Installation

A Quick Guide

1. Download and unzip the programme.
2. Create a database for Commentics on your server.
3. Open comments/includes/db/connect.php and enter your database details.
4. Upload the programme (comments folder) to your website root.
5. Change the permissions of http://www.domain.com/comments/includes/db/connect.php to 444.
6. Rename the admin folder http://www.domain.com/comments/admin/
7. Run the installer http://www.domain.com/comments/installer/

In the future, to access the admin panel, go to http://www.domain.com/comments/renamed_admin/

Next: Integration

A Detailed Guide

Having trouble? Ask on the forum if you need help.

Before beginning the installation, make sure that you have the following:

A text editor to edit the files. Notepad is okay or you can use a source code editor such as Notepad++.
An FTP application to upload the files. FileZilla (client) is a good choice.

In the steps below, remember to replace domain.com with your actual domain name.

1. Download Commentics to your computer and unzip the folder. 7-Zip is a good, free application to unzip with.

2. Next you will need to create a database for Commentics to use. You can do this in your website control panel such as cPanel. It may also be possible in phpMyAdmin. Please consult your control panel's documentation for instructions, or contact your host for support. You will need to supply a name for the database. This can be anything you like but 'commentics' or 'comments' are suitable examples. Make a note of the name you give as you will need it next.

3. Open the folder that you downloaded and unzipped and navigate to the following file: comments/includes/db/connect.php.
You should see a section titled 'Enter Database Information Here'. In this section will be several settings.
$mysql_database This is where you enter the name of the database you created, e.g. $mysql_database = "commentics";
$mysql_username This is the username your host gave you for accessing your database.
$mysql_password This is the password your host gave you for accessing your database.
$mysql_host This is usually 'localhost'. Sometimes it may be an IP Address.
$mysql_table_prefix Normally you can leave this blank. If for some reason you could not create a new separate database for Commentics, you can use an existing database and enter a prefix for its tables so that they don't conflict with the existing database's tables.
Once you are finished entering these settings, please save and close the file.

4. Now that you have the programme ready, you can start to upload it to your website. To do this, open your FTP application and connect to your website. You should see two windows; one showing the files on your computer, and another showing the files on your website. In the window showing your computer's files, navigate to where you have the comments folder located (note that this folder is different to the commentics folder (do not upload this)). In the window showing your website, navigate to your root (home) directory. Once you have the two windows prepared, simply drag across the 'comments' folder over to your website. The upload process may take several minutes. Once complete, you should see the folder amongst your website files. It is important not to rename the comments folder.

5. The next step is to give the database connection file the correct permissions. Using your FTP application, navigate to the following file on your website: http://www.domain.com/comments/includes/db/connect.php
Right-click on the file where an option such as 'File permissions' should be available. If you are able to enter a numeric value, please type in 444. This should work for the majority of servers. If you can not enter a numeric value, make sure that no 'Write' or 'Execute' permissions are set, only read. Instead of using FTP, you may need to do this in your website's control panel, e.g. cPanel. There should be a feature such as 'File Manager'.
If on a local server, you can simply right-click on the file, click properties and select read-only.

6. For added security you should now rename your admin folder, http://www.domain.com/comments/admin/.
This will keep it hidden from people who may want to try to access it. You can rename the folder using your FTP application. Please don't rename it to 'admin2' or 'myadmin' as this defeats the purpose. Rename it to something difficult to guess but something that you will remember.

7. The final part of the installation process is to run the Installer. This will add all of the necessary tables into the database that you created. To run the Installer, open up your web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer) and go to the following address:
http://www.domain.com/comments/installer/