depending on what unzipping software you have) lies the same thing: the SMF software. The three options are .zip, .tar.gz and .tar.bz2. To my knowledge, each of the three contains exactly the same thing, but caters for users of, say, Linux who may not be able to open .zip files and so on.

Now, what makes me at least a little confused is why you're using the SMF 2.0 Beta, as it even says in big red letters under it that:

QUOTE

As this is in early beta we do not suggest running SMF 2.0 Beta 4 Public on a production site.

I can't really help you with the intricacies of 2.0, as I've never used it myself. Personally, I'd whole-heartedly suggest using SMF 1.1.6, as I can vouch for it being a fine piece of software that will do more than meet the needs of most forum admins.

Anyway, the rest of my little guide is assuming that you're using 1.1.6, although I suspect a fair amount of it will be relevant for 2.0 I can't guarantee it.

Once you've downloaded the compressed file (whatever format it's in) you need to uncompress it. Basically you want to turn smf_1-1-6_install.blah so that you've got a folder called smf_1-1-6_install on your local computer, with all of the pretty files within it etc. Open that folder and admire the pretty piece of software, go on, you know you want to!

So, everything in that folder needs to be uploaded (although not the folder itself) in the folder you worked out you need to put it in earlier. Open up FileZilla, connect to your site via FTP and navigate so you can see both the empty folder on your site (possibly with a folder called cgi-bin in it, depending on which one you settled on - you can leave that there) and the contents of the smf_1-1-6_install folder on your local computer in it.

To my knowledge, SMF needs no changes locally before you upload it. Click on any one of the folders or files and press Ctrl+A to select them all. Then right click and select "Upload" (or "Add Files to Queue", in this case it won't make much difference as long as you know how to start the queue processing). The transfer will begin so that a copy of each of those files/folders appears on your site.

Now comes the fun bit: CHMODing. This link should explain any points I miss, so best you read that if you haven't already. Why do you need to do it at all? SMF needs to alter a few of the files so that it runs on your site, such as settings and any folder where users can upload, say, avatars. In FileZilla you can easily change the permissions of files/folders already uploaded by right clicking on them and going to File Attributes.

In the case of SMF, each file/folder listed below needs to have all permissions (777).

QUOTE

attachments
avatars
Packages
Packages/installed.list
Smileys
Themes
Themes/default/languages/Install.english.php
agreement.txt
Settings.php
Settings_bak.php
install.php

Everything else can remain at the default permission level (755).

That's uploading taken care of, you've done your share of the hard work. Time to let SMF do the rest and install itself. Navigate to wherever you installed SMF to in your web browser (Firefox all the way

) and the install.php file. For example, if you uploaded it to http://forum.foobar.com/ then type in http://forum.foobar.com/install.php in the address bar and hit enter.

Once there (assuming no horrid error pops up about permissions and whatnot) you just follow what it says on screen, filling in whatever it tells you to and so on. If you reach a snag here then just say so and I'll likely walk you through it as well.

Hope that solved your problems!

- Mordent

Sat Sep 13, 2008 Reply New Discussion

Running With Scissors

Thanks that helped a lot but now I found another problem, almost all the files are empty because they failed to transfer during the ftp process. So it makes the file names but they are empty. How come filezilla doesn't work but the one on cpanel does? I could upload everything using c-panel but that would take to long. Any suggestions?

I asked this question on smfs site to because I figured they would know what to do but if you know what to do I would love to know. If you don't we can just let this topic die and I'll just ask the people from smf.

Sun Sep 14, 2008 Reply New Discussion

Mordent

Er...that sounds like a problem that most people don't encounter.

Did your internet connection die during the transfer? No other reason why it wouldn't have worked? If not, I'd suggest trying it again (from scratch) and see if you can get it working again. Quite honestly, that sounds far more like a FileZilla/connection problem than anything to do with SMF.

Mon Sep 15, 2008 Reply New Discussion

yordan

You really must put FileZilla to work. It has the features you need : restart each aborted file transfer, leaving you a general "OK" or a list of file transfers needing to be restarted.
The best thing is, in FileZilla settings, to create a site (you name it Astahost), with a "standard" user, give your Astahost username and password.
Then, read the connection error messages, very often the error is due to a wrong password, check your username in the site settings and correct your password.

Mon Sep 15, 2008 Reply New Discussion

Running With Scissors

I think its just a bad connection because its been really windy here the last few days because of all the hurricanes that have come through. Well they're not hurricanes by the time they get to where I live (PA) but its still windy enough to cause internet connects to be disabled every now and then.
Before it was something else but your post helped me fix it so now its just my crappy connection messing up the files I ftp-ed.
Thanks guys for helping.

Tue Sep 16, 2008 Reply New Discussion

yordan

QUOTE (Running With Scissors)

Inow its just my crappy connection messing up the files I ftp-ed.
Thanks guys for helping.
Link: view Post: 128312

If you use FileZilla, you will have no problem with the data connexion : FileZilla will retry each failed file until successful, and will overwrite the empty files.

Tue Sep 16, 2008 Reply New Discussion

Running With Scissors

Are you sure it does that automatically? Because I have to do it by hand every time a file fails which gets quite annoying. Is there any way to set it to do that?

Wed Sep 17, 2008 Reply New Discussion

vujsa

The best method for uploading files in cPanel is to leave them zipped! Upload the zipped file either with an FTP client or better yet, you the cPanel File manager.

Once uploaded, you can then decompress the zip file and it will extract all of the files in their proper place and many times with the correct permissions.

The next step is to create a database, username and password and give it permission to use the database. I suggest a database name like username_smf01, then a username that is the same. The password should be complex! Very complex in fact. There is an automatic password suggester that I suggest that you use. Be sure to save this information!
I believe that the new versions of SMF use FTP for various file system functions. This prevents the infamous user 99 error many have seen in the past with PHP creating server owned files that the account owner can't access. I suggest that you create an FTP account for SMF and limit the account to only the forum directory. The biggest benefit of this is that you don't have to worry about your master FTP account name and password being stolen. The master account has much more access than a directory limited account so it is a good security idea. I suggest using the same password as the database username you used. The FTP username could be similar to your database username like smf01 and the login username would look like this smf01@domain.com.

You can then initiate the installer as described in the SMF install instructions found on their website.

I recommend that you send yourself an email to a permanent email address that you will check regularly like that one provided by your ISP with the database name, username, and password as well as the ftp account name, login name, and password for your SMF installation. This may come in handy some day.

Considering that we offer unlimited databases here, it is important to remember to always use a new database for each script you install. Very large databases run slower.

Well, this isn't a step by step for the installation of SMF but i think it will help you avoid errors, security issues, and frustration.

vujsa

Wed Sep 17, 2008 Reply New Discussion

jjkeenan

But isn't AstaHost have script installers? I was planning to install scripts in the near future. Man, I have doing all the config for those things. Takes me a day with that.

Thu Sep 18, 2008 Reply New Discussion

yordan

QUOTE (jjkeenan)

But isn't AstaHost have script installers? I was planning to install scripts in the near future. Man, I have doing all the config for those things. Takes me a day with that.
Link: view Post: 128367

Of course, Astahost has script installer. Yes, the Fantastico menu at Astahost automatically installs the smf forum. Simply, if you look at the starter post in this topic, you will see that Running With Scissors wants to install the last beta version, instead of the current version. That's why he has to do the things manually.
I see two reasons for doing that : your learn more when you do everything by yourself, and it's funny to see the new features in the new beta version. However, you are right, using the Astahost script installer is safer and easier because the scripts are all tested and work fine.

Thu Sep 18, 2008 Reply New Discussion

yordan

QUOTE (Running With Scissors)

Are you sure it does that automatically? Because I have to do it by hand every time a file fails which gets quite annoying. Is there any way to set it to do that?
Link: view Post: 128353

Yes, I confirm that FileZilla does this automatically.
If you start to transfer a lot of things inside an empty directory, FileZilla will retry each failed transfer until it's successful, or you will see at the bottom the "too many retries" failed transfer, and you click on each one and you choose "restart".
If you work on an existing folder where some empty files already exist, have a look at the general FileZilla options and check "replace" for any existing file, this will replace each file (faulty or not) by the correct file.

Thu Sep 18, 2008 Reply New Discussion

Running With Scissors

Well I completely skipped FileZilla because I think that was the main problem for me. So instead I did what vujsa said to do which was upload it zipped using the cpanel ftp and it uploaded fine but for some odd reason it wouldn't unzipped the file instead I got a error. So I tried reuploading it a few times and it wouldn't work. I then used something other then zip I think it was tar.gz or something like that. I uploaded it and then extracted it and it worked fine and now I have a 2.0 beta 4 smf forum